American Price Mark FAQs

This is a very common question and there is no simple way to really answer this question. Pricing guns are used for more than just pricing, coding, expiration dates, inventory tracking and date/time stamp so each situation may have multiple solutions. Pricing guns are used in many different situations as well including, manufacturing, warehouses, retail establishments, greenhouses, and cold storage and food service locations. American Price Mark Supplies represents all of the quality price gun manufacturers so we can recommend the best price gun for your application based on the information you provide. Please contact our friendly customer service representatives by phone 800-537-5310 or email info@americanpricemark.com and we will guide you through the selection process.
Here is a general overview of the pricing gun brands and what they are primarily used for. As you will see many of the brands overlap in function and capabilities.

Monarch Pricing Guns come in multiple models and band configurations for each model. This means you can have different pricing gun models within the same model line using the same pricing labels, yet printing completely different things. Many Monarch pricing guns have the ability to print time, date and units of measurement and are designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control and item numbering. Monarch pricing guns are made in the USA and are known for their durability and ease of use.

Garvey Pricing Guns come in multiple models and band configurations for each model. This means you can have different pricing gun models within the same model line using the same pricing labels, yet printing completely different things. Many Garvey pricing guns have the ability to print time, date and units of measurement and are designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control and item numbering. Garvey recently introduced a completely redesigned  G Series with ergonomic handle design, rubberized grip, reinforced ABS body with steel components and reliable self aligning label feed mechanism that prevents jamming. Garvey pricing guns are known for ease of loading and economical price point.

Contact Pricing Guns are an industry innovator with the original drop in loading and jam free design. Contact is known for easy to operate labeling tools. You will appreciate the reliability and durability of these quality hand labelers. One and two line price guns designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering.

XL Pro Pricing Guns have great standard and custom printing bands options including full or half alpha numeric band options. Promotional (large) print, consecutive numbering (single, double or repeat print) are available with the XL Pro price guns. One and two line XL Pro pricing guns are designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more.

X-Mark Pricing Guns compete directly with the XL Pro price gun line and have a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty, the longest in the industry. Besides the great warranty, X-Mark pricing guns also have great standard and custom printing bands options including full or half alpha numeric band options designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more.

Towa Pricing Guns are known for their durability. Towa pricing guns are the only guns on the market that made of metal. Their tough quality construction and smooth operating action make them the king for high volume usage. Towa pricing guns come in 3 different models which makes it less harrowing to find the pricing gun right for you. 

Sato Pricing Guns are fully customizable. Sato pricing guns can print, pretty much anything you choose and are small compact and easy to use and store.
 
Meto Pricing Guns are predominantly used for eye catching promotional labeling. Meto pricing guns are known for their wavy edged price labels and the way they help impulse buyers see prices. Meto pricing guns print in large and clear bold digits to make prices very visible from far away. 

The advantages of different pricing guns are vast. Price is probably one of the most important for many small business owners, while reliability and speed may be the thing to look for if you are going to be pricing and labeling massive quantities of inventory and products.
Other advantages of different pricing guns may be the amount of characters that a particular price gun can print, or the number of lines the guns have the ability to print. If you need alpha numeric bands some pricing guns offer these as stock bands while others may charge for customization. Some price marking guns have the ability to print time and date stamps, while others can print prices with the most used measurements. 
The following are the brands of pricing guns we offer and their different advantages:
Monarch pricing guns are the industry leader; Monarch has been on the market for over 45 years and makes some of the easiest to use pricing guns. Monarch pricing guns are also very economical and are available in one, two or three line models designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more!
Garvey pricing gunswere introduced to the market over 45 years ago, today Garvey offers the widest range of labelers on the market. From entry level, price conscious Freedom Series to the ergonomic handle design of the G Series with rubberized grip, reinforced ABS body with steel components and reliable self aligning label feed mechanism that prevents jamming. Garvey labelers are designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more!
Contact pricing guns are an industry innovator with the original drop in loading and jam free design. Contact is known for easy to operate labeling tools. You will appreciate the reliability and durability of these quality hand labelers. One and two line price guns designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more!
XL Pro pricing guns all come with a 2 year manufacturer’s warranty, that warranty includes free price gun repair. Besides the great warranty XL Pro pricing guns are some of the easiest on the market to load price labels into. XL Pro pricing guns also have great standard and custom printing bands including full or half alpha numeric band options. XL Pro also makes the only pricing gun on the market that can print 14 characters. XL Pro pricing guns are designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more!.
X-Mark pricing guns compete directly with the XL Pro price guns and have a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty, that warranty includes free price gun repair. Besides the great warranty X-Mark pricing guns are some of the easiest on the market to load price labels into. X-Mark pricing guns also have great standard and custom printing bands including full or half alpha numeric band options designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more!.
Sato pricing guns are extremely customizable. All Sato pricing guns come with a 2 year warranty. Sato pricing guns can be customized with alpha and numeric bands, half alpha, full alpha - pretty much anyway you want. Sato pricing guns are designed for price marking, date coding, QC labeling, inventory control, item numbering and more!.
Towa pricing guns are made for tough high volume price marking or inventory coding jobs. Towa pricing guns have a unique look in that they are made mostly of metal, they are tough, lightweight and long lasting. Towa Pricing guns only come in 3 different models making the choosing process a little less harrowing.
Meto pricing guns are known for their uniquely shaped pricing labels. The Meto pricing labels are wavy edged and eye catching, making them a great choice for retailers trying different promotions. Meto pricing guns are also known for their bold and clear printing.

