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John Coloccia
11-18-2013, 6:54 PM
So I'm shipping more and more via USPS. I want to be able to print out self-adhesive shipping labels. What's a reasonable way to do this? Ideally, I would want to print labels SMALLER than I usually get out of my printer currently, as I'm usually shipping small items.

Thanks for any help.

Paul Wunder
11-18-2013, 7:05 PM
Have you looked into WWW.Stamps.com?

Lee Schierer
11-18-2013, 9:26 PM
Avery Labels makes a lot of different sized peel and stick labels that can be printed by either ink jet or laser printers using Word (or Open Office). They have free templates available for all of their labels.

John Coloccia
11-18-2013, 9:33 PM
Have you looked into WWW.Stamps.com? (http://WWW.Stamps.com?)

I haven't really. Well, I mean I looked briefly at their site, but I can't make heads or tails out of what they actually do. I ship most things priority mail, and I can't figure out what, exactly, Stamps.com does that I can't simply do through USPS directly, or through Paypal. I think they're more geared towards metered postage for 1st class mail, best I can figure.

re: Avery labels
Do they make labels that will actually stick to a package and stay stuck? Even if they do, I don't know how I'd get USPS or PayPal to print properly to the label. Every time I print I get a full page, and then I need to cut it in half, and then I need to tape it down. There must be a way to simply print out a shipping label that I can slap down without all of this other nonsense, right?

Tony Joyce
11-18-2013, 10:44 PM
You can get full sheet labels(8-1/2" X 11") from online labels.com. That would eliminate the taping anyway.

Jim Koepke
11-19-2013, 2:04 AM
Avery Labels makes a lot of different sized peel and stick labels that can be printed by either ink jet or laser printers using Word (or Open Office). They have free templates available for all of their labels.

Avery also has online programs for setting up labels.

One caveat here, an ink jet printed label may have problems if exposed to moisture as in rain.

You may want to check to see if you need to get a laser printer.

We receive packages all the time with printed labels including the postal information on the label. There is likely a product to fit your needs.

Search > shipping with paypal < for a starting point.

jtk

Jim Tobias
11-19-2013, 2:51 AM
John,
Check out the two sites below and see if these might do.

https://store.usps.com/store/browse/productDetailSingleSku.jsp?productId=P_841578&categoryId=subcatMSS_MSS_Labels

https://www.labeluniverse.com/usps

Jim

John Coloccia
11-19-2013, 4:14 AM
Ah...now we're talking :)

So it looks like I can turn off the stupid receipt if I print through PayPal. It also looks like I can get a printer from Zebra that will spit these things out on cheap, thermal paper. I may just end up doing that. These labels are ridiculously expensive. Some of them are in the $.50 per label range, which doesn't seem like a lot but if you ship a lot, it adds up to real money, real fast.

Rich Engelhardt
11-19-2013, 7:20 AM
It also looks like I can get a printer from Zebra that will spit these things out on cheap, thermal paper. I may just end up doing that.Just so you're aware....
I used to have a couple of customers that used Zebra printers.
They work great for printing labels.

Yes - the thermal paper is inexpensive. That's where it stops though.
The thermal transfer bar has a limited life (we replaced them on average of three times a year @ a cost of $500 per replacement).
The customers were tickled pink since we had covered them under a yearly maintenance contract for $295.

Make sure you check on repairs and how they are handled.
Our costs were excessive because the only Zebra repair center was located in upper Mich. and we were charged actual travel time plus mileage to and back from the repair site.
The customers couldn't be without the printers for the length of time it would have taken to ship them.
When those printers were down, their shipments came to a stop.

Mike Chance in Iowa
11-19-2013, 3:01 PM
stamps.com and endicia.com are both a shipping service that you typically pay $16/mo to create pre-paid shipping labels and print on your own printer. If I remember correct, you purchase say $25-$2000 worth of postage and then draw on that amount each time you need to print a label. Stamps.com offers a free 5 lb scale to entice you to come to them. Endicia has bundle packages with 10-25 lb scales and Dymo printers. They do essentially everything that USPS.com and PayPal shipping can do for you, as well as print postage on envelopes, print "hidden" postage, and give you easier access to your history.

I agree with Rich. I've worked on a few of the thermal printers in my past. They are great workhorses when they are working. When they have a problem, they usually have a more serious issue which you end up needing to use an alternative printer until it's repaired or replaced.

John Coloccia
11-19-2013, 3:27 PM
Just so you're aware....
I used to have a couple of customers that used Zebra printers.
They work great for printing labels.

