5 Stars

Timm, you have to remember that many times, you're not dealing with a professional seller. Many stamp listings are by hobbyists selling part of their collection. For them, a buyer who has claimed non-receipt is not a potential good future customer.

I buy and sell on ebay - more selling than buying. I too block anyone who claims non-receipt. I too ask the question "where do these letters end up?" Is that discrimination? Sure. Is it discrimination if a buyer chooses to NOT do business with me for some reason? Of course. That door swings both ways. I am absolutely sure that SOME PERCENTAGE of "not received" reports are from thieves. What percent? Who knows? I also suspect that maybe some claims are from a guy whose neighbors steal his mail - or maybe his letter carrier steals his mail. Or maybe the mail delivery system in his country is corrupt or incompetent. If I lose a little business by trying to control my risk so be it. I have no doubt that my "policy" has prevented thieves from stealing from me more than one time.

I agree with blocking. Seller are not here to build free collections. Before I started selling I was a buyer. Only once was a letter not received. When I started selling I had 5 letters around Christmas reported as not received. It was about the same time as ebay started offering first class package with tracking. I went that way and never had a loss again.
Bill

Funny how tracked shipments almost never get lost. If I place 100 different mail orders, I'd bet you $100 that I'd get all 100 of them, tracked or not. But of 100 shipments I send without tracking, I bet at least 5 buyers would claim non-receipt.

There was one buyer who took the cake, however. He bought one of my WW packets (about 2.5 cents each) and he claimed that many of the stamps were fakes. Keep in mind this is a mixture of common, mostly postally used stamps from the last 80 years or so. I thought maybe he was referring to a Dunes issue, of which I might send one or two in a packet. So I asked him what he meant and he said the stamps with "Sverige", "Norge" and "Island" on them weren't real because these weren't real places. And he swore up and down that he'd been collecting stamps for 10 years and really knows his stuff. I didn't even give him the dignity of a response after that.

Asking for a matching postmark is getting a bit too picky. When mailings have to be dropped off and they are postmarked upstairs in the back room of the post office, it is usually 1:00 AM the next day. If labels must be printed after the mail goes out on Saturday, they definitely won't be postmarked until Monday.

While it would be nice to charge for actual postage only, packing materials are expensive as is insurance. (A dealers policy which includes coverage for more expensive mailings will cost thousands of dollars per year.) Worse, the cost of postage is no longer what it seems. Some buyers may be really annoyed about the loss of stamps on mailings received after late April. Finally, under ebay rules, mailing of light weight items to Canada and the rest of the world may be less expensive that tracked First Class Package rates within the United States.

I don't know about overkill in packaging, but I know that the weakest link is the label. I had one first class package returned after someone tried to force it through a mail sorting machine. Because of its thickness, instead of being rejected, most of the label was stripped off leaving only the return address, fortunately. Lesson learned, use a smaller, thicker package instead of a larger thinner one, especially if it won't bend. I routinely cut a piece of corrugated cardboard and insert it into a bubble wrap envelope to make it thick enough and rigid enough. I also use photo mailers, but they don't seem to be quite as reliable.

If a buyer believes that an item was not as described, I would like to hear about it before ebay does. Sometimes, buyers don't read descriptions carefully or may misinterpret what they see. If an error occurred, I would like to have a chance to correct it first.

In general, the DSR ratings are not particularly useful or even statistically valid because of the high concentration of ratings at one end of the scale. If a DSR of 3 meant satisfactory in every respect with 4 and 5 being above that and 1 and 2 lower ratings, it would be much easier to build a set of seller quality metrics. As it is now, the best and worst of sellers may be separated only by 0.1 DSR rating. My rating of DSRs: Useless in every respect.

Clark

Don't forget ebay and PayPal both charge us a percentage of what we charge for postage.

CFRPHOTO:
Please remember I did NOT say these were my opinions but those of others in the lobby of a stamp show.

Quote: "I had one first class package returned after someone tried to force it through a mail sorting machine. Because of its thickness, instead of being rejected, most of the label was stripped off leaving only the return address, fortunately."

Now if your return address also had been torn off and the Post Office was not able to return it to you - would you also block your customer from bidding when he contacts you about not receiving his order like so many of the previous posts from others state?

Blocking a customer or discontinuing to buy from a seller on ebay has nothing to do with discrimination. It is a business decision. As a buyer I can choose who not to purchase from, and as a seller I should be able to choose not to sell to someone. "No shoes..no shirt"...blah blah.

I have often been worried about buying something and not receiving it within several days. In one case I contacted the dealer and he told me to wait one more week as it may have been held up by customs. He was right. In most cases, reputable dealers will send high value, and multiple orders via registered mail, and post the tracking number. These are the dealers I do business with the most.

In any case, if I were to do business with a dealer and did not receive an item I would personally contact the dealer and inquire about the shipment. It is possible that mail may get damaged or lost occasionally and I would expect any dealer to honor the purchase agreement for the promised merchandise.

ebay is a nice tool, and I have found some hard to find things and often contact the dealer first before bidding to establish a relationship. But ratings are a joke. I have always given 5 stars. Unfortunately, many sellers don't return the courtesy so sometimes I am less than willing to take time to complete the worthless rating form. I also use ebay sparingly...Local stamp shows and my local brick and mortar stamp shop get the bulk of my business.