Okay, the auction has ended, the funds have been received, and now you have to ship that $850.00 baseball card to its new owner.  You place a three inch piece of cardboard in with the card to keep it safe and send it first class mail.  Weeks later, the buyer claims the card has not been received and that you, an honest seller, are a scam artist.  Within days the $850 is charged back from your Paypal account, you have a negative feedback, and you are no longer in possession of a very rare card. 

Does this sound too severe to be true? Don't be so sure.  Everyday new sellers to Ebay are finding themselves caught up in fraud cases and scams as quickly as they can sell and ship out their items.  So, how do you protect yourself.?  I like to follow these rules for my own selling:

1.  If an item sells at $20 or less, make USPS delivery confirmation optional for the buyer.

2.  If an item sells at $20-50, make USPS delivery confirmation mandatory for the buyer (inlcude it in your fees).

3.  If an item sells at $50-100, require that the buyer have mandatory delivery confirmation and also suggest that the buyer pay to insure the item.

4.  In an item sells at above $100 - it gets insured, easy as that.

Why do the easy steps of delivery confirmation and insurance work?  Quite simply, they give tracking numbers.  Sure, it is a pain to fill out the paperwork that takes around 50 seconds to do :-), but if the item gets lost, damaged, or is transferred to the buyer in less than favorable condition - both parties are covered. Chargeback, negative feedback, and loss of item problems virtually disappear when both parties understand the package is being "watched" throughout the system.  It's quick, it's easy, and  it could end up saving you a whole lot of hassle. Take care of the possible problem ahead of time and you will most certainly have peace of mind as a seller.