Canadian seller - Act now to keep your Top Rated Seller status (on eBay.com) - What do they think?

[arkh_angel]

Got a nice message from eBay stating that I may fall from Top Rated Seller to Above Average Seller on eBay.com because I do not have the minimal transactions requirement (100 required). All other requirements are met.

Not sure if eBay Canada was made aware that many factors have deeply affected sales to the US in the past year. Back in August, we received several messages about how they would help us not being (too) impacted by what happened south of the border, but it looks like they forgot something...

Sales to the US came to an halt abruptly and it obviously did not recover even with the advent of EIS. Speaking of EIS, still trying to figure out why 25% of my items are invisible to US buyers - but that's another story. I often get messages from potential buyers asking how much it would cost to ship to them, but i'm not shipping anything to the US without EIS. No WAY!

I'm not going to start selling stamps just to boost my number of transactions.

Of course, they were generous enough to give me a 2 months grace period. As if everything would recover in two months 🙄 Wait after 2028 at least!

I know it's not a big deal, but I still feel that this should have been taken into account. 

(End of rant, thank you for your understanding)

[mrdutch1001]

lost top rated seller status more than a decade ago and after that initial disappointment,  put it all behind me & carried on ...I found selling was so much less stressful without having to meet the criteria and jump through all the hoops...

[mapleleaf-collectibles]

I used to get stressed out about stuff like that, I got a negative once and was severely traumatized for a few weeks until I realized it did not really matter. Sadly, I think Ebay is washed up for now, maybe in a few years things might get better with some new world leaders?

[flipistics]

I lost top rated to the states several months ago. I think I may be able to regain it at some point this year based on what I'm seeing from eIS so far.

Of note, when I checked my seller level it appears they're now breaking out the UK and some of the EU from the rest of global. Maybe they always were but because I wasn't selling items there it never showed for me before.

[recped]

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@flipistics wrote:

I lost top rated to the states several months ago. I think I may be able to regain it at some point this year based on what I'm seeing from eIS so far.

Of note, when I checked my seller level it appears they're now breaking out the UK and some of the EU from the rest of global. Maybe they always were but because I wasn't selling items there it never showed for me before.

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TRS has always been divided into those US, UK, Global (I think there was a forth one as well, Germany, Austria, Switzerland). If you are TRS in any of them then you get the benefits of TRS (basically the 10% fee discount).

I'm currently on my second month of "grace period" since dropping below the 100 US sales in the past year. Don't care one bit and I don't see any reason why eBay should change the qualifying requirements. 

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

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@flipistics wrote:

I lost top rated to the states several months ago. I think I may be able to regain it at some point this year based on what I'm seeing from eIS so far.

Of note, when I checked my seller level it appears they're now breaking out the UK and some of the EU from the rest of global. Maybe they always were but because I wasn't selling items there it never showed for me before.

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I lost mine ages ago for USA. Can't see it coming back in my lifetime at this rate. Currently I have 1 to hub tracked registered. First since August. Another letter that shows registered but not received yet at hub. Sent 2 fridays ago.

Does anyone know if eBay is counting letter packages to seller once they get inputted into the wagon cart at hub? Seeing that may be the defacto shipping service for any seller selling smallish stuff to USA that is being routed via the eIS hub.

[dinomitesales · Accepted solution]

I don't think I've ever had Top Rated Seller status in the USA region.

It doesn't matter at all though. Since I'm Top Rated in the Global Region I get all the benefits of being Top Rated for all my sales, including the main benefit of 10% off final value fees.

Go look at your seller status. As long as you're still Top Rated for Global then losing Top Rated for USA doesn't matter at all.

[ricarmic]

I too haven't had top rated in .COMland for many years ever since they added the .COM rule that one had to have 1 day shipping (traditionally I had 2 days and after COVID I bumped it up to 5 days so I never qualified)

[reallynicestamps]

I have Global Top Rated on some of my IDs.

For customers the only difference is that the 'badge' is not visible on dotCOM, but is elswhere.

The advantages are slightly lower selling fees (FVF) and something about refunds on returns -I don't get enough returns to worry about that one. 

Global TRS gets the same discounted FVF as the US one but we have lower standards, less tracking required for one. 

If you sell to a demographic that is honest about receiving untracked packages, you can save a lot of money by shipping letter rate (domestically).  Of course doing so internationally is smuggling and naughty. 

Not tracking will save more money than the TRS discount. 

[arkh_angel]

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@dinomitesales wrote:

It doesn't matter at all though. Since I'm Top Rated in the Global Region I get all the benefits of being Top Rated for all my sales, including the main benefit of 10% off final value fees.

Just checked Global Region and all is good so nothing to worry about, thanks for the tip!