Ebay: Do Nothing... Get Ahead!

I used to be a Power Seller on ebay, but then I took a two week vacation out West last August and when I got home I just couldn't get back into the swing of selling again. I sold a few nickels here and there but so few that after about 4 months I lost my Power Seller rating.

I didn't really care because I was tired of the weekly selling grind and I was also discouraged that I was NOT what ebay calls a Top Rated Seller. Top Rated Sellers get better visability on the items they list and I was really honked off that I was excluded from being a TRS. I was honked off because I received a couple of low "detailed seller ratings" for my shipping costs.

My shipping costs were always the same: $2.00 for the first coin and .25 cents for each additional coin. Well...that's fine with most folks when they win $20 or more worth of coins but when someone occasionally gets LUCKY and wins a coin from me for the starting price of only .99 cents, that $2.00 shipping doesn't always go over too well. Never mind that it's well-packed in a #000 bubble mailer, the $2.00 shipping is twice the cost of the coin...and I got dinged on it...three times. My feedback has always been 100% positive, but my shipping cost detailed seller ratings suffered and thus no TRS rating for me!

So...I have listed next to nothing on ebay in 2010 and I have listed ABSOLUTELY NOTHING over the last 4 weeks...but suddenly, out of the blue, I received an email from them telling me that I have qualified for their Power Seller program! Hurray! Huh?!?! How does THAT happen? At the same time, I also became a Top Rated Seller!

I think I understand the TRS part. A bad DSR I had over a year ago probably finally dropped away and a I now BARELY qualify. But I really don't get the Power Seller part of this recent good fortune...all of which happened while I've been RETIRED from selling!