E-bayers are soooooo dumb!

[EZ_E]

I sold a whole batch of coins a month or more ago. I sent everything priority mail and charged $5.00 for everything. I averaged 4.8 out of 5.0 for reasonableness of shipping charges.

 

I just now sold a new bunch of coins and charged but $1.50 shipping that included my costs for the cardboard mailer, airtite, envelope and postage. the rating went up to 4.9 and then, down to 4.8 again.

 

I'm not so much hung up on numbers as the fact that some bonehead was still dissatisfied with the shipping fee.

 

 

I'll say it again......people are soooo dumb!

 

I also noticed that my shipping time rating went down from 5.0 to 4.9 despite the fact that I shipped everything the next day 1st class whether I had received payment or not.

 

I'll say it again......people are soooo dumb!

 

 

Maybe I should follow James Garcia's lead and offer free shipping on everything?

 

That is why the NGC boards have been so refreshing over the past 5+ years. These boards are a microcosm of nothing but standup individuals. Those that don't meet the standard don't last long anyway.

 

I <3 you guys!

[harvey8542]

(thumbs u

[Revenant]

We love you too EZ.

 

I usually give 5's for shipping time based on how long after I paid the seller sent out the coin. If the seller ships within 2 days of receiving payment, he'll probably get a 5. For shipping charges, a seller has a good shot at getting a 5 as long as they didn't charge me more than $5 for shipping & insurance and they offer reasonable discounts for shipping on multiple items.

 

I might be the exception but I don't usually try to hit somebody in the scores unless they sat on the item and my money for 4+ days or they wanted $6+ for the S&H&I.

[Dwaine]

I gave you 5 stars on my one lot I won from you.

[EZ_E]

I gave you 5 stars on my one lot I won from you.

 

Thanks, bro. (thumbs u

 

Oh, I didn't know you were that Dwaine!

[BankNote1]

I think the only way to keep a "5" is ship the day before they pay for the coin. Also you need to give them $5 for the shipping charges!

I don't think many eBayers have a clue on what it costs to mail something. On a $300 coin the insurance is over $5 not counting postage. I don't make enough with ebay seller fees and PayPal seller fees to give postage away as well!!

[Coin]

I usually don't care about the silly ratings and just give every seller 5's across the board unless they do something really exceptional that warrants clicking a lower number . I can see that those ratings could have had some kind of meaning if there was an arbitraitor involved with the awarding , but when newbies and adults with child-like fantasies are allowed to openly input , it's just not a viable judgement tool. Some might say it is better than nothing , but is it really?

 

Victor , you get fives across the boards all day in my book anyway !

Don't lose any sleep over the scores , they are hardly even looked at anyway.

[EZ_E]

Victor , you get fives across the boards all day in my book anyway !

Don't lose any sleep over the scores , they are hardly even looked at anyway.

 

Thanks, Brother. (thumbs u

 

I'm more shaking my head than anything.

[RareSov]

Yes, eBay is full of

 

Pity some of them run the place too..

[ant]

i was told to do the same (free shipping) it worked in the sense that it braught more people. my shipping was falling. so recently i have it out by the second biz day. with free shipping and the shipping numbers keep going down. i have gottin to the point where i realy dont care if they leave bad feedback.

 

i have a canadian that baught one of my listing a week ago. 3 sterling rounds from expo = 20$. while i was getting ready to print out slip i noticed that the shipping paid was 1.50 , i dont know how that happened but im not shipping a 11$ shipping thing for 1$. i even had it in listing and everything that world buyers need to pay full price.

 

now if you look i dont send outside of USA on 99.999999% of items.

[James_OldeTowne]

I sold a whole batch of coins a month or more ago. I sent everything priority mail and charged $5.00 for everything. I averaged 4.8 out of 5.0 for reasonableness of shipping charges.

 

I just now sold a new bunch of coins and charged but $1.50 shipping that included my costs for the cardboard mailer, airtite, envelope and postage. the rating went up to 4.9 and then, down to 4.8 again.

 

I'm not so much hung up on numbers as the fact that some bonehead was still dissatisfied with the shipping fee.

 

 

I'll say it again......people are soooo dumb!

