How Many Feedback Score Do I Need?

[no_zero369]

OK so started a new user name on eBay ---> What feedback score do I need before the nervous Nellies will sell to me?  10, 20, 30 or 100?

Have seen many come on these boards saying they won't sell to anyone with a low feedback score, will just cancel the sale rather than take the risk (and take the eBay defect/ding).

Also have seen many say that IF I have a low  FB score and I ask a question about their listing, they are going to get irritated and just add me to their Blocked Buyer's List.

So how many feedback scores do I need to be able to buy from these types of not get banned by other types?

How about if I sell too?  How many buyer-FB do I need before anyone is going to trust me?

[no_zero369]

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@ohnojoey wrote:

"OK so started a new user name on eBay ---> What feedback score do I need before the nervous Nellies will sell to me?  10, 20, 30 or 100?"

Nervous Nellie may not want to sell to you even with 100 feedback while troubled Tom may sell to you if you have 10 feedback, but with much trepidation and hesitation.

Rude Richard will just block you for less than 20 feedback while crabby Patty may contact you and grumble and complain but still sell to you.

If you are a talkative Timmy with 2 feedbacks and ask a lot of questions of seller grumpy Gus, he may reluctantly answer a question, then stop communicating after the second question.
On the other hand, seller babbling Bob may love your questions and become overly friendly and welcome your bids with 0 feedback.
Negative Nancy and Debbie Downer will make you wish you never bought from them.

So, it depends.

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@ohnojoey

LOL!  You had me splitting my sides with this!  Love the creative names.  

Thanks for the mirth!

[no_zero369]

Thanks to all who provided feedback and a perspective!  Much appreciated.

I have decided to "invest" $10 into getting some positive feedback on my new profile - Strategy is to buy 10 items that cost a buck each, or there abouts.  Shoot might even buy items needed for selling!  Oh and NO purchases from China either.  Have bids in on auctions on 5 or 6 items and won one so far.   Paid immediately on all purchases.   So far I am at 100% for getting positive buyer feedback - meaning 100% of sellers have left feedback.  [yeah, I know sellers can only leave positive feedback.]

Once I get the items I'll leave glowing feedback for the sellers.  While I doubt any will be snads, if I do run across one, I can eat the "loss" and not scr*w up my record of "feedback left for others" metric.

Hopefully this will be enough to sooth any Troubled Toms, Crabby Pattys or Grumpy Gus's.  The Debbie Downers I'll have to avoid.

[18704d]

Or you could bid on any auction on this website

with no fears of being cancelled.

By placing last second snipes for anything you wish to buy.

(that means bidding with 10 seconds or less on that auction)

Lynn

[femmefan1946]

Some of the Nervous Nellies are only blocking bidders with non-US addresses or using freight forwarding services as their US address.

Some have never worked in retail, and have no idea how honest and friendly most customers are.

Some are not too honest themselves and are projecting their own weaknesses onto others.

As has been suggested, those of us who mostly sell as Fixed Price, don't see our customers feedback or location until they buy.

• Look only at Fixed Price listings.

Auction sellers who add a Buy It Now price are also confident in their pricing, and again don't meet the customer until she buys.

• When you see an Auction item that you want, look to see if, like most, they opted for a Buy It Now price.

The Nervous Nellies are not going to give you an easy pleasant transaction. Count your blessings if they ignore you.

IF I have a low  FB score and I ask a question about their listing, they are going to get irritated 

• Ask questions on your other account and buy on this one.

[a_c_green]

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@no_zero369 wrote:  
I have decided to "invest" $10 into getting some positive feedback on my new profile - Strategy is to buy 10 items that cost a buck each, or there abouts.

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I'm waiting for the Irony Award to strike, when you come back here complaining that one or more of those $1 sellers cancelled your purchase because you have zero feedback... 

Seriously, the odds of you running up against a seller who will actually cancel your bid or purchase because you have no feedback (yet) are... remote. Keep in mind that you can always leave appropriate feedback if that happens, and they know it too. You'd be wasting ten bucks to dwell on that possibility.

[18704d]

They can cancel a bid on a listing which hasn't yet ended

with no fear of feedback from that bidder.

But I do agree this is a very very minor issue,

which the OP should just not focus on.

Enjoy eBay, bid,  ... win and pay.

fwiw,

Lynn

[sin-n-dex]

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@no_zero369 wrote:

OK so started a new user name on eBay ---> What feedback score do I need before the nervous Nellies will sell to me?  10, 20, 30 or 100?

Have seen many come on these boards saying they won't sell to anyone with a low feedback score, will just cancel the sale rather than take the risk (and take the eBay defect/ding).

Also have seen many say that IF I have a low  FB score and I ask a question about their listing, they are going to get irritated and just add me to their Blocked Buyer's List.

So how many feedback scores do I need to be able to buy from these types of not get banned by other types?

How about if I sell too?  How many buyer-FB do I need before anyone is going to trust me?

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The Chinese (and many other foreign sellers) will sell to anyone, they don't care about your FB, just that they get paid.

As for people cancelling... that's defect worthy, and if they go telling eBay you asked to have it cancelled, I would be on the phone stating otherwise and ensure the seller gets a defect for cancelling without reason.

