I was looking for an OOP DVD on eBay and found it for a decent price. Since the seller is not in the US I checked his 100% positive feedback. I clicked on the most recent item to see what he had sold, and then went to click on the next item. It indicated a link already followed. Most of the feedback on the page was for the same item number! (The first link not followed was an invalid item number.) I clicked on the feedback from one of the buyers, and the number did not turn up. Instead, the number is ‘private’. When I clicked on the feedback for the seller (not the same ID as the one selling the DVD), guess how his feedback looks? That’s right. Lots of the same item number.
So how did he do it? AFAIK feedback can only be left for one item number.
I’ve been checking out the feedback histories for some of the people who successfully rated this seller. All of the ones I’ve checked so far have also given positive feedback for other one-cent items such as wallpapers, pictures and ebooks. In other words, it looks like there are a bunch of people who are offering (possibly trading) positive feedback simply to inflate the ratings of the sellers.
Selling an item on eBay for 1 cent is surely a losing proposition anyway, right? Why would anyone essentially pay money to get a list of people to email a jpg to unless there was a scam involved somewhere?
It’s just a wallpaper, so there’s very litte cost involved, but yeah, it does seem that he wanted to pump up his feedback with that listing. I sure wouldn’t buy from this seller.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this a scam. It’s a legitimate way to increase one’s feedback quickly. The “loophole” being exploited by the seller is that feedback on eBay is not “dollar-weighted”. A feedback for a 1 cent item gets the same weight as one for a $100 item. It is not uncommon for a new seller to start selling at lower prices to quickly increase his positive feedback, then move to more normal pricing once the feedback reaches a respectable level.
Thanks to practices like this, eBay is finally changing its feedback system in the near future. Item prices will be displayed along with feedback, and sellers would get rated more comprehensively than just “Positive” or “Negative”.
No the cost isn’t high, but it’s about 25 cents to list and cell a 1 cent item. The feedback may be worth a quarter, but it’s a pretty sure sign those involved aren’t really on the up-and-up.
It’s a legitimate way to conflate your feedback to make it seem like you’re a respectable seller rather than building a score based on honest deals, which is the entire point of the feedback rating. No they’re not necessarily a scam artist, but if you want to give people on the internet the benefit of the doubt in a place well-known for scamming, be my guest. It is most certainly a big red flag. This person has no legitimate deals to their name.
So what could the seller get from selling you the wallpaper for a cent other than feedback?
You have to pay for it on Paypal. For an item that is emailed to you, would Paypal still give out your name and address?
Ebay uses your name as a security device to let you know the email is from them. And all 600 or so of the people I’ve bought from also know my name and address.
But I have received spoofs that used my real name. I never log on using an email I received. I always go to the site separately and log in from there.
I feel like I’m missing something here. Where is the profit in it? The seller also has some DVDs for sale. You don’t need high feedback to sell a disc for a buck and a quarter.
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