Following the sellers you buy from, and why it is worth doing
What a regular buyer actually gets out of saying so — and what it does for the seller.
On eBay itself, a repeat buyer is effectively anonymous. A seller can see that an order came in; they
have no practical way to know you have bought from them nine times, and no way at all to tell you they
have just listed the thing you have been hunting for eighteen months.
That is a strange gap. In any other trade the regulars are the most valuable people in the room and
everybody knows their names.
WHAT SAYING SO GETS YOU HERE
Tell the board which sellers you buy from, and they can confirm it. Once they do, two things change. You
carry a mark that says a seller has vouched for you, which is worth something precisely because they had
to agree to it rather than you claiming it. And when you post something on Looking for, the sellers you
buy from see it before anyone else — because the most likely answer to "has anybody got one of these" is
the person who has sold you three already.
WHAT IT GETS THE SELLER
A list of the people who actually keep their business going, which eBay does not give them. That is not a
small thing for somebody running a shop out of a spare room.
THE PART THAT IS NOT NEGOTIABLE
Nothing is bought or sold on this board and it never will be. A seller points you at their eBay listing
and the sale happens there, with eBay's protection on both sides. Taking it off-platform would break
eBay's rules and put a seller's livelihood at risk — so the board does not allow it, earns nothing
either way, and could not do otherwise if it wanted to.
YOU DO NOT HAVE TO SELL ANYTHING
There is no part of this that requires you to be a seller. Say you are here to buy when you join, and the
board stops asking you seller questions.