E-Bay feedback

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I very frequently get a message such as the one which follows AFTER I have paid for an e-bay item.

This is just a short note to inform you that this note was mailed to your address this afternoon.  Please let me know via feedback or via email when you receive it.  I will then leave my positive feedback for you.

It seems to me that once I have paid for an item, my obligation to the seller is met and I deserve positive feedback.  Why should the seller withhold feedback from me until I have received the note and have given the seller feedback first?

I got similar notes too. My guess is 'if in case you didn't get the item' the seller could have some recourse in placing a neutral or negative comment should the situation cannot be resolved. Hasn't happened to me yet but I often cross my fingers a hope the item I bought didn't end up in the wrong hands or misdirected.

PD

I normally do not leave feedback until I hear from the purchaser. It's the only way I can think of to ensure good communication. All too often I see negative feedback left ( for others ) with no chance to remedy a problem should one present itself.

Just my 2 cents

Scott

I normally do not leave feedback until I hear from the purchaser. It's the only way I can think of to ensure good communication. All too often I see negative feedback left (for others) with no chance to remedy a problem should one present itself.Scott

I always leave positive feedback as soon as an item has been paid for (this is much more convenient for me) and I indicate the shipping date so that the buyer knows that the item is on its way. However, I have encountered problems with a few buyers who claimed that they never received their item (sent by untracked mail) and who then proceeded to obtain a refund from eBay through my Paypal account. This is the risk associated with sending items by untracked mail. I'm convinced that on one or two occasions the buyer did in fact receive his item and was just scamming me, but one never knows for sure. Nowadays I insist on tracked mail for any purchase over $50.00.

In my opinion, eBay sellers should be able to leave feedback in two steps, i.e., Step (1) to confirm that payment has been safely received and to indicate the shipping date, and Step (2) to comment on the overall transaction after the buyer has received the item. As things stand now, a buyer might pay promptly, then receive positive feedback, and then start complaining for one reason or another. I've encountered several such situations. Once a buyer has received positive feedback he/she is in an inequitably strong position to start dictating various aspects of the deal, e.g. soliciting a discount because of an undisclosed pin hole, etc. The buyer can use the threat of negative feedback to get his/her way. Thankfully this is not a common situation but it does happen from time to time.

A couple of comments on the feedback methods of eBay.
Many sellers do not leave any feedback until the buyer gives one. This is the policy of colonial Acres. Generally, when the buyer leaves a feedback, the seller reciprocates in kind. I do exactly this when I sell: when I buy, I leave feedback when the goods arrive. If there is a problem, every reasonable attempt is made to clear up a problem. If and when a buyer makes threats about negatives, it is reported to eBay. Good business practise is all.

Rick

Fortunately I have had good experiences with buying and selling.

As a Buyer, I give feedback PROMPTLY after receiving the notes and confirming the grade that it claims to be. It is important to leave feedback AND contact the seller via Message or E-Mail to tell them everything arrived ok and you are satisfied. This makes things more personal. Buyers who do not feel like leaving Feedback is a level of disrespect as well. Let us not forget in the Currency Community is not huge so everyone knows everybody.

As a Seller, Communication is EXTREMELY important. I make an effort to always go the extra mile in communicating with the buyer, making sure they know the differences in shipping and the risks involved. Some People do not mind the risks of Regular mail but once it is $100 or more I draw the line and for everyone's safety I only ship Xpress. After the Buyer leaves me feedback and usually sends me a PM or E-Mail that they were happy I then do the same. Again, I do not leave feedback until I hear from the buyer. I feel this is the proper sequence of a transaction. I only had 1 person say they would not leave feedback until I did but everything went smooth so there was no concern.

As a seller it is VERY important you build trust with your buyers. They will trust your grading of notes, quality of the product and know they can trust everything will go smooth. I have quite a few people who consistently buy from me because they are ALWAYS satisfied with the product (Either meeting or exceeding their expectations) and appreciate the extra level of communication.

As with Buying in person from a dealer or online, you must build a Buyer/Seller relationship. This Trust that you build is the corner stone of expectation for that transaction and possible future   transactions.

I agree that there are some sellers out there who are more concerned about their feedback then actually making sure the customer is satisfied in the first place....  

As a buyer on E Bay, and I've purchased notes from a few of the folks who have already commented, my experience is mostly good (I also hold my breath as well). I personally see no problem with a seller leaving feedback after the conclusion of the transaction. What really gets me is when the transaction goes well, I leave feedback, and then not get it in return. As Rachelsprivates notes, bad manners are common, even in the small world of paper money collecting. This doesn't make good buisness sense to me, but what comes around goes around and there are some folks I just will not buy from ever again for that reason.

I do have to add though, that purchases I've made from members of this forum on the Trading Post have been positively civilized, and I wish E Bay could be the same.

 [smiley=beer.gif]

To date I have had only excellent feedback from buyers.  I think its because I do my best to grade accurately (a bit conservatively), communicate immediately once the bidding is over, offer a few payment options, start the item low (so the market decides the price), and deliver the item with cardboard reinforcement in nice clean note holders.  

I've had only one terrible experience with a power seller who told me off when I complained.  He said I "was a cheap bastard" on the phone and hung up on me when I tried to pay for an item!  He also said that my complaints and negative feedback were inconsequential as he deals with 1000's of collectors all the time.  He changed all his feedback to negative (I bought a few notes from him earlier with no problems) and made my ebay experience really miserable after I reported truly what happened in the feedback section.  He's had high negative feedback from others so he's started his own online auction business (mostly in coins).

It seems to me that once I have paid for an item, my obligation to the seller is met and I deserve positive feedback.  Why should the seller withhold feedback from me until I have received the note and have given the seller feedback first?  

