Yes, we have no envelopes

[tigertoy]

How is it that ordinary products that one has been using for years can just suddenly vanish, even though they still appear as useful and needed as ever?

A couple of weeks ago I used the last of my old box of normal business sized envelopes.  I obliviously bought another box, and conclusively proved that it really does matter whether it says on the box that they work in a laser printer, because these don't say and they don't.  So I looked in the supplies section of a regular store or two.  No printer-friendly envelopes.  Today I went to Staples.  They don't have any printer-friendly envelopes.  Well, actually, they have some super-nice resume envelopes for $20 for a box of 50 that say they're printable, but no ordinary everyday ones.  So I tried Office Depot.  They don't have them either.  The salesman said they used to carry them but they don't any more; they could special order but I'd have to pay $10 shipping for a $2 box of envelopes that costs $6 at the office supply store.  (When they had them at the general merchandise store, a box was about $2.)

I know I'm out of touch with the culture, but I can't believe I'm the only person who would rather type the address, stick it in the slot, and have it neatly printed in the right place than have to trust the post office to be able to read my lousy handwriting.  Any suggestions for a store that would actually have something as eccentric as envelopes I can actually use?

Comments

[bammba-m.livejournal.com]

i order #9 envelopes from OfficeMax for our surveys, and they go through a laser printer like champs. i have no clue if they claim to be printer-safe or not, they're just the normal plain non-security non-window #9 return envelopes. They're slightly smaller than #10 (so that they can fit into a #10) but if you can tri-fold your letter evenly, you should have no worries fitting any correspondence into one.

you can also try using labels.

[queza7.livejournal.com]

If you can't find (or afford) envelopes anymore, you could get a package of Avery address labels. I use them from time to time, and they work wonderfully.

[catalana.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people just use labels.

Personally, I have to admit that I find it faster just to do it by hand unless there are a lot of envelopes to address (in which case I use labels, because I can feed through a sheet and get a lot of labels rather than having to do each envelope individually.)

[bedlamhouse]

I just use standard envelopes - you don't need special paper.

You might get the ones with the peel-and-seal rather than the moisten-seal just because they won't accidentally seal in the fuser.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

The problem with using ordinary envelopes is not that they seal in the fuser, it's that they crumple in the rollers. I don't know what the actual difference is, but the ordinary ones don't seem to stay evenly folded as they go through, and they have a tendency to not feed straight. Perhaps some non-labeled envelopes would work fine but some definitely do not; without a label I have no idea how to tell.

[poltr1]

They stopped making printer-friendly #10 envelopes? Where have I been? I bought a box of 500 a few years ago and still have most of them. If you didn't live so far away from me I'd give you some.

envelopes

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i just use printable labels; that way i don't need to look for special envelopes.

Re: envelopes

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

There are what, 30 labels on a sheet? I find it hard to believe you can run a label sheet through the printer 30 times, and even if I could, I'd have to always hit the next spot on the paper. I'm not going to print one label and throw the sheet away; that would probably end up being as expensive as the resume envelopes and painfully wasteful. Even aside from that, when I can print on the envelope I can include my return address in the same operation. So I feed one thing into the printer and it's done; with labels I have to feed one thing into the printer, stick the label on the envelope, and stick on a return address label. It seems far less convenient.

Re: envelopes

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

uh? i have sheets that contain 10 labels, and i print two at a time (one for receiver, one for return address) via a template, so it always prints at the right position. never had a problem with the sheets going through the printer more than once.

yeah, i do have to peel off two labels and stick them on, but that's hardly an onerous and backbreaking task -- especially when i compare it to envelope mangling which used to happen to me regularly back in the days.

Re: envelopes

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

Mangling the envelope just doesn't happen for me with my printers if it's a proper printer friendly envelope. (Happens every time with bad envelopes.)

How do you keep track of where on the sheet the next label goes? Does the software handle it, or do you have to check the sheet before you put in the address?

Re: envelopes

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i have to check the sheet, but then i have to look at it anyway to feed it into the printer right side up, and it wasn't worth it to me to keep track automatically (i don't send a lot of paper mail anymore).