I have had VERY recent experience with a "similar" seller, and here's my 2 cents on what makes a seller sketchy:

1) Being immediately willing to refund or "make a deal" when you receive the item and its clearly not as described. This often means they knew what the condition was, and were hoping to sucker someone. Don't buy into it and let them bribe you just to turn around and do it to another person. The worst thing is when you send it back and its back up on eBay in a week. I've heard "I didn't look in the box" (not a pony) or just "I would have given you a refund" with no explanation about a black mark on an "unmarked" pony.

2) The seller waits to leave feedback until the buyer does. Yeah, I've heard both sides on this. I understand the buyer could leave you negatives and you'd have little recourse. Still... In every single transaction I've had where the ponies (or other item) was EXACTLY AS DESCRIBED, the seller left me positive feedback right after I pay. I pay within 6 hours of winning, and usually less than an hour. I am always clear about terms if I'm making an offer. That should be all it takes to get good feedback.

3) Any other action the seller does to try and get positive feedback when they clearly disguised or failed to mention obvious flaws. Don't be fooled, kids, that makes them a hustler and you a sucker.

... sigh... I can't hate the ponies, after all, they're PONIES

Unfortunately, buying scammers like Brooke Kutik are starting to do PayPal chargebacks once they've gotten the package. It's a shame the sellers they've scammed hadn't waited to leave feedback. I know they can do follow-ups, but the positive is still there; not many people read through glowing feedback.

I do see your point, though. Unfortunately, it's not that simple (for either the buyer or the seller).

Angelika Jean, when I started re-collecting I felt the same way as you, I even started a thread about it. I felt that when I had paid, my deal of the bargain was done and that the seller should give me my feedback. I got a lot of nice replies in my thread, and after being around for a couple of months I am starting to realize everything that can go wrong between seller/ buyer even after paying. And as baby_Katie stated, feedback can be the only way of letting people know of a bad buyer that other sellers should be warned about.

Myself I am not a seller, and so it's easy for me to only relate to the buyer's point of view. But after being a daily guest her at Trader Support, I now believe the feedback should be mutually given at the completion of a sale. It doesn't hurt for the buyer to wait a little longer for their feedback and it gives the seller a little safety valve.

But of course, a lot of sellers gives it right away, in my experience the seller who gives me immediate feedback is the sellers I have dealt with before. And this is very nice and sweet of them. But I would never hold it against a seller if they decided to wait. We are all strangers on the net, and it doesn't hurt to be a little careful.

Just my 2 cents

EDIT: just read the whole thing. Sorry it's so LONG! I guess nobody will bother to read it anyway

Tags, I appreciate that POV. But here's my example:

The person I had trouble with waited to leave feedback. I suspected she was waiting to see what I left first. I paid super fast, but when I got them I felt the ponies were misrepresented. I left positive feedback anyways because I knew the ponies had some marks, and because I don't think negative/neutral is warranted unless someone doesn't send the item or disappears, etc.

I did leave some constructive criticism in my feedback, such as "Nice pony, should have documented marks", even though they were three positives. As I suspected, the seller then sent an annoyed e-mail and left me neutral feedback. I didn't do a chargeback or withdraw a bid, but I was clearly being punished for honest feedback that didn't hurt the sellers rep.

That's what I mean by manipulating the system

I would just suggest emailing problems to the seller first and trying to work it out. Sometimes honest mistakes are made and things are over looked by accident. At least emailing first gives the seller a chance to make you happy.

AngelikaJ, I see your POV too, and I don't think there is a way to fully solve this kind of retaliatory feedbacks. I spent a lot of time contemplating over who should be giving who feedback first in the beginning, but in the end I just settled with the way it semed to be. When it comes to retaliatory feedbacks there seems like it's not much you can do once it has happened. Guess you just have to be careful and precheck the seller carefully... and perhaps it should be easier to get feedbacks withdrawn at eBay if you receive a neg that is undeserved?

I can fully understand a seller's annoyance at not being contacted about a problem (how can they fix it if they don't know there's anything to fix?), but I do not agree with leaving retaliatory feedback in return. There are extreme cases, but those are few and far between (hopefully :P).

I'm sorry that seller left you neutrals, AngelikaJean; that was not professional, and it's behavior like that that prevents me from buying like sellers like that. In order to weed those sellers out from the others, you can check out the feedback they left for others. If there are a lot of negatives/neutrals that seem fishy, you can avoid buying from them.