We needed to make the move from free shipping to rates directly calculated from UPS for a couple reasons. We wanted to take the time to explain our decisions behind this and to make sure all of our long time, and new, customers understand why we had to do this. We’ve done a thorough cost analysis and tightened our base prices such that the majority of our customers will actually see a decrease in the total cost while a few will see a very slight increase.

The simplest reason is just that bottled butane is heavy.

Some of the 12 packs of refined butane weigh as much as 8 lbs each making the master cases weigh over 60 lbs in total. This creates a huge discrepancy in shipping costs depending where we ship the item. We’re about as centrally located within the US that you can get here in Denver, Colorado.

We ship our bottled butane the right way. Unfortunately, not all of our competitors do. We maintain a special HazMat Certification with UPS that ensures your items are packed, labeled, and shipped safely from Denver to your location and every touch point in-between. We re-certify with UPS ever 2 years which is an additional cost we carry the burden on in addition to purchasing the proper packaging and shipping materials to comply with all the standards.

When we ship a 60 pound plus master case to the farthest corners of the country the total shipping cost can be over $100 which is 2 times the cost of shipping within Colorado or to neighboring states. Under the previous free shipping policy that meant we were both losing money in certain instances and essentially forcing all the other customers closer to us to make up that difference. Our new pricing and direct rate calculation from UPS is the most equitable way of moving forward and for the majority of our customers it will lower the total cost of purchasing butane from us.

We appreciate all of our long time customers all over the US.