Editor
Selling on eBay is an easy and accessible way for anyone to start their own small business. You can sell goods you’ve made yourself, or just items you’ve sourced, and curate a professional-looking virtual shop front without the cost of rent or domain hosting. However, success on eBay is also based on reputation; negative feedback – for example from lost items, poor packaging or late shipping – can devastate your business’s chances of making a decent income. So, how can you avoid these pitfalls and launch your fledgling business to new heights? The answer is a fast, reliable and good value thermal label printing machine, ensuring your packages get where they need to be, when they need to be there. Here are our picks for the best thermal printer for eBay in 2022.
Product Comparison Table: Best Thermal Printer for eBay
| Title | Price | Rating (Amazon) | Best in class | Buy | |
 | Arkscan 2054A Shipping Label Printer | $$ | 4.5 stars | Most versatile | Amazon |
 | BESTEASY Direct Thermal Printer | $$ | 4 stars | Best for large volume | Amazon |
 | ROLLO Shipping Label Printer Commercial Grade | $$ | 4.5 stars | Best features | Amazon |
 | MUNBYN Thermal Label Printer | $ | 4 stars | Best value | Amazon |
 | Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer | $ | 4.5 stars | Best overall | Amazon |
Arkscan 2054A Shipping Label Printer
A multi-functional printer for shipping, product, barcode and myriad other labels, the Arkscan 2054A is capable of fulfilling all your eBay label printing needs in one machine. It is able to print a maximum of 0.75 x 4.25 inches in width, and a maximum of 90 inches in length, you won’t be refilling paper or reaching for a wide format printer any time soon. It also supports both roll paper loaded inside the printer, and fanfold paper loaded from the back. The printing speed is 5 inches per second (enough to print one label). Plus, the machine comes with free software included for creating your own custom labels: with the BarTender UltraLite Label Design software tool, you can create warehouse-compatible labels that contain the most frequently used label-design print features, including text, graphics barcodes, and serial numbers. Label papers supported include Arkscan’s own brand, Zebra and Dymo.
Pros
- Wide variety of sizes
- Custom label software included
- Fast printing speed
Cons
- Software only works on Windows
- Doesn’t support generic labels
Verdict
The Arkscan 2054A Shipping Label Printer is the most versatile on our list, capable of producing professional-looking labels in the largest variety of sizes and formats. The included BarTender UltraLite Label Design software tool also takes out some effort, however it is only compatible with Windows machines. Considering that the machine connects with any software, this could easily lead to disappointment if you weren’t aware of this on purchase.
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BESTEASY Direct Thermal Printer
The BESTEASY Direct Thermal Printer is extremely effective at printing large volumes of shipping labels. It prints sizes from 1.96 inches to 4.25 inches wide with no restriction on height, ideal for 4 x 6 shipping labels, 4 x 6 fanfold labels, warehouse labels, barcode labels and bulk shipping or mailing labels. Most machines can only print on a 2.3 inch roll, setting the BESTEASY apart from other printers in the field. It prints at 150 mm/s, producing one 4 x 6 label per second. Through industrial grade heat dissipation, it offers continuous printing in batches with reliable performance for up to 12 hours straight. The machine is compatible with all Windows operating systems, but not Mac. No toners, inks or ribbons make this a convenient choice for printing at scale.
Pros
- Supports range of label sizes
- Fast printing speed
- 12 hours continuous printing
Cons
- Incompatible with Macs
Verdict
Whereas other printers struggle to print for more than half an hour without overheating, the BESTEASY Direct Thermal Printer can print for 12 hours continuously without breaks. If you have an eBay business that sells in extremely high volume, that impressive statistic means this machine is more than capable of handling whatever requirements you throw at it.
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ROLLO Shipping Label Printer Commercial Grade
If you have a larger eBay business and are focussed on features that’ll make your life easier, the ROLLO Shipping Label Printer Commercial Grade is a great choice. It works with any thermal direct label paper including free UPS labels, meaning you won’t be wasting money on non-generic labels. Print speeds reach a fast clip of 1500 mm/s (one label per second), at sizes of 1.57 to 4.1 inches wide with no restriction on height. This is perfect for shipping labels and barcodes. However, the best feature of the ROLLO is its automatic size detector, calibrating the size of designs to fit on whichever paper you input. It also allows you to print direct like a regular printer from Adobe PDF, browsers, MS Word and even selling platforms like eBay.
Pros
- Use any label brand
- Automatic size detector
- Fast print speed
- Connectivity options
Cons
- Print quality can fade
Verdict
The ROLLO Shipping Label Printer Commercial Grade has the widest and best range of unique features out of any thermal printer we surveyed. The automatic size detector is very useful, combining with the support for generic labels to lower your costs and paper wastage. However, we did find that the print quality can suffer, especially when printing at speed.
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MUNBYN Thermal Label Printer
The MUNBYN Thermal Label printer is the cheapest on our list, available for prices as low as half of some of our more expensive options. It prints at a fast speed of 72 labels per minute (more than one per second), and supports any thermal label paper from 1.57 inches to 4.3 inches wide. Setup is easy too – just plug in a USB – plus, the printer will automatically catch and feed any label as soon as it is inserted. Your computer will even recognise it as a regular printer, allowing you to print from any desktop software program. Best of all, heat dissipation technology allows up to 700 sheets of continuous printing, and overheat protection controls will pause printing on overheat, allowing the machine to cool itself down.
Pros
- Great value price
- Heat dissipation and protection
- Supports a range of label sizes
- Simple setup and fast printing
Cons
- Not the best print quality
Verdict
If you’re new to eBay selling and need a basic machine to get the job done, or are just thinking of trying out switching from inkjet to thermal, the MUNBYN Thermal Label printer is an excellent choice. The main concern for most users buying a cheap thermal printer is dangers surrounding heat; the overheat protection controls on this machine reduce this risk considerably.
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Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer
Brother is synonymous with reliability, quality and performance, but not necessarily with value – that’s where the Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer is different. At the lowest price of any printer on our list, the Brother QL-800 still boasts excellent, cost effective results on paper labels for shipping packets and envelopes, as well as barcodes. It has the fastest print speed out of any printer we reviewed too; it is super-fast, printing 93 standard 4×6 address labels per minute. Despite the lightning speed, it doesn’t produce any drop in quality, consistently outputting at 300 dpi, for clear and precise prints. For comparison, some inkjet printers print at this resolution too. The machine supports only Brother DK easy-peel labels and continuous-length paper and film tapes, however. Although an auto-cutter does mean you can create any custom length label, up to 3 feet!
Pros
- Super fast printing speed
- Great value price
- Large range of label sizes
- Auto-cutter function
- High resolution for clear prints
Cons
- Only supports Brother DK labels
Verdict
The Brother QL-800 High-Speed Professional Label Printer is our number one choice for the overall best thermal printer for eBay. Capable of printing any size of label, shipping and barcodes, at a hugely impressive speed and dpi puts this model a cut above the rest. The reliance on Brother branded labels could push up prices; however, the low cost of the machine itself more than makes up for this.
