I am looking for a black and white laser printer that can print reliably envelopes, small pieces of paper like business cards etc.
Many laser printers can handle standard envelopes. Check the specs to see if they are set up to take them directly (that is, by simply sliding a paper guide over, or maybe even setting a paper drawer to hold them). If not, they may not be well-designed for anything but letter-width pages.
I’ve owned a lot of good-grade consumer and business-grade printers, and not a one would print anything smaller than a #10 envelope or a half-letter sheet of paper reliably. Possibly some flat-path inkjet printers would handle almost anything the rollers can grab, but the paper path in a laser printer (usually U or S shaped) needs more to get a hold on.
I think if you find one, it will be crippled in some way for normal printing - that is, it will be set up to print name badges or something.
Print on tear-down business card blanks or buy a good rotary paper trimmer so you can print on larger sheets and cut them down. That’s the only reliable method I’ve found.
Concur.