This is a treatise on how to be a good eBay buyer, meaning
that it goes beyond simply how to buy on eBay and addresses
how to be a buyer that sellers will want to deal with. This
is written from a seller's perspective, so if you think it
is a listing of pet peeves, to some extent that is correct.
But it also has a higher purpose of protecting the eBay
marketplace, which is successful only if populated by quality buyers and
sellers. eBay is a valuable resourse, a treasure, which needs to be
preserved.

The cardinal principle for buyers is, don't bid on an auction or
click "Buy It Now" unless you are serious and intend to pay for the
item. It costs money to sell on eBay. There are listing fees and
final value fees. When a buyer wins an auction or clicks "Buy
It Now" but does not pay, the seller still has to pay the final value
fees. As a buyer you may think "So what, that's not money out of my
pocket." But it has an impact on the eBay marketplace. If sellers can't make
money on eBay, they won't list items, and buyers won't find the things
they want. Or the sellers will raise their prices to recoup the
money lost on final value fees when the buyers don't pay.

"Buyer's remorse" is not an justifiable excuse for not paying.
Nor is finding a better deal on the same item from another seller.

You should thoroughly research the available listings on eBay
before committing to make a purchase. Thoroughly read the item
description. Check the seller's feedback rating. If you have any
questions about the item, ask the seller before committing to buy. Check
if the seller has FAQs you can read to find your answer.
If you don't like a seller's policies, then don't buy from that seller.
Buy from someone else. Buyers don't have the right to dictate their
terms to sellers.

You should be aware that eBay is constantly changing its rules and
policies. A recent (fall 2008) change is that sellers can no longer
offer mailed payment options (checks and money orders) in their
listings. So buyers need to be prepared to pay by PayPal.
Unfortunately, eBay has done a poor job of educating buyers of this
change, and it appears that buyers are blaming sellers for not
offering a mailing address for payments. It's not the seller's
fault. The sellers are merely complying with eBay's rules, which
they have to do or they risk having their listings removed by eBay.

After you have paid for the item and have received the item, there
is one more step you need to complete: leaving feedback for the
seller. Due to more policy changes by eBay, leaving feedback, and
leaving it fairly and correctly, is more important than ever before.
You have 60 days from the date of purchase in which to leave feedback.

I believe buyers should leave feedback first to communicate to the
seller that they are satisfied with the transaction. Sellers take
a huge risk if they leave feedback first, because they don't know
if the buyer is pleased with the product. I don't believe buyers
should be rewarded with positive feedback merely for paying for
the item. Paying is what buyers are supposed to do. How the
buyer acts after they have made their payment is a big part of the
transaction. Unfortunately, there are some buyers out there who are
scammers, who claim they never got the item, or it arrived damaged,
or who actually pull the switcheroo. This is when the buyer has a
damaged item, buys the identical undamaged piece on eBay, then sends
the damaged item back to the seller claiming the damaged item was
the one they bought. Such behavior does not deserve positive feedback.

In addition to the three possible feedback ratings, positive,
neutral, and negative, eBay has added Detailed Seller Ratings,
in which buyers anonymously rate sellers, on a five-star basis, on four categories:
item as described, communication, shipping time, and shipping and
handling charges. eBay is using these Detailed Seller Ratings to
rank sellers' listings in search results.

When you do a search on eBay, the default result is what eBay
calls Best Match. It is based on an inscrutable algorithm which
factors in the sellers' Detailed Seller Ratings. Best Match may
not give you all the eBay listings relevant to your search. You
certainly won't get all the eBay store listings. But you can search
using traditional result sortings, such as items ending soonest, items
with lowest price, etc. But it appears that many buyers don't know
that Best Match is limiting their results. The impact of Detailed
Seller Ratings is that eBay will deem certain sellers who don't have
high enough ratings from being seen in a Best Match search.

What is a good enough rating? It may seem to a buyer that 4 out of 5
is good. But in the eyes of eBay, it is not. A seller with a 4 rating
will be punished in the Best March ranking. Again, why should buyers
care? Well, if sellers can't make money on eBay, they won't list, and
you won't find items you want, or they will be more expensive as sellers
raise prices to offset declining volume of sales. And, with Best Match,
you may be missing out on good deals from good sellers who have been unfairly
penalized by low Detailed Seller Ratings, which may have been left in
ignorance.

So, how can you, as a buyer, help the eBay marketplace and community?
By leaving feedback correctly. But first, if you have a problem or are
unhappy with your purchase, contact your seller before leaving feedback.
And please recall the adage that you can catch more flies with honey than
with vinegar. If you have a problem, please send a polite email stating
the facts. If I get a rude, emotional, or demanding email from a buyer,
I suspect he or she may be a scammer, and most certainly is a jerk. Bad
behavior earns buyers a one-way trip to my Blocked Buyer List. Most sellers
are willing to accomodate polite, rational buyers and will correct mistakes.

If your seller did everything right, then they deserve positive feedback.
If you thought the seller's prices were too high, or you found a better
deal elsewhere later, that is not a valid reason to leave unfavorable
feedback. No one forced you to buy the item. Don't blame the seller
because you did not thoroughly research the marketplace.

And if the seller did everything right, they deserve a five-star
rating on the Detailed Seller Ratings. Please be fair
on these:

Item as described: if you don't recall the description, go back
and read it again. And if you weren't happy with the item, why
didn't you communicate this to the seller?

Communication: please don't fault the seller for communication
if you have a spam filter on your email and you don't bother to
check your junk mail folder.

Shipping time: this refers to the time between when the seller
receives payment and the seller ships the item. This does not
refer to how long the Postal Service or UPS, etc. takes to deliver
the item. The seller has no control over this. And be aware that
Parcel Post and Media Mail can be slow, and if you are on the east
coast and your seller on the west coast, that will take longer too.
Cheap shipping and fast shipping are mutually exclusive. Also,
be aware that your seller may work a full-time job and cannot ship
your item the same day you pay for it.

Shipping and handling costs: you should have been aware of the shipping
cost when you bought the item. If you found the costs unacceptable,
then you should not have made the purchase. Please be aware that your
seller had to buy boxes, bubble mailers, bubble wrap, packing peanuts,
tape, labels, etc, and it is only fair that these costs be included in the
shipping price. Sellers also have to pay PayPal fees on the total
cost of the item.

You can find more information on eBay's new feedback policies at

http://www.leavingfeedback.com