Buying ISO Paper Sizes (A4, A5, etc.) in Minnesota?

Originally published on: 3/29/2006 5:24:43 AM

Does anyone know of a reasonable place to buy ISO/European paper sizes, particularly A5 either local to me or online? I'm looking for places that don't have it priced as though it's being handcrafted by virgins in the Andes. Sorry, I'm not paying $29 for a ream of basic copier paper. I'd like to have a couple of reams of A4 and A5 on hand for a couple of projects, but can't find it in any of the office stores and the online places I found are those high priced ones.

I didn't expect this to be difficult. It's the same dang paper, just cut to a different size, right? Apparently not.

Comments

Paula
commented on 3/29/2006 Office Max carries A4 for 13.99 a ream, and they give you free shipping over $50. Sorry, no a5

Dave
commented on 3/29/2006 Calling up a print shop might give you a lead. I remember one of my old workplaces buying reams of blank paper at one for letterhead second sheets; they might know where else to go for stuff like this.

J Wynia
commented on 3/29/2006 Is that OfficeMax online? I tried an OfficeDepot and OfficeMax in person before posting my question and was actually surprised they didn't even have basic 20lb bond in those sizes. Given that there *have* to be some businesses that deal with non-US companies that want documents in ISO sizes, this really seems odd to me.

I'll look into the print shops and see if I can scare some stuff up that way.

What I actually want this for is that I recently saw a really easy way to bind paperback books at home and want to do a few short little reference books for myself (and possibly as promo items). The tutorial took 8.5x11 paper and cut it in half and said that this method got "close to A5".

I read that and wondered why you'd choose to go through the imprecise method of trying to cut exactly in half instead of just getting A5 paper in the first place.

Obviously, I have my answer now, but I'm not willing to accept it and will find A5 paper somehow, if only to prove it to myself.

Michael Randall
commented on 3/30/2006 Over here in the UK, A4 is, as you'd expect, *everywhere*, but it's still surprisingly difficult to get A5. Staples do stock it, but only one type of pack - no choice of brands, weights, or anything else.

Oh, and if it's European stock you end up finding, we give the weights in gsm - grams per square metre. Standard copier paper is 80gsm, and thin card is around 120gsm. Premium paper is often 90 or 100gsm.

Rob
commented on 8/11/2006 Best i could find:

http://www.graytex.com/iso-papers.htm

They have A5 for $16.40/200 sheets...

Obsene.

Steve
commented on 8/16/2006 I happened upon your post while doing some market research for our company, Empire Imports. We stock A4 paper in our warehouse and ship to customers throughout the US and Canada. We offer multiple weights and colors. In addition, we stock A3 paper and will have A5 available shortly. Please visit our website for more information www.empireimports.com

Ed
commented on 10/3/2006 try www.empireimports.com

Chris
commented on 11/7/2007 Sorry, about a year too late, but i've been having a local print shop cut standard letter paper exactly in half. Not an exact fit, but it works. They charge for the service, so it ends up costing exactly the same PER PAGE as the regular letter would have cost.

I'm actually looking for A5 also, as I think it will fit in the paper feeder better than my "half-sheets".