Premium Service / Top Rated -- maximum hassle with minimum incentive, risky and damaging.

[medieval_shoppe]

1. If you do a money-off promotion, you have to also do money-off your “free” postage fees too – you can only correct this by offering a smaller percentage discount – which in turn makes the sale “less interesting” for the public. For promotions, it’s better to forget about free postage.
2. If a buyer makes multiple purchases and then demands a partial refund for the postage you save, that partial refund will be counted as a defect against your account. Again, it’s better to forget about free postage.
3.  The express option is not available Australia-wide, Australia post admits that it can’t do express to 20% of Australian postcodes (remoter places with just one or two post deliveries a week). I don’t want to offer something that can’t be provided. 
4. If you give a no-questions-asked 30 day refund, I will turn my business into a free fancy dress hire service.
5. There is very limited incentive, the old “top rated seller” thing was highly visible, and very cool; the newer “seal”  (which only appears on the products and for which you seem to earn with blood sweat and tears) – doesn’t really mean that much to people I think, it simply tells people that you are offering extra services that they are probably not even interested in anyway. Also, being bumped up towards the top of a short list of similar items is really inconsequential to me (and to many sellers I think).
6. Writing tracking numbers with every consignment is an extra workload and it’s something that at least 95% of buyers really don’t care about anyway. It's just work for the sake of work.  -- I understand that you have to do this to be "Top Rated" these days, but even if this is not the case, the other 5 reasons are solid enough I think.

[i-love-my-sheep]

Personally, I don't give a hoot whether a seller has a premium badge applied to their listing. If they have the item I want and their feedback is OK, I'll buy it. I don't even notice the badge most of the time.

[2011.narelle]

I'm thinking that the items you sell aren't that easy to access  for most people,so why would you feel pressured to jump through eBay's ever changing hoops in a niche market?

You got TRS to get the fee discount,got a lot of great feedback & the very few negs & neutrals don't look like very valid issues to worry someone from feeling safe to buy from you.

The tracking number update can be tedious,but may save a few emails from impatient people.I think it also gives added bonus with the star rating,can't remember right now(my idiot neighbour's screaming car alarm is annoying my brain).Automatic 5 star for something about postage,i think.

Looks like your doing a great job,so keep doing what works for you.

[davewil1964]

There are ways to avoid having to add tracking numbers to sold listings.

EBay's label system does it automatically. Click & Send used to, but I'm not sure if that's the case these days.

[digital*ghost]

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@medieval_shoppe wrote:

Writing tracking numbers with every consignment is an extra workload and it’s something that at least 95% of buyers really don’t care about anyway. It's just work for the sake of work.  -- I understand that you have to do this to be "Top Rated" these days, but even if this is not the case, the other 5 reasons are solid enough I think.

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I agree with most, but I have to say, and this is actually a general plea to all sellers out there, most particularly if they are using couriers, please (please) give your buyers the tracking number. 

I recently had a huge hassle with a courier company that took a week to sort out - no beef with the seller, really, they posted quickly and all that, but they didn't mark as posted til later and didn't supply the number and as a consequence, I wasn't expecting delivery when it was attempted so missed it. I then had to rearrange delivery 3 times and was stuck at home all day on a Friday, Monday and Tuesday waiting for the company to deliver when they said they would. 

[dazzledayz]

eBay have a habit of rolling out programs, features and ideas that just aren't suited to our local environment.

Postage would have to be the classic example.

If you're a UK or Chinese seller then it's not a problem but for anyone having to deal with AP it's quite different.

With constant postage rises and the multiplicity of postage types a seller absolutely needs to keep post separate.

Repricing would be a nightmare otherwise.

I have 5 common postage types with 9 pricing variations so should I muddy it all up by inclusion of post in product prices?

I think not.

As for FVF discounts for TRS status I've yet to see any (does it even apply in the Aus marketplace?).

I list in media categories so maybe it doesn't apply to me.

I know thw Yanks and Poms go on about their 20% and I'd love to get a piece but I somehow doubt the likelihood.

Does anyone get it one the au site?