Anyone see a good reason to use horizontal wine shippers? See them on incoming shipments now and again. As opposed to more commonly used 12 pack shippers were the bottle stands vertical, they take longer to pack / unpack, frequently mess up labels with the back and forth bottle movement during shipping, and 90% of the time, the sides are broken away, not great for reuse. Fail to see the benefit?
They look less like a case of wine than the vertical shippers - that may be important depending on where you live.
Then too, they may cost less depending on your sources.
Best, Jim
They make them to ship 15 bottles which when shipping multiple cases of wine can cut down on cost. Have gotten many of those from PC over the years.
They are skinnier so easier to take to Europe and fit in car to bring wine back home from Europe.
They fit longer,skinnier bottles better so can bring back rieslings, condrieu, etc. as well as normal size bottles.
Slight thread drift, but how fantastic would it be if the USPS came up with a ‘flat rate’ box that fit a few bottles of wine, perhaps a 3-pack?
I hate them (for the reasons you stated), and since I get more than I can ever reuse here at my storage facility, I only keep the 2 piece upright ones, and throw away the lay-down style.
However, their big advantage to the shipper is the ability to use the same interior components to ship 3, 6, 9, 12 or 15 btls simply by using different cardboard outside components. More flexible than having to store separate designs for 2, 4, 6 and 12 btl upright shippers.
The USPS has new flat rate boxes but you’re not allowed to ship wine in them I have the medium boxes and they do fit single bottle, but you have add some additional packing material. (fitted bottle, never shipped) the 9$ shipping price is ideal for x-country shipping. anyone else look at those new USPS shipping boxes in this light?
-dave
I use both stand-up & laydown styro, I put a piece of bubble wrap around the bottle so it doesn’t bounce around, plus when it’s hot and someone has to have their wine it’s sometimes easier to use the laydown styro. I put ice packs on the bottom layer and the bottles on the next level and layer it depending on how many bottles but I also will use standup styro and put ice packs in the additional holes if there is less bottles than the shipper size, I also wrap the bottles in insulated wrap and ship 2nd or next day air. The cost of the packing is more but the protection is worth it.
I like it if I have to store the entire box in my offsite storage. You just shoved it in there and don’t have to put the box on its side.
Dave,
I believe it is a federal crime to ship alcoholic beverages thru USPS.
I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but the cost may be too great to honestly consider it.
Best, Jim
As Jim mentioned it’s illegal and even if it was legal would your really trust USPS with your wine? Not me. I get someone else’s mail at least once a month.
Nick,
Many very wide btls (Champagne, Silly CA Syrah, and others) will not fit into the vertical 12 packs.
We only use the horizontal lay flat boxes.
I thought it probably was illegal , I use Buffalo in Napa to ship wine to my customers, so i never really looked into the USPS.
FYI, the USPS is considering legalizng wine shipments through them. They released some sort of press material about 2 months back.
maybe it’ll happen at the same time amazon opens their wine store and when Mywines comes out? 
Hell will freeze over before my wines.
Do you have a link to that Daniel? Did not find it on a quick search. Doubt it will ever happen, but would be great to have additional competition the size of Fed Ex / UPS? DHL was a colossal failure . . .
Best wine shipper I have really seen is the vertical style, and it had a slight inverted cone at the bottle bottom that held the bottle pretty firm in the center of the shipper compartment (so it does not rattle around, require bubble wrap, etc.) Not sure who makes it, but have seen it. Have never had a bottle not fit in a shipper compartment, but the SQN Incognito was pretty damn snug . . . Any bigger, would probably just put it in a Magnum shipper . . .
Nick
So many btls do not fit into the vertical packs, like all of the Alsatian and German btls for starters.
I cannot find where I saw the USPS thing, but as soon as Ido, I will post the info.
When the transatlantic baggage limit was 70 pounds, you could strap two of the horizontal shippers together with fiber tape and check 20-24 bottles, depending on the bottle weights, for free. So I have a warm spot in my heart for the horizontals.
You should give some BIG NAME New York Retailers a wine shipping and packaging lesson… I refuse to order any wine from the east coast due to shipping/packaging issues.
What issues? East coast retailers use virtually the same stuff as west coast?
In 9 years, I think we have mispacked 3 boxes.