two interesting statistics

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Posted By: davidcycleback

With the introduction of stringent steroid testing, MLB's home run total this year was the lowest since 1993.

My eBay shipping/handling charges rating as a seller is 4.8 our of 5, even though each buyer who rated me in this category received free shipping and handling.

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Posted By: jdrum

I guess for some people free is just not good enough. They want you to pay them some S&H.
Sheesh!

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Posted By: Mark

Be careful, David...

The minute your "Shipping DSR" hits 4.2, you will be banned from selling on Ebay (per their wonderful new policy).

Good thing Ebay's new management is looking out for their good sellers! Under the new rules. you can have 100% Positive feedback, and still easily be removed from selling on the Ebay site. Best of luck with that!

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I knew what eBay and eBay bidders are like, so I half-expected to not receive a 5.0 rating for free shipping. We're talking eBay here-- a 5.0 rating makes too much sense.

The cognitive bias question is, if I charged $1 for shipping instead of $0 would I receive a higher rating. Buyers would be charged more, but the $1 might stand out more as a charge obviously lower than the postal rate.

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Posted By: Matt

David - I bet you'd have a better rating with 50 cent or $1 shipping. I charge full USPS Priority with Delivery Confirmation at cost $5.50 and have a 4.6 shipping DSR.

Of course, now ebay has added incentives to offering free shipping...

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Posted By: Mark

David:

I truly believe your thinking is correct. If you charged only $1.00 for shipping, the perceived value would be greater than the free shipping (which many are obviously taking for granted). A shame that ebay puts such disproportionate control and subsequent power in the hands of the Buyers.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

The $1 would be akin to Michael Jackson's glove. Michael Jackson always had two hands, but when he wore the glove, everyone's eyes followed that hand. I assume this is an old stage dancing technique.

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Posted By: D. Bergin

I try to charge exact shipping + a tiny handling fee to hopefully cover Paypals portion of my shipping charge. I also try to give options on shipping. Customer usually has a choice of 1st Class Mail or Priority Mail depending on the bulkiness of the item.

My DSR rating is around 4.9 for S&H charges. I have no doubt if I began to cut my own throat and give out free shipping my DSR rating would not improve a lick. It's a red herring for Ebay/Paypal to take an even bigger cut of your sales IMO.

Pack your items sturdy and make your shipping costs obvious in your listings and your customers will appreciate it without you having to take the hit that Ebay wants you to take.

IMO if they are going to create a 5 star system and determine that 5 out of 5 stars is standard and 4 out of 5 stars is beyond horrible then the system is completely flawed and leaves far to much room for abuse by buyers. I have a 4.9 right now but I know damn well it will only take one buyer to click 1................whether by accident or on purpose to totally trash my rating.

They should just go for a Positive/Negative/Neutral rating and rate the DSR's like they do the Feedback.

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Posted By: davidcyclebeck

I serve as an arguing point when someone's discussing eBay's feedback policy. Now anyone can offer the evidence of, "I knew a seller with 100% feedback, who had free shipping on all lots and received a 4.8 rating for shipping cost."

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Posted By: davidcyclebeck

For accuracy's sake, I should point out that I ship by moose and include offensive religious literature in the packages. Would this have any effect on my rating?

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Posted By: Chris

I have just today experienced a new wrinkle with Ebay shipping policies.

As an Canadian-based seller, selling mostly baseball related items, I find that over 85% of my customers live in the US. I ship strictly Canada Post airmail. Due to border delays etc., I find that this service is the only acceptable service with regards to delivery turnaround to my customers. Ground is just not an option as it may be in a US to US transaction. I typically sell jerseys (similar size and weight pacakges ech time) and they typcially ship for $14-16 US dollars, yet I ask buyers for only $12.

I take a hit on postage to keep my buyers happy, yet I recently rec'd a notice from Ebay stating that my postal rates were considered higher than the norm for similar items. I assume that this is compared to a US seller, selling a jersey and being able to ship state to state for much less than I can?

I also assume that as I am on the "hit list", I must drop my postage rates further and lose even more in the transaction to keep selling to US customers? Unfair. And to think I commented just 2 weeks ago that I liked the idea of Ebay only allowing payment via Paypal. chris

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Posted By: Mark

David. You are living proof that even exemplary sellers will not score a 5.0. 4.8 is the new 5.0. If a sizable number of voluminous sellers were ever squeezed out because of the 4.2 rule, then ebay would surely adjust.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Two other things I noticed.

From my feedback at least, I see that only a small minority of buyers are leaving feedback, much smaller than before. This presumably is because buyers get a 100% rating no matter what, so there's no incentive to give and receive feedback. This means that the feedback statistics are not representative of what the buyers but what a small portion left. It also means one buyer with a vendetta could lower the seller's rating significantly by giving the lowest ratings across the board. 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 + 1 = 4.2 It is noteworthy that proper statistical 'scoring' methods automatically drop the high and low scores to remove the inevitable aberrations or freak numbers-- just as they do in Olympic skating before calculating the final score.

The other nonsensical thing is that an eBay feedback score below a 4.2 will result is suspension, while the buyers giving the ratings are told that a 4 means you are satisfied with the seller's performance, that the seller's performance was acceptable. That's the equivalent of the Dean telling professors that a B is a passing grade, while telling the students that if they receive a B they will flunk out. A student can by flunked out by a passing grade.

There's do doubt it's hard to make a good in practice feedback system, but a start is to removing obvious Catch-22s and Alice and Wonderlandisms. "4 is a passing grade, but if your grade is 4 you fail" is Catch-22 exemplified.

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Posted By: Mark

David:
I have written ebay numerous times on that very point, and have yet to receive a response. Their customer service has dropped significantly as of late. The point you raise is a glaring contradiction, and they are cutting their own throat.

Mark VL:
Regarding Ebay "surely adjusting"... I would not give them credit for being that smart.

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Posted By: Matt

I don't their customer service responsiveness is going to improve with the massive layoffs announced today.

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Posted By: Mark

I am assuming that all the changes that they are undergoing are driven by a desire to show revenue growth quarter after quarter. Thus, if their 4.2 rule costs them enough money, they may rethink it.

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Posted By: Mark

Mark...

I agree with you that logic would certainly dictate that action. I just haven't seen many logical decisions being implemented by Ebay over the last year or two.

There was another thread spelling out many of their poor recent management decicisions (probably on the card side) that I just don't have time to reference right now. It included many people (board members) stating that they would be seeking various selling alternatives to Ebay...

I know that I have recently purchased many fine items from good sellers with less than a 4.2 DSR on one or more measured criteria. Sad to think that these sellers will no longer be able to list, because of buyers' inaccurate perceptions of shipping costs, etc. I hope you are right, that ebay will re-evaluate their policy over time.