quote:A possible problem with this (and one of your US compatriots may be able to help here) is that you need to enter the destination ZIP code to get the quote, and of course you don't know it yet, so I'm not sure what folk normally do for that.
If I do flat rate shipping, I generally figure out what it would cost to send something to Zone 8 (California and the west coast), which is the most expensive for my location. I use 90001 for the zip code. If you're in the west, you might try a New York zip to figure out what it would cost. Try 10013.
From there, you can figure out your worst case scenario as far as shipping costs, and adjust what you charge accordingly. Generally, I will charge the worst case cost, then refund a part of the shipping cost if someone very close buys the item. We generally ship very light items, though, so the difference in costs between California and New York usually isn't that great. This seems to have worked out well for us... but we don't really do a lot of business on eBay anymore.
You can get a quickie guide to domestic rates here (it's a PDF).
http://pe.usps.gov/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/ratesandfees.pdf