Rather odd!

[Oliver R]

Same mandolin (I think?), 2 different sellers, 2 different prices. How strange..
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-191...item1c4fe4cf62

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-A1-...item3f47bb8ad1

[PseudoCelt]

It looks like one mandolin listed on two different eBay accounts associated with Rock Island Sound - maybe different branches? The price difference is a bit odd.

Patrick

[Bernie Daniel]

Not so strange?

Looks like the seller is "starting over"? He/she got down to 93% positive comments and decided to bury that by opening a new account. Of course if he/she does not change policies.........buyer beware.

[JeffD]

Not so strange?

Looks like the seller is "starting over"? He/she got down to 93% positive comments and decided to bury that by opening a new account. .

Good catch. I bet you are right.

[Jeff Mando]

Not so strange?

Looks like the seller is "starting over"? He/she got down to 93% positive comments and decided to bury that by opening a new account. Of course if he/she does not change policies.........buyer beware.

I looked into that and he has one negative comment out of 16 transactions in the last 12 months, the other 15 are positive, bringing his rating "down" to 93.8% positive. Who knows the reason, he might have just encountered a super fussy customer that couldn't be pleased. Ebay is an unusual marketplace in that "trust" is based on a feedback score. Also, keep in mind that someone buying a $2500 mandolin can leave a feedback score, just as a person buying a 25 cent pick can leave feeback. When did 93.8% become a bad score? Geo W. would never have made it on Ebay!

[barney 59]

It's true --if you work with the public you find that someone will always be unhappy no matter what. "I expected it to arrive Thursday and didn't get it until Friday!". Probably most of us would marry a "9"!
I have found multiple listings for things on ebay before and sometimes it's a hijack and it can be difficult to figure out which one is the true listing. Sometimes the bad guys are pretty clever and are savvy enough to make something appear to be one thing but actually it's something else. I'd be real cautious about this one and not because of the feed back rating!

[Bernie Daniel]

I looked into that and he has one negative comment out of 16 transactions in the last 12 months, the other 15 are positive, bringing his rating "down" to 93.8% positive. Who knows the reason, he might have just encountered a super fussy customer that couldn't be pleased. Ebay is an unusual marketplace in that "trust" is based on a feedback score. Also, keep in mind that someone buying a $2500 mandolin can leave a feedback score, just as a person buying a 25 cent pick can leave feeback. When did 93.8% become a bad score? Geo W. would never have made it on Ebay!

Look again! You are looking at the last 12 months only.

That seller has received ~729 feedback comments since 2006. A number of the feedbacks from earlier periods accused the seller of lying about the condition of the instrument or not shipping things promised etc. I would NEVER buy from someone with that track record.

In summary, that is 93% positive out of 729 transaction comments! That means over the time of the account the individual has had to have more than 50 negative feedbacks!

[Bernie Daniel]

It's true --if you work with the public you find that someone will always be unhappy no matter what. "I expected it to arrive Thursday and didn't get it until Friday!". Probably most of us would marry a "9"!
I have found multiple listings for things on ebay before and sometimes it's a hijack and it can be difficult to figure out which one is the true listing. Sometimes the bad guys are pretty clever and are savvy enough to make something appear to be one thing but actually it's something else. I'd be real cautious about this one and not because of the feed back rating!

But consider the entire history. Looks like 12 positive and 1 negative is from the last 12 months only.

That account has 727 sales with 93% favorable ranking -- that means 51 were negative. Yeah I'd say there might be something to worry about it. Although this mando might be OK.

[Jeff Mando]

Actually, eBay feedback is currently figured only on the past 12 months performance. I think at one time it was calculated on the life of the account. If you divide 15 positives into 16 total sales you get 93.75% (93.8) In the same way, someone who only buys or sells occassionally may have zero feedback because they haven't purchased anything in the last several years even though they may have a feedback score of several hundred transactions. If you click the feedback number next to the sellers id, you can see how this is calculated. But, you are correct, you can still read their feedback comments.

[Bernie Daniel]

Actually, eBay feedback is currently figured only on the past 12 months performance. I think at one time it was calculated on the life of the account. If you divide 15 positives into 16 total sales you get 93.75% (93.8) In the same way, someone who only buys or sells occassionally may have zero feedback because they haven't purchased anything in the last several years even though they may have a feedback score of several hundred transactions. If you click the feedback number next to the sellers id, you can see how this is calculated. But, you are correct, you can still read their feedback comments.

You may be right about eBay changing their policy.

But I still have a feed back score of about 100 based on my purchases/sales dating back to probably 2005 or so. I buy only occasionally on eBay now but have kept my perfect feed back -- and you can still look up the feed back from my first buys and sells way back then.

So while I am not exactly how the scores are computed these days that is my situation.