Postage Label Printers for the Casual Seller

[omamoricharms]

Hi, I'm a casual seller that sells roughly 1-2 low-cost items per day on amazon or ebay.  With USPS postage rates increasing to $3.50 but offered on ebay or amazon for $2.66, I wanted to look into printing postage and shipping labels at home.  I've been reading tons of forum posts on the dymo and zebra models, but am a bit confused at seeing people talk about needing monthly memberships, or using smaller labels for FBA purposes.

For a casual seller, do you have recommendations on buying either a cheap inkjet printer (e.g. around $35 for a canon model) or a Brother QL 500 for about $50, a dymo 450 for about $50, or a used zebra 2844 for closer to $70, or something else entirely?   I know the inkjets are easy to set up:  just save pre-paid shipping labels to a pdf, print as any normal printer, and tape to the envelope.  Do the label printers require any other set up other than what you'd do for a normal inkjet printer?  

Thank you! 

[hidy-hoo · Accepted solution]

Hi, @omamoricharms, and welcome to the Part Time eBay Sellers Group Home! 

The answer to your question really depends upon your volume of sales.  I am a low volume seller and just use an ordinary printer since paper is cheap.  One of our regulars does use a Zebra and posted this a while back:

Finally, I bought a Zebra 2844 label printer.  Yeah, the labels cost me from 3-5 cents each, but I make up for it in time saved and in shipping tape not used.  I used to print labels on plain paper and tape them to mailers, but that took too much time and too much tape.  I can now peel the label and just stick it right on the mailer and I'm done.  5 seconds max, and no more wasted tape.  I estimate the label printer paid for itself within the first month or two I had it, just in time saved.  It may sound like money wasted for a cool little toy, but your time is worth something, and anything you can do to make it more efficient is money in your pocket. 

I will give him a shout-out to see if he can give you any more information and will tag you if he replies!

@theguitarpartsguy ~ hey, gpg, can you help this PT seller?  Thanks!

[theguitarpartsguy]

UGH, ok, I'll try this one more time.  I had a post typed out twice and lost it both times, as I got an "authentication failed" error when I hit the post button.  I re-signed back in , so hopefully it will work this time.  Anyway....

I used a Zebra for a long time, printed a LOT of labels with it, but about a year ago it died... just stopped working out of nowhere.  Wouldn't feed paper or print.  But this little guy was probably 15 years old at least, so I definitely got my use out of it.  That said, I ended up picking up a Brother QL700 to replace it and I've been really happy with the Brother.  Works really well for me.   I would buy whichever one you can get the better deal on, although I bought my Brother new for about what a used Zebra goes for.  

Regardless of which printer you end up with, make sure you look up House Labels here on eBay, they're the least expensive source for labels I have found, and they even have labels for the little Dymo label printers which many people claim you HAVE to use Dymo brand labels in.  We have a couple of the little Dymos at work for printing barcode and price stickers.  A single roll of 1000 labels for them at Office Depot costs $40.00.  I was able to get SIX rolls of 1000 labels for $34.00 shipped from House Labels, a MUCH better deal.  I buy my label rolls for my Brother from House Labels, too.  Fast service, quality labels, and great pricing.

[theguitarpartsguy]

Hey, it worked this time! Third time's a charm, I guess!

[rfmtm]

For just USPS, the smaller printers like the Dymo 450 using the 99019 labels works great, and print professional looking labels that are ready to stick on your package.

For USPS as well as UPS or FedEx you would need a printer for 4"x6" labels like the Dymo 4XL.

Compatible labels are available on ebay for much less than the brand name ones.  Just look for USA made approved labels, as many of the cheap China imports can cause you problems and also wear the print head out faster.

Even for a small seller, a label printer is economical and efficient, doesn't tie up your regular printer, and also comes in handy for printing all kinds of other labels.

[omamoricharms]

Thank you @hidy-hoo and @theguitarpartsguy for this great information!  And my apologies on the slow response back - work and travel and crazy jet lag this week.  I was just offered a normal inkjet for free from family, and based on this advice, think I'll use that until the ink runs dry, and then look to switch to one of the affordable label printers.  As Guitarpartsguy points out, time is really valuable too! Thank you again! 

[ihadtohave]

We are on our second or third brother all in one printer.   cheapest model, yet always works fine.  Reviews says the wireless option is problematic, but hey keep it hooked via a printer cable connection works great.   Not used by me for photo pictures, though it seems to print them reasonably well when i get desperate and just print on regular paper to show somebody something.  They are generally under $200 and I set the default to a "save ink" setting and to "fast normal" and I never have problems.  Retiring the older one because we just don't need it and it's taking up space.  Will last a long time.