There are two primary reasons to consider buying a pouch laminator with a 11-13 inch throat. First, you can use the machine to laminate letter sized pouches that are sealed on the long edge. Feeding letter sized documents this direction will actually increase your speed and efficiency by more than 30%. Second, you can laminate larger format items including menus, 11" x 17" sheets and two letter sized sheets in a single full double letter pouch. If either of these features is important to you why not choose a 11" - 13" model along with some pouches and start laminating today.