Effective method of payment for private sale CDN -> US

Hi all i hope some peopel can help me out here...

I'm in Ontario,Canada.... and.. here it goes:



I never really bought anything from US in terms of using money orders / certified cheque / wire transfers. I'm about to buy something that will be in the US amoutns of 1.8 k!! i'm wondering what's a good way to send the money to a guy who lives in US so that it's cheap / effective / secue.

i know there's Paypal, but i dont' have enough budget for that and i dont' wanan transfer 1.8k through paypal.. There are money orders but im with pcfinancial and they only have 1k limit moeny orders and 1k + bank drafts???
and Certiffied Chques are just personal cheques but certified?

C.O.D for a shipment of hte proudct is possible through canada post but how does that work

and most importnatly, i 'm wonderding if anyboyd knows how the US exchange rate gets factored into this.

e.g.

Does buyign money order today in US dollars / or whatever allow me to lock in the exchange rate i have today (cdn dollar is strong right now)...

if it's cheque.. certifiedd the exchange rate is locekd or / only whent eh cheque clears or somethign ? or can i specify a US amoujnt on cheque. no tsure..


same with wire transfer....



wondering wondering

any help woudl be great thanks


Felix