Mailing Services
United GMG's mailing services take a mailing from file to post office: we clean your mailing list, address and insert the printed pieces, sort the mail for USPS discounts, handle the postage paperwork, and deliver trays to USPS — one Mount Prospect plant that has printed and mailed for Chicago since 1927.
Bring pieces printed anywhere — or have us print and mail under one roof. To start, most mailings need three things: your file, your piece, and the date it should drop.
Sorting is why bulk mail costs less: USPS charges presorted mail — mail sorted the way USPS wants it — roughly half the retail stamp rate, and nonprofit mail less still. The current rates — and what they mean across 10,000 pieces — are in the table below.
From loose list to USPS trays — one plant
Request a quote
The services
Mailing services, sorted
NCOA move updates, standardized addresses, duplicates out.
CLEAN 02Postage & presortSorted the way USPS wants it — that's the discount.
POSTAGE 03Print + mail, one roofFile and pieces in one door, tagged USPS trays out the other.
THE RUN 04Kitting & multi-pieceThe right pieces, in the right order, in the right carrier.
KIT 05Request a QuoteYour file, your piece, and the date it should drop.
QUOTEWhat does postage cost?
Postage is usually the biggest line in a mailing budget — here is what one letter costs to send at each rate, straight from the USPS price list.
Sorting is what earns the lower rates — the next two sections show the cleaning and the sort that qualify a mailing.
| How it mails | One letter | 10,000 letters |
|---|---|---|
| Retail First-Class stamp (one at a time, no sorting) | $0.82 | $8,200 |
| First-Class Mail, presorted (automation letter, Mixed) | $0.707 | $7,070 |
| USPS Marketing Mail, presorted (automation letter, Mixed) | $0.467 | $4,670 |
| USPS Marketing Mail, nonprofit (automation letter, Mixed) | $0.257 | $2,570 |
Rates effective July 12, 2026, from USPS Notice 123 — 1-oz automation letters at the Mixed rate, the tier most mailings qualify for; deeper sorts (3-Digit, 5-Digit) price lower, and heavier pieces differ. Postage always goes to USPS: postage checks are made out to the Postmaster, shown as its own line, never buried in the print price. Whole-campaign costs: our direct mail pricing guide · the classes: our guide to USPS mail classes for businesses and nonprofits.
How the postage classes differ
First-Class Mail is the fast class: personal-feeling, forwarded when someone moves, returned when undeliverable. Statements, invoices, and anything time-sensitive or required-by-someone usually rides First-Class. Presorting it earns a discount against the retail stamp, but it stays the premium class.
USPS Marketing Mail is the volume class: promotions, appeals, newsletters, catalogs. It trades delivery speed for a much lower rate, and it is where sorting does its loudest work — the difference between the stamp rate and the sorted Marketing Mail rate is most of the postage savings in bulk mail.
Nonprofit rates are Marketing Mail's lower tier for USPS-authorized nonprofit mailers. If your organization qualifies, the authorization is worth real money on every appeal — and the cost difference between first class stamps and nonprofit postage is one of the first questions we answer for new nonprofit mailers.
Certified Mail with a return receipt exists for mail that must be provable: the piece is tracked, and the signed green card comes back as evidence of delivery. At the July 12, 2026 rates, Certified Mail adds $5.55 per piece and the hardcopy return receipt — the green card — adds $4.65, on top of First-Class postage. Compliance and legal-notice programs pair a First-Class letter with certified service on exactly the pieces that need proof, and only those.
Weight and shape set the base rate. Every figure in the table is a letter up to one ounce; heavier letters, oversized pieces (flats), and postcards each carry their own USPS pricing. Shape matters more than most mailers expect — a piece a quarter-inch too thick can move to a costlier category, which is the kind of thing worth catching at the proof, not at the post office.
Permits and indicia. Bulk mail doesn't use stamps — it mails under a permit, with the indicia printed on the piece. We handle the permit side and the postage statement that accompanies every drop, and if you already hold your own bulk mailing permit, we work with that too.
How do you clean a mailing list?
Every mailing starts with the list, not the paper: NCOA move updates, standardized addresses, duplicates out, many lists merged and purged into one — so each person gets one piece, at an address where they actually live.
11,214 IN → 10,362 MAILABLE · a representative file, not a rate of loss
A clean file yields honest mailable counts — the difference between paying postage on 11,214 pieces and paying on 10,362.
What happens to your list, step by step
Address standardization (CASS). Every address is checked against the USPS database and written the way USPS wants it — correct street suffix, directionals, ZIP+4. Standardized addresses are what make a file sortable at all, and they are required for automation postage rates.
Move updates (NCOA). The file runs against the USPS National Change of Address database. People move constantly; NCOA catches the ones who filed a forward order and updates the address before anything prints, so the piece goes to where they live now — not where they lived when the list was built.
De-duplication. The same person often appears twice under slightly different spellings. We check for duplicates and keep one record, so nobody gets two copies and you don't pay to print and mail the second one.
Merge and purge. Mailing from three lists — members, donors, event attendees? We merge them into one file and purge the overlap, with an exact count of what remains. One list, one piece per person, one invoice that matches it.
