I posted the following thread on the eBay community forums:

http://forums.ebay.co.uk/thread.jspa?th ... 1200185146

The thread says;

"There are people who buy and sell feedback on eBay and this needs investigating! Don't believe me? Look at these auctions;


** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **



** expired/removed eBay auction **

For just pennies(including shipping!), you can complete a transaction and get positive feedback! There is nothing technically wrong with these transactions, but the obvious intent for these transactions is feedback and nothing else.:8}
What to do? I like the current feedback system, and I like eBay. I have nothing against sellers selling cheap items and the products they offer hold value to some people. One possible solution is that more than two of these super cheap auctions per month will warrant a warning from eBay regarding feedback manipulation. The solution I like best is that transactions of less than $1.00 don't count toward your feedback score. You can give and receive feedback, it just isn't factored in to the scoring. eBay will do nothing.

The reason eBay will do nothing is because they don't mind people pumping up their feedback scores. Better feedback scores make sellers look like they are better sellers. "Better sellers" mean more sales and more sales mean more seller fees. eBay won't change until lots more sellers abuse the system. So join in and buy some feedback today!:)"

In case you haven't figured this out, it's a swipe at Coug's feedback follies.  Feel free to add your own opinion to the thread.  Disagreeing with me is encouraged.  In fact, I'd like it to be a hot topic and get lots of people riled up so flame me, flame eBay, get hot under the collar, whatever.  Or, totally agree with me and declare you'll purchase as much feedback as you can before eBay catches on.  Let's have some fun!!!

And what kind of fee does Paypal or eBay collect on a penny auction?  It seems they'd be interested in making for an auction or payment minimum so they'd get a cut of something.  Of course a payment minimum of a nickel solves that problem but doesn't really address the original issue. Hmmmm...

Beyondthebreach wrote:http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/feedback-manipulation.html

O.K., so I went to this site and one of the statements is:




"It is a violation to exchange feedback for the sole purpose of increasing your feedback score to obtain site privileges or enhance your reputation. This most frequently occurs when a person purchases low priced, non-physical items, but may include other types of transactions as well."




So, is Coug guilty of this behavior to the point that eBay would seriously consider it?  I mean, Coug isn't selling penny auctions, he's just buying them.  To clarify, is the seller guilty or the buyer guilty in eBay's eyes or both?  And if you believe Coug is guilty in eBay's eyes, any recommendations as to how to go about reporting it?

Mars wrote:I don't think Ebay will do anything about the penny auctions since none of them say "Feedback" in the auction title or description.  If you look at all of their examples in feedback manipulation, they all revolve around explicitly saying it is for boosting your feedback.

You may be right, but I'm not completely convinced because of this sentence, "This most frequently occurs when a person purchases low priced, non-physical items, but may include other types of transactions as well."  You  are right, it doesn't say "feedback" that that appears to be the pattern with Coug.

I'm still not sure if the problem/fault lies with the seller of penny auctions, the buyer or both.  I don't want to charge in claiming the sky is falling if this isn't truly an offense.