with ebays feedback policy now being sub par for sellers and misleading for new buyers may be i can give some tips

as a seller i never leave feedback first,
i have an auto feedback that is left when positive feedback is left and that saves me some time and the buyer gets their feedbacks with in 24-48 hours of a positive
neutral or negatives feedbacks are handled on a case to case
if i feel it was undeserved i will leave a comment and i will NOT leave a positive with a negative comment as some sellers do. i do however, encourage buyers to take a minute and go back and re READ the listing before making any hasty feedback. the reason i suggest this is because a lot of times buyers do not read the listings think they are getting something entirely different than what is described.
example i had a lady think she was getting a qty of 5 but the item had a 5 in the name of the product,
 if she would have read the description it was listed as 1 take 5 cup. in this case before she purchased she should have asked if she was unsure.
a buyer leaving any kind of feedback lower than positive or less than 5 stars negatively impacts the sellers business so be sure the negative is truly deserved and assume some responsibilities as a buyer if you do not read or ask questions before you place your bid. most sellers would much rather make sure you are getting what you think than to deal with refunds and negatives.
4.6 or below can get a seller kicked of ebay. so please DON'T just go through and hit 3 3 3 3! leave it BLANK if you have no opinion
NEUTRALS still have a negative affect on the seller please do not leave a neutral thinking it is truly neutral other buyers tend to think of them as bad marks, i mean they show up in a separate area so they must be bad, they also stand out in toolhaus.org

recently a NEW USER who had just paid for an item left a neutral SHE HAD NOT RECIEVED THE ITEM  to give it the proper feedback she left 9 netrals that day for 9 different sellers, i contacted her and her response was i did not think it made a difference but she thought she should give me a nuetral so i did not think she was not going to rate me.
wll i would rather you wait until you get the item then give an honest rating or NO RATING AT ALL then to do this.
another buyer left 250 nuetrals in a single day one seller got hit with over 50.

how do i  rate an item
ebay rates on 4 subjects
1>ITEM DESCRIPTION:  is the item as described? this goes back to the double checking and asking questions, if it says it was new was it new, etc..
2>SHIPPING TIME: ok this is not how long the post office or ups take to get it to you, do not make that mistake. this is how long from the time PAYMENT CLEARS to the time the SELLER SHIPS the item.  if you pick parcel post or in some cases media mail expect the package to take 2-4 weeks from the date of shipping. the seller has no control after the delivery company accepts it
3>COMMUNICATION: if you ask questions and get responses you have something to work with please don't give a bad mark here just beacuse the seller did not email you everyday with the status of your package. you can take some of the work load if you need to know by going to view details, if the seller is like me and ships via usps and prints labels via paypal us shipping tracking numbers can be found there and give you an idea of when to expect your package. if the seller does not THEN  ask them if the package has a tracking number.
 for international orders i post the customs number and date of shipment in the view detals section.
4>SHIPPING CHARGES: buyers if you only buy and never sell maybe you do not realize there is more to shipping than the cost of the postagethere is packing tape, ink and paper for labels, bubble wrap, boxes, plastic or padded envelopes( these alone can cost up to $2), and delivery confirmation (i will not ship with out it to US) these all have a cost over and above postage i would think no more than $2-$4 for a handling fee. so keep that in mind when leaving those 5 stars.


i think it is safe to say all sellers are striving for the 5.

ebay is not handling the whole feedback very fairly, when it comes to non paying bidders either
sure sellers can file a complaint but the next unsuspecting seller just sees they have 100% feedback and has no idea they could be a habitual non payer, i think ebay should allow selers to leavea negative to buyers they file non paying bidders disputes with. but that is another issue.