IMO:
I don't think sellers should LORD over the buyer until the buyer gives positive feedback.  The feedback section was intended to keep sellers honest.  However, I do understand the seller's perspective as I've been in that role.  I guess its always a risk dealing online.

Although I am not buying from ebay currently due to the past bad experience (mostly came from the US seller on over grading the notes and poor services), I would like the feedback section divided into two parts.  The first part came from the seller to comment on the buyer's payment status (I know some buyer did not read detail and some ask for discount or alternative payment option after they won).  The second part came from the buyer to comment the seller's services and the grading of the notes, BUT with additional space for the seller to response.

To date I have had only excellent feedback from buyers.  I think it's because I do my best to grade accurately (a bit conservatively), communicate immediately once the bidding is over, offer a few payment options, start the item low (so the market decides the price), and deliver the item with cardboard reinforcement in nice clean note holders.

WOW!!, it's refreshing to know that there's someone else out there who believes in letting the market decide the price as opposed to letting sellers try to boost/force the market to unnatural levels via all sorts of optimistic/ridiculous "Buy-It-Now/Best Offer" come-ons and the like. I recall living through the artificial silver bullion boom of 1980/1981 when the billionaire Texan Hunt Brothers tried to control the World silver market ....... and they failed miserably ....

By way of example, there are no Bank of Nova Scotia $10 1935 notes available at open auction on eBay right now but there are no fewer than NINETEEN available in eBay Stores on a Buy-It-Now/Best Offer basis (with the Buy-It-Now asking prices varying between $145 and $999). Are you listening to me??

Similarly, there are no Royal Bank of Canada $10 1935 notes available at open auction on eBay right now but there are no fewer than TWENTY-SIX available in eBay Stores on a Buy-It-Now/Best Offer basis (with the Buy-It-Now asking prices varying from $85 to $629). Are you still listening to me ......

So what's the moral of my "story"?? Well, the paper money market is bigger than all of us, and it always will be ....

When it comes to the more common notes, I find eBay overpriced.  When I want to buy notes online, I use the dealers' online stores listed under the Resources link on the home page.  Their prices are almost always lower and the risk of running into problems is greatly reduced.

EBay is frustrating.  People outbid you in the last 4 seconds of the auction, notes are overpriced and overgraded, and you run the risk of never receiving your note.  It annoys me to see so many people trying to sell their notes over book value and seeing all those notes advertised as EFs that are really F-VFs or VFs at best.

Brad

To return to the original topic: Why do some buyers and sellers make their feedback ratings private? I just won't buy from them or sell to them; it's like they have something to hide. Feedback is one way (although not infallible) of learning something about the other end of a transaction.

To return to the original topic: Why do some buyers and sellers make their feedback ratings private? I just won't buy from them or sell to them; it's like they have something to hide. Feedback is one way (although not infallible) of learning something about the other end of a transaction.

There seem to be two issues here, i.e., PRIVATE FEEDBACK and PRIVATE AUCTIONS.

I can understand why some buyers might prefer to keep their feedback private as they may not want to advertise to other people what they are buying. For example, a numismatic expert may have discovered some new unpublished varieties and may not want to advertise his unique knowledge to the masses. However, I agree that in general private feedback will always arouse suspicions which are sometimes, but not always, justified.

As for the issue of PRIVATE AUCTIONS I have seen this addressed at SCADS ("Stamp Collectors Against Dodgy Sellers"):

http://www.scads.org/alterations/Saratoga.htm

I hereby quote verbatim from the above article:

" PRIVATE AUCTIONS.  [/i]eBay's private auction format generally is intended for material where some sort of stigma might attach to the purchaser, such as for adult-oriented items.  Holding private auctions in the Stamps category is highly unusual, and is generally practiced by dishonest sellers who wish to keep concerned users from warning bidders about their deceptive auctions."

Whenever feedback is left for a Private Auction the buyer's/seller's ID will be published (unless he decides to go private) but the eBay Item Number will forever remain hidden so it's never clear what material has been purchased.

I dislike private activity myself but since eBay permits it we sort of have to accept the reality ..... As noted in the above quote, I suspect that eBay originally introduced private feedback and private auctions primarily for situations involving adult-oriented material. However, some buyers and sellers have chosen to go private for other (non-adult) material for reasons known only to themselves.

I'm not willing to risk having items go for huge discounts by starting my auctions at a dollar these days.  The market is jaded by too many "fixed" prices like the stuff seen in eBay stores.  When the majority of sellers are putting their asking prices on items up front, I get suspicious of cheaper items and think there must be something wrong with those items.  With greed being the new norm, why would anyone want to be honest?  

I understand where you're coming from R_P as I rarely made a profit on my items sold.  I was lucky to break even.  However, I do know some members on this forum's ebay ID and those who I do know and meet regularly...& I will bid on their items because A) they're usually starting their items much lower tban market value,  B) they're honest, and their grading is accurate, and C) the item will be mailed (or delivered) in good condition with proper/clean note holders!  Members that I've associated with through the forum have been completely accountable and pleasant to deal with.

There are many members here who I know will start their items off at a dollar because they have confidence in their item's scarcity.  The bidding on these items is fast and furious so there's no worry about the item selling for much less than book...although a few have complained that their item went lower then it should have.  There are obvious slumps in the market which I blame on the kinds of dubious sellers R_P complains of.   I just feel its a shame the way things have gotten on Ebay ...as you state.  I long for the good ol days when there was some great items to bid on and they weren't started off at 10% (or more) above book.  

But BACK ON TOPIC:
I don't believe the seller should be waiting for feedback from the buyer and adjusting their feedback accordingly.  That hasn't been my experience most of the time.  If I paid promptly, I was usually given +'ve feedback immediately after they received payment.  I've never had an item lost in the mail (touch WOOD!) :- :-/ oohh oohh now I've done it!