[kotaKat]

> But I bought this Polono label printer off Amazon for ~$140, which was a steal compared to the Zebra models that start around $500.

Secret: Go to Alibaba and find suppliers that will sell you a Zebra ZP888 for around ~$125/unit. They're a Chinese-market version of the venerable LP2844, a workhorse in the shipping industry for over two decades now, and they're brand new.

Edit: Also forgot: If you use a service like Shippo (https://goshippo.com/), you can get an API that'll dump ZPL shipping labels out. Chain your warehouse system to Shippo for the label, then chain the ZPL out to the script and out to the printer.