Give your bidders their final totals, including any shipping charges, as soon as you can. Ask for a personal check, a postal money order, cashier's check, international money order, or other form of payment. It is acceptable (in fact customary) to wait until you receive the money before shipping the package. If you want to wait for personal checks to clear, let your bidders know you are doing this, at least in your opening announcement.

Unless you are on a very tight time deadline, let the bidder decide which form of payment to send. Don't force people to send a money order just so you can rest easy -- money orders, postal money orders, and cashier's checks cost extra -- typically between a $1 and $4.

When a check arrives, it is polite to send the bidder a quick e-mail note so they don't have to worry. (Remember, they don't know that you really trust them until you receive their payment.)

It will normally take 1 to 2 weeks to get money from everyone, sometimes more because people go on vacations or just plain need to be reminded a couple times. Don't panic if money doesn't roll in the first week after you send out totals -- and above all, don't run your bankbook so that you rely on the money coming in at a particular time.

Ironically, you will usually receive money first from people with the largest totals and last from people with the smallest totals. This is probably because those who are the most willing to spend the largest sums of money are those who are the most eager to receive your goods.

Obviously, before you receive a cent you must send out your snail mail address. Send it to yourself first, or keep a permanent copy in electronic form so you don't have to re-enter it again and again. You don't want a typo to cause a check to be sent to the wrong address.

8 Jan 96 [TSL]