They seem very close to each other, in both numbers, and I would think most casual eBay users would think we are similar sellers in terms of volume of sales and customer satisfaction, WHICH IS JUST WHAT EBAY WANTS THEM TO THINK.
Look closer. I have 95,258 total feedbacks, indicating that a huge percentage of my buyers have gone on to buy many times. Superposters has 15,831 total feedbacks, indicating a tiny percentage of their buyers have ever bought even one more time.
Look at negatives and neutrals. In the six months, I have 17,728 feedbacks, and I received one negative and no neutrals in that time, and going back a full year I have received 34,513 feedbacks, and have received 3 negatives and 7 neutrals. In the past six months, superposters has received 1,470 feedbacks, and they received 21 negative and 38 neutrals in that time, and going back a full year they have received 4,311 feedbacks, and have received a whopping 156 negatives and 89 neutrals!
So these two sellers are about as different as night and day in every possible way, and yet eBay purposely presents the data in such a way as to cover up the differences as much as possible. Why? I contend it is because they are more concerned with making money than with screening their site in any way, and so they not only don't kick off bad sellers, they go out of their way to help them find more victims, so as to increase their "bottom line"!
I believe this is a major flaw in eBay that surely will greatly hurt them in the long run. I don't believe you can run a business where you gather together sellers, and you do next-to-nothing to stop the dishonest ones. Eventually, as word gets out, the site is sure to be overrun with thieving sellers. I hope eBay wakes up before it is too late!
Note that I am not posting this message to boast about how good my feedback is, but rather to point up what I think is a terrible flaw in the eBay system. Imagine a shopping mail where they rented some of their stores to outright crooks who sold fake items as real. Imagine that when you discovered you had been cheated you reported to the mall owners that you had been cheated in their mall, and their response was that they didn't care! How often would you return to that mall, and how long do you think it would be before the mall went out of business?
If this was not the Internet, there would be a criminal investigation of how eBay allows crooks to operate freely. But because politicians are afraid to be seen as "anit-Internet", no one does anything, which is a shame.
Bruce
