The Post Office introduced a 19.8-cent bulk rate stamped envelope at the 25th National Postal Forum in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 19. Marketed primarily to small business mailers, the envelope has the words USA/19.8/Bulk Rate printed in red with an attractive blue rectangle around a white star. They're available at local post offices in boxes of 500 for $110 (only .22/ea.).
Don't waste your money! If you're mailing to your local area, you can get substantial discounts by properly presorting and bundling your mail. As an example, if I mail 200 pieces to anywhere in the 212 zip code area, and drop it at the main post office in downtown Baltimore, I pay only 14.8 per piece. And if I'm mailing a lot of pieces into one zip code and adding carrier routes to my mailing piece (the little CR and number code at the top of your mailing label), I'll pay only 11.4 (and sometimes less, but that's another story).
On the other hand, if you're mailing all over the country, you'll probably spend 19.8 per piece for a small mailing. But I still recommend against this envelope. The envelope clearly spells out BULK RATE and shows a lower postal rate. Why should you go out of your way to tell the people you're mailing to that you're sending out a mass mailing. You'd be smarter to use a postage meter and apply the proper rate, along with a very small "slug" that's inserted into the meter that says "Bulk Rate". Except for the extra wording (and it's small, off to the side, and usually not too noticeable), your envelope looks just like a regular piece of first class (29) metered mail. The only difference is the amount of postage.
Inside Tip: Don't put a lot of ink on your meter stamp pad. If you put a lot of ink on the pad, then the impression will stand out like a neon sign saying BULK BULK BULK. But if you use a minimal amount of ink, the amount of postage will be less noticeable and will look more like regular first class mail (but make sure you have enough ink so the postage rate can be read).