The output is a number you can plan on: the mailable count. Postage, print quantity, and the estimate all come from that count, so there are no surprises between the quote and the invoice.
What to send, in practice: a spreadsheet — CSV or Excel — with one row per recipient and columns for name and address parts. It does not need to be tidy; untidy is normal, and cleaning it is the job. If the same mailing draws on more than one file, send them all and say which wins when a person appears in two.
From loose list to USPS trays
The work the post office pays for — one file becoming a mailing:
The file arrives as-is: duplicates, movers, missing ZIPs.
Duplicates out, moves updated, addresses standardized.
Grouped by ZIP — the order USPS pays for.
Counted into tagged USPS trays, ready for the truck.
Sorting is invisible work — it is what earned the Marketing Mail rates you saw above.
How does bulk printing and mailing work?
Seven steps, one building: file and pieces in one door, tagged USPS trays out the other — the run every bulk mailing services job follows here.
File and pieces arrive — or we print them here.
RTE 60056 · INThe list is cleaned: addresses checked, moves updated, duplicates out.
NCOA · CASS · DEDUPEEach piece gets a name — personalized when the job calls for it.
INKJET · MATCHSheets folded, envelopes filled and sealed, kits assembled.
FOLD · INSERT · SEALSorted the way USPS wants it — that's the discount.
5-DIGIT · TRAYPostage statement prepared, trays tagged, drop forms ready.
STATEMENT · TAGSInto USPS possession — delivery anywhere in the country.
DOCK · OUTOne boundary, stated plainly: every mailing here rides a list. We print EDDM formats, but we do not offer EDDM mailing — our work is addressed, list-based mail, which is what earns the sorted rates above and lets results be counted.
The run, in more detail
Intake. Pieces can come off our presses or arrive in cartons from any printer — bulk mailing services here don't require the printing to happen here (though when it does, one schedule covers both). The file arrives as a spreadsheet; the piece arrives flat, ready to address.
Supplying printed pieces? Ship them flat, banded or boxed by version if the mailing has more than one, with a count on each carton. The dock address is at the bottom of this page; put the job name on the labels and the cartons meet their file the day they arrive.
Clean. Everything in the list-cleaning section above: standardization, move updates, de-duplication, merge and purge. The mailable count comes out of this step and drives everything after it.
Address and insert. Addressing prints directly on the piece or its envelope. Personalized jobs — versioned letters, matched inserts — run here too. Folding, inserting, sealing, and multi-piece assembly happen in the same pass, and the piece is checked against its proof before the run starts.
Sort and document. The mailing is sequenced and trayed to USPS automation standards, the postage statement is prepared, and every tray is tagged. This is the paperwork that turns a pile of letters into bulk mail the post office accepts at the discounted rate.
Delivery to USPS. Trays and pallets go into USPS possession with their documentation. From there USPS delivers anywhere in the country — the mailing enters the mail here in Mount Prospect, and the destination list decides where it lands.
What is your minimum for a mailing?
USPS sets the floor for bulk rates — and it is lower than most people expect:
USPS Marketing Mail minimum — whichever your mailing reaches first.
Two hundred pieces is a small mailing. Under it, the job simply mails at First-Class rates — bring it anyway; the estimate shows both ways when both are possible.
The fine print on minimums
The 200-piece / 50-pound threshold is USPS's own eligibility rule for Marketing Mail (Domestic Mail Manual, section 243). It is per mailing, not per year — a 500-piece newsletter qualifies every single time it mails.
First-Class presort has its own, higher threshold (500 pieces). Between 200 and 500 pieces, Marketing Mail is usually the bulk option on the table; above 500, both classes are in play and the choice comes down to speed against rate — the postage section above shows the difference in dollars.
Under 200 pieces, there is no bulk rate to chase: the job mails at retail or metered First-Class. We still clean the list and handle the mailing — small recurring mailings are how several of our longest-running programs started.
Why the rule exists: bulk rates are USPS paying mailers for work USPS would otherwise do itself — the standardizing, sorting, traying, and documentation this page describes. Below 200 pieces there isn't enough of that work to price, which is also why the discount belongs to any organization willing to mail properly, not only to giant mailers.
How long does a 10,000-piece mailing take?
It depends on three dates set at the quote: file and pieces in hand, proof approved, and the drop itself. The schedule is set in the estimate before work starts; if anything threatens the drop, you hear it from us first.
What sets the schedule
File handoff. The clock starts when the list and the printed pieces are both in hand. If we print the job too, printing and list work run in parallel — one schedule, no handoff gap between the print shop and the mail house.
Proof approval. Nothing runs until you approve the proof, so the fastest schedules belong to mailers who review the proof the day it arrives. The approval date is one of the three dates in the estimate for exactly this reason.
Recurring programs run themselves. Once a statement cycle, renewal series, or appeal calendar has run here twice, the schedule is a standing one: the file arrives on its usual day, the proof follows the established format, and the drop lands on the date the program always drops. Most of the schedule risk in mailing lives in the first run — which is exactly where the three-dates conversation happens.
