New requirements went into effect this year. You must upload tracking within 1day and you must accept returns. I was always a PS and enjoyed my 20% discount of final value fees, but I lost it when this went into effect. Shipping within 1 day is no problem. Blind returns? No thank you. I mostly sell books and DVD's. Buyer would have 30 days to muck up a product while reading/viewing and ship it back.
I'm so relieved to have a brick and morter store now. eBay has gotten rough.
You are speaking of being a TOP RATED seller, not a POWER SELLER. They are two different things.
I am still a POWER SELLER based on volume and dollar volume, but I am NOT a TOP RATED seller. That is now called TOP RATED PLUS and as you said the requirements for THAT are a 14 day return policy and 1 day shipping.
Like you, the one day shipping is not a problem, though I usually cover myself with the 3-day processing option when doing a listing. It doesn't seem to affect anything really. My feedbacks when I get them often mention the fast shipping (1 day or 3 !) and the packaging and communication. Not everyone gives feedback though and I have stopped worrying about getting it so much. When you get into the the hundreds of feedback generally people will trust you.
I think another important thing is a sort of balanced level of feedback. That is, getting feedback on a regular basis shows you are an on-going seller, not just selling something once every 6 months or so. My 900 plus feedback pretty much reflects a constant 10 or so feedback each month over the last 9 years.
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Now, the LACK of having the TOP RATED (plus) designation means the LOSS of the 20% discount and of course that's a loss but not a terribly big one. On a $100 sale, if they charged you 10% for all fees that would be $10 and the 20% discount would be giving you $2 back or charging you $8. SO..if you had 10, $100 sales you would lose a total of $20 in discount.
While the number of people that would take advantage of the NO QUESTIONS ASKED 14 day return would be small, I just can't see the benefit to me of letting someone use a $400 speciality item (tool or otherwise) for free for two weeks and then sending it back to me. eBay and PayPal don't care; they're like stock brokers who make money no matter what the transaction is...it's nothing to them that you have to deal with a return.