Buying And Sellingtips

Trading reps in most countries is illegal to import,buy,sell or even posses(Belgum and Italy I was told)maybe it's a good idea to start a topic on exchanging tips for more security with buying and selling our precious armware.
Please feel free to post your tips here

As I have done over 140 deals (buying and selling in the last few years) I only had 3 shipments that went sour( 1 damaged 2 in customs). I experienced that lately more buyers choose for regular mail instead of registered or with insurance.
I can well understand that because the cost of International Package Plus(IPP) here in the Netherlands are over a ridicullous 13 euro.
But then it is insured up to 500 euro....
Lat week I had send a shipment to Germany, normally arriving in 4-6days.
Being an impatient buyer...;) he send me an email yesterday that the package hadn't arrived yet and if I could check with postal services. Luckily the buyer chose for insurance so tracking showed that the shipment was in Germany, was damaged and would be returned home to sender.....Speaking to the postal employee, she said the investigation could take up to 3 months wow
Now waiting for it to return and see what the damage is, I hope we don't need the insurance.....
Don't know if it's the reorganisation with Dutch Post, letting 5000 people go, has anything to do with it but I heard some employees are not so motivated anymore to handle post with care.
When shipping with regular mail, I allways try to make a picture of the package with the poststamps on it so at least the buyer can see it has been posted correctly and email these.
Most stamps here are computergenerated so there is allways the date and time on the stamp. That's as much as you can do sending regular shipping.
Looking forward to more tips of you guys and hope this helps members dealing with more confidence