Postage in place. Postage is paid to USPS before the mailing drops — the check made out to the Postmaster, or permit funds on account. Getting it arranged early keeps the dock date honest.
The drop date. Recurring programs run to a standing calendar; one-time mailings get a date at quote. Time-sensitive jobs ride First-Class; promotions usually take Marketing Mail's rate and relax the calendar instead. Tell us the date that matters — a board meeting, an event, a deadline — and the schedule is built backward from it.
Nothing mails until you say so
Every job stops at a proof — piece, addressing, and counts in your hands before anything runs. And every mailing leaves with its paperwork: the postage statement rides with the drop; plant-load forms when a job calls for them.
How proofing works here
The proof shows the piece as it will actually mail: the printed piece (or your supplied piece), the address block as it will print, and the mailable count the job will run at. You approve it in writing; the run releases on that approval and not before — on new jobs and reorders alike.
The paperwork side is part of the service, not an extra: the postage statement is prepared with every bulk drop, trays and pallets are tagged to USPS standards, and plant-verified drop documentation is produced when a client or a program requires it. If your organization needs the drop receipt for its records, say so at the quote and it will be in the file.
Kitting and multi-piece mailings
Some mailings are one postcard. Others are a letter, a brochure, and a reply envelope that must land together in one envelope — or boxes packed per location. That assembly is kitting, and it runs on the same floor.
Kitting, in practice
Kitting is sequence work: the right pieces, in the right order, in the right carrier — an appeal package with its reply device, a member kit with a card and a booklet, dealer packs built per location. The inserting equipment that fills envelopes for mailings does the same assembly for kits, and the same proof-then-run discipline applies.
Kitted work can enter the mailstream like any other mailing or ship as parcels — and for programs that repeat, the pick list and the assembly order are kept on file so the second run starts faster than the first.
Who mails with us
Working mail — the kind an operations manager owns:
Recurring statement and invoice runs — file in, First-Class out, on a standing schedule.
Appeal and donor mailings at nonprofit postage — where every duplicate is a donated dollar spent twice.
Newsletters, renewals, and event mailings — merged from many lists, purged to one piece per member.
Notice programs that must be provable — Certified Mail and the signed green card where evidence is required.
Sector notes
Nonprofits ask the same first question almost every time: the cost difference between first class stamps and nonprofit postage. The table above answers it in USPS's own numbers — and if your organization isn't yet authorized for nonprofit rates, that authorization is worth pursuing before the next appeal mails.
Operations and office managers usually arrive with a file and a deadline: statements that must be out by the fifth, a notice with a regulatory date, a renewal cycle. The three-dates schedule in the timing section exists because that is how these jobs are actually managed.
Agencies and marketing teams often bring pieces printed elsewhere or ask us to print and mail as one job. Either way the mailing side runs the same: clean file, honest counts, sorted postage, documented drop — with the reporting an agency needs to show its client.
Guides
Mailing guides worth keeping
Practical reads on the mailing operation — postage, lists, formats, and a clean drop out the door.
Quick answers
Short answers, sorted
Can you mail pieces we printed somewhere else?
Yes — that is the core of the service. Ship the cartons to the dock address below with your file, and the run starts at intake exactly as if we had printed the job. When we do print it, the print and the mailing share one schedule.
Do you run our list against the NCOA database?
Yes. NCOA move updating, address standardization, and de-duplication are standard list work here, and the cleaned file comes back to you with its mailable count. If your data arrives already CASS-certified and NCOA'd, we work from that and verify the counts.
Can you supply the mailing list?
Yes — if you need a targeted list, or names to extend your own file, we obtain a qualified list built to your selection criteria and quote that work as its own line. If you'd rather buy directly, we'll still clean and mail whatever list you bring.
Who pays the postage?
You do, and it goes straight to USPS — postage checks are made out to the Postmaster, or the amount rides on permit funds. Postage appears as its own line on the estimate at the exact USPS rate, never marked up inside the print price.
Can we mail at nonprofit rates?
If USPS has authorized your organization for nonprofit prices, yes — and the savings against commercial rates are substantial on every mailing. If you're not authorized yet, the application goes through USPS; once it's granted, your mailings here ride the nonprofit rate from then on.
Do you handle the USPS paperwork?
Bulk mail doesn't move without it: the postage statement, tray tags, and — when a job or client requires it — plant-verified drop documentation are all prepared here as part of the run, and copies go in your job file.
How far can a mailing go?
Every mailing enters the mail at our Mount Prospect plant, northwest of Chicago. From USPS possession onward, delivery reaches anywhere USPS delivers — Chicagoland lists and national lists run through the same dock.
What do you need from us to quote a mailing?
Three things: the piece (or its specs, if we're printing it), the list — a spreadsheet is fine — and the date it should drop. From those we quote print, list work, and postage as separate lines, with the mailable count stated on the estimate.
On the truck, on the date
United GMG
1864 S Elmhurst Rd
Mount Prospect, IL 60056
847.588.7600
Start your mailing
Tell us what's arriving — piece, list, drop date — and the quote comes back with print, list work, and postage as separate lines.
