Home

On October 3, 2005, the Senior Manager, eBay Marketplace Policy announced that they were replacing their feedback solicitation policy with a more comprehensive policy. That was a joke! The new policy was to expand the ability to take action against members artificially enhancing their reputation on eBay. The new policy was supposed to prevent members from selling, buying, or trading feedback. They would prohibit members from including the word "feedback" in the listing description. Example: "Build your feedback score quickly". This title would no longer be allowed on listings.

That didn't stop anything! It is now October 2007. Take a look for yourselves. Do a search on eBay for "Free Shipping". You'll find hundreds of links to auctions for wallpaper, ebooks, recipes, and much more. When you find one that is a "Powerseller"...check out their store...and read their auction pages. Chances are they will have it right on the page..."Be sure to leave me positive feedback and I will do the same for you". It may not be those exact words, but they are definitely asking for the feedback. And if you dig a little deeper you will probably find a one-cent item offering 1000's. That is your real Feedback Manipulation! But eBay doesn't bother those. You see, these powersellers are selling at least a $1000 a month. And eBay gets a big commission off of them. So why bother taking away their little penny item. They make five-cents from the listing fee in the store and then PayPal will get another thiry-cents for the final value fee. It makes them money when the powerseller sales a few hundred a week. It's really pretty easy to sell $1000 a month with higher priced items. Break it down...that's only $250 per week, $36 a day. A good drop-ship product will do it for you. You might not show much profit, but you'll look good to eBay. And with those one-cent digital items, you'll look even better.

Let's look at what eBay really goes after...The "newbie"! They tell newbies to check out the other auctions and see what they are doing. Get familiar with the site, Buy some of the lower priced items, etc. So the "newbie" does a search and naturally buys the cheaper item (that's human nature) to see what they're selling, how they are delivering, what kind of service they give, and a host of other things. The newbie wants to learn all they can about eBay, so they see all those ebooks about "Becoming a Powerseller", "Making a Living on eBay", "Quit your Day Job"...you get the idea. They buy all they see at the best prices...usually under a $1. Well, you probably guessed it...that's feedback munipulation! That's what eBay says if you buy more than 3, and there are hundreds of ebooks about eBay being sold...on eBay. The same thing happens if you "Bid" on auctions that start at "One-cent" and you win it for less than $1. They don't do anything to their "Powerseller" who sold you the product for less than a $1. (Since they're making money off of them.) They go after the newbie.

First they send you the letter and tell you that they have removed your feedbacks because they were received for transactions that were in violation of eBay's Feedback Manipulation policy. They don't check to see what you purchased, they just assume that you were just trying to inflate your feedback! And you don't buy wallpaper and pictures that are also sold for less than $1. Even if you would really like to use the pic for wallpaper or have some other use for it. Even if you bid more than the dollar and the auction doesn't go that high, and you win it... If you purchase it for less than a dollar...and the seller leaves you feedback for being prompt with payment...that's feedback manipulation!

Heaven forbid if you're a newbie who tries to sell something for less than $1. You will then get the message: "Listing low-priced, non-physical items aid and abet fraudulent accounts by enabling them to quickly build their Feedback scores so that they can appear legitimate." To eBay, every newbie is a "Criminal" until they prove themselves differently. There is no such thing as "Innocent until proven Guilty" where they are concerned. I learned all this the hard way. As a newbie to eBay, I purchased some ebooks along with other low-priced items (non-digital) and eBay took ALL my feedbacks away, so I had to start from scratch on building feedback to be able to sell. I started out like most other eBay sellers, I sold things from around the house and books. Then I added ebooks. Since my former business had left me with a ton of digital items on my computer, I decided to sell some of the pictures that I had taken with my digital camera. Now these were my own pics, not something that I bought online or had any resale rights to. Now I don't care how you package them, pictures just will not sell for more than $1 and the ebook market is so flooded that you can't make a sale on those for more than $1. So...I didn't sell many. Less than 10 items in a 60-day period. They were listed in my store inventory. That means that eBay received 5-cents for the listing, another penny for the image, and 10-cents final selling fee for a 99-cent item. Then on top of that PayPal gets a minimum of 30-cents plus their percentage. Not much profit on selling pictures, so ebay figures you're doing it for feedback. They never consider the fact that they provide you with an email address of your buyers, so legally you can send them a follow-up email and possibly sell them something else. In my case that would mean that PayPal would get a percentage of any sales I make, and since eBay owns PayPal, that's money in their pocket too! That's not the case though. Ebay assumed that I was just in it for the feedback, so they suspended my account.

So take my advice...if you're new to eBay and you're looking for a bargain for less than a dollar...you better check-out another auction site! eBay is the oldest and therefore has the most traffic but new auction sites are popping up every day. And if eBay keeps treating their members like this, a lot of them are going to be on those other auction sites. Who wants to be treated like a criminal? Now there's one other thing about this...it applies mostly to those who live in the United States! The land of the free! A "Democracy". Where you're supposed to "Innocent until proven Guilty"! The rules seem to be a little different elsewhere! Read the ebooks, if you dare, and you'll find members who reached Powerseller status by selling nothing but one-cent items. But they don't live in the U.S. Wow! That's discrimination! But that's another story...