Earth Shattering News: People with Good Reputations have Larger...

[mandy]

...sales. 

EBay sellers with established reputations can expect about 8 percent more revenue than new sellers marketing the same goods, a new University of Michigan study shows.

"People with good reputations are rewarded and people with no reputations are not trusted as well as people who have established reputations," said Paul Resnick, professor in the U-M School of Information and the study's principal author.

The study is the first known randomized controlled look at the value of eBay reputations in the natural setting of actual eBay auctions. The findings showed that eBay's feedback system—the cornerstone of the online auction site—works as it should, by rewarding sellers who have more positive feedback...

In earlier work, the group discovered that negative feedback on eBay comes in clumps, and that is partly a result of "stoning," where buyers are more apt to throw stones once they see one negative feedback. The results did not show that sellers changed their behavior after receiving negative feedback.

full press release: http://www.umich.edu/news/?Releases/2006/Jul06/r070606