Wondering if my fellow Canadians can give me some pointers.

The way I currently do it is I take my envelope to Canada Post, buy the stamp, and send it off with them. It runs me about a buck for Canadian trades, a little over a buck for USA, and over $3 for international, no tracking. And for tracking.. ouch. I think it was $15 last time I needed it for the US? That sucks.

Are there any cheaper methods I should pursue?

Thats about all there is too it. Personally I just use stamps without tracking and have sent a few hundred things without anything getting lost. I figure if something does I have saved more than enough money at this point that even if I have to pay someone like $50 I am still way ahead in the long run.

I bought a pack of stamps at the post office, that way I don't have to go buy a single stamp everytime I mail something and can just put my envelope in any mailbox. I also use no tracking if the trade is <50$. The stamps I bought are also "permanent", meaning they don't have a $ value, stamps that have a $ value give you headaches when they raise the shipping cost by a few cents, then you are stuck with 1.10$ stamps when the cost is 1.13$ hehe.

For tracking within Canada you need to use a bubble mailer and cost depends on the province you are shipping to/from but it is between 10-13$, you'll get tracking and fast shipping. Avoid the prepaid Xpresspost cardboard envelopes for tracking, they're terrible to mail cards and sometimes they get all bent because they're so wide. I only used tracking once though, so I'm not an expert.

Shipped with regular stamps for 30+ trades, never lost anything.