Have there always been requirements from ebay that top rated sellers supply tracking to at least 95% of orders?
If this was already a requirement, how strict are ebay with this policy?
I haven’t sold enough to be top rated yet, but I send most cards in normal envelopes through USPS, seems like costs are going to go up for that…
This is concerning. I don’t mind paying a couple of bucks to get my cards shipped from the US, but if this forced-tracking is going to mean that top sellers are free to charge $13.95 to get 1-8 cards across the Atlantic I start to feel I am getting scammed. And the option to claim/report the very high shipping costs are gone because sellers are forced to.
I send single cards with envelope with normal priority shipping without tracking and I recently received the top rated seller status BUT I’m not located in the US. I don’t know how that will effect. It will really suck if I loose my top rated status due to that change 
We will see how it goes.
I don’t think it applies to European based sellers. I haven’t seen anything from eBay in my mail about this. And I have similar ranking as you do on eBay.
Used to be 90% most recently. Before that there was no such requirement, it just had to do with your feedback % and DSR’s (detailed seller ratings). I was top rated a few years back and the 20% fee discount was nice. But then I moved to a larger volume of low priced orders <$10 around when the 90% tracking requirement came out and it became cheaper to just forfeit the 20% discount to send everything for $2 cheaper each. $0.49 stamp vs. $2.60 or whatever it is.
eBay is 100% strict with it, missing by even a fraction of a percent you will lose it as it is a hard cutoff. I think they may have one month grace period or so if you slip below temporarily as it takes the average over a rolling period I believe. But AFAIK once you lose it, it can take a few months of hitting it to get it back.
I’m from Finland/top rated seller on ebay too. You won’t lose the status don’t worry. You are a top-rated seller on the “Global region”, (selling/listing items on ebay.com but not located in US, the requirements are way much lower and actually none of your shipments needs to be tracked to achieve it). Unless they are planning to change that too, but I highly doubt it
USA sellers already need tracking uploaded on time and validated on atleast 90% transactions, this will be upped to 95%
My recent transactions to USA, tracking on only 3.43% of shipments, still top-rated 
:
- The Final Value Fees for Store subscriptions will increase on May 1, 2017.
- The Top Rated Plus final value fee discount will change from 20% to 10% on qualifying listings on May 1, 2017. (eBay is also raising the bar for becoming TRS: The tracking requirement to qualify for Top Rated Seller status will increase from 90% to 95% on June 20, 2017.)
- Final value fees for sellers who do not meet eBay’s minimum performance standards will increase by 4 percentage points on items sold on or after May 1, 2017.
So does not uploading tracking on 95% + mean you don’t meet minimum performance standards, and then pay 4% more on final value fees?
No. Top rated>Above Standard>Below Standard.
Most lie in the middle. Top rated get a discount. Below standard face suspension and pay higher fees. You can go to your dashboard to see where you fall on each. I am top rated in everything except tracking upload and I assume most people missing top rated status like myself are only missing on that pesky criteria.
@emba Oh that’s good to know! 
Thanks a lot for the advice
Top rated status is almost never worth it in my experience. The cost of tracking $1-$14 cards usually exceeds for benefits of the discount… Just slap a 0.50c stamp on and you avoid paying $2.28 extra, or passing that cost on to a buyer.
@gottaketchumall you should just consider making a second account. One high end that you always add tracking to, and one low end that you don’t.
The new changes are a bit overkill. 97% of packages have to arrive by the estimated delivery date. Your status is contingent on the efficiency of someone else (the mail).
Also, the Top Rated FVF reduction is less, and the fee’s are increasing as well. I am still on the side that ebay offers an unparalleled opportunity, but they are suffocating businesses. I really don’t understand the perspective behind this Top Rated Seller change.
I’ve considered it but ultimately decided having one account make it a lot simpler for bookkeeping purposes. You would have added cost paying for store memberships on both. Added time in maintaining both accounts and the added time getting the reputation up to qualify for top rated on one of the accounts. Top rated requires 14 day returns last I knew as well which I did away with some months ago after it was being overly abused. Still can be abused somewhat if they claim INAD or some other bull, but it is much easier without return option on.
That was a decision I made over a year maybe two years ago now. Especially now with 20% discount reducing to 10% and 90% tracking going up to 95% tracking along with 97% on time, it is just that much further from doable for me. Still works well the way I have it set up. The market is just dictating faster ship times , better return policies and guaranteed dates to compete with amazon.
Do you meet the new, more stringent top rated requirements? Should be able to see in the dashboard. The 97% seems like it would be very hard to achieve. I only ship twice a week but even shipping next day on everything could make that tough unless they take into account your handling time. Maybe TRS requires 1 day handling and 14 day returns anyways IIRC. I am glad I moved away from it a while ago. With fee increase in tandem with some borderline businesses losing the 20% discount all at once, this could be enough to sink some small guys. It would have been nice if they staggered them by a few months at least. Hopefully they have a decent “grandfathering” period allowindg current TRS to ramp up to the new requirements.
I ship everything with tracking the day of payment. A few sales are shipped a day after payment. I barely meet the requirements. Right now I am 2.99%. Literally .01% away from downgrading.
My store is a great case study for ebay on how achievable these standards are for businesses. Any store with over 500 items is simply at risk due to volume. If someone is shipping same day, and they are right on the edge of the requirements, the rules are way too strict.
Where are you seeing this information on guaranteed delivery times? From what I understand, in-order to maintain Top-Rated Seller Status, eBay required 90% of purchases to contain tracking information that is validated by the USPS (or whichever carrier you use) within one business-day of the purchase (this does not include weekends or federal holidays). This requirement is being increased to 95% with the new “update” (along with the lower credit and slightly higher final value fee).
Scott, I believe you are referring to “Late Shipment Rate”. This IS NOT a “guaranteed delivery” by any means and can be satisfied in one of two ways (as per eBay Policy): If you ship on time and upload validated tracking or your buyers tell us the shipment was on time when they leave feedback, you’re all set. This is where you have a 3.00% “grace-period”. If you mail purchases same-day and/or next-day with tracking information, you should be fine! I actually mail everything next business day, and have a 0.00% right now. Here are a few things for you to consider; eBay will update tracking information every Thursday - you might notice your score to drop way down in the “red” at some point; however, come Thursday your score should increase into the green (that is the trend with mine). If this is a common trend with you, I would recommend one of two things:
1.) The easiest thing to do is to build-up a reputation with the front-desk people at your local P.O. Inform them (nicely) that you need them to scan-in your packages ASAP in-order to conform with eBay Policy. I go to the P.O. M-F and have built-up an AWESOME relationship with the front-desk people. I simply drop-off my packages at the empty desk that is not being used, and they will scan-in everything when they get a chance too - this is always done within an hour or so.
2.) Second option would be to wait in-line with your packages and actually have them scan everything into the system while you wait. This ensures that your packages aren’t just placed into one of the bins sitting around for hours before actually getting scanned-in.
If you’re just dropping everything into a mail-box and/or not having anything scanned-in right away, this could be the reason why your score is nearing the red (not sure, just a thought).