Stage one of five
Before you order
Nothing is at stake yet except whether you are worth replying to. That sounds like the low pressure stage and it is the one that quietly decides how the rest goes.
Nexus market mirrors
nexusb2l7fmqnefwphyy7m5zjhlkytlbo7qbb5lu5dlczr3azgii2gyd.onionnexusma2iegzo7atzwbrwxhcdopyri3vare2twibldnlc3txqjdeb5yd.onionnexusabcdpvtnivv6owtqjkvd22k5x3hlpofkgjqjmgzltlde6mwe2qd.onionPublished as supplied. Nothing here is monitored, so this is not a claim that any of them opens right now.
The seven messages
- The first messageThe opening line that decides how the rest of it reads
- Asking about shippingHow to ask about posting without sounding like trouble
- Asking what is in stockStock questions age fast, so ask them so the answer stays usable
- Sending your detailsThe one message where less is not always safer
- Querying a listingWhen the page and the description disagree with each other
- Asking for a signed messageHow to ask for proof without implying you expect a fake
- Turning down a bigger orderSaying no to an upsell without souring the exchange
What is different about this stage
A vendor at the other end of a first message has a queue. Your message is not being studied. It is being sorted into answer now, answer later, or ignore. Almost everything on these seven pages is about staying in the first pile.
The sorting is not about politeness. A message gets answered when the answer is short. Ask one thing that can be answered in a line and you get a line back today. Ask six things that each need thought and you get nothing, not because anybody is annoyed but because the reply keeps being the hardest job in the inbox.
| What you send | What it costs you |
|---|---|
| Six questions in one message | The whole message moves to the bottom of the pile |
| A paragraph of context before the question | The question gets missed and you have to send it again |
| A question already answered in the listing | You are marked as somebody who did not read |
| A demand for reassurance | You are marked as somebody who will be trouble later |
| One narrow question | A short answer, usually the same day |
The word to keep in mind
Answerable. Not short, not polite, not friendly. Answerable. Read the message back and ask whether a busy stranger could reply to it in one line without deciding anything difficult. If not, that is the thing to fix, and fixing it usually means cutting rather than adding.
It carries forward
None of this stage is wasted if you never order. A vendor who has answered one clean question from you has already sorted you, and that sorting is the only credit a new buyer has.
Where this goes next
Once something is bought, the wording problem changes shape. The next stage is while you wait, and its main skill is not writing at all. If you want the underlying structure first, the skeleton sets out the five part shape every page here uses.