What US shipping service would you recommend for small items?

[goatparty.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I've recently made the jump to selling small polymer clay items on Etsy, but so far I've had to shell out $5.75 per box for flat rate priority mail shipping (I picked it because it comes with insurance and tracking). Since my items are only $10, I feel like raising shipping to flat-rate price would deter customers.

My questions to folks who sell similar items are:

1. What service do you use, and what does it cost?

2. Are both insurance and tracking an option for it?

In the meantime I'll be researching this myself, but I wanted to get more experienced artists' opinions on this as well.

Thanks!

Edit: Thank you for the replies!

Comments

[matrices.livejournal.com]

I do most if not all of my shipping through paypal.com/shipnow
It offers the online shipping rate and with my postal scale I can weigh and I can print postage at home.

It is what I use for my business and I am able to offer inexpensive shipping rates as a result since many of the things I create are under 13 ounces and I can take advantage of First Class Mail rate pricing.

$50 of insurance and tracking is included when using the paypal shipping service.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

$50 of insurance and tracking is included when using the paypal shipping service.

Insurance is not included for First Class Parcels, only Priority Mail gets free $50 coverage. I use First Class all the time and they always try to get me to buy the insurance.