[ngnichols]

The standards for Top-Rated are pretty easy to maintain for me outside of 100 items in 12 months. Selling for me can be a seasonal thing so some months are HUGE and some are sparse. I was Top-Rated for a while, but lost it due to that specific criteria. I've just now gotten it back this coming month.

The problem lies in that eBay does not do enough to reward people for having to maintain those high standards, especially if you go even farther and do Top-Rated Plus. If I have to give someone 30 freaking days to possibly return a card, all sorts of things could happen in that time-period that are fraudulent. I also know that cuts both ways in that I could possibly take a raw card and have it quick graded to see if it will meet my standards. If it does, I keep it, if it doesn't then I just return it for a refund. It just keeps the seller hanging out in the wind and that's just not cool. I don't offer refunds to people I've sold to at shows and then take the cards home. Once it's out of my hands, it's yours. Same goes for eBay in that I have a "no return" policy.

The fact that they are getting a 10% cut of my sales is almost ridiculous as I can come on here and other places and sell pretty much just as effectively and safely and only take the 3% hit from PayPal which is a much more modest and reasonable transactional fee. The fact that I'm potentially paying eBay $300 on a $3000 item is insane and they certainly did not do $300 worth of work to assist me in selling that item AND having to go through all of the things they require to maintain ratings.

In regards to late shipment issues, I simply go inside and put it in the mail slot that's for regular mail. They usually just grab those bins once they get full and then scan the items. That eliminates the waiting in lines for a PO worker to scan it in and also eliminates the lag of putting it in the outside drop which is only collected at the very end of the day. I also maintain a stock of bubble mailers and a small digital scale so I can weigh and package everything at home in my own time and drop them off. If you can't get to the post office within 24 hours of someone handing you money, something is wrong with you and not the rules eBay has on that. That is insane to me that someone couldn't take 5 minutes to put the stuff together and drop it off at a post office somewhere along their day.

Another trick I've learned long ago is to offer free shipping on all of my items. I just build it into my asking price. When I first started doing eBay I was adamant about buyers paying the shipping, but it just got to the point to people were haggling about paying me $3 for postage and supplies and I got tired of it. By offering free shipping it eliminates them being able to mark you down on star ratings for that category when they're leaving you feedback and it honestly can win you some customers over someone else who has a similarly priced item, but is charging for shipping. I know it's small, but people are cheap too.