custom rubber stamp for putting logo on boxes, or other way to print logo on boxes

I'm looking at printing a 3" one color logo onto white cardboard literature mailer boxes.

Is a custom rubber stamp the cheapest/easiest way to do quantities of 200 economically? If so, what's the best place to have a custom rubber stamp made for this?

Is there an easier/better way to print these myself without doing a large quantity?

 

You could look into purchasing labels (either paper or vinyl).
A stamp just doesn't seem practical, the imprint often looks poor and inconsistent.

Printing on the boxes themselves would be terribly expensive no matter how you look at it.

 

Thanks very much for the reply Michael.

Yea, I haven't used rubber stamps for 20 years. I thought it might work. And I figured to create them now via computer is probably much easier and more precise. I'm also not sure about the consistency of the stamping action with a large stamp. Or whether I'd end up with the logo too heavily inked on one side half of the time. Or what kind of detail can be produced in a custom stamp without getting ink blot areas when stamping a box.

Alternately, I've seen a "screen print boxes yourself" kit with some youtube videos, but honestly it looked pretty labor intensive and slow and like the squeegee action would be very prone to wasting boxes. I think I'd be better off with a stamp than trying to hand screen print the box... (no experience with either though... yet...)

Originally I wanted to get literature mailer boxes in a neat color and if I had, I think sticker logos would have looked good with a complimentary color background on the label. But I could only find economical boxes in white or kraft. So I went with white and have the first 250 boxes on the way. If I go with printed stickers I'll have to figure out how to design it so it doesn't look "stuck on" (sorry for the pun.) I fear a white background sticker on a white box might look tacky. Thinking out loud, maybe a really large sticker that goes around an edge of the box or somehow is integrated into the sealing of the box would be interesting. Or something unique enough that it looks intentional (not sure what that is... maybe metallic, but I think that's not quite right..)

I suppose if stamping is a fool's mission, I should get on my creative hat and start thinking what would look nice as a classy "emblem" - clear stickers with a border (maybe thinking of it like "spot uv" on a budget ), or printing an ivory background to contrast the box, or...

 

Clear polypropylene stickers may be a good bet.

Also die/kiss-cut labels are more affordable these days. A stylish oval or contour cut sticker could be very appealing.
It could be cost effective to print a one color label on the boxes assuming you use one kind of box. Perhaps you could order a few thousand boxes IF you will eventually use them. The cost up front may seem more than you may want to shell out, but in the end (or after not order boxes for a few months) you should see a savings (of both time and money)