We buy, consign and sell antique bottles in our online auction - including old whiskey, bitters, sodas, water,
beers, inks, flasks, spirit, medicine, historical, fruit and pickle jars, utility, barber, gin, Dutch onion, nippers and more!
Your Online Connection to the World of Antique Bottles
800-806-7722 Email: [email protected]
2523 J Street Suite 203, Sacramento, CA 95816
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Shipping Charges
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 $2.75 for each. 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 $3.15.
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 UPS 3-Day Select, as we do with all bottle shipments east of the western states. We choose this 3-day service because the package arrives faster for the customer (shipped by air) and has less chance of being damaged than during a long truck trip (if sent Ground). 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)
- UPS 3-Day Select shipping charges
- UPS "Adult Signature Required" (proof that it arrived, protects us and the customer)
- Insurance (the only difference.... $0 for the $10 bottle and $3.15 for the $1,000 bottle)
Total cost for each of the two shipments:
$18.80 for the $10 bottle $21.25 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 2% 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 UPS Ground, which is quite a bit less expensive. If you don't live in a western state, and the shipping charges would be a problem, please contact us and ask that your bottles be shipped Ground. This will save you some money, but will take longer to arrive and be a bit less secure.
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.
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