Understanding Co-Mail Costs is Key to Comparing Printing Bids

How can you get to your true comparable costs for the three elements — printing and paper, co-mail, and postage — of printing and mailing your catalog? First ask the printers bidding on your catalog to give you three numbers:

1. cost of printing and paper;
2. cost of their co-mail program (defined as everything that isn't on the printing and paper quote, including list processing, freight surcharges, co-mail costs and any administrative costs); and
3. cost of postage.

Be aware that you’ll see all kinds of analysis from catalog printers with detailed spreadsheets. But all these spreadsheets seem designed to confuse rather than clarify the rather simple issue of “How much is the check I write to the printer, and how much is the check I write to the post office?”