The night before the game, we decided to arrive at the ballpark early with a cooler full of tailgating food and drink, and try to find a scalper that would give us a deal on some good seats.
Much to our surprise, there was not a scalper in sight. Very strange for the city of Philadelphia. Like twilight zone strange.
I said to my wife, why don’t I just try the ticket office? Maybe they have some standing room only tickets.
She told me it was a waste of my time because the game was sold out, which it was.
I said what have we got to lose? So I went to the ticket window to see if I could get some Phillies tickets at face value.
And sure enough I did. I didn’t even have to settle for standing room only. We got two tickets in the outfield and got to watch the Phillies lose in the cold and rain.
I was just happy that I was able to get my Phillies tickets at face value and not have to pay a ridiculous amount of money to a scalper.
For all of your baseball interests, please visit Jay’s blog at http://batsofbaseball.blogspot.com - a baseball resource site to read more articles just like this and post your opinions. You can also find information on the history of the players and the game as well as up to date stats on what’s happening in the world of baseball.
Ask most eBayers what they look for when dealing with a seller or buyer and they are likely to say one word - 'feedback'. This magic number has attained the status of a near-obsession matched only perhaps by the kudos of powerseller status. Yet what does feedback really show?
Okay - it shows how many times buyers or sellers have left their vote for a member when they are good eBayers - doesn't it? Well, that's not quite correct. The easiest way I can show you is to go by my own feedback and explain what it means.
At the time of writing, my feedback number - the one alongside my eBay username - stands at 694. I'm not a powerseller and compared to some eBayers I'm a beginner, yet the figures still tell their own story. Say you wanted to find out a bit more about me - you'd click on the number, revealing the Feedback Profile page associated with my username. There's my feedback score - 694 - but hang on, what's this other number mean, the one by the side of 'all positive feedback'?
This number, in my opinion, should also be shown by a member's name. Why? Simple - it shows the true numbers of eBayers who have left feedback for me. In my case it's 1061. This means that customers have made more than one purchase from me - any number of them between 1 and 367.
This indicates that (without blowing my own trumpet), quite a few buyers have seen fit to make repeat purchases from me. Unless they were crazy, they wouldn't do that unless I had won their trust and they knew I sold good items. This figure also includes people I have brought from and here the same applies - by leaving repeat positive feedback they are indicating that they are happy with my buying from them.
So how about my positive feedback percentage score? No secrets there, it's 99.9%. What - not 100%? How can I be trusted if I don't have a perfect score? Truth is that a lot of sellers now - in effect - manipulate their feedback score to avoid negative feedback. How do they do this?
Easy. They simply do not give feedback to a buyer until that buyer has left them, the seller, feedback first. I call it ransoming - they hold the buyer 'hostage' with the threat of negative feedback. Unless the buyer returns positive feedback - regardless of the fact of it being deserved or not - they will not leave at best any feedback and at worst will leave negative feedback in a 'retaliation' strike. Beware of sellers like this!
Personally I always leave feedback for a buyer as soon as payment is received. If they pay quickly then I figure they deserve it! If I despatch quickly, sell good items and give generally good service I expect them to give me the same. However, I don't hang on to that 100% figure as a lifeline - my eBay activities (and yours!) ultimately depend on the goodwill of buyers and sellers. This means that, if I screw up - and it has happened! - I want to know so I can put it right. If I do, I figure I still rate positive feedback. If I don't - I deserve what I get!
So what does that 99.9% figure really mean? It means that I have had one - that's right, just one - bad feedback in over 1,000 transactions. Guess what? It was a 'retaliation' strike when I dared to complain about a faulty item! And let's face it - a seller with a feedback score of 20,000+ won't mind the odd negative strike - it isn't going to change their percentage score worth a damn. However, for a relative newbie with a score of say 10 that single bad result would plummet their percentage score to 90% - to my mind totally and utterly unfair. The big sellers know this - hence 'ransoming'.
So next time you look at a seller's feedback score, don't just take it for granted they're good - take a look instead at their overall rating. You might just get a shock!
Both Jay Conners & Steve Dempster are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Jay Conners has sinced written about articles on various topics from Sales and Negotiation, Marketing and Mortgage. For all of your baseball interests, please visit Jay’s blog at - a baseball resource site to read more articles just like this. Jay Conners's top article generates over 40500 views. to your Favourites.
Steve Dempster has sinced written about articles on various topics from Backpain, Family Travel and Recreation and Sports. Steve Dempster writes informative articles for the web and is also a confirmed eBayer. To learn more about levering your eBay sales, take a look at