Cat, I know a lot of people ship with the flat rate shipping but they normally arent the cheapest unless you're mailing something super heavy. I normally mail with a plain ol' box (like from walmart for under a $1) and do standard USPS shipping for dirt cheap (I think its normally 2-day). I think on average for a 2-3lb medium size box (similar to a shoe box) it winds up being about $5-6 which is reasonable.
Careful with this shipping. I sent my Elf's gift (about 100 miles away) this way since USPS said it would get there in 2 days, 16 days later is when she got the package. I was pissed.
Really? I've never had any problems except for once when I sent Laura a gift but that was because I put the wrong zip code, lol. The only other time I had something unreliable happen was years ago just with regular snail mail. I think the mail will mess up at times but it's normally okay. I just hate for people to spend so much with the flat rate boxes because they are normally a rip off.