Josie,
First of all, what do you ship? I didn't see things in your shop. But no matter, there are some basics to know.
Yes. Buy a scale. It is a very important part of your business. With a scale, you can almost never walk into a post office again, saving you all the time and frustration that an extra errand can bring.
Now that you have your scale, wrap one of your items in all the stuff you would wrap it in to ship, then weigh it. Now go here:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/ and figure out how much it will cost to ship priority.
Why ship priority? Well, you don't have to, but it gives you a tracking number, free packing supplies and more protection through Paypal if you use it. Plus, you make your customers happy by using a quicker service. You get a discount if you print your labels online and you can't print first class labels online.
Now check out the difference between flat rate and weighted prices. Decide if the ease of flat rate makes the (sometimes) extra cost worth it to you.
From there, you can determine your shipping costs.
Once you make a sale, you go to the paypal link and it will lead you through the steps to print that label. Put the address inside the package (as per my mother, who was a post master) and affix the label well on the outside. Tuck it into mail box and you are done!
So much more convenient than the old way of going to the PO and having them weigh it!
