Hi Colin1940,
In my opinion, I would always post an item using a recorded delivery or trackable service. Even if the transaction amount was a small amount. This is so that I know for my own piece of mind when and where an item has been delivered and who has signed for the item.
I realise that a lot of buyers would not be happy with this but if you outline on your listings that you are sending the item using a recorded delivery service, they would be aware before purchasing the item that your postage may be a bit extra then normal to receive the item.
Even if you receive a payment from a buyer who has paid the minimal amount of postage for the transaction, I would advise that you pay the bit extra for a tracking number in order to ensure that you are protected in the event of any type of investigation happening on the transaction.
Another bit of advice I would give you would be to hold on to your postage receipts for up to 6 months after the payment was received. With a chargeback (which is a disputes process outside of PayPal), these can be filed in some cases for anywhere up to 6 months after the payment was received so in order to try and protect yourself as a seller, you should keep your postage receipts if possible up to this date after the payment.
I hope this advice helps.
David.
