Last week I promised to talk about taking the perfect photograph. Since then eBay have announced some changes to online shopping and selling which are important for all eBayers so I am going to use this blog to outline some of the new measures for you. I’ll get back to photography in the next blog.

Importantly, the changes which have been implemented will benefit buyers rather than sellers which is obviously great if you regularly shop on eBay. More people buy than sell on eBay so this will be reassuring for many of you as you now have a level of protection which simply didn’t exist before.

From May 15th the Feedback System has changed so that buyers can leave honest feedback about a seller without fear of retaliation. Sellers can no longer leave neutral or negative feedback for a buyer so, as a seller, my only option is to leave positive feedback. Unfortunately, experience has taught me that buyers do not always deserve positive feedback but at least I can now block potential buyers from bidding if they have been reported for policy breaches or non payment. The idea behind all this is to make feedback a more accurate differentiation between good and bad sellers – again, a real advantage for those of you who shop regularly on the site.

I have always felt feedback is a bit of a double edged sword, there have been times when I have been tempted to expose a buyer (or a seller) who has behaved dishonestly but have been prevented from doing so by fear of receiving the dreaded negative feedback myself. As a seller, mostly, I am now in the position of still living in fear of negative feedback but no longer in a position to fight back with negative feedback of my own.

Within the Feedback System there is also now an opportunity for the buyer to see how other shoppers have rated sellers with regards to postage and packing charges, dispatch time, accuracy of item description and communication. This is definitely a positive move as it may cut down on the number of sellers who vastly overcharge for postage.

From June 3rd eBay are also implementing a new measure that will require every seller to offer PayPal as one of their payment methods. I will talk more about PayPal in another blog but the most important thing to know here is that, if you pay through PayPal, you will have up to £500 free protection.  If you want to learn more, log on to paypal or take a look at the moneymagpie article on how to pay on the internet – online payment systems.

With all these changes eBay are hoping to make the marketplace a safer place to shop – please just remember to reward your buyer with positive feedback if they deserve it. Feedback is so important to eBay sellers and many buyers just don’t bother to leave it. It only takes a minute to click on the box and fill it in and, remember, you are helping other buyers as well as being courteous to the seller.

If you want to learn more about these changes log on to eBay and click on the Site Map and then General Announcements.

The Chelsea Flower Show begins today and, as usual, the skies are grey and the temperature is chilly.  However, the forecast is for much warmer weather towards the end of the week so if you are looking for some inspiration with regard to your own back yard there are plenty of tickets for sale on eBay. Log on to eBay and check out the organicgardener who is selling two tickets for next Saturday for 99p and currently has no bids. Tooley26 is also selling two tickets, they have two bids and the current price is 99p.  These tickets have a much higher face value so you could potentially be looking at a real bargain. Both these sellers have 100% feedback, if you are going to buy tickets for an event do please be extra careful who you are buying from and pay by PayPal to ensure that you are protected in case something goes wrong.