"I need to charge the full tracked and insured rate"
Frankly, it is not a "need", it is a choice.
On average, Canada Post will lose less than one parcel in one hundred. Factor that 1% in your prices (call it self-insurance if you wish) and continue to offer a reasonable proposition to your buyer.
If you double, triple or quadruple your shipping charge in order to protect yourself, you will quickly see your sales volume drop and customers complain about your shipping charge.
Take a good look at your successful competitors, including Americna sellers. What do they do?
Buyers and potential buyers do not care about your costs and your problems. They look at you and your competitors and make their purchasing decision on the basis of what is being offered. Shipping charge is an important factor in determining the value offered.
To give you an example on Pierre's comments, 90% of my sales on eBay goes Light Packet (international) or Letter Mail (in Canada). That is no tracking and no insurance. I get about 1 claim per 200 shipments. My average sales is 8.80$ per item. I only need to put 0.05$ aside on each sales to compensate for the lost.
With time I also stopped shipping to some countries were I found that I had more claims than my average.
"and a pair of new chanel eyeglasses at 300 would be some 55 insured and tracked"
What do your competitors - selling similar items - do?
Can you compete on that basis?
If not, selling these things on eBay is not a good proposition for you if you cannot accept the risks involved in mail order.
At the end of the day, the decision is not made by you but by buyers looking at your items, comparing to other items offered by other sellers with different prices and conditions and making a decision to purchase.
It is your choice to make your items competitive.
If not, what is the point?
"you mean there is a better rate if you print your labels on paypal?"
Buying postage through PayPal is one option. Savings are nice. 🙂
Another, better in my opinion, is to lick stamps on the parcel or envelope. Stamps with full original gum can be purchased at deep discounts (25% - 40% below face value) and savings do add up - if you buy right. 🙂 🙂
In the last fourteen years, I have used nearly $100,000 in postage (average $6,000+ year): lots of licking! 🙂
Lots of savings 🙂 🙂
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