Production times

Custom bottle caps are, well, a custom product. They are created on demand rather than pulled from a warehouse, and we have limited production capacity. We'd love to be Amazon.com and ship immediately, but cannot always do so.

Once you order, we will produce your order on a first-come, first-served basis. We create our caps fast as we can, and aim to ship in a couple days, but please be prepared to wait for 1-2 weeks in case of high volume or problems. See our front page for our current estimate of time until shipping, given in business days (which excludes weekends and major holidays in the US.) We try hard to meet or beat our estimate, but it may not always be possible. Let us know if you have a specific deadline!

Once shipped, your caps will take a few more days in the mail, depending on shipping class. We recommend ordering caps as soon as you start planning a batch to allow plenty of time. If you include in your order's Special Instructions your intended bottling date or other deadline, we'll try to get it there on time or let you know if it's not possible or will require a rush.

Note that rush production is only included with Express Mail shipping. All others are handled in order of arrival. If you need your caps for a specific deadline contact us and/or place a note in the Special Instructions.

Packaging

We package each shipment carefully to prevent the edges of our caps from contacting the printed surface during shipment. Small orders are shipped in bubble envelopes; for larger orders we stack the caps and wrap them in plastic to create a "tube" and ship this in a box. If you are ordering a large number of caps and don't want us to stack them (for ease of use) please let us know; there will be some damage to the printing in this case.

Basic shipping for $6 or less!

After production we want to get your custom bottle caps to you as economically as possible. So we offer basic shipping for $6 (or less!) for all domestic orders (up to 2,000 caps).

Full shipping information for a particular order is available on the shopping cart's checkout screen. Click the Google Checkout button and then sign in with (or create) a Google Checkout account and the order page will present shipping options. These are the possible options:

USPS First Class Mail/Priority Mail is our least expensive shipping option for all orders. Shipping prices and class will vary with size of order to get you the best possible rate:

Orders up to 140 caps ship as a First Class Mail envelope or package. First Class Mail will take as long as a letter, usually 2-5 days after we ship. Small shipments in this class may not have delivery confirmation. For neither First Class nor Priority is delivery guaranteed or contents insured. To ensure 2-3 day delivery and a delivery confirmation code, bump up to our flat-rate Priority Only option; for very fast delivery and included rush processing, see 1-day Express Mail.

Larger orders (more than 140 caps) that specify "First Class/Priority Mail" will ship Priority Mail, since First Class is unavailable at that weight.

USPS Priority Mail Only is offered as a small upgrade for orders that would ship First Class under standard shipping; the cost is $6 for any size package. Priority Mail arrives in 2-3 days after we ship, always comes with delivery notification, and is usually handled more gently than First Class mail. The Priority Mail option, like First Class, is first-come-first-served and does not include rush production.

Note: The USPS label code is technically for "delivery notification"; often it will also function as package tracking, but USPS does not guarantee any level of tracking other than delivery confirmation. You may only see "electronic notification received" in some cases until it arrives.

USPS 1-Day Express Mail is available for very fast delivery. Express costs vary based on weight, but most orders will be about $20-30. Express Mail will arrive the day after we ship in most cases and also comes with delivery confirmation. Express orders include expedited production, so we will try to ship 1-2 days after the order.

Free Digital Sample is a non-shipping shipping option; select this and we will produce one cap of your design and send you a photograph. We will also refund the cost of that cap (by "cancelling" the order), so the whole thing is free to you. For more info on samples, see our samples page.

Local Pickup is free, if you live in the Houston area. We will email you when your pickup order is ready to set up an appointment. (Don't come by without an appointment, as we may not be there or have your order ready.)

Do note that USPS delivery inside Houston is 1-2 days. Also, unless you live or travel close to our Spring Branch office, it may cost you more in gas (and almost certainly more in time) than standard shipping. To help you make the decision, we prepared these handy maps. For the average order, vehicle, and cost of fuel, the highlighted areas show approximately where:

you may spend less on fuel than shipping;

the trip will take 1 hour or less.

International Shipping

International shipping cost (all locations outside the USA) varies by location and weight. We offer USPS First Class, Priority Mail, and Express Mail to international destinations, which are the cheapest option available. First Class mail has no advertised transit time; we find it takes usually 2-3 weeks, but can be longer. Priority Mail advertises transit times of 6-10 days; Express Mail advertises 3-5 days. For all mail classes, additional time (sometimes substantial) may be necessary for customs clearance. Order well in advance of any deadline for international orders; shipping and customs times vary widely and are not very predictable, and can easily take 3 weeks to get from our door to yours.

While First Class International packages have a label code assigned, they may not be tracked. Small Priority Mail International shipments may also not be tracked. For all packages, tracking of any sort may or may not happen once leaving the US, depending on the destination country.

Customs clearance and any duties and taxes due on import are the responsibility of the purchaser. (In European countries, for instance, both import duties and the VAT of 15-25% are due; Canada has no duties but charges GST, HST, and PST.) Passage through customs will take additional time, sometimes substantial. Most countries exempt packages of some small value from duties and taxes; these may pass through customs faster. The value for Canada is $20; EU countries have varying "low-value consignment relief" limits for the VAT between €10 and €22 (current UK value is £15) and separate (usually higher) exemptions for duties (current UK value is £135). Postal or customs handling fees sometimes also apply. You will need to look up the rules that apply in your jursidiction to know precisely your obligations, rates, and exemptions. We do not ship items marked as "gift".

International shipping is, we're sorry to say, expensive and usually slow, but we fanatically calculate the cost for any particular package to be as low as possible (like our domestic shipping). The whole scheme is too complicated to show in detail here; see the checkout page for specific costs and options for your location. Below are some sample shipping costs. Note that all prices are in USD (US$).

First Class International (2-3 weeks)

Priority International (1-2 weeks)

Express Mail International (~1 week)

If the checkout page doesn't offer you shipping options, or if you have other concerns about international shipping, please email info@bottlemark.com.