Which One to Buy: Food Scale or Postage Scale for Shipping?

Let’s keep talking about shipping your handmade products. If you missed it, I recently wrote about the USPS rate increases and how to ship fragile products. Today, I’m tackling another reader question: Should I buy a food scale or a postage scale to use in my Cricut business?

Answer: In general, either will work for shipping products made with your Silhouette Cameo or Cricut. However, there are a few things to watch out for:

1. Look at the weight capacity of the scale. Food scales in general have lower weight capacities compared to postage scales. If you only ship small items this isn’t a big deal, if you ship larger items you’ll likely need a postage scale.
2. If you want to connect your scale to your computer and automatically import the weights from the scale, you will need a postage scale.
3. If you want to use a label printer with your scale, you should buy a postage scale.
4. If you regularly ship large or bulky items, purchase a postage scale with an external display (this style of display is connected on a wire to the machine).

Recommendations for Postage Scales

You can pick up inexpensive scales on Amazon – usually for much cheaper than office stores – many are under $30. I personally own this scale (it’s the one in the large photo below), and I’ve included links to some high rated postage scales at the end of this post.

Have a question you need answered? Feel free to reach out to me on social media, email, or leaving a blog comment. I personally respond to each and every message received.