Direct Mail In-house vs Outsourcing?

[Omari Brown]

I'm preparing to send my first wave of direct mail in the next couple days (planning to buy the list on Saturday [600/700 or so] and yellow letters on Sunday) and I've sort of been ignoring the idea of doing direct mail "in-house" because I don't fully know the details. I'm starting to believe that I could be saving some money by doing it that way. Also, please describe what "In-House" fully entails. In my head i picture a some empty room with a printer on the floor and stacks of paper everywhere, having to drive to the post office and handing them a list where they hand type every address one by one. 

Im hoping to hear from people on both sides. Outsourcing seems less time consuming and overall easier.. but more expensive. In-House seems cheaper but more of a hassle and time consuming. 

Please enlighten me fellow BP'ers! Costs, time, headache, printers, paper, postage, hoopla...