Determining which price label you need depends on a several factors. If you have the pricing gun already, just read the number off the side of the pricing gun and that is the model of price label you will use. From the model number of the pricing gun we can tell if the price gun you are using takes a one, two or three line price label. Once you have determined what price marking gun you have, the rest is depends on what you will be using the label for.

Are you using the price label to mark sale prices, time and date stamps, inventory coding, expiration dates or are you printing alpha or numeric digits on the price label.

Pricing labels can be customized in many different ways. Removable adhesives to make removal of the price label from products easy and clean. Security slits that make the price label tamper proof are standard. A variety of label colors and imprint colors are available at no or at very minimal extra charge.

It is also very common to personalize pricing labels with your company name, logo, phone number or website. This is usually done to remind customers where they purchased the product and is used for customer retention.

Price marking labels come packaged in different quantities based on different label sizes. Please refer to each label for specific quantity packaging. Boxes of price labels are sometimes called sleeves or packages, rolls of price labels are used to refill the actual pricing gun. One ink roller for your pricing gun is usually included with each price label order unless otherwise specified.

The more price labels you buy the cheaper they are. We offer the most competitive prices in the industry with wholesale prices for non bulk orders.

Two line pricing labels are very versatile and contain many advantages over one and three line pricing labels. The top line of the price label is usually used to code or date items. The amount of characters printed on the top line varies from 5-14 digits. The XL Pro 37-47 price marking gun has the ability to print 14 digits on the top line of the price label which is the most of any pricing gun

The top line of the price label can also be used for date or time coding as well as expiration dates. The bottom line of the price label, depending on the usage of the top line is usually used for pricing.

Two line pricing labels are most popular when used for sale price and price comparisons. The biggest advantage of two line pricing labels is the ability to print the sale price and regular price on the same label. Printing of the competitor’s price and “our” price are also common ways to utilize the versatility of the two line pricing label.

The two line pricing label can also feature your stores or companies name in the middle of the label between the two lines. Logos and phone numbers can also be preprinted in the middle of the two line price label, making it very popular for companies trying to gain brand recognition and customer retention by allowing customers to remember where the product was purchased.

The first question to ask is whether or not the price labels will be applied to products that are already frozen. Synthetic price labels are recommended for usage on products already frozen. If the pricing or inventory label will be applied to a dry product before freezing, regular stock labels with the correct adhesive can be used.

The following is a list of the pricing guns that feature the ability to print time, date or both. As always most of the pricing guns we sell can have their printing bands customized to include time or date.

X-Mark date and time pricing guns – 5 year warranty

X-Mark TXM 22Dater pricing gun which has the ability to print both time and date. The X-Mark TXM 22Dater is a one line pricing gun that can print 8 characters on one line – month band in first position, large numbers in second & third positions and AM/PM band in last position.
 
XL Pro date and time pricing guns – 2 year warranty

XL Pro 22V pricing gun which has the ability to print both time and date. This XL Pro 22V is a one line pricing gun that can print 8 characters on one line – month band in first position, large numbers in second & third positions and AM/PM band in last position..

