Tips on Avoiding Bad EBay Transactions

If you buy and sell on eBay like I do, you are already familiar with the seller's rating. It is expressed as a percentage of positive feedback out of the total transactions that person has on record.

There are some things, though, that you can do to prevent a bad experience with an eBayer, whether buying or selling.

First, be skeptical of the ratings. Always. Why? Because they may not be what they appear to be. Here are some things you should check out before entering a bid or transaction with that person:

1. Look at how long they've been an eBay member. This is shown in the "Meet the Seller" section on the right side next to the auction listing. If it's only a few months with few transactions, you might want to pass. But, if the item is a small dollar transaction, then you could take a chance.

2. Next, click on the "read feedback comments" under the "Buy Safely" section. You'll notice all the neutral and negative ratings from his transactions. Read them carefully, as it may not always be the fault of the member. Sometimes the person on the other end of the transaction can be a real moron and cause trouble for the member. If there are more negatives than you feel comfortable with, then pass on it and search for another listing.

3. While on the subject of analyzing the ratings, don't be deceived by the positive rating. I just checked a seller that has a rating of 98.5%. On the surface, that sounds pretty decent. But you also have to look at the total transactions, as the larger the number the more the negatives can be hidden. In this case, he has 11,549 transactions. When you clicked on the "just negatives" tab, though, you'll see he has 181 negative or neutral. That can be substantial, especially if it's happened in the past month or past six months. Did something happen to the seller? Is the seller desperate for cash? It happens.

4. Also look at the "ID History" when reviewing the ratings. It's normal to have a couple of ID changes, as I have had to do, but if you see a bunch of them in a short time, it could raise a red flag on that member. Another thing that people will do to increase their ratings when they become new eBayers is to pad their rating. One of the easiest ways of doing that is to buy (and sell, perhaps) electronic books. You can find a lot of eBooks on eBay that sell for one cent and there's no shipping fee as they are downloaded from the seller. So all the new member has to do is download a hundred of these eBooks for a dollar and his transactions number is now 100 with a 100% positive rating. That's why it's very important to look at the transactions like you did in step 2 above. If you notice that the majority (or all of them!) are with the same member and the item cost is only a penny or so, you just outed that member for padding his rating. Members will buy and sell to themselves, too, although this is harder to detect.

If you use FireFox for your internet browsing, there's a great plug-in to make step #2 above much easier. The plug-in is called "eBay negs" and is on the Greasemonkey web site. You first have to download the Greasemonkey software and install it. After that, you can grab the plug-in at userscripts.org. I've provided the links elsewhere in the article. The plug-ins from the site self-install after you download the Greasemonkey software. Then after you refresh your browser, go to eBay and look at any seller. There will be a red "neg" symbol next to the rating. Click on that and it will show you the negative ratings for either the seller or buyer or both. It consolidates them so you don't have to read through page after page to find them. It's a really great utility that you should have when using eBay.

It's virtually impossible to not have a bad experience on eBay, as there are literally millions of listings on it and scams reported every day. So, Caveat Emptor! Let the "Bayer" Beware!