Excellent points!

We also feel that the PowerSeller badge brings a certain level of credibility to a seller.

The 1 cent feedback issue is one that eBay really needs to address. This is really one way that eBay scammers quickly build credibility (by building their feedback ratings) and all legitimate eBay sellers lose in the end when eBay gets a bad reputation.

Unfortunately, eBay’s success brings the seedy element that wants to take advantage of unsuspecting buyers. Will this ever be totally eliminated from eBay? Probably not. Is there more that eBay can do to combat these issues? Most likely.

This does affect buyers – Buyers are more likely to bid on more items if there are more “powersellers”. This in the end means more $$$ flow for eBay. Once buyers are “powersellers” they are acknowledged. Everyone needs to be noticed. This is the “serious” umphh, that sellers need to be commited. They are now seen as a respectable seller.

Sellers are affected also – Now there is more competition for respected sellers. Because now, there are more respected sellers. This means more drive for sellers and more $$$ for ebay. More competition = more powersellers and you get the point.

Why this is bad: Buyers are now buying from penny dealers as stated above from soomeone else. Sells are not really earned, they are bought from other people that want to “pad” their feedback. If you could buy a 1 positive feedback for a penny would you? Sure…

Why it is good: eBay profits. Many more sellers that are now capable of saying “I am a powerseller” and wanting to get in the mix.

Feel free to reply,
KR

We have had many people write back thanking us, and letting us know they found a similar product (tickets are specific, so there is never an exact match) for less money.

Sometimes the price difference is as much as $50, which is a lot of money. But what’s $50 when you are buying 10 tickets and flying in form a nother city for a game? To save 6 bucks a tickets and buy from someone with questionable feedback, or limited selling history.

Seems short sighted to me.

In my genre, it is so easy to counterfeit tickets. I can’t see making a decision based on price. But eBay is its own world, isnt it?!?!

Which brings us to your other point about other factors ranking higher in a buyers mind, then PowerSeller. We could not agree with you more about price being at the top of the list. We have found, time and time again, that eBay buyers shop strictly based on the price of the item. The vast majority of the time, they will buy from someone with the lowest price, even if their listing is horrible and their feedback has seen better days.

eBay is a wonderful beast, isn’t it?

I have to agree with Gary, I believe the Powerseller Proram is fairly worthless. There are no tangible benefits for the Sellers, and most buyers don’t factor it in at all. I believe Buyers would rank 5-10 other factros above powerseller rating, including price, shipping cost, feedback score, feedback percentage positive, comments, appearance of your listing, etc.

Interesting comments about PowerSellers. You are probably correct in stating that it is made out to be a bigger deal than it really is. Maybe it is just one of those carrots that eBay dangles in front of you to make you feel like you are a special part of the eBay community? Or does it really make a difference in the eyes of a prospective buyer?

We wonder if any seller has done a comparison of monthly sales with the PowerSeller logo showing vs. not showing. We didn’t realize that you could turn off the PowerSeller logo if you wanted to. Can’t know everything about eBay, now can you? We constantly are learning new things, which is good!

Because many experienced sellers make a big thing of PowerSeller status, too many new sellers focus on becoming PowerSellers when they should be focused on making decent profits instead. It’s a well known fact that the two are not synonymous.

Neither do I believe, contrary to what eBay may say, that most buyers pay much attention to it. Many probably don’t even know what the icon represents.

I know several extremely successful sellers who choose not to display the PowerSeller icon because they feel it can actually be detrimental to sales rather than advantageous.

Just my two cents.

By the way, nice looking blog.