PRINTING SHIPPING LABELS

Even if you are a low volume seller, there is no need to stand in line at the post office to have the clerk weigh your parcel and sell you postage.  Save yourself lots of time and print your own!

Printing shipping labels is one of the activities that every seller on eBay needs to do. So why not do it as cheaply as possible?

It easy to print your own. The best time to print out labels is in the morning since so many sellers are using the paypal services for printing labels and it can get clogged down. Often during peak volume times, you just cannot get your label printed and have to wait until another time.

One way around this is to use the usps site. To do that you need to register and give them your banking information so you can pay for your labels online.

However, most of the time printing shipping labels directly from paypal should be no problem (if you pick the right time of day :)

There is no need to purchase adhesive backed label forms. I use plain typewriter paper 8 1/2 x 11. I also use an inkjet printer which poses certain challenges over using a laser printer. If you have a laser printer and an inkjet, use the laser printer - it will save you some work.

Okay, you have printed out your label. Now what? If you are like me and have multiple sales, you don't want to be jumping up and down putting labels on boxes before going to the next one. I usually like to print out a bunch of labels at once. But you need to write on each one what it is for. I do this on the side of the page that won't be going on the parcel. Believe me, take the time to do this. It saves a lot of backtracking when you print out more than one label!

Okay you have your label printed and your package ready to accept the label. Position it on the package, tape it down and if using a laser printer, your parcel is now ready to be mailed.

If using an inkjet printer you have one further step. I have wide rolls of transparent packing tape. I tear off a strip and put it across the delivery confirmation area on the label and another across the addresses.

This is in case the label gets wet. If an inkjet label gets wet, the ink runs. If that happens no one is going to be able to read your parcel and if they can't read it, they can't deliver it.

Now, the post office discourages your putting tape across the label because the hand scanner that the postal carrier uses won't scan properly and the carrier then has to punch in the numbers of your delivery confirmation by hand.

In all my years of packaging and sending out eBay packages, I have only ever had one postal employee comment on the tape across the labels like this. When I explained it to him, his response was , "Makes sense."

Yes it does. And of course, you need to develop an attitude of - "Who is the post office working for?"

Than answer should be YOU. Whatever is convenient for you and doesn't mess up their equipment. So do this to protect your packages and get them to your customers.

Or spend the money on a laser printer. :)