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

[kazeno-taka.livejournal.com]

Regarding the 13 oz rule, I know for certain sites, such as etsy, USPS is allowing first class parcels up to 16 oz (1 lb) now.

If you print postage online, you will save a bit of money since online rates are always cheaper with USPS. You can get a small 10 lb and below scale for pretty cheap, which should be accurate to the ounce. The only real advantage to flat rate shipping is you get free boxes - unless you're packing them with super heavy stuff, you'll almost always pay more using flat rate Priority than first class (as long as it's below 16 oz) or even Priority with your own packaging.

My recommendation would be to save any and all small boxes you can, buy a cheap postal scale, and print off your own first class postage. For example, it costs me a little over $2 to ship a 3 oz small parcel/padded envelope with printed postage, plus you don't have to wait in line at the post office! :D

[kitsumi.livejournal.com]

I used to send drawings this way through usps first class, but noticed recently they only offer flate rate priority. Seems like they gave their first class services to third party websites, and from what I can tell they all charge a $15/month aervice fee. :/ what's more annoying is you have to buy a $10 or more credit also before making postage purchases. is that what you do ? Unfortunately I don't mail out items too often so this is not economical for me.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

As someone who uses both USPS.com and Paypal to ship things, I can say that I honestly don't know what you're talking about? First Class options are still on the USPS website. Are you possibly referring to the "First Class Large Envelope" option not being available to purchase shipping for online? The reason for that would be because they want to regulate the envelope size restrictions, but they still display it so people can calculate shipping for that option. And First Class Parcel is readily available. There are also Priority options that aren't flat-rate.

And Paypal doesn't charge any sort of service fees for printing shipping labels. I don't know any websites that do, so I'm curious as to which ones you've been using that might do that.

[kitsumi.livejournal.com]

I only ship flat things in envelopes first class (art,work, prints, or small padded envelops with badges), so I was likely looking for the large envelope option or any envelope. I'm pretty sure paypal didn't have the option to print postage for envelopes either first class, though I can check again. From what I saw the only way to print first class postage was through these other sites. I went with stamps.com becuase they gave a free trial run of a month.

[kazeno-taka.livejournal.com]

If you're shipping art, I assume you're shipping it with some sort of sturdy cardboard backing, which makes it a parcel. Always select 'first class parcel' or 'package', even if it is in an envelope. The general rule is, if it is rigid or more than 1/4 inch thickness, it's a parcel.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

Ugh, I wonder when USPS.com took away the option to print First Class Parcel postage... I used to use it all the time before, but lately have been using Paypal instead, and now the option is gone? That's crap.

[kazeno-taka.livejournal.com]

It might be back, I'm not sure. It was about a year ago that I tried to use USPS.com to print first class parcel postage and there wasn't an option, but it may be there now.

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

Paypal definitely has a First Class postage option, it's just that it's only First Class "Parcel", not First Class "Envelope". It's still cheaper than flat-rate Priority envelopes usually though.

[kazeno-taka.livejournal.com]

What site are you buying postage through? I would recommend against using the USPS site because last time I tried using it, they weren't letting you do first class. However, if you have Paypal, you can use their Multi Order Shipping tool to buy postage and print it. I print first class postage all the time for prints and small parcels.