Starting out reselling, years ago, I worked with a minimum of resources, and found that sometimes turning around product took longer, or worse, I wasn’t putting my best foot forward in presenting the product to the ultimate user. I’ve picked up a number of tricks over the years, and am sharing them here:
Please note, all links are to Amazon, and I will earn a commission, should you purchase via the link. Thank you in advance for your support of Tagging Miles!
A tape gun, is in my opinion, the number one investment you can make, when starting out with reselling. Get one that has a comfortable grip, because you will be using it a lot! I’ve made the mistake of getting the cheap plastic ones that just don’t feel nearly as good in your hand, and when you are taping 20-30 boxes in a day, it’ll make a difference.
Avery Easy Peel Address Labels – these 30 up labels are easiest when you create larger shipments on Amazon. That’s where the true value of just printing all of your product labels out on a single page is huge.
The Scotty Peeler Label Remover – this has proven invaluable. Start with one of the plastic ones–in fact, I’ve yet to use the metal one, but good as a back-up–and you’ll see that pulling price tags and labels are so much easier.
Partner a heat gun with your Scotty Peeler for even greater ease. For the thermal labels, its pretty easy to know when you’ve heated the label enough, it usually turns black. For other labels, a quick wave back and forth over the label should heat the glue enough for an easy removal of the label from the box. This has saved me time and frustration, since I’ve incorporated its use.
Poly bags with a suffocation warning are great for protecting your products, especially smaller ones, or liquids. Sometimes Amazon will even require them. Getting a bundle of various sizes is the easiest path until you know you are using more of a particular size than others.
For shipments smaller than 30 units, where you’re just going with the onsie-twosie labels, this Dymo is great. Also, you can use it to print out USPS labels with it too, if you do Merchant Fulfilled, or just want to send something to a friend.
If you get enough shipments going in a dymo becomes a great tool. I personally love my dymo 450
@Ryan – Thanks for your insight! I have a Dymo, but I find that I ship enough products out that the 30-up labels are more what I use, and I leverage UPS’ free 2-up labels for the shipping labels. In the 6 months I’ve had the Dymo, I can’t say I’ve used it more than a handful of times. I could be doing it wrong though…
What about a scale and box cutter recommendation ? 😉 I know you aren’t using your bathroom scale and butter knife
I need to make that update! I’ve broken way too many butter knifes, and my bathroom scale always over-estimates the box weight!
How about a laser printer recommendations? Can’t use an Ink Jet printer so if you are using 30 ups you need a good laser printer. I know I love my Brother!
Believe it or not, I do use an ink jet printer, without any issue… Might not be as cost effective as a laser printer, but, I guess I haven’t seen the issue.
I used ink jet for longest time as well. Just picked up Dymo and Brother. The reason its against Amazon’s T&Cs is InkJet printers are more likely to smear or degrade over time. I know lots of people use InkJets with no issue, but guess if you had some real long term holds could run into issue with your stickers. But like you, never had an issue.