Introduction
A fellow re-seller told me about this heat gun about a month ago. Link here (yes it’s a referral link.) He said it ‘changed his life.’ I kid you not. Because he was so overdramatic, I went ahead and bought it. When I got it in, I thought it was a glorified hair dryer, which it is. I used it one time and put it back in its box.
FBA Process Flow
My wife has also been helping me pack up boxes lately (it’s actually sorta fun to her.) Anyway, she HATES peeling off stickers for some reason. We divide up the work where I do all the computer stuff and she unboxes, tears down boxes, labels items, and pack items. I then weigh the item if it’s a heavy box. If it’s a small box, she’ll put it on the 25lb scale. She’ll then give me measurements, and now she’s slowly beginning to tape up the boxes. Then I have to peel off the stickers off the boxes so she can then put the FBA labels on to the box. Clearly, this is wasted time. Then one day, while she had the day off, I asked her to help me unbox some items and remove the Kohl’s price tags on them. She at first tried the Scotty peelers which I had also bought, but it wouldn’t come off cleanly. Then I come home and what do you know… all the labels were off. I asked her how she did it, and she said, “I used the heat gun!”
Then last night, I was trying to remove the bix UPS shipping label and sure enough, after half an inch, it was beginning to tear already. I fired up the heat gun and really, all it takes is about 5-10 seconds on the LOW SETTING. When you see burnt marks on the label, you know you’re good to go (probably overdone to be honest.) Sure enough, I use the Scotty peeler to grab a corner and BOOM! The entire label slides off like butter!
Conclusion
I’m not sure what else I can use this heat gun on, but man, it sure has made peeling off stickers a breeze. If you’re a big time re-seller (I’m looking at you Oren,) do yourself a favor and get one of these. I’ll highlight more items I’ve been buying of late to help me streamline the packing and shipping of items in another post.
Dont use the paint removing heat guns like that. Look on Amazon for low heat gun and you will never burn your fingers or the box again! The smaller guns are more pinpoint as well, giving you greater control.
For those that already have a heat gun and struggle. Most box labels are heat sensive. If you have some patience, let the label turn solid black (or just any bar code or address you want to hide) takes some practice, but no residue to worry about (and you never feel like you need a third hand.)
Dave, I’ve been using it now for months and so far I haven’t burnt any fingers or boxes. Mostly because I use the gun on the low heat setting.
is the heat gun worth it? I can only imagine using it if I dont want to ruin the box, does the heat gun leave alot of glue residue? Usually I end up cutting the entire label out if I dont need the box, beats the heck out of peeling lol
It’s really up to you. I like it because 1) it’s much easier to peel off. There is minimal residue glue, but I usually will slap another label it, which leads into 2) I read that some scanners dont like a UPC bar code over another UPC bar code, so this makes it a lot easier. As for the residue glue, I just leave it as is. I’d rather have residue glue than a blank space (from cutitng it out.) But really up to you; try a hair dryer for a while and you can then decide.
I actually like packing too…it’s like you’re packing presents. 😉 I just don’t like sourcing and waiting for the sales and money to come in. :