But isn't the essential difference (and what makes the QM effect seem like spooky action-at-a-distance) that it's been proven that it isn't like the envelope example? Namely, there's no definite "redness" or "greenness" to the entangled particle before you examine it (unlike the envelope, which contains a red or green card the whole time). Whether you have a "red" or a "green" quantum part isn't decided until you look, at which point the wave function collapses in both parts simultaneously, no matter how far apart they are.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bells_theorem