@stacy_pme
On the example which you have provided, has the buyer contacted you to advise that the order has not yet been delivered?
If not, don't be so upset -- your buyer may have received this item already, and (like 75% of other eBay buyers) hasn't bothered to acknowledge receipt or leave feedback. So stop worrying, until your buyer has given you reason to worry!
Certainly shipping the item as USPS First Class Package rates are more secure, since tracking is included. And, if you wish to charge your buyers more for shipping, no one is stopping you.
But the eBay Standard Envelope is treated as "metered mail," and as such doesn't receive any more special treatment than other metered mail. I drop mine off in the slot at my post office which reads "metered mail" (I never hand it to the postal clerk, as that slows down the sorting process); and, when the envelope arrives at the next USPS Distribution Center, it generally receives the next scan, with more along the way, until it finally arrives at the Zip Code for the destination. (Note: NOT the destination itself -- just the USPS Post Office for that Zip Code). And, in a day or so afterwards, it is delivered to the buyer.
And, unlike other USPS First Class envelopes, the eBay Standard Envelope at least has a SEMBLANCE of tracking, when the system works. Keep in mind that many of us still send our monthly payments to utility companies, credit card companies, and so on via USPS First Class envelope -- and there's absolutely NO tracking on those envelopes at all. But I haven't heard about too many people laying awake at night, wondering whether their electric bill has reached its destination, or is on its way to Tierra Del Fuego, or stuck to the wall inside a USPS truck, or sitting inside a bag of undelivered mail abandoned by a frustrated postal employee "gone postal."
Keep in mind, as well: these are NOT normal times at the post office. Today I just received two items which have been sitting inside a HUGE semi-trailer in the parking lot at my local post office, filled with skids of unsorted mail, where they have been sitting since December 6. Why? Because of the holidays (again), and due to the understaffing of the post office for the last two years. Our regular mail delivery used to be about 4:30 PM; but now it might be 9:00 PM, or 7:45 AM -- or not at all. I get it -- and this seems to be normal for this time of the year. In a few weeks, mail deliveries should become a little more regular again; but, for the time being, we all need to be just a little more patient.
And, unless your buyers are complaining about late deliveries, or opening up "item not received" cases, I wouldn't kick the beehive just yet.
Relax. Drink some cocoa. Listen to some soothing classic holiday music. Watch "The Christmas Story" again, or "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation."
But don't sweat the small stuff.
