ebay has been a necessary evil for selling my artwork. They raise their rates on an annual basis, sometimes twice a year. Their most recent price hike just murdered ebay stores owners (of which I am one.) Now ebay is changing the feedback ratings.
“In addition to the current positive, negative, or neutral comment, buyers will now be able to rank, on a scale of 1-5, four key aspects of a transaction: accuracy of item description, communication, shipping time, and shipping and handling charges.”
In a perfect world, these ratings would be great. There would be clear indications on how well or poor an ebay seller is. I pride myself on describing my ebay items with great detail. I always send notifications to my ebay customers when I have shipped their purchased item. In my experience of being an ebay purchaser, it is very rare to be contacted by a seller when an item has been shipped, but I make sure I do.
However, it’s been proven that allowing the public to rate things on a scale of 1 to 5 is completely inaccurate. Look at any product on cnet.com. There’s always a few idiots who don’t know what they’re doing and leave terrible reviews even though a product doesn’t deserve such low ratings. The same thing is going to happen with ebay.
The “1 to 5” ranking system will not be a gauge of the performance of an ebay seller. It will be a gauge on how many idiots an ebay seller deals with. I can’t wait until I get my art website online so I can move away from the ebay monster.
I feel your annoyances. Sometimes too many details get in the way … and I’m a detail-oriented fellow! Like you, I am a communicator when I’m selling on ebay. So many sellers are not. Sometimes I feel like maybe I’m being annoying if, as a buyer, I email a seller who hasn’t contacted me at all and say “Can I get an update?” If I can’t does that mean I give the person 1 star? Rankings and stars and props [“e” and otherwise] are just another step that don’t always give an accurate view of a person or an action.… Read more »
This new system totally favors the big sellers. They will be able to get enough sales where their stats will normalize over time. The smaller sellers will be hurt when they get one or two crummy stars on something, and it will take longer for it to average out.
In other words, eBay is shutting out the smaller sellers.
what’s this art website of yours? when will it be live?
I think it’s a good time for Google to jump into the online auction business.
Yes, yes! ebay needs some serious competition. Yahoo has an auction business. It’s pathetic. It was slightly popular about 6 years ago. If google takes it seriously, they can give ebay a run for their money
Nobody will be able to give eBay a run for their money. You know why? Brand recognition in their niche. You can’t just force the google brand onto auctions. Why? It’s the general stupid public. Sure people who are more advanced on the web will see that Google can put out a better auction service than eBay. But think of the regular person. The grandpa and grandma. When you say “google” they think search. When you say “ebay” they think auction. The true is flipped around. You need to find something?–google! You need to sell or buy something?–eBay! These are… Read more »
your comment is true, spudart, and it brings me great sadness.