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Bears by EdieI thought I would start a new post here in the hopes that the collectors who check out this site will take notice of what is happening now on ebay with the star rating system that started this year. You are asked to rate the transaction giving from 1 to 5 stars in 4 areas - "item as described", "communication", "shipping time", and "shipping and handling charges". Now many might think that giving a 4 is a good rating - after all nothing is ever perfect is it! - but do you know that if a seller's rating drops to 4.1 in ANY of these areas they are BANNED FROM SELLING ON EBAY!!!! If you are happy with your transaction and want to be able to continue to buy from that seller they REALLY need you to leave the 5 star rating! This is particularily important for sellers like us bear artists who do not sell the volume of merchanise that the power sellers do so a couple of poor ratings for us will have a huge impact while for a volume seller it will be a slight glitch.
By way of example - I have sold 14 items since this new system started and the feedback comments I have received have ALL been VERY high praise. So do I have a perfect star rating? No! I am likely fortunate though that it is 4.92 which means that most of my buyers HAVE left me the top rating.
Also please keep in mind that even if you feel the shipping has been costly - WERE YOU CHARGED MORE THAN IT ACTUALLY COST - with perhaps a small handling charge - shipping IS expensive but that is something we can't control! Also if it took your item 3 weeks to get there, how do you leave a 5 star rating for "shipping time"? But if the seller sent the item in a timely manner - IT IS NOT THEIR FAULT - so do they deserve to be dinged? Also "communication" - sometimes as a buyer I just pay for the item and the seller sents it to me with little or no communication - so do I leave a 5 for communication???(Less likely to happen with bears, as we artists tend to be chatty 
- but it can happen when dealing with people with different language!) You see the problem here! It would really seem that ebay did not think this new policy through completely - either that or they are trying to get rid of the smaller sellers!
For more on what this can mean to us sellers please read the post by Karen:
Ebay problem and Warning! I couldn't sleep..... by KJ Lyons
I hope this has been food for thought and will help to make people aware of this situation.
Edie, I plan to send a similar email to my mailing list too. Perhaps we should all do the same to reach as many collectors as we can. I am just in shock over this whole issue and can't imagine how Karen must be feeling. It sure has been a rude awakening for me.
Bears by EdieTammy - that is a great idea! I hadn't thought of sending it to my mailing list, but if everyone did that it would sure get the message out quickly.
