I’ve saved some 1-3-6 bottle boxes. Almost all of them have the “this package contains alcohol and must be signed for” sticker.
I want to send some friends and clients wine.
Can I use these boxes? Are those stickers ok? How do you ship? Will all of USPS, Fedex and UPS ship wine?
Thanks for the tips.
Peel the sticker off ya buggaaaaaaaa
Let the fun begin!!!
Hypothetically, if I were to do such a thing, which would be wrong, and therefore it would never be something I would ever do, I would take the filled smaller boxes with the styro etc, tape them up, and put them, sealed, into a larger box (usually, hypothetically, a banker’s box) wrapped in newspaper to keep the box inside from moving around.
Hypothetically.
Thank you Neal.
Peeling the stickers are a pain, but can be done. I’ve reused boxes to send non-wine gifts to relatives around xmas; and fedex, USPS, and UPS have never questioned it.
What about wrapping the box in brown paper and taping tight?
You can just black duct tape and just tape over the labels, or just remove them best you can and then tape over to cover the whole thing. Inside is always stryo. I always ship via FedEx this way . . . always been fine.
IF, I were to do this and I would not since it is illegal, I would also bubble or tissue wrap each bottle in the styro to keep it from wiggling/squeaking.
Frankly, I am very impressed by how law-abiding everyone is here…
Hypothetically.
First, it is against the law to ship any alcohol via the USPS.
Second, it is against FedX and UPS policy (not law) to ship wine between private individuals. A licensed shipper must be on one end or the other of the shipment. They can and will either refuse to accept the package, confiscate the wine mid shipment, and will not necessarily return the package. If the package is lost or damaged, they will not reimburse you, so don’t waste money on insurance.
My advice would be to not ship anything worth more than you can afford to lose. If possible, use your favorite local wine shop or winery to ship for you.
I only do this to mail my homemade special BBQ sauce
Cross out “alcohol” on the label and hand write “olive oil” or “lube”…depending on the friend you’re hypothetically shipping to.
Put the new shipping label over the one you want to hide. I second the suggestion of wrapping the bottles with bubble wrap so they fit snugly in the styro. I would even hypothetically put a thin sheet of newspaoer between the styro and the box to prevent other sqeaking.
I would (hypothetically) put the box with the wine inside another, larger box because the 1, 3, 6, 12 packs for wine are recognizable as such, so even if the label were pulled/obscured, a Fed Ex/UPS employee might give the package special scrutiny. If that wine box were placed inside another box of less typical dimensions, one might hypothetically be less likely to arouse suspicion. My guess anyway.
I have used a sharpie on the stickers, peeled them off (pain), and covered them with Orange Duct tape (any color will do). Also, when possible I just put the new shipper over the offensive sticker.
I can see Neal’s idea working for 1 and 3 bottle shippers, maybe 6, but not 12.
Also, when I drop these off (usually at a FedEx - either inside an office depot or what used to be FedEx/Kinko’s), about half the time I drop and run - don’t stick around for questions. But when do I stick around, I’ve never been asked anything controversial - and that is probably 20+ shipments. Always makes me nervous though.
Never used it on a 12-pack.
Or anything else, right?
Guilty as charged.
Hypothetically.
Agree, and I suggest always freezing the bottles for a few days to ensure they arrive nice and cool.
The other thing about the wine shippers is that they very often don’t have stickers, but instead have the alcohol notice printed on the box. I’ve painted over them before, to make a nice orange box, but as others have suggested, the boxes are pretty obvious.
So you can do as suggested, or just disregard the wine box and wrap the wine with bubble wrap (use the big bubbles) and put it into completely different boxes from Home Depot or Target or wherever. Get the heavy duty boxes - they cost about fifty cents or a buck more but price is no obstacle when you’re satisfied with nothing less than the best.
The boxes may be x-rayed (is that how you spell it?) so if you’re worried about damage to the terroir signature of the wine, you can wrap the bottles with lead, but that increases the weight of the package. So you can say that the package contains juice samples which are perishable, and that it’s been sealed completely. Or say nothing.