Mailing Heads Up….
I use 6x9 envelopes (with brads to close the envelope - you know those little metal legs that go through the circular hole to hold the envelope closed) for most of my catalog and hostess packets that I mail. I usually buy my envelopes at Staples and haven't been too picky on my envelopes. I always pick up the cheapest envelopes that are 6x9. I prefer the "manilla" over the "white" as I don't want them to be see through.

When the new pricing started at the post office, I started to notice that the exact same piece, mailed the exact same way - same inserts (weighs identical), same envelopes, was costing different amounts depending on the post office I visited as well as the clerk that helped me. Here is one thing that I found out, that I think is extremely useful….

DON'T buy the envelopes with the brads!
That darn "brad" will add 17 cents to each mailing. The "brad" voids the mail piece from going through the mail sorting machine, thus it has to be handled differently. I bought 100 of the brad envelopes for $6.89 at the local office supply. The envelopes without the brads were a little over $10. Well that darn brad actually takes those 100 envelopes to a whopping $23.89. I would be saving $17 in postage buy actually buying the more expensive envelopes.

Even if your postal clerk isn't charging you for the extra 17 cents when you are dropping off the mail, the mail recipient may actually be requested to pay the 17 cents to get their mail piece. Definitely not the message I want to send to a prospective customer/hostess.

The mail person I spoke to today was super nice. She said that many postal employees previously weren't turning over the envelope to see the closure and were not charging that 17 cents. Well, the amount of money that the postal system was losing because of this was astronomical - this is one of the many reasons that we are seeing the postal prices increase because they have to make up for the shortfalls of previous years. (don't know how true this is, but thought I would pass it along) She also said that just because the item is smaller, doesn't mean that you should put it in a smaller package.

She relayed a story about a customer who was shipping something the size of baseball cards, a package of about 50 or so - so it was about 2 inches high. The sender wrapped an old brown bag around the cards and used that as the "mailing label". Because of the dimensions of the package, it was actually more expense to mail it this way than in a larger padded envelope. So another thing to think about when mailing smaller packages, if possible ask at the post office the best way to mail the product so you can save as much money as possible.