 

I also noticed that my shipping time rating went down from 5.0 to 4.9 despite the fact that I shipped everything the next day 1st class whether I had received payment or not.

 

I'll say it again......people are soooo dumb!

 

 

Maybe I should follow James Garcia's lead and offer free shipping on everything?

It's certainly something to try. Here's what's amazing, though. Even with free shipping, I STILL don't have a "perfect" score. Apparently, there is that upper crust of people who think you should be able to do even better than give away shipping . Oh well.

 

Good luck!

[Coindude]

For me, I take shipping into account for what I pay for a coin, so if you charge 5 bux shipping I'd pay 5 bux less for the coin.

 

I pretty much leave a 5 start on shipping unless the guy is trying to gouge obviously. The fact is, the PO is charging more for shipping... so how can that be your fault. I think that's mainly what people are angry about.

[pendragon1998]

I have done data entry for people doing paper surveys (you know the type: "On a scale of 1 to 5, describe your opinion of...")

 

What I took away from it is that people in general have no interest in accurately describing their opinions in that manner. They find reading all of the questions tedious and/or boring, even when there are only a few questions to read. Many people simply check all the boxes in one column without thoroughly reading the questions. People contradict themselves by checking mutually exclusive options. Some folks absolutely refuse to ever check the maximum value, apparently since they're of the opinion that "it could always be a little better." Others tend to check either an extreme value or a middle value, ignoring intermediate values. Giving people a scale of more than 1 to 5 (e.g., 1 to 10) just makes people more confused.

 

After entering all of those surveys, I've totally lost faith in the accuracy of such things and I'd never waste my money on hiring someone to do one for me.

 

 

[cpm9ball]

Even with free shipping, I STILL don't have a "perfect" score. Apparently, there is that upper crust of people who think you should be able to do even better than give away shipping .

 

"Upper crust"? You make them sound like they are some elite bunch like Mensa's. If you gave them a free round trip air fare to Las Vegas with hotel and meals included, they would probably blame you because they lost their money at the Blackjack table.

 

I know someone who is a born "whiner". If someone gave him $1,000,000 as a gift with no strings attached, he would gripe because he had to pay the taxes.

 

Chris

[James_OldeTowne]

Even with free shipping, I STILL don't have a "perfect" score. Apparently, there is that upper crust of people who think you should be able to do even better than give away shipping .

 

"Upper crust"? You make them sound like they are some elite bunch like Mensa's. If you gave them a free round trip air fare to Las Vegas with hotel and meals included, they would probably blame you because they lost their money at the Blackjack table.

 

I know someone who is a born "whiner". If someone gave him $1,000,000 as a gift with no strings attached, he would gripe because he had to pay the taxes.

 

Chris

 

!

 

Needless to say, just a wee bit of sarcasm was included with my use of the term "upper crust"....

[Houston Investor]

I have gone to a policy of free shipping on everything when I recently also discounted all items in the store 5%. Because I have over 200 + items I do not know how I could otherwise do a mass change to make shipping free on everything.

 

I think with the new EB FB policies and the fact some people are really digital about shipping cost, I will just offer free shipping and simply price items accordingly if the shipping cost is a significant enough factor in cost recovery.

[EZ_E]

It's certainly something to try. Here's what's amazing, though. Even with free shipping, I STILL don't have a "perfect" score. Apparently, there is that upper crust of people who think you should be able to do even better than give away shipping \ . Oh well.

 

Good luck!

 

Based upon this knowledge, I'll leave things the way they are.

[Revenant]

heh. I just found out that a seller just shipped my item today, 6 days after I paid him through PayPal. Guess what score he's getting for shipping time?

[ant]

im out like 4 dang days some customers will leave a bad star, but it happens. it took 4 weeks for an item to get here from cali

 

and i can be honest about that

[Conder101]

Pendraagon has hit on the reason why no matter how well you do you are not likely to get or keepa perfct score, and why overtime your scores WILL drift down toward average.

[EZ_E]

Pendraagon has hit on the reason why no matter how well you do you are not likely to get or keepa perfct score, and why overtime your scores WILL drift down toward average.

 

I agree, it struck me as truth.

