Do You Have To Leave Feedback On Ebay?

I usually leave it: feedback is a means of identifying genuine buyers/sellers. It isn't perfect, but it's better than nothing - in my opinion.
A dealer that I often buy from always leaves positive feedback as soon as payment is made: he reckons that paying is all that a buyer can do, and once that's done the paying buyer is entitled to a plus.

Not true at all, you are only looking at it from a buyer's perspective. I could set up an auction, describe the coin accurately, ship the coin in a timely manner yet the buyer could still give me a NEG because they did not read the auction properly and they thought they would be receiving a completely different coin. I have a term for buyers like that- bidiots. I will quit ebay before I give Pos FB to a bidiot. If you don't think it can happen, try selling on ebay and it will happen to you eventually. Part of your responsibility as a buyer is to read the auction properly. I never leave FB for a buyer until I know that the buyer is satisfied with the item. How can I know they are satisfied before they even receive the item?

"Being satisfied" isn't required of a buyer.

I agree with biokemist also. I do not leave feedback as a seller until the buyer leaves feedback for me.

RMAN4443: I agree completely. Perhaps I was misunderstood. My point is that a buyer can complete his end of the deal and still have every right to be not satisfied. (i.e., read my comment in context of the earlier posts)

Others: I also agree that "bidiots" are a nightmare. Every business has to deal with idiots, and this is much worse due to the anonymity. Personally, as a buyer, I have a very low standard for what to expect from E-Bay, and consequently I'm nearly always satisfied enough to leave positive feedback. (the one exception being when I didn't receive my $4 coin, and likewise for other buyers, leading me to wonder if the seller died... a sad footnote.)

But it irks me that sellers wait for my satisfaction before simply stating that I paid promptly... as though whether I paid promptly somehow changes with my dis-satisfaction. Come on! I wish they would read how buyers are supposed to be rated. I never get positive feedback to this effect:

A+++++ buyer. He was satisfied!

I always leave feedback if the buyer pays right away when the auction ends. I appreciate the quick payment and thus leave feedback. If they don't pay until the next few days, then I leave feedback after I get feedback hearing they received their item and are happy.
Kind of a quirky system but that is how I do it. Either way I think feedback is flawed, but that is how it is done at this point I guess. I have never had an issue, but I have bought and sold only on a small scale on ebay.

As a buyer I always leave feedback once I receive the item and make sure it's what I was expecting.
As a seller, I ONLY leave feedback when I receive feedback. I did everything I was supposed to do on my end, list the item, describe it properly, shipped it out on time. If the buyer can not take the time to leave me feedback, they won't get it from me.
But maybe it's sour grapes because of all the problems I've been having on there lately. ebay makes you mark whether or not you accept returns, and even when you select no returns, the buyer can still open a dispute for whatever reason they want, and both ebay and paypal will side with the buyer.