New Ebay Rules May Help Stamp Sellers But May Hurt Them

Right now to get a seller discount you need a top rated seller status and this requires uploading tracking info for shipments. I used to get one before this requirement but I dont now because I send most items in envelopes with stamps.
In February this will change and if you dont upload info you still get a "good count" if your buyers click the new box saying they got their item on time.
As a buyer I always give out the 5 stars and click the box so hopefully everyone else will also.

It would be nice if people left Feedback both as sellers and buyers. I have a few customers who think it's a pain I guess(one has got15-20 on my list right now and not a comment), but it lets me know the item arrived. I leave Feedback as soon as I mail an item. On the other hand I've bought stuff and had sellers who couldn't be bothered at all or held out until they got your Feedback before bothering to leave theirs.

Agree on the feedback points mentioned above, so many people just don't bother leaving any feedback at all. I make a point to leave all sellers / buyers + feedbacks. I don't see the point of sellers not leaving immediate feedbacks for buyers, you can't leave negatives as a seller anyways

Not giving the buyer auto feedback does what other than insult the buyer?

Hit positive and that is it.

The system could very much loose most of the bells and whistles.

Buyer feedbak ratings need to be removed. They are meaningless, since they can only be 100%. Does Amazon have buyer rtings? No.

Drop the running total count for everyone. Do what Amazon does and give a range of feedback comments under the various star ratings so the buyer can make a judgment call on their own by looking at a variety of ratings and realistic comments. Then at least you can make a call as to whether it's the item that's the problem or the way the seller operates or something else. I've had my star ratings upgraded now and then by ebay but I have no idea what the buyer thought was wrong when they left their rating, whatever it was.

The ebay one-size-fits-all tracking policy has been a real impediment to stamp dealers and collectors on ebay. Unfortunately the US Postal Service does not offer any cost tracking options for First Class mail even though technology now exists to make it possible. If the USPS ever wants to convert from an unmanaged to a managed mail processing stream, tracking would be essential.

The ebay requirement for tracking is that the tracking numbers be uploaded and verified for at least 90% of items shipped. The updated requirement adds a time element for the acceptance scan (frequently omitted in some post offices). Obtaining the 20% final value fee discount also requires one day or less handling (based on Pacific Time, leaving East Coast sellers at a disadvantage). Some of the sting of not getting the discount was removed when ebay lowered final value fees for stamps and coins in the spring about a year and a half ago.

The effect of the policy is the creation of two classes of stamp sellers. Sellers of more expensive stamps will attempt to stay top rated. Sellers of less expensive stamps have no chance, because the difference in the cost between First Class mail and a First Class package is more than $2 if postage stamps are used or $1.50 if stamps are not used. For expensive stamps, tracking is a benefit. Otherwise it is too expensive for small light weight items like stamps.

I don't believe that ebay even considered this when they created the policy. Their Global Shipping program is even dumber. Some stamp sellers use it, but I don't because it is less expensive to mail First Class to Canada or Europe than mailing a First Class Package to the US. Again, this is because stamps are light weight items that can be mailed at a one ounce rate.

Because my sales mix includes items other than stamps, I list fewer lower priced stamps on ebay.

One major dealer who was caught faking tracking numbers to qualify for the 20% discount was caught and given a one week suspension, a slap on the wrist. Smaller sellers attempting the same ruse would probably be suspended forever.

I hope that Stanley Gibbons can get its act together and offer a site that can compete with ebay.

Clark

I have come to the conclusion that any system they use will be exploited. The current system is being exploited to the point that I feel bad for sellers who try their best to use it properly. But as long as ebay looks the other way by allowing folks to buy and sell seller accounts, pad feedbacks, and favor 'Top Sellers'; I tend to not waste my time on it.

Instead, I boycott the existing system and send a note to buyers and sellers after each transaction. Not only is this more personal, but it doesn't force me to provide feedback in less than a few words.
Don

It seems like people, no matter what the system will try to exploit it.

