My personal definition of a "Bad Seller":

*uses NPB alert before sending a SINGLE headsup message. Just one message makes all the differece, as many of us buyers have real life issues and forget, not to mention you click through more pages to file an NPB, so why not treat your buyer like a person. Still if they bother to communicate with buyer afterwards, not a bad seller and still eligible for 5 star ratings cept for a 4 on communication from a FAIR buyer

*uses poor packing practices. If you can't pack it properly so the buyer receives the item they bid on, don't bother selling it by mail. Still have to give some room for USPS FUBAR, but good packing should prevent this.

*substantially mispresents the item being auctioned and offers no refund. If refunded this would be 5 stars other than a 4 for item description and S&H, 3 or less for S&H if misrepresented item is HEAVY

*Takes way too long to send item and did not communicate with buyer first to inform of any delays, such as weather, emergency etc. If it takes more than 2 weeks(3 weeks for media mail, 4 weeks during christmas) from payment to receive the item, its gonna take some communication from the seller for me to score it 4 stars or higher. For International add an extra week for customs, etc


The Important thing to remember is that if the Seller IS in POSTIVE communication with you and follows through, they definately deserve a postive feedback rating.

All in all though, in nearly ten years on Ebay 2% of the sellers I have dealt with would qualify as bad sellers.