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It all happened quite unexpectedly… I was doing research into a question I received about shipping on Etsy and found out that in addition to printing shipping labels on regular 8.5″x11″ sheets of paper, you could also print them in 4″x6″ sizes.
Upon further investigation, I discovered that to use the 4″x6″ labels, you needed to use a label printer… Etsy even had two specific brands of label printers they recommended and stated would work with the shipping platform.
One is the Zebra GC 420d Label Printer and the Dymo 4XL LabelWriter.
Don’t make the mistake I made in the past and just bought one of these without paying attention to the model number… You need to buy exactly the model number specified if you want things to go smoothly.
I had tried in the past to use a Dymo label printer when I was first selling on Etsy but I was less-technically savvy and bungled the whole thing up so that kind of sullied my mind whenever I thought of using a label printer again. But something happened and I had to face my “fear”…
My regular HP document printer broke down… And I had two orders to ship.
My dilemma: Should I buy another document printer and continue with my manual system of cutting out labels then using clear tape to stick on my mailing envelopes… OR… Should I attempt to give the world of dedicated label printers another whirl?
My answer: It’s time to get more professional, and that means scaling up to match my business growth.
So I did it… I bought the Dymo 4XL LabelWriter.
I first called my local Office Depot to find out if they had it in stock and if so much how much it was… And also if they had the labels to go along with it.
They did… The printer cost $279.99 and I don’t recall the cost of the label paper because I developed temporary deafness after hearing the price of the printer alone. I knew I wanted it right then and there because I didn’t want my customers to wait…
So before I made this investment I decided to check out my trustee Amazon…
The first listing that came up was sold by Amazon and it cost $139 and a roll of 220 labels was about $20-30 if I bought them as a bundle.
Okay… That was more like it. This seemed like a bargain to me compared with the Office Depot price but the downside was that I had to wait for 2 days to get delivered via Amazon Prime.
This meant that as soon as it arrived I had to ship out the two orders that I had already received.
So I went ahead and placed the order. It felt good… I thought I just got everything for a steal of a deal.
Then the next day it happened… Two more ka-chings in a row from my Sell on Etsy app… The pressure was on...
Four orders now and my printer was due to arrive the next day. I started having nightmares about it not working for me again like the last time I tried to use one of these and started wondering how much I’d have to shell out on a regular document printer at a local office supply store just so I could get my orders out on time.
Amazon Prime Day Two: It’s here!!! And I just made another sale…
Naturally, I proceeded to try and figure it out myself… Thankfully, it was a very straightforward setup process and it worked like magic.
I cannot recommend this product highly enough… It is money very well spent, especially if you can get it at a good price.
If you’re making your shipping labels manually like I was but you’re also getting some income from your Etsy sales, then put some of that money back into your business and invest in this label printer. It will be worth it.
I don’t make product recommendations often and when I do, I try to make them worth your while and worth your dollar. This is definitely one of those.
If you have any questions about how it works or how to set it up, feel free to ask me in the comments section down below.
And if you have one of these (or the Zebra label printer) and love it, please share that down below in the comments section as well. I’ve heard from a lot of you on Instagram who had the same epiphany as I did and I’m glad that we all agree… This was money well spent.
