You can sell a used right shoe for $100 with $75 postage and take 2 months to get round to posting it but if the buyer is happy with everything, they'll give you 5 stars across the board and positive feedback.

The key to success as a Seller is to manage the buyer's perceptions, because you DO have control over those.

For example postage time - you cannot control Australia Post, but you can control the information that the buyer uses to assess your "postage time". I won't go into "how" you can do it, but there are plenty of ways to ensure that your buyer knows (or thinks) that you gave service way above the normal level.

Get those buyer perceptions under control, and you can significantly relax on the service levels.

For example, I had a problem last Friday - I have 1 day handling time in my listings and someone bought at noon. I emailed and said thanks and that the Registered Post would be happening that afternoon. But the bleeding car wouldn't start!

So I contacted the buyer late on Friday afternoon and told them that there had been a problem (I didn't say what it was) and that I would post it first thing Saturday Morning. I then emailed again to confirm that it did go on Sataurday as promised, plus there was an apology note in the package and a extra gift too.

Feedback just came in - Positive "Communication and service was excellent".with 5/5 stars (well, no reduction on my perfect rating, so it must be 5 stars). The delivery wasn't that fast (5 days, Sydney to Sydney) and I actually let them down, but if handled correctly then it can end up being a positive.