I must be a lucky one as well. I sell lots of stuff on the Bay (since 2004) and use USPS and never have had a problem. I do list all my shipping as economy, 1 to 10 days for delivery. Never had one take longer than 10 days to get there but of course never has one gotten there in 1 day.....LOL
And yep, prices have gone up. I sell a lot of VHS tapes. The shipping for one tape has gone up from $2.69 to $3.19 media mail in the last 5 years. Oh well, I just raise my shipping cost accordingly (currently $3.75) to cover that cost and the package material I use, 26 cent bubble envelop.