Over 10 years ago, I was a trading card addict.  I had entire sets of Sailormoon cards, including rares, and Magic Knight Rayearth, Marmalade Boy, Evangelion, etc.  That kind of stopped when I realized I wanted graphic novels more than cards.  Nowadays, though, I want all kinds of BL merchandise and the habit’s started up again.

Of course, BL isn’t nearly as popular as any of those series were and card collecting fervor doesn’t seem to exist anymore, so stores around me don’t carry them.  So I am left with these two choices: lazily scouring eBay for sellers with fantastic merchandise and 98-100% positive feedback or diligently scouring forums and personal sites for what seems to be a reliable person to trade cards with.  Well, to start out, I have to go with the former so that I actually have cards to trade should I attempt to do the latter.

I recently bought and received a couple of boxes of cards from the same seller.  The seller didn’t do anything wrong, even sent me a notice that the item shipped (same day of payment!).  You would think that would be normal, but I actually don’t get too many ebay shipping notifications, despite having shopped on the site quite a bit.  The only thing I thought wasn’t satisfactory was that the package was registered airmail, yet I received no tracking number for the package so that I could stalk it myself.  Positive feedback for the seller with the awesome BL cards was left, of course, except for the Detailed Seller Ratings.  In my defense, I thought four stars out of five was still positive.  Three stars would be average, four stars is positive, and five stars is exceptionally rare, such as service that you didn’t even expect, isn’t it?

Apparently it doesn’t work that way on eBay, if forums are to be believed.  Sometimes they’re not, but I can’t find statements to the contrary, so I’ll believe them.  Anyway, I always leave four stars if there is wiggle room for the service.  For example, since there isn’t really anything more you can do in the “Communication” section, especially if there isn’t any tracking involved, I will leave five stars for no problems encountered, because I can’t see an exceptionally rare service being borne out of that.

For something such as “Shipping and handing charges”, however, I will usually only leave five stars for free shipping.  In fact, I have considered leaving only three stars for shipping because in my mind, that is still a satisfactory score.  Shipping price was quoted, I paid, nothing more, nothing less; the seller accepted the stated price, nothing more, nothing less.  Nothing extra was done, nothing bad was done.  My five stars are reserved for free shipping because a seller willing to absorb international shipping costs is exceptionally rare.

The cards I ordered came from Japan and in some relatively large boxes, so the shipping was fairly high.  I left four stars because of the simple “wiggle room” rule I live by for ratings.  No, the seller didn’t contact me all distraught or angry or anything and I thought nothing of this for days; it’s quite possible he doesn’t even check or care or sells so much he can’t tell it’s me or is courteously sticking to eBay’s policy of not “harassing” people.

It was my next purchase from a different seller that made me worry.  The form-style thank you notice said that if I intended to leave anything other than a five star rating, to please contact them first.  I had to find out more about this.  Was a four star rating so bad? I still think it’s a great rating.  I would even still buy from people with a three star rating; at least that would mean they are still satisfying their customers.  Supposedly, anyway.  It seems that the rational thinking behind star ratings exists only in my head and not the real world.

So here’s what I gather from the forums: a) the star ratings are not as anonymous as eBay says they are, as it’s evident from the seller’s view which star ratings were left when, even if it doesn’t say which buyer they were left from and b) too many four ratings can cause a buyer to lose the ability to sell.  WTF? Look, this is too much pressure.  I’m not leaving those star ratings anymore and if I had realized I could skip it before, I would have.  I’m shopping, I don’t want to think.  I just want to buy stuff; the hardest thinking I should have to do is simple math, not how I’m affecting what could be the sole income of some poor human being.

Well, eBay, thanks for ruining my great weekend by making me worry about the four star rating I gave.  How about telling people what the stars really mean?

In my head:
5.  Exceptional, rare service.
4.  Great service.
3.  Satisfactory service.
2.  The seller did something wrong.
1. Seller took the money, didn’t send anything or provide any service.

What eBay thinks:
5.  Satisfactory.
4.  Service sucks.
3.  Service sucks.
2.  Service sucks.
1.  Seller is a scam artist.