Yes - the thermal paper is inexpensive. That's where it stops though.
The thermal transfer bar has a limited life (we replaced them on average of three times a year @ a cost of $500 per replacement).
The customers were tickled pink since we had covered them under a yearly maintenance contract for $295.

Make sure you check on repairs and how they are handled.
Our costs were excessive because the only Zebra repair center was located in upper Mich. and we were charged actual travel time plus mileage to and back from the repair site.
The customers couldn't be without the printers for the length of time it would have taken to ship them.
When those printers were down, their shipments came to a stop.


Were you dealing with a direct or thermal transfer system? I've run direct systems trouble free for many years at a time. I don't know anything about thermal transfer systems.

Rich Engelhardt
11-19-2013, 4:34 PM
Thermal.
Matter of fact, if you check the Zebra website they exclude the transfer bar (thermal print head) from the warranty!
It's considered a consumable - even if it only lasts a few weeks.

Tony Joyce
11-19-2013, 8:55 PM
I have a stamps.com account and pay no monthly fee.

Tony

John Coloccia
11-21-2013, 12:45 PM
The thermal head for the small Zebras like I'm considering aren't too bad. $100, and they last a LONG time with regular cleaning. That said, I think I'll start with the Avery labels, and see where I end up. If I print through Paypal, I can turn off the reciept. I believe if I download the USPS software, I can also turn off the receipt, so I need to look into that. I'll see how that goes. When I'm through one box of labels, I'll consider if I want to just get a dedicated printer like the Zebra.

Thanks everyone for the input.

Bill Edwards(2)
11-22-2013, 7:56 AM
"On demand" label printers is a Black Hole and has been for years.

There always seems to be a market, but there must not be much real business.

Avery offered a couple of printers for a few years and quit.

Zebra are one of the older companies in the game, but as you've read, there are issues.

Not to mention software to drive it. I've written label programs for Zebras and it's nasty.

One of the best solutions was a narrow carriage matrix printer with the tractor feeds below

the print head, but I don't know if anybody makes on any more.

Prashun Patel
11-22-2013, 9:13 AM
We have about 6 zebra printers in our company. Some ribbon, some DT. We've never had to replace a bar on any, and we print thousands of labels a year.

We ship primarily through UPS, and we've been using the same thermal printer for about 6 years now, no issue. Thermal labels fade over time, but they're perfect for transient items like shipping labels.

Rich Engelhardt
11-22-2013, 3:59 PM
Maybe they've gotten better (Zebra).

All I know is that the ones we had under contract cost us big time & they were constantly in need of repair.
The last ones I had any experience with were a little over two years ago.
I was upgrading a production SQL box for a customer and he had some Zebra printers in the server room.
I mentioned about the ones we had under contract at one time and he told me these were his standby printers.
He had maybe a half dozen standbys and about that many in production.
When one went down, he replaced it with a standby and when he had three or four that needed repaired, he placed a service call.

LOL!
I'd forgotten about the Printronix!
The first customer I mentioned had a backup printer to his Zebra also.
It was a Printronix hammer printer.
The same outfit that serviced the Zebra serviced the Printronix.
:D
Talk about between a rock and a hard place :D.
I don't know which was worse/more expensive - the Printronix or the Zebra.

Greg Portland
11-22-2013, 5:34 PM
THIS (http://www.staples.com/Staples-Sticker-Paper/product_490429) + a decent B&W laser printer. Cut to size and slap on the box. What am I missing?

Curt Harms
11-23-2013, 8:50 AM
THIS (http://www.staples.com/Staples-Sticker-Paper/product_490429) + a decent B&W laser printer. Cut to size and slap on the box. What am I missing?

The problem I'd see is if you wanted to do one or two labels at a time and used part of a sheet. You might have a problem feeding smaller or odd sized pieces through the printer. With precut labels on an 8.5 X 11 backer, the backer would always stay the same size. I brought up a label template in Libre Office just for grins. It seems like I could print the label(s) I need, peel 'em off and the backer could be fed through again at a later date, printing adjacent labels. I wonder how it would work feeding a sheet of labels through a laser repeatedly, I know regular paper sometimes curls and will jam when trying to print to the other side on a non-duplex machine. The backer on adhesive labels may not be an issue, I don't know.

John Coloccia
11-23-2013, 9:04 AM
Well, that and I'm trying to run a business here. For one, I want professional looking labels because that represents me and my business. I'm also not going waste time precisely cutting labels down to size. I want to print out a label, peel it off and slap it on the box.

Greg Portland
11-26-2013, 3:00 PM
Here's a better option: http://store.stamps.com/Store/catalog/product.jsp?id=prod22441337 (may be cheaper elsewhere?). I've used similar labels to print from UPS & USPS shipping websites. If you print 1 label only then flip the paper around to print the next label (of course you can batch print multiple labels at once).

