It appears the sandbox and real paypal processing is a little different in that sandbox not only sends POST of IPN data(including variable 'item_name') to the ipn notify url but also to the return page (the page to redirect customers to after payment on paypal site). However, the real paypal processing doesn't send IPN data when redirecting to the return page, or does it? It should, I mean, it's essential to have all the specific and realtime customer and payment data to display on your return page. But how do I use them? $_POST is empty, there's a few $_GET variables(no 'item_name') and a large encoded string. I'm stuck, don't know what to do. -( Please help. Thanks!