Ebay Standard Envelope - Printing directly onto envelope issue (printer), need help with label!

[shellandtell]

Hey All,

I've been selling off some patches I bought in bulk - using ESE.  It's been great and easy.  I have a printer up north that prints directly onto the envelope, voila, great.

Now down south...and the HP Deskjet just doesn't want to print onto an envelope fed into the printer.  It's faint ink, looks bad - some research shows this printer is notorious for this.

Question of the night (yes I have an order) - can I print the ESE label onto regular printer paper, cut it out, and attach it to my envelope?  Any rules on how I attach it?  I do this for my ground advantage packages easily, but nervous with an ESE.  Any help appreciated!

[mantle1951]

I also just print label on regular paper cut it out and use glue and scotch tape, so far so good.

[the-hook-and-the-loop · Accepted solution]

You will be fine to do that. Better if you can print it on some self-adhesive label paper or use a glue stick to adhere the white plain paper to the envelope. USPS doesn't like clear tape over postage.

[shellandtell]

You use glue to glue the label to the envelope?  Where do you use the scotch tape?....

[shellandtell]

I've used clear tape over all of my labels that go on my 4x4x4 and 6x6x6 packages....never had an issue.  Haven't considered the glue stick, may need to try it!  Thank you!

[bdmh-enterprises]

I use #6 envelopes and have yet to find a printer that can print directly to that size. So I've been scotch taping them on for years with no problems. Just make sure you skew it to the top right so the "stamp" is near that corner.

[shellandtell]

Uh oh....I glued the label on and centered it in the middle of the envelope, as eBay rules said the address needs to be parallel to the longer side of the envelope.  I didn't skew it to the right.  Hope it doesn't come back!  Thanks for the insight.  What a pain!

[richard1rst]

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@shellandtell wrote:

Hey All,

I've been selling off some patches I bought in bulk - using ESE.  It's been great and easy.  I have a printer up north that prints directly onto the envelope, voila, great.

Now down south...and the HP Deskjet just doesn't want to print onto an envelope fed into the printer.  It's faint ink, looks bad - some research shows this printer is notorious for this.

Question of the night (yes I have an order) - can I print the ESE label onto regular printer paper, cut it out, and attach it to my envelope?  Any rules on how I attach it?  I do this for my ground advantage packages easily, but nervous with an ESE.  Any help appreciated!

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Well, yes you can do that BUT I find it easier to print it on a self stick label, the same as I use for my packages, then simply trim the white border off the right of the label to get the postage to position correctly. Then I roll the top edge over the envelope. No tape, no glue, no glue stick. Slap bang and done.

[shellandtell]

Given this whole experiment...I think I've decided to upgrade to a thermal printer!!  No idea if the self stick labels will load/print/work in my printer here.  BUT, I do love the idea if I could get that to work.

Post office also told me NOT to worry about placement (having QR code in upper right, doesn't matter where on envelope they said!), just to never tape over a stamp.  

Thanks for your help!!

PS The glue worked, it's tracking through the system, and hasn't been returned to me.  PHEW!!!!!

[shellandtell]

Thank you for your reply!  My local USPS told me the "skewing to the right" isn't necessary.  I asked when I dropped off more packages.  They said they get packages with QR codes EVERYWHERE on packages - as long as it's on, isn't folded over an edge, and not blurry!!  THANK YOU!

Have you considered a thermal printer yet?...

[johnjefprks]

Try setting your printer for an #10 and when it goes to the print screen click on more settings and scroll down to scale, click on custom and reduce the size to 94%. I use google chrome and tried to switch to edge and could not get it to work on that browser. You will have to start on ebay selecting a 4x6 label.