Just have to add my 2 cents. I also was one of those sellers that only charged exact shipping, but after ebay and paypal raised their rates it started to be less worth selling all of the work of selling on ebay. What people never seem to take into consideration (I know I didn't until it was pointed out to me by another seller) is that paypal takes a percentage fee out in the shipping costs also. I went back through one month's transactions and figured out how much money I was losing on postage fees that I wasn't making any money on. When you multiplied that out over the course of a year, it was a significant amount.

I also get shipping boxes from USPS and and save boxes and packing material, but there still are outside expenses to pack and ship items. I used to be able to get the priority shipping tape free at my post office, but the workers said that they were told that they can no longer give it free to customers. I ordered some off ebay to save money vs buying from an office supply store and bought in bulk because it was so much cheaper-I would guess I have at least a years supply, but it was 50.00. I do the click and print shipping from home-my last black printer cartridge lasted for one month and I am basically the only one using the black-it cost 27.00 on sale, and as I said that was a one month supply.

95% of my customers use paypal. If you refuse to accept payments from them, you will definitely limit your customer base, because as one poster said-everyone wants their items as quickly as possible. I include the shipping calculator in all of my auctions, so everyone knows right up front what the costs will be-there are no surprises unless they didn't use the calculator, which is just stupid on their part. I personally am very leery of bidding on an auction where the seller says they will give the cost after you've won. I don't agree with grossly inflating postage (besides the fact that it will get you in trouble with ebay) but I personally don't feel badly if I make a dollar or two on shipping. JMO.