Mailing Label Recommendations

[Jeff]

Hey all. I'm currently looking for any recommendations on a mailing label
solution.
We currently are printing on average 5000 labels a month on an old panasonic
printer which is starting to kick the bucket along with other probs (the
label position needs to be reset on the printer every 6 labels).
Does anyone have any advice on what a good label printer would be for that
kind of volume? I think right now a box of 5000 labels (tractor feed) of 3
1/2" x 15/16" is running about $22.00 plus S&H.

The labels will be printed from an Access report and hopefully someone has
some experience with this sort of thing. I looked at Dymo/Zebra/Oki Data but
I can't get a solid feel for how much the labels will cost and how well they
would work with the access app.
My whole goal is to speed up the operation and not have to readjust the
printer every few labels.
Thoughts?

 

[Mark A. Sam]

Jeff,

5000 labels isn't big volume. If you are spreading the printing out over
the month you can use an inknet printer. A laser can also be used and they
are inexpensive. A good HP colorjet laser printer is about in the $500
range. The expense with this or an inkjet is the ink. I can't give you a
handle on that. If you use only black ink, it should be reasonable.

The labels are very inexpensive and can be purchased at Walmart or any
office place or online at Avery.com.

I wouldn't even consider a single label (on roles) printer, like the Dyno
printer as it would be slow and expensive. I set this type up for my
client's order entry system to print mailing labels, and it was good for
that application, becuase it printed less than 25 labels a day, and they
have three set up at various workstations.

I hope that helps you and God Bless,

Mark A. Sam

 

[Jeff]

Good to know. Are your clients printing off the labels one at a time or all
at once?
If they are using a sheet of labels, like 20 on a page, i can see how
trivial it gets when you only use 5 on the page and then need to print some
more later and now you have to deal with the sheet missing the labels from
the last job.
That was my reasoning for a roll of labels.
If you did use sheets, how did you tackle that problem?
Thanks again!

 

[Mark A. Sam]

My client didn't use sheet labels, I do, but they are static labels. When I
print them, I print the whole pack and don't have leftovers. When you said
you print 5000 per month, I didn't think of you using 5 on a page. I
thought you may generally print 160+ per day or even larger batches. If you
are only printing 5 at a time, then a single label printer may make sense.
If you are using multiple printers scattered about, that is a different
scenario then I thought of for you. I guess you need to figure the price of
the rolls (thermo, so no ink needed) against the price of the sheets, ink
and wasted labels. With Access, however, through programming, I can envison
being able to direct where on the sheet the labels will print for small
batches, so that you can reuse the sheets, and start printing at the first
position where there is a label to print on.