I’m a big fan of
Best wishes,
Beadalin
All the best,
Beadalin
Or, when occasion calls for it:
I look forward to speaking with/seeing you,
Beadalin
You got options. But “best wishes” is my standard. I think it’s warm and friendly without being too personal.
I know one guy who signs his, “Yours faithfully” or “Devotedly.” He’s just a business contact – I don’t have any kind of personal relationship with this guy at all. Weird. He signs that way to men too. I don’t recommend following his examples.
I have to respectfully disagree with Miss Manners on this one. “Sincerely” is considered by most to be an impersonal, business-style closing now. I wouldn’t dream of closing a letter with “Sincerely” to anyone I had more than a very distant social relationship with.
And “Yours Truly” sounds all wrong to me for a business letter. (Even more so with the ‘Very’; sounds like the writer’s promising to stay romantically true to the recipient.) Do many people still use this to close business correspondence?
I go with ‘Sincerely’, ‘Regards’, ‘Best Regards’, and turning the variations of ‘Thank you for your assistance’ into a closing. Of the alternatives I’ve seen here, ‘Respectfully’ strikes me as good.
That’s a pretty good selection. How many closings does one need?
The letters that I typed up for my boss, who is Vice President of a branch of a large corporation, used “Very Truly Yours”. I have always used “Sincerely” but also find that it gets old after awhile.
When feeling megalomaniacal try:
I am,
Pantellerite
Or you can combine a few:
I am,
As always,
Yours very truly,
With great sincerity,
Pantellerite
I just go with “Best Regards” or just “Regards” if I’m reserving my best for some other letter.
Some years ago I started using (occasionally) “For sure” above my signature.
It depends. I like the dash and name for business. “Love” is reserved for close family. Ending emails, I usually just use Larry. On nasty letters to a company that has pissed me off, I’ve been known to sign myself “disgustedly.”
It’s tempting to hijack this thread with a question on salutations, but I’ll open a new one. Watch for it on your favorite website and mine.
– Larry
If you want to be a true man of the world, use “Ciao”.
[sup]Or perhaps Aloha[/sup].
I tend to use “Cordially” or “Yours most cordially”
Nakedly Yours,
or
Catch ya on the flip side homey,
It all depends on what the the mail actually says… for example, is someone trying to screw you, and you want to dismiss them? “very truly yours” works nicely.
Is it to an ally of yours, who you can speak openly and honestly to? just your first name works in that case. “bob.”
Is it an outsider who you may wish to use in the future, but you are not sure you can trust them? “respectfully” or “yours” might work.
Give us the general gist of the mail and the recipient. Generally you want to sign it warmer to your enemies, and cooler to your friends. But that is JUST a general rule.
I often use V/R for work e-mail as in Very Respectully. I saw it on another e-mail some years back and liked it.
V/R
Beth
I’m a “Best regards” man, myself.
Sincerely, for regular business contacts when I’m apologizing or threatening.
Regards, for business contacts on engineering matters.
Cheers, for intra-Company mail.
I have a buddy in 4th year at Veterinary school who signs all of his e-mail, personal or not, “2003 or Death !”
“Best regards” here too.
Sometimes I’ll write:
"Love, Stockton
(Millions do!)"
But not on biz stuff.
My organic chem prof signs all his emails (and I imagine possibly letters) with “best wishes”. When he’s emailing you to let you know something mundane like a classroom change, or a problem set to work on, it’s not really necessary, but its sweet anyways. But then, he tends to end emails with something along the lines of “As always, my frist priority is to help you succeed, Best Wishes, X” Kinda makes you feel like you have a chance of passing 
Really great professor, IMHO
I kinda like “best wishes” --businessy, but also transcending business, with a little fairy-tale aura to it.
At work I got the following suggestions: “In Solidarity,” “Well, that about does it,” “Thanks,” “Good-bye,” “I have nothing more to say,” “Happy hunting!” I think people were just teasing me for their own enjoyment. It’s too hard of a question to answer seriously.
oops, misread the OP (and title) - the above is for letters, not email.
ignore me.
This time.
I treat e-mail the same as a telephone conversation; very informal. Start with “hello” or “hi” and just end with my name.
I always use “Very truly yours” for business correspondence. For business emails, I use my full name and title until I have developed a friendly relationship, then switch to “-E”.
On “Yours faithfully” - I get this from UK correspondents fairly frequently. My understanding is that it’s their conventional closing when you haven’t met the recipient.