CD DVD Sleeves Information

I read all the reviews about these disc envelops. Several people indicated they were much more cheaply made than the Columbian brand envelops I used to buy from Sam's Club. I will not dispute the envelops are much thinner than the Columbian envelops and they also appear to wrinkle depending on the room's humidity, however, they perform just as well as the thicker, much more expensive Columbian brand.

First off, the wrinkling issue disappeared within 20 minutes of leaving the envelops in the room to give them a chance to reach the relative humidity of the room. I noticed the wrinkling occurred whenever I bought a new batch up from my cool 50% humid basement to my dry and warmer 35% humid office. As soon as the envelops reached room temperature (and humidity) the wrinkles vanished. While I agree the Columbians did not show any signs of being affected by relative humidity, I assume this is the result of the thinner paper. I no longer consider this an issue since I've experienced copy paper do the same when I'd bring up a new ream from the basement.

Although the envelops are thinner, I don't find them any weaker to tears or rips. While handling, they do feel a bit flimsy, but if you are using them to store discs over a period of time and the discs are not going to be handled regularly (ex. they will hold archive archived or stored backup disks) then these envelops are fine. If you are going to regularly handle the discs, then either use a jewel case or a more durable media holder.

If you would like to buy them online then this is a reliable source for cd and dvd sleeves.

A couple of positive notes about the thinner envelops:

1.) They cause fewer paper jams in my inkjet printer than the Columbian brand envelops did. I suffer about a 2% failure rate when printing on these thinner envelops, vs. the 5-7% failure rate with the Columbians. This will save me around 50 envelops per 1000, a small but noteworthy savings.(I agree there are many factors that influence failure rates, but so far, in my situation, I'm jamming on around 2 envelops per 100, vs. 5-7 envelops per 100 when I use the Columbians.)

2.)The envelops take up less space than the Columbians. If 250 Columbian envelops takes up 10-inches and 250 of these envelops take up 5-inches, I am getting an additional 5-inches of storage space occupying the same footprint! (5-inches is around another 60 discs I can store in the same footprint.)

Another note about printing - I am experiencing no bleed-through or ink bleed with these thinner envelops. (I use the automatic/regular paper print setting on my printer.)

The window on these envelops is indistinguishable from the window on the Columbians. It appears to be made of the exact same material w/ the same toughness.

The flaps appear to be 1-2mm shorter than the columbians. I had to make a 1-time minor adjustment in my print project to account for the shorter flap.
The little tongue or notch that the flap folds into is about 2mm longer and more pronounced than on the Columbian envelop, but this design difference has no impact on performance.

The paper folds and glue points are on the outside of these envelops, vs. the inside of the Columbian envelops. I've always wondered about this being a problem over the long haul since if the glue bleeds due to dampness or wetness, the glue on the Columbian would be more likely to bleed on the disk surface since its on the inside of the envelop. I doubt this is a real concern, but I thought I would mention it since these envelops have all their glue points at least a layer of paper between the glue and the written surface of the disk. (Printing over the glue points has been no issue and no envelop has failed, to-date, due to poor gluing.

Lastly, someone said the flap folds are not pronounced enough and it caused uneven creases when folding the flap over. While I agree the flap fold is less pronounced, It has not caused any problems for me, like those described by the other reviewer(s) that mentioned it.

In summary, I HIGHLY recommend these envelops since they come out to be around 1.5 cents each ($15 per 1000 envelops), instead of the 10 cents per envelop cost of the Columbians ($25 per 250 envelops). Also, if I consider failure rates, the per unit cost of the Columbians experience an additional, but slight, increase, due to higher failure rate I experience when using them.

I go through about 2000 envelops per year so the savings is substantial to me. Around $30/yr for these vs. $180-200/yr. for the Columbians.

One final thought...I can't believe I've spent so much time writing a review for an envelop! I hope my information helps! My recommendation is to go ahead and order a box. My order was fulfilled by amazon, so if you are not happy with them, you should be able to return them with little or no hassle. Good luck and Happy Savings!