Today’s post is going to highlight a potential problem with fugitive glue that you should be aware of.
First off, fugitive glue are drops of glue that are placed on a self-mailer to keep it closed. So for example, if you’re mailing a double postcard, you could apply fugitive glue to keep the 2 postcard panels closed in the mail stream.
The alternative are wafer seals — the circular pieces of “tape” that get folded over the panels you want to close — but they are more expensive and more visible on the mail piece.
The potential problem with fugitive glue is this: depending on the design of your self-mailer, you might have to apply the drops of glue on a reply card that is hopefully returned back to you. If the recipient sends back the reply card without rubbing off the drops of glue, there’s the potential issue of the reply card sticking to other mail and never reaching it’s final destination.
This all said, we don’t think this is a huge issue to worry about because a reply card sticking to another piece of mail is pretty obvious and would be corrected by the USPS And furthermore, I assume most people would rub the glue off before sending back the reply card.
If your self-mailer design is forcing you to use fugitive glue on your reply card and you’re worried about the above, you have 2 options:
- Use wafer seals instead.
- Speak to your lettershop vendor because there are different types of fugitive glue you can use that vary in size and intensity.
We would love to hear about your experiences or comments on this topic. Please comment below if you’re interested.
I'm the Director of Digital Services and Partner at Ballantine, a family-owned and operated direct mail & digital marketing company based in New Jersey. and started in 1966 by my great uncle!