Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Leslie - sheet of planets (bulk envelopes)


It has taken many years to get down to my last box of vellum envelopes. I might look into buying another carton if there are enough people who would like to buy them in quantities of 50 or 100. I'll figure out what the shipping would be. 

I was having fun with this one and took a couple of photos of it in progress.




After I got the name on, I regretted putting the last name so large. If I had it to do over, I would make the Leslie a bit larger and put the last name with the address. The sparkle dots were fun to do - but the overall design is blah. The best part was discovering that the page from the USPS stamp catalogue fit perfectly.


So, I did the research on how much it would cost to mail boxes of envelopes to people who might be interested in buying envelopes at the *carton cost.* I always buy my envelopes by the carton which are usually 1,000 envelopes. The last time I bought them, it was $35 for a carton, so 3.5-cents apiece. That's a very good price. Whenever I did a custom job, it would be at least $50 to order 100-200 envelopes (from places like Paper Source) which is what people typically needed. So they would get their envelopes at a bargain - at $35. And then I would get all the extras. It is luxurious to have 100s of envelopes that are a nickel apiece or less.

I had an email conversation with someone a couple weeks ago and we talked about me ordering cartons of envelopes to split with exchangers. I filled the smallest flat rate USPS box and found I could get between 50 and 75 envelopes in the box. Vellum envelopes are much thinner than regular paper. It's $8 to ship it. So, I'm not sure I can get the cost down to anything really attractive. If anyone is interested in buying bulk envelopes (50-100) let me know. I still need to see if they have a small box that is not flat rate and see what the cost would be.

I would mainly be interested in black, white, vellum and kraft paper brown. A6 size fits in the flat rate box. A7 does not. I might look for some other kind of mailer that would work if there are enough people who are interested. Bubble envelopes might work.

Also - in the email conversation - I mentioned my favorite places to buy envelopes.
Paper Source - expensive - but if you buy enough you can get free shipping. I like the quality.
        sometimes they have sale prices on discontinued colors
French Paper - straight from the mill. Great papers, great prices. The shipping cost eliminates the savings.                         
        but I love-love-love their papers.
Reaves Engraving - really nice invitation stock.
LCI - nice, expensive
Envelopes.com - lots of options - wide range of qualities
and
the Mecca of all paper/envelope warehouses
It is in Brunswick Ohio - way off the beaten path. I have been there. The website has photos of their shelves but no individual listings. I have no idea if they even do mail order. I just know it is the equivalent of an opium den to anyone who is addicted to envelopes.


 

1 comment:

  1. 1) I LOVED the envelope, Jean!!! Thought it was perfect as is. So pretty. (Funny story -- I was going to email you about this, but didn't want to bother you: When I first saw it, I thought you had sent me a book of those stamps! :D :D :D I thought, "Wow, what did I do to deserve this??" Then, got fooled when I opened it.) :/

    2) Thanks for all the info on where to buy envelopes! I've gotten lucky with amazon the past few years. Not too expensive, but not 3.5 cents! :)

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