Just received 20 free shipping tubes from usps.com. They come about 3' long flat and fold into triangles and can easily be cut down to sizes you need. Best part is they are free. Just thought I would let everyone know
Used a few of them in the past but never for a bottle . Don't know if I would take the chance of shipping an expensive bottle in one or not being there is not a lot of room to add packing material in the . I would bet soda bottles would be safe considering the thickness of them as well as a few other varieties of small bottles .
I use those to ship rolled up posters but never tried it on bottles. For bottles I usually use the Priority Mail Shoebox or the Regional Rate A and B boxes. Those are free from USPS also.
All / most shipping supplies (the stuff they offer) from USPS are free and they come in a pretty large variety of sizes. As Jay mentioned, check out Regional Rate boxes (they can save money) but avoid the "C". boxes. One great advantage to Priority Mail is it usually receives a little more care from the Gorillas and the rate includes some insurance ($50 I think) and they are tracked.
I've shipped most of the bottles I have sold in tubes with bubble wrap (round ,recently using the triangle ones) never had an issue shipping 12 oz or less size bottles. If they are going to crush a box ,doesn't matter what configuration it's in. when you say regional rate, you don't mean the fixed price sm,med or large I find them to not be such a great deal for bottles. Just shipped one (tube) today priority mail for $5.05 like botlguy said free $50.00 insurance included and tracking
The Regional Rate boxes are flat rate for up to a certain weight, but the rate varies by different areas of the country. I know that sounds strange but here is how it works. Box A up to 15 pounds costs about what it would cost to send a 1-2 pound package by regular Priority Mail to any destination. Box B up to 20 pounds cost about as much as it would cost to send a 3-4 pound package to any destination. They both cost less than a medium Flat Rate box. So how that works in the bottle world, I can ship 2 soda bottles in a Type A cheaper than regular Priority and can ship 3-6 soda bottles in a Type B cheaper than regular Priority and cheaper than Medium Flat Rate.You can order those boxes from USPS but I think you have to print your own shipping labels to use them.The Type C boxes are good up to 25 pounds but they are seldom cheaper than regular Priority Mail. They make good bottle packing boxes though. I use them for taking bottles to shows and they stack nicely in the truck.Hope this explanation helps.Here is a link to the USPS website. https://www.usps.com/
In addition to Jay's excellent explanation, Regional boxes have to be ordered online, they are not available at the P.O. One needs to weigh their options. (Pun intended)
Just shipped a bottle to Florida for $5.35 In the priority mail tube that I cut to size the best price with the Regional box was just over $8.00. The flat rate box would of been a little more and in my opinion is not a good deal unless you have some weight that fits in their pre-made boxes, for single bottles Ill stick to these tubes, and like stated before $50.00 insurance is included.
$5.35 is a good rate, especially if the package was over 13 ounces. For 13 ounces and less I ship in an unmarked box (not Priority Mail) by First Class mail and the cost is under $4. I use the white baseball card boxes but they cost about 40 cents each. If you can find some small boxes for free even better.