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

[kattotang.livejournal.com]

First Class mail is generally the cheapest for small things. There's weight restrictions to First Class mail, but if what you're shipping is small (under 13 ounces, or possibly 1 lb depending, like kazeno_taka said) then it's your best bet. Also, once again like what kazeno_taka said, tracking is complimentary with First Class mail if you print the postage online. It's pretty simple to do if you use USPS's website* or Paypal.

*Edit: Apparently you can't print First Class postage via USPS.com anymore. Paypal is the best option for printing First Class postage then, though you can still use USPS.com for quick price calculations.

The next step up from that is Priority mail, which also includes tracking as well as some level of insurance. The flat-rate Priority options are really only good if you're shipping heavier items. It's usually better to just weigh the item yourself and print the postage on your own using USPS.com/Paypal, just like with First Class mail. You don't need a special box to ship something Priority either, as the postage label itself will show what it is. There's also other set-rate options for Priority mail other than the flat-rate--such as the regional boxes, which are often cheaper than flat-rate boxes to ship but work in a similar way.

This is all for domestic shipping. International shipping is another can of worms.