Who Sells on ebaY?

Well, that's easy- Every type person you could possible imagine, including:

*  Reputable licensed businesses who've extended their sales from there brick & mortar stores to ebaY

*  Licensed businesses who operate online only & may have sites aside from their ebaY stores

*  Mom's trying to make a little supplemental income by selling things from around the house

*  Artists using ebaY as a venue to sell their work

*  People who are sick or disabled & can no longer work outside of their homes

*  People interested in a particular hobby & find ebaY a great way to find others who share the same interest

*  Members who are usually buyers, but sell items for a little extra $$$ when they need it

*  Scam artists, cheats & thieves

The good, the bad & the ugly ~ You can bet, they're all here, so deciding who you should buy from, can be tricky

Can't I just check their feedback score?

NO!  Do NOT rely on feedback scores to determine what kind of trading experience you'll get from a seller.  Here are some reasons why:

Feedback scores DO NOT reflect negative feedbacks that have been withdrawn! 

*  The comments can still be found(but in cases where someone has hundreds or thousands, it's just too time consuming), but it doesn't count against the rating.

* CHECK to see how many feedback withdrawls the potential seller has.  They could have 100% positive feedback, and have 600 members who have left feedback, but they might have 36 mutually withdrawn feedbacks.  There score should really be 94%

Feedback can be manipulated, especially when a buyer/seller is new

*  Sellers that leave positive feedback for their buyers just because they've paid quickly, have opened a door for those who seek opportunity.  The buyers may in turn threaten to leave negative feedback(and some will actually follow through with it) if the seller doesn't go above and beyond the original terms.

*  REMEMBER THIS SELLERS(for those who have not yet had to learn this the hard way)~ There is no way to know if you've been happy with the whole trading experience with a buyer until you know that they are satisfied, and confirmed it by leaving positive feedback.

*  REMEMBER THIS BUYERS(same thing)~ If sellers don't leave you feedback before you do, you should do whatever you can to work out a resolution before leaving negative feedback.  Generally a seller has more feedback than a buyer.  If you leave them negative feedback, they can leave it for you.  This will pull your score down a lot more than it will theirs.

There are no rules against retaliatory feedback!

*  Many people think that their is a policy that will protect them against retaliation.  There absolutely IS NOT!  There is a statement in the HELP pages that "suggests" that you be fair, and not do it, but let's face it, what we're talking about here is protecting ourselves from the dishonest people, so we KNOW they're out there.

*  Here are 2 examples:

  I won an item & paid immediately.  After a month, & messages to their ebaY message center & email address, I filed a dispute through PayPal to find that they'd put the apt # above the street name on my package(they didn't print labels through PayPal where the address WAS correct), so it was returned.  They said they'd send it back out- 3 weeks later, now 7 weeks after payment, I said if it was not yet in transit, I'd really just prefer a refund so that I could buy another.  They refused, and I DID receive it 3 business days later.  I left negative feedback, they did too, saying ~It's the buyers responsibility to provide the correct address~(remember, I paid through PayPal, and there's was the ONLY one of many that had not arrived).  Then they sent a message to my email account saying, ~ HA!  How do you like that?  Now agree to mutually withdraw so that we can both get this tarnish off our record. ~  I opted to NOT withdraw, saying that I really was not happy & felt obligated to warn others about my experience & kept my neg. feedback

   I'd been looking for a good price on an item for several weeks, & finally won 1.  When I went to pay, the seller had increased the S&H by $100.  They ended up losing their Power Seller status over this.  I asked them to please fix the S&H fee, and they replied that they decided to test it first, and it didn't work- This would have involved that they take the very large item out of the sealed manf. box, assemble it, install the 6 D batteries, before they could test.  I said to go ahead & send it, and I'd just exchange it at a local store.  They replied 2 days later that they'd overlooked my message, and had already returned.  I left neg. feedback & they left it right back.

Each member is only counted once, no matter how many total feedback they've left

*  I'll use my own feedback for example-  My feedback score right now is 891 & 99.1% ~ I've had 898 buyers/sellers leave positive feedback & 7 leave negative BUT I've had 1512 TOTAL + feedback left.  If feedback were counted per item, my score would be 99.5%

*  If you're shopping with someone who sells out of a specific category, they're going to have more repeat business than someone who sells things more randomly.  See how many people are coming back as repeat buyers, as opposed to what the actual score is.

Every seller has different standards, and every buyer has different expectations.

This is the MOST IMPORTANT element in making this choice.

*  You must remember that you are looking for a seller that will meet YOUR expectations.  If you have an experience that doesn't meet them, you have the choice to shop somewhere else next time.  Invoke your right to do so.

*  Speaking from both ends, buyers & sellers, things that might have the most weight of importance are: offering as many items as possible, getting the items to the buyers as quickly as possible, communication, one on one service, packing so as to protect items & integrity of package in transit, offering the lowest prices, and the list goes on.  The weight of each components priority will varry from seller to seller.  It's just a part of us all being different.  Try to stick with sellers whose priorities seem to coincide w/ your expectations.

*  If your seller is offering great prices, they're profits will probably be less.  This means that they are more at a hardship for keeping huge amounts of product on hand at all times, and are cutting back on staffing to save money too, so shipping may sometimes be longer.

*  If your seller offers lots of different items that fall into many different categories, and don't keep specific items in stock, they have to spend a lot of their labor time posting items.  They will probably not have the means to communicate as well.

Two people with identical experiences can be on opposite ends when it comes to their level of satisfaction.  Understanding that these differences are just a part of humanity, may keeps us from taking what WE consider a "bad experience" less personally, so we can just try a different outlet and move on.

HAVE FUN ~ SHOP ON =)