I’m rather shocked to read that from later this month (20th Feb), eBay sellers can no longer give buyers negative feedback.

Having helped more than one seller improve their eBay trading results through better marketing and presentation of auction listings, I know for certain that there are buyers out in the land of eBay that simply have no intention of paying for something they bid on.

Even eBay admit non-paying bidders make up about 6 percent of auction results: that’s MILLIONS of eBay results that are affected.

And suddenly sellers won’t be able to tell other sellers about it, because eBay fears that such negative buyer feedback “drives them (buyers) away from the site.”

So it should!

Bad buyers should NOT be encouraged by eBay to waste the time, money and potential auction returns of other sellers. Sellers have to lodge alerts, chase up bad buyers via email, wait and hold on to an item for longer, potentially have to re-list and then not attract the same level of bids from other buyers who missed out the first time, but may not bid again.

It’s a strange marketplace indeed. First of all eBay “powersellers” aren’t rated on PROFIT, but simply turnover. Even losing money on eBay can cause you to become a Powerseller, simply because eBay are happy with the fees you’re paying them!

And now bad buyers can’t be given negative feedback by sellers.

Sadly, for a lot of hobby sellers, this change will affect the way they interact with eBay.

Here’s the marketing lesson: if this affects you as an eBay seller, and you have no other “marketplace” to make money — then you risk your profits because you rely on only one outlet for sales. Be careful, it’s a dangerous selling strategy. As I’ve heard many times, the most dangerous number in business is “1″.