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98% is pretty horrible at least in relative terms!
BUT (a bunch of them)
In some categories such as what you are selling you are dealing with idiots buyers, not helped by the number of similar idiot sellers.
Some sellers (like many China based sellers) are selling cheap junk, with free shipping and slow delivery times. No matter how good they are they are going to have lousy looking feedback.
Don't think there is any question, the cheaper you items the more issues, especially when we are talking sub $5 items.
When I'm a buyer which is almost exclusive cheap stuff from China I don't bother to even look at a sellers feedback unless it's under 98%. On the other hand if I was buying more expensive items especially items where seller competence and honesty could be an issue a 98% seller is something I would look closely at before buying, iot would indicate potential problems since that type of rating it fairly uncommon.
When I research the items I sell myself I rarely see sellers less than 99.8% and ones that are below that are usually obvious trainwreck sellers I'd want to avoid.
One of the biggest problems with eBays feedback system is rooted in the very earliest days when it was all kumbaya between buyers and sellers (mostly the same people). EVERYONE, both buyers and sellers all got crammed into the top tenth of a percent and rendered the whole system pretty meaningless.
The problem is really one of ego, when dsr's where first introduced their were sellers who advocated blocking buyers if they gave a 4, these sellers simply could not live with having anything less than perfect 5's even though it meant nothing.
Feedback scores are virtually meaningless these days.
Buyers can only have 100%. All buyers are perfect, right? Yeah, sure they are.
Huge number of sellers are 100%! Sellers are perfect, right? Sure they are.
Many sellers buy their FB. They do everything and beyond, possible, in their quest to be "perfect". That makes them good sellers, right? UM? No?
It has been estimated that realworld satisfaction is in the 60% range. eBay sellers are perfect? Hum?
I give 100% FB and receive 30%. That is accurate, right? Um? No?
FB is worthless. It has no relevance to anything. In some genres, there is a high rate of FB given both as buyers and sellers. In my field it is very low. That is fair and even-steven, right?
FB is unevenly applied. Sellers buy their way to 100%. Sellers phone eBya and endlessly request FB removal.
eBay has plenty of internal metrics for tracking sellers performance. FB should be changed to a simple counter of transactions.
Hello 'jyerxa10',
I'm not sure how much of a 'civil discussion' you can hope for when your premise opens with the vilification of another
member. What if everyone did that? How would you like it done to you? The place to launch a counter-argument to
any particular person's assertions is at the point in which the offender has made them.
No matter. Quite frankly I agree with you that the numbers themselves do not indicate much, not as far as percentages
go. After all, if we choose to view the numbers as "unhappy customers", then we can factor in neutrals because those,
too, are not happy customers. As such, the "percentage" may drop even further.
<<Several other statements by other high profile sellers have been made along these lines.>>
I must point out that when reading any blanket generalization made by sellers here, those who chiefly sell and rarely
buy, it is wise to be mindful of the degree of self-serving manipulation perennially infusing the thoughts and subsequent
words of people who will necessarily be using the system differently.
We often hear from sellers that feedback should be scrapped entirely. As a seller, - yes, get rid of it! As a shopper, - no way!
The only sites where I have had buying problems are those with no system of feedback. Those sites will always attract
the unscrupulous, where shopping must be done with caution and are very much "buyer beware" environments.
On ebay, hateful as it may be to some sellers, that system of feedback helps to keep transactions transparent.
But okay, your situation in particular. It is unfortunate that we cannot see when your most recent negger bought the item.
If it were me, I think I'd have made some mention of that. The expectation is that other 'good' buyers will see that,
know that the person left a premature negative for a 99¢ item. This year the Christmas crunch slowed mail times
considerably, and that is never a seller's fault.
I think any decent person would look at those negs and see impatient buyers and not a problem seller. You are
always reasonable in your response. Two responses that will turn me away, - the ones where the seller shouts foul
things at the buyer, and those where the response is canned and fake, like "Dear friend, please contact us so we can fix".
Particularly when there are too many complaints that efforts to contact the seller came to naught.
One of the changes ebay made that was of no help to anyone who actually uses the site, was to mask buyers' IDs.
I cannot possibly be the only shopaholic who would see others' feedback and buy things that I normally would never search.
If someone, say, outsnipes me on a painting, well, she obviously has excellent taste (heh) so I would see what else she buys.
My house is full of items that only got here because someone else bought from that seller first.
At the same time, looking at your fdbk, there is not a seller on here who would not like to know the identity of that person
so that they, too, can block a buyer who negs after a refund on an item that cost less than a buck. I am sure if people
ask you privately you would do your bit and share, - just as they will be eager to share with you. But too many people
leave negs for no reason, and if these abusers were to find themselves unable to buy anywhere, . . . Good!
So I don't honestly think that your percentage alone would turn buyers away from you, at least, not any reasonable buyers.
I think people are more likely to see that and feel sorry for someone so obviously injured by the petty vindictiveness
of horribly juvenile cretins. Negging after a refund on a dollar item? Eeeww.
For a low volume seller, all it takes is one negative for "slow shipping" to destroy that percentage, yet it could be one of
the kindest, most professional and decent sellers around. Thus clearly percentages alone are not much of a barometer.
If ebay wanted to implement a few worthy changes, they should have loooonnng ago changed "Shipping Time" to
"Dispatch Time" or "Handling Time". "Shipping" connotes transport and delivery. The others do not.
Ebay also should have made it impossible to leave feedback after a full refund. Or at least made it easier for sellers
to have them swiftly removed by a phone call. Too much automation, though, and there is no shortage of sellers who
would return 50¢ on an $80 item if the automation prevented negatives after an 'indicated' refund.
<<telling buyers to stay away from Sellers with less than perfect feedback is hurting some of us.>>
I don't know as it really makes a difference, but you're right, it isn't good advice. Just as being urged to file for a refund
prematurely is not good advice either, but you can't stop people from offering bad suggestions.
That is the beauty of these boards, --bad suggestions can be overlooked in favour of more reasonable ones. Sure, a lot
depends on the temperament and dispositional attribution of the reader. That's how life is.
As long as you endeavour to be fair and honest with people, I don't think anyone will be deterred from buying your items.
When searching, it is the item a buyer sees first. One must dig to unearth a feedback score, and by the time someone
troubles to do that, the person already knows how to properly read one.
Well, that's my opinion on it, anyway. 
