If we said before that lcs are no longer the preferred way of payment, then you must clearly understand the following forms of payment. 

D/P at Sight : stands for Documents Against Payment. In laymans terms, the supplier does the shipment, he sends all original documents to your bank, your bank gives you the original documents against payment. If you don’t have the original documents then you cannot release the goods from port ( in theory, more on that later ). 

When using D/P terms , it is common for a deposit to be given first by the buyer.The reason for this is that D/P is in the normal busioness circle as Death Postponed.  

Why?? Because once documents arrive, the buyer can always choose not to take the documents and not pay and not take the goods. In this case the supplier will need to find a way to negotiate with the buyer to take the goods, or find another buyer or send the goods to another port,etc,etc. remember at this point the goods are property of the seller. 

Sellers prefer this way since fist they have a  deposit which is normallyh of 20-30% hence it is unlikely for you not to take the goods unless special circumstances, or if you a reprepared to loose it.  

As a matter of fact one of my main suppliers called me up just 3 days ago asking me whether I wanted to take some goods of cookware which he had produced and ready in his factory in china. He was ready to give me 10% discount which was the deposit received from his US buyer. Unfortunately his US buyer has declared bankrupcy and has closed down, so my supplier has the 10% deposit with him. 

From a buyers point of view D/P is good since it gives you some credit terms to pay. Remember that the ship will take about 30 days to arrive your port, hence that is really time you are buying. You are basically playing here with the suppliers money without having to pay for 30 days interest.  

The other advantage of course is that you may decide not to take the goods if for example they arrived late hence you would be loosing only your deposit. 

On a final note I leave you this link where you can find a very good flow diagram of D/P ( though of course, if you need any further help, you do know where I am!! ): 

http://resources.alibaba.com/article/61/Documents_against_Payment_D_P_flow_diagram.htm 

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