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Where The Rubber Meets the Road – Finding The Best Auction Seller

Finding the best online auction seller is, well, frustrating at times. However, putting a few very simple online auction principles into place will virtually eliminate any concerns you may have.

A great seller makes all the difference in the world when you’re looking for e-Bay auctions online. The quality of service and the quality of the item you’re looking for, all completely depend on the accuracy and integrity of the seller.

When you’re looking for e-Bay auctions online, it is worth the effort to find the right seller. It only takes a few minutes to save not just your money, but also a bottle aspirin to get rid of any “bad auction seller” headaches that you could get along the way.

Raising Your Eye Brow – Taking a Closer Look at the Seller

So what can you do?

There is a simple answer. It’s all in the seller’s reputation. Without a good reputation, a seller is avoided like the Black Plague.

Anytime that you click on an item that you’re interested in…STOP! Don’t read another word without first knowing who’s selling the item and if they can be trusted! Why waste your time reading an seller’s sometimes lengthy item description if you can’t even trust them to begin with?

So when you’re interested in an item, take the following steps to find out if you can trust the seller.

Check the Reputation of the Seller

Check the seller’s rating. This can be found at the right hand side towards the top of the page and will look like this:

Excellent Seller


This seller has an excellent rating. Personally, when I want to make sure that I get my item from an seller with at least a 99% rating, and if I can get it, I’ll take a 100% rating any day!

This seller has maintained a 99.9% rating even after 850 auctions. Not bad at all!

If you find a seller that you like, don’t forget who they are. Add them to your “My e-Bay” list of favorite sellers. When you want to buy a similar item again, just search for that specific auction seller using e-Bay’s Advanced Search features.


SIDE NOTE: As a general rule of thumb, I normally try to do business with a seller that has a rating of 98% or higher.

Okay, I may be a little picky, but I must say that I really like exceptional service. To top it off, this particular seller also offers a “7 Day Money Back” policy.

I’m pretty confident that buying an online auction from this seller will result in getting what I want, at the price I want, all with great service.


This next seller I would still deem as a very good person to buy from even though their reputation isn’t as high as the last one.

Good Seller
They have a 99% rating and have the experience of 289 auctions under their belt. This seller, at least in my book, is still very much worth buying from.

Let’s say that you find an seller that doesn’t have that high of a rating. Where do we draw the line between a good e-Bay seller and a poor one?

Personally, I don’t like to buy something from an auction seller if their rating is less than 98%.

The Profile of a Poor Auction Seller

Let’s take a look at a poor seller that I was able to find on e-Bay.

Poor Seller

There are a couple of things to look at here.

Click on the number to the right of the seller’s name or under “Buy safely”, then click on “Read feedback comments”. This will give you a full listing of all the feedback ever left for that seller.

Poor Seller Feedback #1

As you can see, this seller has had 454 comments left for them. Out of those 454 comments left, 30 of them were neutral and 57 were negative. If their rating was based off the past month alone, their rating would be 80.83%!

WOW! That means that you’d have a 2 in 10 chance that you’ll have a poor or even completely negative experience with this seller.

These are the kind of sellers that you should completely stay away from.

What all of this boils down to is this: use your judgment before you buy from a possibly questionable seller.

The “One-Off” Exception – Buying from a Questionable Auction Seller

Here’s a question for you. What do you do when you find that rare e-Bay auction item online and the seller is of a questionable reputation?

Try considering the following points to help you in your decision.

  • Has the seller received any neutral or negative feedback within the last 30 days? 60 days? Maybe the auction seller has learned how to handle his auctions better and has improved their service and accuracy of their listings.

  • What kind of comments have other users left behind? Do you see any patterns in the comments left behind?

  • How much money would you be out if this online auction totally went sour? Is that amount of money something that you’d be willing to risk? Remember that PayPal offers Buyer’s protection if you pay through them. Ensure that you read their protection policies before you depend on their protection as there are limitations. The PayPal Protection Policies can be found here on PayPal's website.

    The Conclusion on Auction Sellers

    When all is said and done, it comes down to buying from a great auction seller! Doing so makes all the difference in the world when you’re looking for e-Bay auctions online.

    Let’s do a quick review.

  • Before you bid, check out the auction sellers reputation

  • Try to buy only from people that have a rating of at least 98%. Ultimately, the level of the auction seller’s rating that you’re comfortable with is completely up to your discretion.

  • If the item is hard to find, you may not have the luxury of having high standards.

  • Look for patterns in the feedback left for the auction seller. Have things improved or gotten worse over the last 30 to 60 days?

  • NEVER PAY WITH CASH! Use a credit card!

  • HAVE FUN! World online auctions are a blast! You’ll get the best deals that you’ve ever had in your life.

    You’re an informed bidder now and can spot a great auction seller from a bad one; so sit back, relax, and enjoying bidding with confidence!

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