How do you compare quotes for a mailing?

Compare component by component

An enveloped mailing has four components. Compare each one on its own before you compare totals:

Print

Letter, payment slip, inserts. Print prices only compare when the format, the colours and the paper are the same, meaning the same stock and the same weight. What paper weight means is explained in the guide to paper weight.

Envelope

Size, with or without a window, printed or plain, type of closure. A printed window envelope is a different product from a plain one. The sizes are covered in the guide to envelope sizes.

Lettershop

Taking over the address data, personalising, folding, inserting, sorting and handing over to the post. Quotes group these steps in different ways, so line them up before you compare. What belongs to it is explained in the lettershop guide.

Postage

The hardest component to compare: postage depends on the postal product, the format and the weight, and is sometimes only estimated or passed on at the actual amount. Note for each quote which postal product it assumes and whether postage is included in the price.

If a quote gives prices per 1,000 items, scale them up to the full quantity. That way you compare amounts rather than prices in different units.

Compare by country and by quantity

If a mailing goes to several countries, compare each country separately. Every country has its own postal products for advertising and fundraising mail, with their own terms: Austria has Info.Mail Werbung and, for non-profits with tax-deductible donation status and an approval contract, Sponsoring.Mail N [1] [2]. Germany has Dialogpost [3], Czechia has Obchodní psaní, only under a written agreement [4], and Slovakia has the Reklamná adresovaná zásielka. [5]

Minimum quantities differ too: Info.Mail Werbung needs 500 items at once, and for fewer the charge for 500 items applies [1]. Dialogpost needs 5,000 items nationwide, or 500 to 4,999 with the small-volume service EASY [3]. Obchodní psaní starts at 1,000 items [4], the Slovak advertising item at 50 per posting. [5] So a small batch may need a different postal product from a large one.

Also, only compare quotes for the same quantity. Print and lettershop work have set-up costs that are spread over the run, so the price per item usually falls as the quantity grows. A quote for 30,000 items cannot be compared with one for 25,000 by its total. It is better to ask every supplier for the same quantity breaks.

Common pitfalls

These differences make a quote look cheaper than it is:

• Different paper, different spec. One supplier prices 80 g/m² instead of 90 g/m², another recycled instead of coated paper, a third does not print the back. Ask when the details differ. Heavier paper makes the mailing heavier and can push it into a higher weight step; check that with the paper weight calculator.
• Unclear postage. Is postage included in the price, only estimated, or charged at the actual amount after handover? Which postal product is meant, and who holds the contract with the post? Without these details, postage is not a figure you can compare.
• Missing items. Personalisation, data preparation, folding, proofs, transport to the lettershop, handover to the post: whatever a quote leaves out still costs money. An empty line is not a zero. Ask before you compare an incomplete quote with a complete one.
• Bundled items. When the envelope sits inside the print price or postage inside the lettershop price, that component no longer compares on its own. Ask for a breakdown, or compare only the totals at that point.
• Net, gross and currency. Compare all quotes net or all gross, and in the same currency. If quotes from Czechia come in koruna, convert them at one fixed rate and note which.

Download the template

For your own records, the comparison is available as a spreadsheet: components and items in rows, quotes A to D in columns, plus check lines for paper, postal product and postage, and the common pitfalls as a checklist. It is a CSV file (UTF-8, comma-separated) and opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Numbers. Add up the totals there yourself or use the comparison above.

Download the template (CSV)