In my experience, if you have like 20 FB, and not just that, over many months... you probably won't have any problems. I have a few low FB customers that only buy from me and a few others. I've also been scammed twice by someone with 1000 FB. So score means nothing...

Cheers, C.

[no_zero369]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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. You'd be wasting ten bucks to dwell on that possibility.

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NOT dwelling on the possibility of any snads.  Just commenting that IF it happens, I'd rather keep the FB, than file a snad on a <$1 item.   What good would it do me to have a FB rating of just 10 as a buyer and then show a rate of 10% of transactions where I provided seller FB and gave a red donut? 

So, eh,  I spend (or invest) $10 into the new selling ID and buy a few items I could use, no big deal.  Then I end up with stuff I need and no longer have the DREADED zero feedback rating! 10 or 11 looks a lot better than (0)!

Won one "auction" at under two-bits! LOL!  Happy to report the Seller already left feedback and provided a shipping label number.  (then again, I no longer have a zero (0) FB rating!   Who says you can't "buy" feedback?  LOL!   Or "pad" the statistics!

Or am I just demonstrating the absurdity of the system?  (wasn't what I set out to do!)

[no_zero369]

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@sin-n-dex wrote:

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The Chinese (and many other foreign sellers) will sell to anyone, they don't care about your FB, just that they get paid.

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Thank you for that reply!

I have come to the conclusion that it is against my own self interest as a seller to make purchases from Chinese sellers!  There is a postal treaty that gives HUGE subsides to mail from China and thus as a seller, I am paying higher postage rates to subsidise my competition?  Why would I do that?  So, I have decided to stop buying from China - USA sellers usually have the same thing for a $1 or $2 more AND I get it much faster.  Plus if there is a problem we are speaking the same language and effectively communicating.  I'm just saying.

{maybe being a jingoistic stick in the mud? I dunno?}

[a_c_green]

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@no_zero369 wrote: 
I have come to the conclusion that it is against my own self interest as a seller to make purchases from Chinese sellers!  There is a postal treaty that gives HUGE subsides to mail from China and thus as a seller, I am paying higher postage rates to subsidise my competition?  Why would I do that?  So, I have decided to stop buying from China - USA sellers usually have the same thing for a $1 or $2 more AND I get it much faster.  Plus if there is a problem we are speaking the same language and effectively communicating.  I'm just saying.

You seem to be adapting well to the neighborhood here... 

[penguins_dont_fly]

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@no_zero369 wrote:

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@a_c_green wrote:

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. You'd be wasting ten bucks to dwell on that possibility.

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NOT dwelling on the possibility of any snads.  Just commenting that IF it happens, I'd rather keep the FB, than file a snad on a <$1 item.   What good would it do me to have a FB rating of just 10 as a buyer and then show a rate of 10% of transactions where I provided seller FB and gave a red donut? 

So, eh,  I spend (or invest) $10 into the new selling ID and buy a few items I could use, no big deal.  Then I end up with stuff I need and no longer have the DREADED zero feedback rating! 10 or 11 looks a lot better than (0)!

Won one "auction" at under two-bits! LOL!  Happy to report the Seller already left feedback and provided a shipping label number.  (then again, I no longer have a zero (0) FB rating!   Who says you can't "buy" feedback?  LOL!   Or "pad" the statistics!

Or am I just demonstrating the absurdity of the system?  (wasn't what I set out to do!)

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Feedback has nothing to do with SNAD.

You can get and leave feedback and still file SNAD ... eBay doesn't take your positive  feedback away, nor does leaving feedback prevent you from filing.

[dbmm-media]

8

[doctorfegg]

9?

[femmefan1946]

There is a postal treaty that gives HUGE subsides to mail from China and thus as a seller, I am paying higher postage rates to subsidise my competition? 

That is the Universal Postal Union Treaty of 1874.

It's been around for a while.

Until 2016, China was allowed to use the 'underdeveloped country' status which was reasonably valid even in the late 20th century, but rapidly became silly in the 21st.

It took a while for the developed countries, including the European Union, Canada, and the USA, to get China Post to cave.

Over the next five years or less, we will see the cost of shipping from China rising steadily.

It is already showing in air mail and tracked packages- although even since 2016 the use of the very new e-packet services is still very cheap .

OTOH- the average wage in China is about $13,000 annually compared with nearly $60,000 in the USA. So their costs will remain lower for some time yet.

With the UPU, signatory postal systems agree to delivery each other's mail for the last leg. There is some very complicated bookkeeping involved. I was once cornered at a cocktail party by a Canada Post official who explained it to me until I was contemplating feigning death to get him to stop.

[leftoverature]

Well, as someone who has has been scammed twice on the last two listings, I would say that there could be an algorithm that requires say >5 to purchase anything over $100. Or as one of the eBay team members thought they had (but they don't, she was wrong) a way to insist that the buyer has a PayPal Account.

I'm not a "nervous nellie", I'm a very busy person with no time for %&^* games who has sold close to $30K on ebay. In your mind, this limits zero feedback buyers, but consider the only other recourse is to say limit international buys (all of my scammers have been from Mexico and India), so you are limiting sales one way of the other. 

I think the middle ground would be to insist that the seller provide some proof of payment, be it credit card or Paypal. If its a new buyer wanting to purchase an item, they should be willing to enter credit card or PayPal account to prove that they are real.