Wax Box Report

In Spring of 2008, eBay released a new sellers rating system called Detailed Seller Ratings – or, DSRs for short. It has since led to the beneficial results for some, and the untimely downfall of others who sell on eBay. Buyers have the ability to rate their sellers honestly on a five star scale (1 being the lowest, 5 being the highest) in four different areas.

Sellers are offered rewards for maintaining continuously excellent DSR ratings and thus offering buyers great customer support. Among these benefits are that they are given consideration for the Powerseller Program, and when they’re added as a Power Seller, discounts on their monthly final value fees they owe to eBay. They can also receive Top Seller status in which they have a special logo appear next to all their listings indicating they are a top rated seller and their listings are given a higher priority in eBay’s default search results.

At the same time, sellers are susceptible to penalties as well when their seller scores aren’t sufficient for a given length of time. This includes losing their Powerseller status and also getting lower priority in search results. Additionally, if any seller lets their DSRs drop low enough, they can be restricted from selling for up to 12 months or, in some cases, permanently.

As a buyer, you need to be aware of the DSR system on eBay, and how to use it properly so that you can do your part to help the overall community (as well as make your experiences count). You aren’t forced by eBay to leaving all 4 rating types in every transaction, so if you only want to leave them occasionally you can still leave general positive / negative feedback without adding them. Here is a description of each DSR rating categories. I gleaned a lot of this from my personal experience but also got some of the info from various baseball cards buying guides I read on the Cardboard Connection:

• Accuracy of the Item Description – This is where you rank the accuracy of the description given by the seller for your purchase. Naturally, if the card was as described you’d score 5 stars. Bear in mind that shipping damage is not always the sellers fault. Many times damage of cards can occur during the shipping process. The key it to communicate and work with the seller to work out a mutually fair solution. It is always worth giving the seller the benefit of the doubt and communicating with them to clear up any short-sightedness before you leave a low rating.
• Fairness of the Shipping and Handling Charges – This is one of the most common problems you see as a discussion point among hobbyists. At what point is a shipping price reasonable, and at what point is it gouging? Some sellers put the price of their time and gas to the post office as part of their shipping and handling. Others disagree. Regardless, to maintain a high score here, shipping shouldn’t equal a hidden pathway to added profit or people WILL see through it. To get an idea of what shipping rates should roughly be, use the online rate quoter on the USPS or UPS websites.
• Seller’s Level of Communication – This is an uncomplicated one. The majority of card based transactions on eBay have no follow-up communication after payment, and the card just shows up in the mail. Many sellers do still offer the personal touch though, and it’s worth rewarding these people by leaving them a high rating if you appreciated their communication with you. Low ratings can come from scenarios where you found an issue with an item and the seller took a very long time to respond, or failed to respond at all to attempt to fix the situation.
• Speed of Shipment – The most significant factor to keep in mind is the fact that this isn’t necessarily for how long it took the item to reach you. Canada Post, for example, set new all time lows for customs turnaround time in 2008. Items that took 5 days in the past were taking up to 5 weeks to arrive. This rating is specifically for how long it took for the seller to ship the item after you paid. If you paid on the 16th of the month, and find an envelope in your mailbox postmarked the 23rd with no communication from the seller as to why it was so late being shipped both in email or in the item description (make sure you check this first, as some sellers do state that because of their proximity, or personal commitments, they can only periodically ship in intervals such as weekly) don’t be afraid to leave them a lower rating. A seller taking his sweet time to ship an item to you at his leisure without communication is the kind of unacceptable behavior eBay aims to cut down on by implementing this program.