Office Supplies

All the supplies I’ve bought for sending products into Amazon safely so customer satisfaction is high and complaints are kept to a minimum.

Thermal Printer

Dymo LabelWriter 450
I’ve been using this little workhorse thermal printer for years to print Amazon’s FNSKU labels. It’s only jammed twice, maybe because I was using off-brand labels. The second time I had to fix it took a lot longer since I was in another room and kept trying to print dozens of labels before I went to retrieve them. If you mess up your printer by not using Dymo’s own labels and can’t fix it yourself, you can apparently void the warranty. With a used LabelWriter 450, though, there’s no warranty to void, so buy the labels you like and don’t worry.

I was going to suggest this LabelWriter 550 bundle since it’s a newer model and then I read that it’s “locked down,” meaning you can only use Dymo labels. The 550 is cheaper but the labels are more expensive. It is, of course, your choice.

Polybags

You’re going to need various sizes of polybags and a heck of a lot of them. I suggest getting a variety pack at first if you think you’ll be offering items ranging in size from Blu-rays to winter coats and larger. I always go with self-seal and not resealable, because then your package is nice and secure. You just have to be careful you don’t stick it to itself before you’ve got the product in the bag. 😉

Spartan Industrial Combo Pack (400 count)
If you’re just starting out, you can get a variety pack of 100 each of 6×9″, 8×10″, 9×12″, and 11×14″ polybags.

Spartan Industrial 6×9″ (1000 count)
The best bags at the best price if you’re selling smaller items, like those aforementioned Blu-rays, DVDs, video games, CDs, jewlery, et cetera.

Spartan Industrial 9×12″ (200 count)

Spartan Industrial 12×15″ (200 count)

Boxes

U-Haul Moving Boxes
The most affordable boxes for shipping I’ve found are the small, medium, large, and extra large moving boxes at U-Haul. They are a bit flimsy but cost-effective, and you can always use extra tape. There are also heavy-duty options. You can also find these at Amazon, but they’re two to three times as expensive that way.

Home Depot Boxes
These are comparable to U-Haul, but usually slightly more expensive. They also have heavy-duty boxes that I really like. While you can find some U-Haul boxes on Amazon, I don’t see Home Depot boxes there.

Tape

Business Source Transparent Glossy (12 count)
A great all-around Scotch-type (ie. pressure sensitive) tape. I use this for taping polybags that extend three inches or more beyond the item in the bag. I’ve used a lot of it. A lot.

OWLKELA Transparent Glossy (12 count)
The tape I bought most recently, either because the Business Source tape was more expensive at the time or it was out of stock. This is also a great choice.

Shrink Wrap

Shrink Wrap on Amazon
I haven’t bought this stuff in a while. I didn’t need it as much as I thought I would. I kept having to pivot my business and ended up selling different products that didn’t need to be shrink-wrapped. I couldn’t find the rolls I used in my purchase history, so this is a link to all the shrink wrap search results on Amazon. It also includes stretch wrap in the results, which is another way of keeping products together (great for wrapping pallets) and is similar to plastic wrap, just thicker, stretchier, and more durable.

Purple Q Crafts Shrink Wrap Basket Bags For Gift Baskets Clear cellophane PVC Shrink Bags 24″X 30″ (5 Pack)
Perfect for wrapping up gift baskets if you’re bundling your own products. Grab a gift basket, neatly arrange your items, place the basket in this large bag, tie a bow, and shrink with a blow dryer or heat gun to secure. Better than carelessly throwing a bunch of loose items in a resealable bag.

Bubble Wrap

Note: Perforations on cheap bubble wrap are usually not very good, so have a pair of scissors handy. For the price, it’s worth the slight frustration, since bubble wrap can add up to a big expense that you can’t recoup easily if you sell low cost items.

Fresh Farm LLC Bubble Cushioning Wrap – 700ft²
This is the lowest cost small bubble (3/16″) wrap I’ve used. At 700 square feet, a pretty steady price even during the pandemic, and a lot of great reviews, you can’t really go wrong with this brand.

American Bubble Boy Bubble Wrap – 700ft²
I used them once or twice and I don’t remember anything specific about why I changed to a different brand. Likely just the price as this is more expensive than Fresh Farm.

Sealing

Impulse Sealer
Vital if you want to seal up your non self-sealing polybags or if you’re sealing shrink wrap before shrinking it.

Titan Vaper 22400 12.5A 120-Volt Heat Gun
For shrinking that shrink wrap! Fun to watch it work, but be careful, these things are hot, hot, hot!

Sourcing Tools

Online and Retail Arbitrage

Replen Catcher
Excellent and relatively inexpensive software by Raiken Profit from YouTube. Replen Catcher finds the latest deals on DVDs, books, toys, and more at eBay that you can then flip on Amazon. There are seven tiers, the cheapest being Lite at $29.99 per month, which tracks 100 leads and replens and live stream sources 1.5 million products. Don’t sleep on this one. Take advantage of the 14-day free trial and choose a monthly or annual plan afterwards if you love it like I do.

FlipMine
Similar to Replen Catcher and more expensive than their cheapest plan. There seems to be only one plan and no annual subscription option. FlipMine comes with a 7-day free trial, so you can decide which sourcing tool is better for you.

Keepa
See the historical pricing data and sales rank for any item available on Amazon with Keepa. Extremely important information for deciding what products to buy for your inventory so that you don’t take a bath in this business and have the best chance of success.

SellerAmp
For a reasonable monthly price that rivals Keepa, the SellerAmp Chrome extension shows your eligibility to sell a product, BSR, ROI and more all on the listing page. Handily, it also has basic Keepa charts.

Wholesale and Private Label

Jungle Scout

Prep Services

Ohio FBA Prep and Ship
Professional, friendly, and cost-effective. There are two prep services I’ve used because of their incredible low prices, which did not affect the service I received. Ohio Prep also has multiple discount tiers if you do high volumes with them.

FBA Prep 4U
I used them a few times. They were very responsive when I had a problem. Customer support is excellent and so are the prices.