It is important to remember that a $10 whiskey bottle costs about the same to ship as a $1,000 whiskey bottle. The reason is simple. We use the same materials to pack both bottles. Both bottles weigh about the same. The charge for an “Adult Signature Required” is $3.00 for each (required for insurance purposes). Assuming that they’re going to the same destination, the shipping cost is the same. The only difference in shipping cost is the insurance, which in this case adds up to $3.35.
Here’s an example. Let’s say that each of the above bottles is being shipped from our office in Sacramento to Gorham, Maine. We would ship each via Federal Express Ground, as we do with all bottle shipments east of the western states unless otherwise requested. We choose Ground service because the package arrives safely and in good time for the price and the package has less chance of being damaged than other companies and methods we’ve tried over the last 20 years or so. Let’s say each package, after wrapping and boxing, ends up weighing 4 pounds. The estimated shipping costs would be as follows:
- Packing materials (we use only NEW boxes and packing materials for best protection)
- Federal Express Ground shipping charges
- Federal Express “Adult Signature Required” (proof that it arrived, protects us and the customer)
- Insurance (the only difference…. $0 for the $10 bottle and $2.00 for the $1,000 bottle)
Total cost for each of the two shipments:
- $12.00 for the $10 bottle
- $14.00 for the $1,000 bottle
The buyer of the $10 bottle actually will pay more for the shipping, in this example, than for the bottle. For the $1,000 bottle buyer, the shipping cost is only about 1.4% of the cost of the bottle. So, when buying a bottle, please be aware that the shipping charges are completely unrelated to the value of the bottle(s) bought.
We ship bottles to western states via Federal Express Ground, which is quite a bit less expensive and arrives in about the same time as air. If you don’t live in a western state, and you want to receive your bottles faster, we are more than happy to ship them 2nd Day Air or even Overnight. We use a private insurance company, Collectibles Insurance to insure our bottles for one important reason; if a bottle breaks they will pay for it where we’ve found that FedEx and UPS either don’t cover certain shipments or simply can take forever to process a claim. We have a few nightmare stories about shipping and with Collectibles Ins. we know that if a problem arises they will take it seriously and take the necessary steps to insure a speedy payment. They also make sure any bottle sent to us, at a bottle show or being transported are covered against breakage. Try that with Fed Ex or UPS.
One important thing to know is that We Don’t Make a Dime on Shipping. Sometime if you are curious or wondering what we charge you is in line with what our costs, look at what you paid and look at what it really costs. We can assure you that when you add up the cost of shipping, cost of materials, insurance and handling, the amount we charge you will be less than what we pay. We do this because just like you, we get frustrated paying exorbitant amounts for shipping when it’s pretty obvious it can’t cost that much. Making money on shipping is for vitamin dealers and low cost items ordered online. The security of the shipment is foremost on our minds and if we charged you what it really costs us some of the time, you’d be unhappy and we might lose a customer. A few bucks of prevention is worth a boatload worth of peace of mind to us.
Of course, as you add more bottles to a shipment, the shipping charges rise because of the increased weight and size. Also, when packages are transported via air, boxes beyond a certain size are charged substantially more.
After an auction closes, we must estimate the shipping costs in order to generate invoices. Because of our experience in this area, we are usually quite accurate with our estimates.
We put extra effort and care into our packing and shipping. This attention to detail has paid off over the years with thousands of successful shipments.
We hope that you have found this information useful. By all means, if you have any problems with shipping (financial or otherwise), please contact us and we will work with you to resolve them.