Jim, thanks for the information, particularly that you can make more international labels and less expensive postage services using eBay than PayPal. I never realized that.

I am reluctant to ship expensive things out of the US because in order to be able to insure the mail piece (and the insurance rates are reasonable, same as US domestic insurance), you HAVE to use the more expensive mail services (which does not include cheap First Class International).

Can you do delivery confirmation or signature confirmation with mail to many foreign countries. How many? What does it cost?

One decent idea is to send the stuff abroad by registered mail which has its own insurance built-in, plus I think you can buy extra insurance. For example, I sent a small item to Australia and paid the post office $14.96 ($3.46 first class int'l postage + $11.50 registered mail fee which included $46.04 insured value). Note: registered mail must be paper wrapped/sealed, no plastic tape.

Here is one decent link for postal custom forms and information:
https://www.usps.com/ship/customs-forms.htm

Lastly, you are somewhat wrong when you say that the mail piece with postage and attached customs Form 2976 can't be dropped into a postal collection box. I was told by a postal clerk that you could do it for inconspicuous mail pieces, and I have done it many times, all successfully. I attach postage stamps (use the rate charts on the internet) and that green form 2976. If it is not very bulky, I often don't even bother with the customs form -- they don't care, and I never had a problem.

Robert