A seller’s feedback score is the headline, and headlines lie by omission. The number tells you how many transactions ended with someone clicking positive, not whether the seller is sharp, honest, or a nightmare when a package arrives dented. Treat that percentage as a starting point, then dig into the actual comments like you’re working a case. You’re not looking for a perfect record. You’re looking for patterns that tell you how this person behaves when something goes wrong.

Start with volume and recency. A seller with twelve feedback over eight years is not the same as a seller with twelve feedback in three weeks. Low volume isn’t automatically bad, but it means you have less evidence. Recent feedback matters more than ancient feedback because businesses change hands, bad employees get hired, and shipping habits slip. A seller with three hundred feedback but only twenty in the last year may be winding down or selling irregularly; either way, you’re bidding on the seller they are now. If all the glowing comments are from 2019 and the last six months are full of “never arrived” or “had to open a case,“ the old praise is decoration, not proof. Look at the dates and ask what happened lately.

Then read the negatives, but don’t stop at the negatives. A one-star review can be a warning or a tantrum. Read how the seller responded. A calm reply that explains a carrier delay and shows a refund was issued is different from a defensive rant that blames the buyer. Read the buyer’s side too. If the buyer left five negative reviews in a week for unrelated sellers, that person may be the problem. You’re building a case, not collecting gossip.

Pay attention to repeated phrases. “As described” is useful but generic. “Packed well” is better. “Shipped fast” is fine. What you want is specificity. Comments that mention model numbers, condition details, or communication during a return are gold because they’re harder to fake at scale. If twenty comments say “great ebayer” and nothing else, you know the seller completed transactions; you don’t know much about how they handle a cracked screen or a missing accessory. Generic praise is not a red flag by itself, but it is thin evidence.

Look for feedback left for others, not just feedback received. Sellers who leave retaliatory feedback, insult buyers, or fire off angry replies are telling you how they’ll act if you have a problem. A professional seller can be firm without being petty. You want someone who treats a return like a business task, not a personal betrayal. Also check whether the seller’s feedback as a buyer looks different from their feedback as a seller. A person can be a pleasant buyer and a careless seller, or the reverse, but a nasty pattern in either direction is worth noting.

Check for clusters and weirdness. A burst of positive feedback in one day for cheap items can be a sign of feedback padding. A sudden run of negatives after years of clean history is worth investigating. Withdrawn feedback and private feedback hide context, so lower your confidence and bid accordingly. If the seller has a high score but a low number of recent sales in this category, don’t assume expertise. A person who sells phone cases can list a camera lens, but that doesn’t mean they know how to grade it. Look for comments from buyers who bought the same kind of item you want. That’s the closest thing to a reference check you’ll get.

Finally, match the risk to the money. For a ten-dollar cable, a 96% score and a few grumbles about slow shipping are probably fine. For a four-hundred-dollar watch, you want recent, specific feedback from buyers who received similar items, plus clear photos and a return policy that doesn’t read like a trap. Read the shipping comments closely, because slow handling and weak packing show up there before they show up in the score. Feedback is one source of evidence, not a verdict. The detective move is to look for consistency: do the comments, dates, responses, and listing details tell the same story? If they do, bid with a clear head. If they don’t, walk away. There will be another auction.