please accept my apologies and move if this is in the wrong place. Two questions: 1) a regular trading partner asked me to grab him 4 Hill farmstead glasses and now I have to ship them - groan. This is a favor not a trade. H as anyone tried just putting them in a 6 bottle shipper? to my suprise the glasses fit pretty well - I was planning to stuff the top and bottom with bubble wrap and / or chips. Will they be safe? 2) I asked my local bottle shop about buying shipping supplies and they sold me the sideways cardboard shippers which they swear they ship wine costing $100s of dollars in. Do people use these and are they reliable?
I do this all the time and have never (knock on wood) had an issue. Sometimes I even ship mixed bottles and glasses. The HF glasses are, all in all, pretty sturdy. IMO, you should be fine.
I personally would not waste the "beer" shipper for glassware (not that it would not work). I'd use a *regular* box, bubble wrap, newspaper, peanuts, etc and send them that way. Save the shipper for beer.
Don't sugarcoat how you feel about doing your regular trading partner a favor, sheesh. I hope they don't read this and feel like they are putting you out. Yes they fit well into a six shipper and should arrive intact. Go ahead and send two nice bottles in the empty slots!
perfect example of how humor doesnt work on the internet. I was kidding and seeing how he started his request saying how much he hated shipping glassware he would know I was joking. This is actually me shipping to a friend of his for a favor, he got some extra bottles in the shipper I sent to him last week, but thank you for helping me clarify that I am happy to do this for him.
I love how @cosmicevan packs glasses. He sent me a box of about 15 glasses and all arrived perfectly. He also said he ships a lot of glasses and never had a breakage, and I can see the reason why. No magic to it and no need to use a huge box or shipper. 1. Cut up a cardboard piece large enough to roll the glass into with some space on top and bottom 2. Roll the glass in bubble wrap and roll that into the cardboard piece. The cardboard should not be too tight and when pressured, should not easily collapsed. Tape the side, put bubble wrap or crumbled newspaper on the bottom, tape the bottom, put bubble wrap on top, tape the top. Place the glasses in the box vertically. Stems are prone to snapping off so shipping vertical reduce the chance significantly. I also wind newspaper around the stem before wrapping (enough to reduce the chance of snapping if the box is transported with the glass laying horizontally). You can also do box within box using sturdy shoeboxes (or small boxes). 2 stems should fit in 1 shoebox.
it is like shipping anything. you don't want it moving around in the box because when things move, they collide and break. you also want enough protection around the glass or bottle such that if the box isn't handled all that carefully that everything would be safe. it isn't rocket science.
