"How about Westvaco's decision to switch to bottom flap glassines as opposed to end flaps in order to save a hundredth of a cent per envelope. This has forced some suppliers like Subway and others to switch to Cenvco. Actually Westvaco was acquired by Mead to become MeadWestvaco and in Feb 2011 they sold their envelope division to Cenvaco.

While Mead was in charge, was when they stupidly decided to change a product that has worked for many decades, without bothering to think about how they are used. They quickly realized that suddenly nobody wanted to buy them anymore. geewiz why not??? So they sold that division to Cenvaco, who quickly switched back to the end flaps.

Meanwhile many suppliers are stuck with these useless transition envelopes. The new ones from Cenvaco, are of good quality, and are much more slippery than the others. So don't try to grab 50-100 of them at once unless you like resorting envelopes. They can be had for $30.00-$35.00 per thousand (#3s), if you shop around. So buyer beware! If you decide to buy 1,000 or more at a time, try to call the supplier by phone to verify they are not bottom flap. I didn't and got stuck with 3,000 (#4s) of the *&,%@# things.

In case I lost all of you in the dust of this rant, Here is why these envelopes are useless. When you place many of these envelopes in a shoe box or file card drawer or other filing system, they get caught on the bottom flap of the envelope just in front of where you are trying to jam another envelope in. They then become bent bottom flaps, even more likely to snag the next time.

I have seen these transition envelopes on sale for especially low prices, and thought them a great bargain, until I saw photos of all the bottom flaps."