What Do All Those Stars and Numbers Mean?

Next to every buyer and seller's name on eBay are a number and (more often than not) a colored star. (Figure 3.1 shows my personal star and feedback number.) This number and star represent that user's feedback rating. The larger the number, the better the feedbackand the more transactions that user has participated in.

How are feedback ratings calculated?

First, every new user starts with 0 points. (A clean slate!) For every positive feedback received, eBay adds 1 point to your feedback rating. For every negative feedback received, eBay subtracts 1 point. Neutral comments add 0 points to your rating.

Let's say you're a new user, starting with a 0 rating. On the first two items you buy, the sellers like the fact that you paid quickly and give you positive feedback. On the third transaction, however, you forgot to mail the check for a few weeks, and the seller left you negative feedback. After these three transactions, your feedback rating would be 1. (That's 0 + 1 + 1 1 = 1.)

If you build up a lot of positive feedback, you qualify for a star next to your name. Different colored stars represent different levels of positive feedback, as noted in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1. eBay Feedback Ratings

Obviously, heavy users can build up positive feedback faster than occasional users. If you're dealing with a shooting-star user (of any color), you know you're dealing with a trustworthyand extremely busy!eBay pro.

"Mike Sez"

eBay regards its feedback system as the best protection against fraudulent transactions. I certainly recommend that, whether a transaction went swell or went south, you leave feedback about your partner in every transaction. I know that I check the feedback rating of every seller I choose to deal with; it really is a good way to judge the quality of the other party in your eBay transactions.

Reading Feedback CommentsAnd Contacting Other Users

You can also read the individual comments left by other users by going to the user's Member Profile page. To access this page, just click the user 's name or feedback number.

The Member Profile page, like the one shown in Figure 3.2, includes a lot of information you can use to judge the trustworthiness of other users. At the top of the page is the user's Feedback Score, followed by the Positive Feedback percentage. You'll also see the raw numbersthe number of members who left positive feedback, and the number who left negative feedback. Recent feedback ratings are summarized in the Recent Ratings table.

To the right of the Recent Ratings Table are links you can use to find out even more about this userhis ID History, current Items for Sale, a link to his eBay Store (if he has one), and a similar link to his About Me page (again, if he has one). Below these links is a Contact Member button; click this to send an e-mail to this user.

Below the summary information is a list of all the feedback comments for this user. You can click a tab to view All Feedback Received, just those comments From Buyers or From Sellers, or comments that this user Left for Others.

Tip

You can also use the Member Profile page to read feedback comments about youjust click your own member name on any page. (Even more convenient : Go to your My eBay Feedback page.)