Online Auction Articles Make Money on eBay and Other Online Auctions With our informative educational auction articles enjoy
How to Check an eBay Seller's Reputation
Date: Wednesday November 19, 2008
When you buy something from an eBay seller, you are giving them your money and hoping that you will get something in return. However many guarantees of safety eBay might make to you, nothing is certain: if you just give your money to scammers all the time without doing any checks then the chances are you won't get all of that money back.
That's why you should always check the seller's reputation, or 'feedback rating'. This is a quick and easy-to-read summary of their history as an eBay seller, which gives you some idea of whether or not you should trust them with your money. Buying anything is a calculated risk: you want to minimise that risk.
How to Check Feedback Ratings
On each item's description page, there is a box in the top-right hand corner about the seller, with the title 'Seller information'. This contains the seller's name, their feedback score, and their positive feedback percentage, as well as any stars they have earned.
Different coloured stars are given to eBay sellers depending on their rating, in this sequence: yellow, blue, turquoise, purple, red, green, shooting yellow, shooting turquoise, shooting purple, shooting red. Anyone with a 'shooting' star is an experienced eBay member who you should be able to trust.
If you click on the seller's name, you can get to a more detailed view of their reputation - their 'member profile' page. This page shows the total number of people who gave them a positive or negative rating, as well as a breakdown by time. You can also see a complete history of all the comments that have ever been left about them, with the most recent first.
What to Look For
You might assume that anyone with a very high number can be trusted, but that isn't always true. It is more important to look at their positive feedback percentage - and you should really consider anything below 99% to be a red flag and investigate further.
Take a look through the first visible page with the most recent transactions: are there any negative comments? What do they say? Take others' experiences into account, as they could happen to you if you deal with this person. Be careful not to punish sellers unfairly, however, if they did bad things in their past on eBay but have improved since.
You should look at the breakdown by time and ignore any negative feedback that was left a long time ago. Equally, though, you should sit up and pay attention if a seller seems to have been left an out-of-character amount of bad feedback in the last month or so.
Now that you know who to trust, it is worth learning a little more about how the different kinds of auctions work, so that you don't accidentally slip up and make yourself and your feedback page look bad.
"Thank you for reading our Online Auction articles. We have other Auction Articles you will enjoy here on this site as well, come back any time...you are most welcome".
DISCOVER Jim Cockrum's eBook "The Silent Sales Machine Hiding On eBay" will teach you how to make money on eBay even if your items ARE NOT selling Simply amazing...and simple..The number one book about e-bay Click Here To Download Now
AuctionAds: Increase the bid on your site's income!
Free auction tools:
- Auction Typo - Find A Misspelt Bargain In Seconds
- Auction Lotsnipe - Free eBay Auction Sniper
- Auction Ad Creator - Free Auction Ad Generator
- Auction Venues - Free Auction Site Directory...
- AuctioneStores - Free eBay Stores Directory..
- AuctioneZone - Free Auction Articles...
- Auction Piccies - Free Auction Image Hosting
- Free Auction Templates - Create great looking auction templates & listings
- Feedback - Free eBay Feedback Display Tool
- Auction Typo - Find A Misspelt Bargain In Seconds
- Minimizing eBay Fees
- This FREE report will show you how to stop wasting money on eBay upgrades and select the listing type that will result in the lowest fees.
- 19 Ways To Quickly Improve Your eBay Auctions
- This article explains 19 ways to get higher selling prices in your eBay auctions.
- The Death Of eBay?
- I was originally going to call this article eBay 2010 and show you what eBay will look like in two years. But I decided to use the death of eBay instead because it's more dramatic.
- Profiting From eBay Images
- This article explains an easy way to leverage your eBay auction pictures into a steady stream of income.
- eBay PayPal July 2008 Discount Coupon Codes
- PayPal coupons good for discounts on eBay purchases. July 2008 coupon code for 20% off any purchase.
- eBay's Detailed Seller Ratings Reexamined
- I wrote in February about ways to improve your Detailed Seller Ratings to insure you'll get a Final Value Fee discount from eBay. In this article, I reexamine this issue based on two months of results.
- My last negative for a buyer.
- I left my last negative feedback for a poorly behaved buyer earlier this week. Call me petty, but it felt good.
- More On eBay's 2008 Changes. . .
- During February I sent out a series of articles about dealing with eBay's changes. In this issue I'll look at the results of the changes I made to my auctions.
- Overcoming eBay's New Digital Download Prohibition
- You can no longer list downloadable items in categories outside everything else > information products, and must use classified ads rather than auctions or fixed price listings. This article explains four ways to get around this new rule.
- Why Have Multiple eBay Accounts?
- This article explains why you need more than one eBay account.
- Setting Up Additional eBay Accounts
- This article shows you how to set up a second ebay account.
- Comments on eBay Fee Increase and Feedback Changes
- This article contains comments I wrote about an earlier eBay fee increase, and links to a free report covering the 2008 changes.
- How To Sell Quantities Of Items On eBay
- This article explains how to sell quantities of items without depressing selling process.
- Finding eBay Keywords For Old Items
- What Is it? This article explains how to find out keywords related to any item.
- Adding Videos To Your eBay Auctions
- This article explains step by step how to put videos on youtube, and then add videos to your auctions.
- Sorting Antiques - The Three Piles
- This article explains how I sort antiques into three piles. Stuff to sell on eBay, items to place in antique malls, and junk for yard sales or flea markets.
- Using The Word Like In eBay Titles
- eBay doesn't like the word LIKE. You cannot use it in titles to make comparisons to other brands, and you cannot use it in condition statements. The first rule makes sense, but LIKE NEW is a commonly used condition statement. They are trying to protect people who buy underwear on eBay.
- Common eBay Abbreviations
- Have you ever wondered what the abbreviations you see in eBay auctions mean? Here's a list of common (and uncommon) abbreviations and their meanings.
- Create Your Own eBay Most Watched Page
- Since I showed off my most watched items pages, many of my readers asked about making their own. Here's a quick and easy form. Just copy and paste.
- Skip McGrath Says Never Mind
- Skip McGrath wants us to think he's Emily Litella. After promoting Exponent Trading, and attacking me for warning people off, he's now saying Never Mind. I say not good enough.
- BayRSS eBay Affiliate Plugin For WordPress Review
- This is a neat plugin for Wordpress blogs. This review explains how I've been using it, and shows you how to leverage work you are already doing to get some commissions.
- How To Add Audio To eBay Auctions
- There are a few cases when adding a recorded message to your eBay auctions makes sense. It's easy and can be done with the tools you already have. This article explains when to use audio, and shows you step by step how to add sound to your auctions.
- EBay Bidder Tricks
- This article explains ways bidders use questions to take advantage of sellers.
- Easily Increase Your eBay Sales Without Working Harder
- This article uses some personal stories to show you some effortless ways to increase your eBay sales without working harder.
- The Most Successful eBay Sellers
- Have you ever wondered what products the most successful eBay sellers offer? I have. In this article, we'll look at what different eBay sellers offer to discover what products the most successful eBay sellers promote.