I strongly agree about auctions.
And also about "free" shipping.
I use Fixed Price almost exclusively and include the cost of shipping in my asking price.
But.
Most of my items can be shipped LetterPost. You, like momcqueen, must use the more expensive parcel rates.
As a longtime seller, you know buyers hate to pay shipping, even when the fee is completely valid.
And having a shipping fee higher than the asking price has buyers screaming 'ripoff', again even though the prices are completely valid.
For spits and giggles, take a look at the USPS shipping rates.
https://postcalc.usps.com/?country=10440
Look at the cost for domestic shipping (I used 90210 and 10120 as zipcodes) and Priority Boxes, which our US competitors can get free from USPS.
That's the competition.
Mo and I have different approaches to make the difference less obvious.
Either one works. Although your items are more like Mo's than mine.
The other thing to keep in mind is tracking.
EBay is totally freaky about tracking.
Partly it's that Americans are paranoid (see D. Trump) and partly it's that USPS provides very very cheap tracking.
But.
We don't need it to gain our Global TRS badge and discounts.
So there's that, for future consideration.
And.
If your costs are low, you can afford to lose the occasional item to an Item Not Received Dispute. (Probably false, because USPS is very good at its job.)
But most people are honest.
If perhaps cheap and impatient.
But that's a talk about Cookie Jar Insurance we can have another time.
