Best place to purchase individual bar codes?

Do your research. I've heard nightmare stories about buying single bar codes.

I bought a block of 100. It wasn't cheap. I've used 7.

That said, I renew the lease on them, and thus I am in control of my destiny.

It's kind of important since I have X# of cases of sauce with those bar codes on them.

It would really suck if say, the place I bought my bar code from "forgot" to pay to renew the lease & my barcodes expired while still printed on my labels.

So yeah - I paid for the whole block. I can create bar codes as needed and no one can ever pull the rug out from under me.

Remember: barcodes are leased, not owned.

The most legit barcodes are found here: http://www.gs1us.org/

adoboloco said:

The most legit barcodes are found here: http://www.gs1us.org/

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Yep - that's where I bought mine. 

So, I secured my barcodes....Didn't go through gs1us.org.....One of my hot sauce mentors got his string before all these new laws and regulations went into affect, and was able to sell me some, without me having to renew em each year....Yay, I hope..
 
Anyways, follow up question...
 
Do the barcodes need to be placed over a plain flat background, or are they OK to place over my label background which has the distressed lines throughout? I assume that bar code readers are smart enough (these days) to pick up what they need to, regardless of any other potential distractions on the label....
 
Also, in regards of precious space, does the bar code need to be used exactly as sent? Meaning...let's say the bar code is 1 inch horizontal and 3/4 inch vertical....can i make it 1 x .5 ??  it'd make it shorter....the black lines would not be affected from being read.....i've seen it done plenty of times....just looking to minimize the distraction of a BC
 
gratzi.

Wait, what?

I thought everyone had to renew every year.

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce said:

Wait, what?

I thought everyone had to renew every year.

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You might be 110% correct, if I didn't understood correctly...
 
From what I understood and took from the brief convo I had before purchasing....Before a few years ago, people could buy flat out their own barcode and it was theirs....Then a few years ago, something/whatever was changed, and now people don't technically own their barcodes, they rent em year to year....
 
Again, maybe I didn't understand properly....All I know, is that I bought 15 BC's and I have bene told I won't have to pay for anything regarding these 15 again....
 
*fingers crossed*

Now you don't have to buy 100 bar codes at a time you can buy as little as 10 if that's what you need. 

Having done this last week, here's what I understand-
 
Nowadays, bar codes are leased, and they can be gotten in lots of 10,100,1000,100,000.  When you first register, you will be assigned a Prefix number that is 6-10 digits long, depending on how many codes you are "purchasing".  BC numbers are 10 digits long.  I registered for 10 numbers so I got a prefix number that is 8 digits long.  When I generated a bar code for the first product, the program on GS1 automatically assigned the last 2 digits and generated a bar code black lines thingy and prefix+2 number.
 
Here's where it gets sticky-
Anyone can look up bar codes using the numbers in the code and find out who "owns" the code.  So when someone looks up the code on Pure Evil it will show that it's registered to A & J Enterprises, LLC.  The problem is, if you are using a 2nd hand number, when someone looks up that number, it will show that it's registered to whoever first purchased the number.  There was references on the GS1 website that some large retailers are now requiring their vendors to "own" their own bar codes.  There is also the risk of someone not paying the renewal fee and then all their bar codes can get re-registered to someone new.  You would then have invalid bar codes and could get into serious trouble for using them.
 
I don't know about the ones GC has which might be grandfathered in or something.
 
 
The GS1 bar code generator program has downloadable codes in 5 different sizes and even has the middle size, which is the most common size, formated for an Avery label you can print it straight off the website to your printer.  I'm due to get more salsa labels printed so I'm going to generate a bar code for the salsa, download the smallest size version and have the printer put it on the label. 
 
It was $250 to register and $50/year from now until eternity~~~~  
 
GC- you may have already found this out, but from what I've read and seen, the codes have to be on a white background.  Every one I've see on colored labels has a small white box with the BC in it.     

Thanks Ann.
 
I will take that all into consideration.
 
I bought 50 barcodes from a hot sauce friend/peer who was grandfathered in and owns the codes so I won't be subject to renewing them year after year, thank god. His company is booming, so I don't have any fears of him disappearing or going out of business any time soon. Obviously, anything can change at any time, and I will always keep that in the back of my mind and under consideration.
 
The addition of bar codes to my labels is a process that came a bit sooner than I had thought would have to happen. I have always tried to remain modest with growth and expansion of what I am doing and retail was not a factor in my mind for the immediate future. I have about 25-35 different dialogs going with wholesalers, stores, restaraunts, distro's, websites, about carrying my stuff, so it was time to make it happen. For a fact, I know I am not in a financial position to go into any sort of big retail chains and that is fine. Hopefully, those are the types of outlets you had mentioned that require me to own my own codes outright, rather than being a second-hand owner....Time will tell....And if that proves to be the case, then luckily I do small batches, and re-working a label would not be as much of a headache as if I were doing 5000 at a time....
 
I am also in the process of doing a label re-design, and the bar code will be on a plain white background!
 
thank you for your insight....always learning!

as you say, it's always evolving and the learning curve continues. 
 
And as far as the individual BC labels go, you can print them on small labels and hand stick them on the bottles.  I've done TONS of individual labeling for different products over time.  It kinda sucks having to hand label things, but it saves on printing costs. 
 
 
Hopefully this little bit will help others.  It's all good~ 
 

 
SL

salsalady said:

as you say, it's always evolving and the learning curve continues. 
 
And as far as the individual BC labels go, you can print them on small labels and hand stick them on the bottles.  I've done TONS of individual labeling for different products over time.  It kinda sucks having to hand label things, but it saves on printing costs. 
 
 
Hopefully this little bit will help others.  It's all good~ 
 

 
SL

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I've considered doing the print at home bar codes and sticking them on, but the OCD in me won't allow that to happen. LOL. Plus, since I am doing the re-design of the labels anyway, it works into the whole scheme of things!