There are no crowds, no sales tax for out-of-state customers and, perhaps most tempting, no need to leave your home.

By one estimate, states lose $1.5 billion a year in sales tax revenue from direct-market sales to out-of-state customers.

While some banks do not accept credit card applications from out-of-state customers, many do.

Prospective out-of-state customers can now phone a winery whose style they like - say, Corey Creek - and ask about national distribution.

The freed-up daytime generating capacity is then made available to be sold to out-of-state customers at premium prices.

Their allocations to out-of-state customers have always been small.

Even so, they have traditionally shipped some to eager out-of-state customers.

Neither company collects sales tax from out-of-state customers.

Officials also said that lists of supposedly out-of-state customers kept by some businesses were bogus.

One appliance store offered a list said to be of out-of-state customers that was written in Hindu.