As I sit here late at night, trying to get everything ready to launch my etsy store in the morning, I’m plagued with the issue of shipping.  While writing product descriptions and preparing for what info I need to list an item, I’m researching fellow etsians and their shipping methods/prices.  Most of the people who ship some similar items charge very low ($1-$10) shipping rates.  While my items are made from paper and therefore very light, they are also very long.

USPS has that wonderful flat rate program now that you just buy their boxes and no matter how heavy or where they go in the US it is one flat rate.  That sounds like a great idea, except that their largest flat rate box isn’t long enough for my flowers.  Hmmm.

I’ve also read that a lot of people use an at home scale and print shipping labels off paypal.  That also sounds like a good idea.  I still have the issue of where to find a good size box that won’t cost too much.

I think this is going to be a trial by error type of set up for me.  I’m going to set my shipping prices fairly low and worry about the details of how to ship if and when I actually sell an item.  Good to plan ahead, but I guess I should wait and see if anyone actually wants to buy my products!   I can always adjust my prices later if I seem to be losing too much once I figure out my method.

Any shipping advise or lessons learned from those that have sold on etsy?