This is a question being asked by many vapers living in states with strict flavor bans and vapor prohibition. If you live in one of these states you likely have noticed it has become extremely difficult to get your favorite vape juice, pods, or disposables. You may be driving long distances to a vape shop in a “free state”, or searching endlessly for a website that will still ship to your state.
The unfortunate problem is that you are asking people to break the law for you and risk getting sued by your state government.
However, there is an alternative solution!
Mail Forwarding and Virtual Mailbox Services
You can sign up for a “mail forwarding” or “virtual mailbox” service. These services will accept mail and packages on your behalf and re-ship or forward them to you.
Naturally, you would have your vape mail sent to a “free state” to then be re-shipped to you. For merchants like us, this keeps us within the law since we did not ship or sell into your state. Although the forwarder is likely not violating the law either since they did not sell the product, it is probably wise to leave them in the dark about what you are shipping to them. They do not rely on vape mail you you or we do, and may decide to err on the side of caution and prohibit it.
Now, keep in mind this does mean added cost and time to receive your goods. That is just the unfortunate downside to prohibition, but it beats the alternatives mentioned above.
Required Documentation
Any company receiving US mail on your behalf is legally required to collect a notarized Form 1583 and copies of 2 forms of identification. This is a one time thing that you will not have to do again once you are setup with them. Unless you are committing fraud or are a terrorist, which we sure hope you are not, it is nothing to be afraid of. Although vape shipments through the US postal service are likely to be banned soon as well, its still best not to draw any attention to yourself and just comply with their requests.
Address Verification Service
Another thing to keep in mind is although we utilize a robust fraud screening service, some vendors rely on the old antiquated “Address Verification Service” or AVS for fraud prevention. The way this works is they check that the billing address you entered during checkout matches the address on file with your bank or credit card issuer. So you may need to remind yourself to enter the correct billing address separately from your new shipping address. This would have no bearing on the legality of shipping to your new address, as that is where the sale is technically being made.
So which company should you work with?
One thing you need to look out for is where they offer addresses. Some mail forwarding providers have limited address options or even just one address that happen to be in prohibition states like California and New York. This obviously just puts you right back where you started.
Although we cannot vouch for any specific company, we’ve vetted a shortlist of affordable services that offer addresses in states least likely to be affected by flavor bans and prohibition.
ipostal1.com
Monthly Cost: $9.99 per month
Re-shipping cost: 30 free per month + cost of shipping
ipostal1.com appears to be owned by PostNet, a long standing and respected mail box company. It appears that they offer up to 30 items forwarded free of charge with the basic plan, and $0.35 per item beyond that or $1.95 per package if you want to consolidate multiple shipments into one.
As a traditional mailbox provider, they offer many addresses in many states. Our top recommendations would be an address in Nevada or South Carolina as the least likely to pass restrictive laws against vaping.
physicaladdress.com
Monthly Cost: $7.98 – $8.98 per month
Re-shipping Cost: Unknown + cost of shipping
We are not sure if physicaladdress.com charges a per shipping fee, aside from the actual shipping cost.
They a choice of 6 different addresses on their website. Their Las Vegas, Nevada (NV) address is the best choice as the least likely to face problems in the future. Their Texas (TX) and Idaho (ID) addresses are also acceptable. The California (CA) and New York (NY) addresses should be avoided like the plague as those are already prohibition states. Their address in our home state of Florida (FL) is currently a free state but is dangerously close to passing prohibition as well.
anytimemailbox.com
Monthly Cost: $6.99 – $9.99 per month
Re-shipping Cost: $5 + cost of shipping
anytimemailbox.com also appears to be owned by a traditional mailbox company as they offer locations in many states. Similar to ipostal1.com we recommend setting up in states like Nevada or South Carolina as the least likely to face future prohibition.