 

Well, boardsters, I'm off to Vegas for a 4 day vacation and to see my daughter graduate high school.

 

See ya in a few days!

[BULLY]

While people may not closely examine the scores, and the minute differences between 4 and 5 stars, on shipping costs, etc., the scores do make a difference for sellers.

 

When eBay made its changes to feedback, part of the changes included changes for seller scores in the various categories that mean that higher scoring sellers get their listings to show more prominently in search results, which is VERY IMPORTANT for sales of course!

 

Therefore, using sound and consistent judgment when rating a seller in the various categories is more important to sellers now than ever before. So, if you have sellers with whom you do repeat business in particular, don't just SAY good things, give the good stars. If you don't believe someone warrants five stars, don't give five stars, but give the ratings consistently to sellers, to make it a level playing field for everyone.

 

I generally consider timing exceptional if it is SHIPPED the same (particularly if that falls on a weekend). Next day shipping is pretty much a 4-star rating for me, because I think that is pretty much what should be expected and what most sellers do (I will forgive weekends however). Two days for me is neither fast nor slow. After that it gets lower. I don't factor how long it takes to arrive, I only go by the postmark based on when I made my payment, because that's all the seller can control.

 

For descriptions of coins, if the coin is a serial number that didn't match the photo, in other words a stock photo was used, and that wasn't disclosed, that gets points taken off since it violates eBay's policy for the sale of CERTIFIED COINS (I only buy certified coins as a rule).

 

As far as the reasonable nature of the shipping charges, it truly varies. Free shipping is pretty much a guaranteed 5 star, assuming it's not an overpriced item to make up for it, or overcharged insurance to compensate. Sellers who try to cooperate on additional items like 0.50 per or even $1.00 per additional coin so that buying 10 coins costs somewhere in the neighborhood of a flat rate package, then 5stars it is. I also like sellers who will "CAP" their shipping charges so that if you buy a LOT from them in a day or two, they will charge you no more than XX amount, which encourages you to buy more rather than discourages you from buying more. Like folks who will charge $2 additional -- sounds nice, but buy 12 items, and you've got $22 in shipping, plus the original amount which might have been $5.99 or something -- and that's just out of control because a USPS Flat Rate box can hold just about any of this stuff, or a USPS Flat Rate envelope many sellers use is also a cost saver.

 

First Class bubble mailers are also a cost saver.

 

I also give HIGH RATINGS to sellers to turn to REGISTERED MAIL for high value items, since it is more secure, and though it may take longer, it is safe and while more costly, it's a comfort that I appreciate and compliment them accordingly.

 

Communication is a tough one. It's hard to get 5 stars for that. I tend to rate poor communications when packages arrive with NO invoice. I find this particularly tedious when I've ordered from a dozen sellers in a short period of time, and I get a package or two with a few items in it (or just one) and NO reference to the seller's eBay ID nor to the eBay item number, so I have to figure out WHO IT CAME FROM so I can leave feedback. If I have literally HUNDREDS of open feedback items (all in a matter of a week), it is far too tedious when they just didn't included a print of the item as most sellers do.

 

Otherwise, I give points who have GOOD ITEM DESCRIPTIONS about their policies and procedures, or whose emails are particularly friendly, well-written, or who may have added an email with a simple "thanks for your business" theme, or maybe included something as motivation for a return customer, a free shipping deal, or what-have-you.

 

Wow, I can really get long winded, can't I?

 

Ok, the point was, that the star scores CAN really matter to sellers, because it may affect where their listings appear in search results, it's all part of the new feedback system that started when eBay stopped allowing sellers to leave negative feedback ratings for buyers. So, consider your scores carefully and be generous to sellers when they deserve it.

 

I usually don't care about the silly ratings and just give every seller 5's across the board unless they do something really exceptional that warrants clicking a lower number . I can see that those ratings could have had some kind of meaning if there was an arbitraitor involved with the awarding , but when newbies and adults with child-like fantasies are allowed to openly input , it's just not a viable judgement tool. Some might say it is better than nothing , but is it really?

 

Victor , you get fives across the boards all day in my book anyway !

Don't lose any sleep over the scores , they are hardly even looked at anyway.