Monarch date and time pricing guns

The 1110-06 is a one line pricing gun which prints 8 digits including month and year.
Monarch also makes the 1131-02 pricing gun which prints 8 digits on one line, it can print both time and date.
The 1135-02 pricing gun can print 6 digits on each line with a date stamping ability on the top line.
The 1136-02 is a two line pricing gun which prints two lines with 8 digits on each line; this pricing gun can print just date.
The 1155-03 is a two line pricing gun which can print 12 digits on each line including dates.
The 1158-02 is a three line pricing gun which can print 12 digits on each line including time.

Many other pricing guns feature a back slash which may be used for dating as well - the pricing guns listed above have specific bands for time or dates.

In order to mark 2 prices on a product label you will need to use a 2 line label, this will allow you to show regular and sale price on the same label. One line price labels are great for promotional pricing. Three line labels may be used to show two prices and some coding numbers on the price label.
If you want to print was pricing and now pricing the Garvey 25-10/7-10701 or the Monarch 1135-02 will allow you to achieve this with less expense plain labels.
If you use a preprinted label with regular price on top line and our price orsale price on bottom line then you have more options. Monarch 1136 & 1155, Garvey 22-66, 22-77, 22-88 & 25-88 and Contact 66.22, 77.22, 22.88 & 88.25 are price guns to consider.

It really depends on how many characters you need for your inventory making needs. For basic inventory marking with one line we usually recommend the Contact 6.22, 7.22 or 8.22 (6-8 characters). The Contact price guns are dependable and easy to load label guns at an economical price point. One of the best on the market is the Monarch 1131 pricing gun which, prints 8 digits and is very easy to load and use. Its basic design and durable construction make the Monarch 1131 pricing gun ideal for basic one line inventory marking.

For a two line basic inventory marking we would recommend the X-Mark TXM 25-1010 or XL Pro 25EE pricing gun. The X-Mark TXM 25-1010 or XL Pro 25EE pricing guns can print two lines of ten characters each. All X-Mark pricing guns come with 5 year manufacturer’s warranty and XL Pro pricing guns come with a 2 year manufacturer’s warranty which includes full gun repair.

Yes we do print custom price marking labels. We can customize label color, and imprint color. We can also print your companies name, logo or message on price labels. Phone numbers, email addresses and websites are also commonly printed on pricing labels. Customizing pricing labels gives you an edge when trying to retain customers; a customer can look on the label and see where they bought the product long after the sale.

Pricing gun model numbers are sometimes molded into the side of the gun or have a sticker on the side of the gun. If the number is not there, try looking near the dial window above the printing bands.

All price marking labels, unless specifically noted come with security slits to allow for easy removal and at the same time to prevent price switching due to the fact that upon removal the labels will split apart.

To remove a price marking label without damaging your products surface, make sure to use a plastic scraper. We sell scrapers for this purpose, but any plastic device with a good edge will do. Try using a plastic knife, and wetting the label for easier removal.

If you know that you will be removing pricing labels from products often, specify this when ordering because removable adhesives are available for most pricing labels.

We do repair price marking guns, however it is usually more cost effective to replace the pricing gun. Most hand labelers / pricing guns come with a 1 year warranty which includes free price gun repair. The XL Pro has a 2 year and the X-Mark price guns come with a 5 year warranty, which is the best in the price marking industry. If you bought the price gun from American Price Mark Supplies and the gun is not functioning correctly, call our customer service at 800-537-5310, we can usually fix or replace the price gun for a nominal charge.
 

We would not recommend taking the pricing gun apart as there are many small parts that are impossible to put back together without knowledge of price marking gun mechanics.

First remove any labels you may have in the price gun, turn it upside down so that any loose labels may fall out. Work the action a few times and make sure there are no price labels stuck in the rear of the gun that spits out the used price label back paper.

If that does not work, there a few steps you can try to diagnose the problem with your price gun jamming. Using a small file, (some pricing guns come with one for this purpose) to try and see if any labels are caught in the opening is one thing you can do.

We would also recommend trying to lubricate the moving parts of the price gun. We do offer gun repair and usually price gun jams can be taken care of quite quickly. Most pricing guns come with a 1 year warranty which includes free price gun repair during that period. XL Pro price guns have a 2 year warranty and X-Mark pricing guns come with a 5 year warranty and the repair is free during that time.

We have customers that own greenhouses and garden stores which require products to be placed in high humidity environments. We recommend using synthetic pricing labels if marking products that will be located in high humidity environments.