I think you have some good advice here
If you do decide you'll hold items please state how long for either in your sales thread or in your PMs with the potential buyer (or preferably both) ( for example : I will hold items for ...." one week, 48 hours.. etc ) whatever you are comfortable with. If someone just enquires about an item I wouldn't consider it on hold unless the person specifically asks you to hold it (put in your thread that you only hold items if specifically requested to
). Personally I don't ask for deposits, I hold for the specified time and then if I still haven't heard from them/ got paid I will send the person a message. If they do not answer (tell them in your message when you need an answer by ..eg 24 hours, 48 hours , whatever time you think is reasonable) then I would assume that the person no longer wants it and put it off hold/up for sale again. Some people don't bother to answer . Most people will let you know , especially genuinely interested ones
Sometimes a person will ask you to hold the item for longer than you would normally expect. Its up to you if you want to or not. If not then politely tell the person that unfortunately you cant hold it longer than ------ (your preferred time)
If you don't mind holding the item for a bit longer then ask the person for how much longer /when they expect to be able to pay for it (you can then decide if its reasonable or not. Say for example if they really do want to buy it but don't get paid until the end of the month you may want to hold it. If they sound vague/unsure or ask for a very long hold time then you may decide not to hold.)
That's all I can think of for now. Hope it helps a bit .If I think of something else I'll let you know