top rated seller questions

[1wish2fish-43]

Hi everyone, Ive only been selling on ebay for about 100 days but I was fortunate enough to earn top rated seller today. I am wondering what this really means?  I've read that there are several benefits but they appear to all be tied to getting the top rated seller plus badge.  I don't really think I can pull this off because its going to be to hard to do the 1 day shipping that is required.  Will I get better search results?   Is there any way to get the top rated seller badge without doing 1 day shipping? If someone could clarify what the differences are between just being a top rated seller and having the top rated seller badge I would appreciate it. Thank you

[nobody*s_perfect]

The TR-Plus badge does requrie 1-day handling. Have you read this basic Help page?

https://www.ebay.com/help/policies/selling-policies/seller-standards-policy?id=4347#section3

Top Rated benefits have eroded over the years since it was introduced.  For instance, all Top Rated Sellers used to get special postage discounts, but now everybody gets them. There used to be a badge on all listings showing the seller's TRS status, but that disappeared when they introduced TR-Plus.

[slippinjimmy]

Bottom line is that the benefits of Top Rated status are very slim indeed. Yes you are eligible to get a fee discount if you can ship really fast.

Maybe it impresses a few buyers but I doubt it given that plenty of sellers who have "bad habits" have TRS status, selling 100 items in a year is really all it takes.

As far as "better search results", there are dozens if not hundreds of factors that go into Best Match and/or non-search placements, even if TRS status is included (even TRS+) it's impact is probably minimal.

[lakefor94]

Still get the 10% off Final Value Fees and there are other perks involved. Would not want to be without TRS.

[1wish2fish-43]

I would love to get the full benefits of the top rated seller plus badge, but I'm super nervous about the 1 day shipping.  What a ball and chain to be carrying around.  I live in a rural area with limited post office hours so it makes it very difficult to get a package there in time.  Do you know what 1 day shipping exactly means? Can I just print the label the next day? Do I need to get the package to the post office by closing time at 5 pm, or do I need to get the package to the post office by 1 pm (that's when the mail truck comes to our small town to pick up the mail and bring it to Minneapolis)?  What if I just put my package in my mailbox and have the rural carrier pick it up when he comes to my house at 2 pm, does that count? Thanks in advance

[lakefor94]

If your package gets a carrier scan from your rural carrier the day of picking up your shipment, you are good to go. My rural carrier scans every package, YMMV.

You have to have a carrier scan within your handling time of 1 day.

Buyer purchases on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you need a carrier scan by Monday.

Buyer purchases on Monday, you need a carrier scan by Tuesday and so on from there. 

[1wish2fish-43]

After I received my top rated seller status, I was pretty naive and thought I would see my listings would be at the top of every page but that certainly hasn't been the case.  I posted 3 items last night and promoted them at 2%.  I searched through 100's of listings on ebay today searching for my items and couldn't find any of them.  That was very disappointing to say the least.  

[lakefor94]

Try pulling up an incognito window at just ebay.com where you are not logged into to your account. 

Search again and try it with Best Match and also try Lowest or Highest price and see what you find.

[1wish2fish-43]

Thank you for your response.  So are the perks your talking about related to just having top rated seller status or jumping through the hoops to get a top rated seller plus badge?  I would love the badge, but honestly I don't feel like I could pull of 1 day shipping living in a rural area.  Im still trying to figure out what exactly qualifies for 1 day shipping though.  Do you think putting the packages in my mailbox for the rural carrier the next day would count? 

[1wish2fish-43]

Thank you so much, that helps a ton.  I more quick question if you don't mind.  How does it work time wise? If a package is purchased Monday at 11:59 pm does it have to go out on tuesday?  Also, I heard ebay operates in the Pacific time zone.  Does that factor into anything or do I just go by my central time zone? Thanks again

[luckythewinner]

If someone could clarify what the differences are between just being a top rated seller and having the top rated seller badge I would appreciate it.

Top Rated Seller is a rating that a SELLER earns when the SELLER meets certain criteria.

Top Rated Plus is a rating that a LISTING earns when the LISTING meets certain criteria.

[1wish2fish-43]

Ohhhh, now i get it. That helps so much thank you