The postage meter base

The base is essentially an envelope handler, designed to transport your mail through the meter. Unlike the meter itself, bases can be purchased outright - but they are often leased along with the meter. Prices for bases start at several hundred dollars, but advanced options can push the price into the thousands of dollars. Although it may sound expensive, it can be more cost-effective than paying a monthly rental fee.

The four main parts of a base include the feeder, sealer, stacker, and tape dispenser.

Feeder
A feeder guides envelopes through the meter. Although you can get a low-end meter without a feeder, feeding a large mailing by hand is quite tedious.

You have the choice of a semiautomatic feeder, which lets you feed in a handful of envelopes at a time, or an automatic feeder where no manual feeding is needed. Automatic systems are quite expensive, starting around $1,200 more than similar semiautomatic systems, which cost about $700, but can speed the process immensely for very high-volume mailers.

Feeders are rated by their feeding speed. A slow machine will process 15 letters per minute, while the fastest operate at about 270 letters per minute.

Unfortunately, the sealer tends to be the most unreliable component of a postage meter system. Because of the presence of glue and water, sealers often gum up and require regular cleaning.