Agree with comment that Buyer feedback ratings need to be removed. They sure are meaningless. I wish sellers could still leave non paying buyers a negative, have a guy owing $2000 on 39 items and he is not paying even with cases raised on him. His feedback never gets touched and stays 100% this does not let other sellers know anything abt the buyer. So what is the point of buyer feedback? Yet buyer can leave neg feedback anytime to sellers if something goes wrong. The star rating system on sellers is another thing ebay should ditch. Mine looks like this below, how are they rating Communication if 90% of buyers don't need to ask sellers anything? What is the point of rating shipping and handling charges on my lots when the highest postage I charge is $2.75?

Item as described 1350
Communication 1348
Shipping time 1351
Shipping and handling charges 1431

I think that all of what ebay does is for the benefit of ebay. In other words and with regards to its feedback system, ask yourself what benefits ebay? Does protecting Top Sellers benefit ebay? Does not limiting multiple seller accounts benefit ebay? ebay obviously has a vested interest in generating as many sales as possible. It is like they own the local flea market and the expectation is for them to care if some of the sellers are pedaling off-shore knockoff merchandise.

As an example, consider that ebay (and its systems) have done nothing about that French seller with the bogus US rarity listings. (He is back with 100% Feedback as seen on this listing http://www.ebay.com/itm/181867237968/?rmvSB=true ). Another example includes the British cartel listings, all with 100% feedback. I only wish ebay would be honest and admit that the feedback system has many exploits instead of acting like that buyers should be confident in it.

I would say that there is one positive thing that the current Feedback system has encouraged. As a means to avoiding negative feedback and maintain 100% rating, many sellers listings promote communication when a problem occurs. I am unsure if this was intended, but anything that promotes the two parties to resolve any issues is a good thing.
Don

If ebay was truly interested in maximizing sales and presumably their bottom line, they would eliminate third party ads from their site. The ads interfere with rendering web pages, resulting in page freezes and poor scrolling performance. I can see many reasons for buyers to get frustrated and give up without buying anything. Better page rendering performance would allow potential buyers with limited time to check more listings and maybe do a better job of comparison shopping.

While some would say that I should use a different browser, I don't believe that anyone is in a position to influence potential buyers to use a different browser. Changing browsers is not likely to fix anything, nor is "clearing the cache or deleting cookies" going to help. The ebay site design is poor. It inhibits easy navigation. It has no real provision for comparison shopping other than sorting a search list by price. Other ebay rules like tracking requirements have made it expensive for sellers to list lower price items unless they charge excessive amounts for shipping or eat the cost, now $2.04. Oddly enough, it costs less to ship to Canada or the rest of the world because tracking is not required. (Sellers who don't use tracking give up the 20% final value fee discount.) This gives offshore sellers an undeserved advantage.

I am hoping that buyers will spend more time looking at alternative sites like the new Stanley Gibbons site, now that the functionality is starting to come together. I hope that the APS can work to improve images in StampStore and fix some web site navigation annoyances. It is difficult to search by Scott number on DelCampe, but items can sometimes be found. I believe that the first site to handle catalog numbers properly in search and provide item specifics consistent with philatelic usage could have a chance to be competitive with ebay.

I believe that most legitimate sellers would leave or diversify if they could.

Clark

I've found the stamps to go site very useful for buying individual stamps.

If ebay really wanted to sell more in the stamps category, they'd spend some time making it easier to actually find what you're looking for. More sub-categories would be a huge step in the right direction, plus they should add a field for catalog numbers and make it searchable by that field. Say what you will about BidStart, but at least it's easy to find specific stamps without wading through piles of unrelated listings. You can browse a seller's listings sorted by catalog number, etc. Not so with ebay. Finding a specific stamp can sometimes be an exercise in frustration.

ebay's front-end user interface, at least for standard web browsers (as opposed to phone apps) has changed very little in the last few years. They really need to spend some time updating this to make it easier to use and easier to find what you're looking for, etc. I think they make so much money on things like electronics that the collectibles market is more of an afterthought. There are a lot of things they could do to save clicks and time and presumably make customers spend more money.

The stamps category isn't even a blip on their radar. It is tiny in comparison to other collectibles segments, e.g., coins, sports cards. To assume that ebay will ever do anything stamps-specific isn't a reasonable expectation.

And all of those put together probably pale in comparison next to electronics. This is just a wild guess, but I'd be that iPads alone account for more sales than the entire stamp category, or at least a sizable portion of the stamp category. No, I don't expect that ebay will ever do much, if anything, to improve the stamp-shopping experience, but one can always hope.