When buying on eBay, it is very important to research your seller, so you can be assured of a safe, time saving, affordable transaction. The easiest, most effective way to do this is to check your seller's feedback. But it's not all about the total feedback score, or the percentage rating. There are other key factors to consider, as well.

FEEDBACK BASICS  

We all have to start somewhere, and a seller with little or no feedback is not  necessarily  a bad one to deal with. If you are considering placing a bid with a seller with a low feedback score, be sure to ask questions first. Use the "Ask Seller a Question" link at the top right of every eBay listing, and ask a question about a detail of the item. This will give you a feel for how quickly the seller responds to his/her customers. A seller who ignores questions or takes more than 24 hours to answer them might also ignore orders or take an extremely long time to ship out your item. Asking questions will also let you judge the tone of the seller's communication style. Is s/he friendly? Positive? Professional? If you get any "bad feelings" at all, you should find someone else to buy from. This is especially true when the item you are interested in is of very high value.

The other basic part of the feedback equation is the percentage rating. An eBay seller's percentage rating drops when s/he receives negative feedback comments from new buyers. Generally speaking, you should be very careful when dealing with a seller with a relatively low feedback rating.   It's extremely difficult for a seller to avoid getting any negative comments (see more details below), but a low feedback percentage rating is a very good sign that the seller may have problems ensuring happy transactions with his/her buyers.  So, what constitutes a low rating?  The percentage rating of a seller with a low total score is going to be impacted greatly by a negative comment or two, while a seller with feedback in the thousands will hardly be impacted at all.  There's really no "magic number", and that's why it's important to focus on the entire picture, rather than just total score or total percentage rating.  Please read on for more effective tools that will help you find a trustworthy seller.

NEGATIVE FEEDBACK COMMENTS 

When evaluating your seller's feedback, don't just look at the number of negative comments received. Again, it's very hard for a seller to have a perfect score. There is always going to be a buyer or two that leaves negative feedback without trying to work with the seller to resolve an issue first, or who otherwise leave unwarranted negative comments. This is why you should always take the time to read the negative comments a seller has received. Do the complaints seem valid? Warning signs to watch for are comments like, "rude", "unhelpful", "would not work with me", "slow shipping", "did not receive my item", "poor packaging", "item not as described", "seller did not have item", etc. If you see several comments like this, you should seriously consider avoiding the seller.

Just as important as the negative feedback comments received is the way the seller responds to the comments. An honest, trustworthy seller will respond to all negative feedback in a calm, professional manner. Does the seller respond with name calling, anger, or childish statements? If so, you can be assured that the seller will probably deal with any complaints you have in the same manner. On the other hand, if the seller gives a businesslike reply that shows s/he is willing to help resolve issues when contacted, you'll know you are safe in dealing with him/her.

MUTUAL WITHDRAWALS AND RETALIATORY NEGATIVES 

Another important factor to consider is the number of mutually withdrawn feedback comments a seller has. There are certain instances in which eBay will remove the feedback rating for a transaction for a buyer and seller. The comment remains in the feedback profile, but the negative does not affect the feedback percentage rating. In some situations, this is perfectly acceptable. For example, one of our buyers once left us a negative feedback comment about a tank top she had purchased from another seller. She had bought a medical supply item from us, and left us this other seller's negative comment by mistake. In that case, the mutual feedback withdrawal was entirely appropriate, and very much appreciated by us!

However, some sellers will leave a negative comment for a buyer, just out of retaliation for a negative comment received. The seller then hopes the buyer will agree to have both comments withdrawn. Of course, the buyer does not always agree, so, in addition to checking mutually withdrawn feedback, you should also always check the "feedback left for others" when evaluating a seller. A professional, trustworthy seller will never leave a negative comment for a buyer for the sole purpose of retaliation. Obviously, there will be times when a seller feels the need to warn other sellers about a buyer by leaving a negative comment. However, if the seller is at fault and the buyer contacted him/her to try to resolve the problem, a professional seller will not retaliate with negative feedback.

POSITIVE FEEDBACK 

Positive feedback comments can tell you a lot about your prospective seller, so be sure to read these, as well.  A lot of buyers just leave things like, "thanks", or "A+++++" for every seller they're happy with.  But many others leave well-thought-out, informative comments that can really show you what kind of seller you're looking at.  So, take the time to read through your seller's positive comments, as well as the negatives and neutrals.

Another thing to consider is something known as a "soft positive".  Many buyers are reluctant to leave negative or neutral feedback, so they will leave  soft positive.   Do you see a lot of comments like, "great item, but slow to ship", "fast shipment, poor communication", "item received three weeks after payment", "OK", etc?  If so, you might want to do a little more investigating before placing a bid.  This could mean that fear of retaliatory negative feedback has caused other buyers to leave soft positives when negatives or neutrals might have been warranted. 

SUMMARY

In summary, feedback can tell a very complete story about the trustworthiness of eBay sellers. Be sure to check your seller's overall feedback score, his/her percentage rating, the content of the negative comments received and his/her response to them, mutually withdrawn comments, the nature of positive feedback comments received, and his/her feedback left for others. When you've done this, and everything checks out, you can rest assured that you will enjoy a happy eBay buying experience!