PayPal Standard Vs Express Checkout?

I'm setting up a paypal account for my business partner...I've never been a huge fan of PayPal - I'm not selling anything that remotely violates their TOS - But that's never stopped them from being an aggravating nightmare before....I'm wondering if there is some sort of "secret" or "trick" to PayPal that I just don't know - is there a diff between whether you sign up as standard or express? less margin for error one way or the other? are there any longtime pp vendors that have successfully avoided paypal's not so nice side that can fill me in?