Cheap Letter Folding Machines – Compare Cost in 2023
The cheapest price on a decent letter folding machine is around $235, with higher-end models reaching the $10,500 mark.
If you’re interested in the most affordable letter folding machine on the market, you can probably find something very basic for around $212. However, this machine will be quite simplistic, and only useful in very limited circumstances. Most machines retail for several hundred dollars, with high-end units used in high-volume situations costing up to $10,500. The price that you actually pay is related to factors including:
- Speed
- Capacity
- Folding options
- Envelope stuffing
- Types of paper
Speed and capacity are certainly going to be the largest factors at work when it comes to determining the cost of a given machine. There is a vast difference between a letter folder for use in a small one-man office and the type that is used by printing companies to stuff mass mailings. So, the more letters that a machine can accept at once, and the faster it can fold them, the more you can expect to pay.
Envelope stuffing is an added feature that is extremely useful for most people who have a need for a letter folding machine. However, this is also a feature that will cause the overall cost of the unit to go up. The upside is that when the product comes off the machine, it is ready to go in the mail, with no further processing required.
Other features are often viewed as useful in certain situations but not essential to the majority of customers, and these will also cause the cost of your unit to go up. For instance, the more different types and sizes of paper that a folding machine can work with, the more you can expect to pay.
What is a Letter Folding Machine?
A letter folding machine is an extremely useful piece of office equipment for speeding up the process of creating mass mailings. Instead of having to fold each letter or piece of mail manually, you can place a large stack of printed material into the letter folding machine and automate the process. This might not seem like a big deal if you only mail a few letters on an irregular basis. For people that use mass mailings to communicate with their clients or customer base, however, a letter folding machine can save many man-hours on a weekly basis.
Letter folding machines often have adjustments that you can make in order to fold letters to your specifications. There are templates that you can select to fold letters into the format that you want to mail them out in.
As mentioned previously, these machines also sometimes incorporate an envelope-stuffing feature. This is more common on larger, more expensive units, but is incredibly useful as it automates the entire mass-mailing process. Once you’ve created your documents to be mailed, they can be stocked in the folding machine and come out as a product ready to head to the post office.
What to Look for in Low Cost Letter Folding Machines?
When shopping for a letter folding machine, the first thing you need to determine is how many letters you need to fold on a regular basis, and how quickly you need them processed. For smaller companies, there is a multitude of modest desktop units that should be more than adequate for letter-folding purposes. The most common item to look for are:
- Paper Type (20lb, cardstock, glossy, brochures)
- Paper Volume – Will you print small jobs or 10,000 copies an hour?
- Fold Types – Standard, Z-Fold, Half, Double-Parallel, Gate, etc
For larger companies, the speed at which these machines can operate is the main determining factor in which machine is right for you. Letter folding machines are rated based on how many letters they can fold per hour. In the high-end models, 10,000 or more letters per hour can be folded. The capacity of letters that can be loaded into a machine at once should also be looked at. An extremely fast machine isn’t much good if it has to be reloaded every two minutes, so if large volume folding is important, also look for a large capacity unit.
Look for a machine that is compatible with the type of paper that you want to use in your mailings. If you prefer to send out normal letters printed on 20lb stock or lighter paper, then almost any machine on the market should meet your needs. If you plan on creating materials on heavier stock however, you’re going to need to shop for a machine that is specifically rated for that type of paper. Flexibility regarding the size of the paper the machine can fold is also quite useful. This allows you to expand your marketing materials to use different sizes of paper for different promotional opportunities – something which can help keep your marketing material fresh and different looking over time.
Bargain Letter Folding Machines with Discounted Prices
If finding a bargain is the most important part of your search for a letter folding machine, then either of these two companies is an excellent place to start your search. Both offer extremely good deals and provide customers the opportunity to get the machine that suits their needs at the most discounted price.
Duplo: Duplo is a significant player in the paper folding business, offering a variety of models that offer both friction-fed and air-fed mechanisms. For high-volume machines, they are at the cheaper end of the spectrum, with base models starting at $2500 that can process as many as 120 sheets per minute. Even though Duplo machines are capable of producing folded letters in large volumes, the machines themselves take up a relatively small footprint, making them convenient in offices where there is limited space.
Martin Yale: Martin Yale is another standard-setter in the paper folding industry. Martin Yale offers many desktop units that are perfect for use in entrepreneurial and small business settings. Units can be found at a bargain for as little as $200.
Whatever brand you choose to buy, it is recommended to always look into the warranty plan that is sold with the product. Folding machines have a number of moving parts, and as such, hold plenty of potential for future mechanical failure. A strong warranty should be one of the most important factors to recommend choosing one brand over another.