'new' Wave Of Ebay Feedback? Buyer First Then The Seller?

Feedback for buyers is moot now so many don't bother to even leave it. You can buy from me and send me a check written in crayon on construction paper, email me ahead of time and tell me it's gonna bounce even if the bank does take it, then tell me you're having an affair with my wife, and I still can't leave you anything but positive.... and it better be worded positive or ebay will remove it. Pointless, wouldn't you say?

I lol'd, but so true.

So if my ebay feedback is all from buying, 100% at around 130 purchases, will it show when I try selling or do I go to zero based on selling?

Spoken like someone who has never sold a thing on ebay. The transaction does not end until the buyer receives the item and is satified with it, simple as that. A prompt payment does not guarantee that a buyer is not a bidiot. The buyer has plenty of potential things to complain about and illegitimately ding the feedback of the seller.

As an example, a seller mails an item 1st Class with DC and proper postage the day after payment is made. Postal employee in Bumblefart, Missouri misplaces the package and it eventually arrives at its destination after three weeks. Even though the buyer could have looked up the DC to confirm that the package was indeed mailed, many buyers would give out a completely undeserved NEG for that even though the seller had no control over the delivery time.

Another example- I am selling an 1875 SL quarter that has been unmercilessly polished. The date is clearly listed in the title and the polishing treatment is listed in the body of the auction in bold type. The buyer receives it and immediately leaves a NEG thinking the coin was an 1857 and was not polished. How is it the seller's fault for the buyer not completely reading the auction and understanding what they are actually bidding on?

I could go on all day long but I hope you get the point I am trying to make. Buyers have very little accountability anymore since they cannot receive anything but Pos FB. It is your duty as a buyer to completely read the entire auction before bidding and to contact the seller with any problems you may have before escalating to a dispute(and freezing the seller's PayPal account in the process). Yes, there are plenty of shady sellers out there but the good ones far outweigh the bad and those good seller's fees depend on the strength of feedback and DSRs.

Personally, I will NEVER leave feedback first for a buyer. If I notice that someone has not left FB two or three weeks after delivery, I will usually send an email making sure the item was ok. This will prompt many buyers to go back and leave Pos FB but if the buyer does not respond, then they get nothing more from me.

thanks biokemist. I hope I have not offended you by stating my opinion on my role as a buyer. perhaps I should have said, my role as a responsible, attentive, non-bidiot buyer! I have sold like three things on ebay. I am most certainly a buyer-centric person. That said, I may not be leaving a lot of feedback on ebay anymore given this trend. So, if someone leaves you unwarranted negative feedback, do you then just leave nothing for them or do you put in negative words with a positive check mark. I think that can be done - right?

Nah, no offense here "Bidiot" is my own little term for the type of buyer I was describing, I am certain you would not fall into that category

Regarding the feedback, if a seller left me a Neg I would first try to find out why and then try to get the seller to revise FB. I have only had to do that once after a buyer claimed I sent the wrong coin. I was selling several burnished W Silver Eagles at the time and the seller claimed it was a different coin from the one pictured. It was almost comical because they were all identical and in the OGP, there was no visible difference between any of them. I eventually got a FB revision after offering the seller a 10% future discount(which they never used...). Short of the buyer committing fraud, there is no way to force a buyer to leave Pos FB.

If I am unable to get a FB revision, then the buyer would get no FB from me at all since negs cannot be left and any snarky comments left as Pos FB get deleted by ebay. As I mentioned before, FB Left for Others can be quite revealing and I have cancelled a couple bids based on what I read there. That is pretty harsh and accusatory but the two bidders I cancelled and blocked had a blatant history of leaving undeserved Neg FB for many sellers, it is best to avoid a situation like that before it even has a chance to happen.

For all of you that say buyer feedback is pointless, here is what I say.

I don't buy or sell a lot of stuff on ebay, but whatever I do, I do it honestly. And I think people should take the time to recognize good honest people on ebay no matter what side of the transaction they are. That's how you make it a better community. Now I understand the whole thing about ebay not allowing anything but positive feedback for your buyers. So then for all the jerks out there don't leave feedback, and use any other ebay resources out there to protect you as sellers, like unpaid cases, or appealing useless neg feedbacks etc. But at least take the time to recognize people who are buying honestly.

That way when you as a seller have a problem with a buyer, you can go and look. And differentiate between someone who has 200+ buyer feedback and has always had smoothe tranactions, and another one who has 3 unpaid cases in the last month and 0 positive feedback as a buyer. You know that the first one is probably a geniune issue, and the second one could be foul.

I've never sold anything on ebay but used to buy plenty on it years ago and never ever thought it odd that a seller would wait until I had first left feedback before posting theirs. From my perspective the seller doesn't know I am a genuine, honest buyer until I have proven as such and part of that imo means until I have left appropriate feedback on the transaction. As a buyer once I have the item in hand and have checked it properly reflects what was advertised as far as I'm concerned it is the responsible thing to let the seller know that (a) it arrived safely and (b) I am happy with the item. If I was a seller I would not personally leave positive feedback for the buyer until I know both of those conditions have been met, I don't see that as unreasonable.

As far as removing the ability to neg a buyer I can understand why - the system was far to open to abuse by dodgy sellers doing all they could to ensure positive feedback for themselves (or at least avoid negative feedback) even from customers who found they had been duped.

Norm