I just don't see any justification for buying a thermal printer that (evidently) has costly maintenance when you can dual-purpose an office laser printer. If you are shipping a lot of items each day I could see where the efficiency of using a roll of labels (in the thermal printer) would make sense.

Prashun Patel
11-26-2013, 3:08 PM
...buying a thermal printer that (evidently) has costly maintenance...

John, here's where the Internet's a little dangerous. If you are considering a thermal printer, you really should get more data points on it. It is MY experience that the Zebra thermal printers (TL, GK series) are amazingly stable. Prior to Zebras, we used Sato printers, which were similarly good. We've used them with UPS's Worldship software, as well as Crystal Reports, as well as printing from Excel forms.

After set up, I experience them to be far more reliable than any desktop printer I've ever used; and as IT support for a medium/small biz, we go through a bunch of those.


There are a bunch of online DT label suppliers that'll sell rolls cheap per piece.

John Coloccia
11-26-2013, 6:02 PM
So what I did to get started was buy a bunch of Avery labels. That should keep me going for a while. Sometime before they run out, I'll decide if I want the Zebra. If my volume can justify it, I'll grab it. If not, I'll just stick with the Averys for now. If I remember, I'll report back to this thread in a month or so with how it's working out.

Mike Chance in Iowa
12-17-2013, 4:42 PM
I wanted to share a label site I recently found. I have ordered twice from them now and their response, customer service and products have been fantastic. Their labels are a quality, made-in-the-USA label and their prices include priority mail shipping. My two orders placed late in the day were each shipped the next morning. There is quite a cost-savings when you compare the quantity of labels they ship versus other suppliers who ship less labels, charge shipping & handling and ship via slower methods. I have no connection to them other then being a satisfied customer.

http://buyrightlabels.com/

Bill ThompsonNM
12-19-2013, 8:24 AM
I don't know much about the Zebra labels but we use a Dymo turbo 450 labeler at work for prescription labels. You can get shipping labels for 1-2 cents each. We get about 3 years out of a labeler ( they're about $100) and we probably print 20-30 labels most days. At that price when something goes wrong we usually just pick up a new one.

Orion Henderson
12-19-2013, 2:25 PM
We use Zebra, the 2844 model currently. We use the same actual sticky label for both UPS and USPS (Stamps.com) that way it all prints off the same printer-less hardware and fewer labels to format and carry. With Stamps.com the small portion of the label-the piece that you keep, does not have any info on it so it gets tossed. With UPS-that portion has tracking info on it.

Pro-tip-UPS provides the actual labels, and even the printer, if you do enough volume.

Rich Engelhardt
03-10-2023, 7:06 AM
Wow! Talk about coincidences!
Just yesterday I was thinking about my old customer, Juzo and the IT guy there - Dan.

That was the location where I did the SQL box upgrade I mentioned in post #17. That place just popped into my head for some reason while I was driving down the road. I did that upgrade shortly before I retired in 2011.
I had managed to completely forget Zebra printers - - until now.
I see the prices of them have dropped like a rock.

Bill George
03-10-2023, 7:47 AM
Hey guys this Thread is from 2013??

Lisa Starr
03-10-2023, 8:08 AM
If you go the Zebra route and are a UPS customer, you can get the printer thru UPS at a substantial discount. Be aware that the printer will print UPS labels only. We ran them trouble free for years at a time. I have successfully hacked the driver and firmware for a UPS Zebra printer to print other types of labels, but it is not for the faint of heart.

Zachary Hoyt
03-10-2023, 8:13 AM
I print self adhesive labels with an HP 1010 Deskjet printer that I bought for about $20 around 10 years ago. I've printed many hundreds of labels on it, using self adhesive 5.5x8.5 paper. It's cheap and easy and you can print any company's labels.

Alan Lightstone
03-10-2023, 8:37 AM
To be fair, the thread isn't quite 10 years old. Yet.

I ran into an issue with my two Dymo labelprinters that they are incompatible with Windows 11. They want you to buy their new printers, and they don't have a dual printer option (Mine prints stamps on left roll, and shipping labels on right roll. So useful.)

I had to set up (or should I say a friend setup for me) a virtual machine to keep them working. Total PIA. So definitely not in Dymo's camp anymore.

Roger Fournier
03-24-2023, 8:41 PM
I bought an Aobio thermal 4x6 printer on Amazon for about $70.00 that works perfectly with Pirate Ship. I have used it a fair amount, and works perfectly. Quick and easy!!