Seller Level and the Metrics that eBay uses to get you in the ZONE to charge you an additional 5%

[middlemanparts]

Anyone else have this issue? I have been selling on and off eBay for over 10 years. 

Just noticed recently that my Seller Level dropped to below standard and it was purely based on cancellation of sales due to inventory. 

This Metric is scaled over the course of 12 months and based on a percentage of the amount of sales you make. Not only that, but eBay decides that you will also be penalized by cutting down the upcycle of your listings and taxing you an additional 5% final value on your current sales until you can get your transaction defect rate dropped to less than 2%. 

I only sell a hand full of items a month if that so based on these metrics, I get to sit in the below standard zone and pay an additional %5 final value to the already high %12.55 standard for a year. 

All this because I cancelled a few items due to stock. God forbid I sell on local platforms and forget to remove the item from my listings. I would understand if I was shipping out my items late or not taking returns but this is pretty unfair. 

[buyselljack2016]

@middlemanparts 

Tough on small sellers like us, but the past alternative was way harsher.

Before the 5% extra fees  the "below standard" grace period was not there. Sellers were shown the exit door.

Now sellers have a chance to show improvement, and are allowed to continue to sell while having to endure that extra 5%.

To show improvement some sellers get some popular low cost item to sell at a break even price to improve the %age.

[middlemanparts]

I definitely noticed the warnings and tried to lower pricing to generate the sales that would cut the requirement down however I am just a small time hobbyist seller without the ability to inventory items to sell and break even just to get the transactions up. My last 4 months have went off with 0 incident but still, the metrics span back a year as you have stated.

[zoda99]

Why would it be harder for a small seller to get track of the available inventory that they have? Shouldn't that be easier for a small seller as compared to a large seller since they have so much less to keep track of?