Seller ratings

Ratings are a buyer-only feature — they appear after a real transaction completes. They are public on every seller's profile and feed into search ranking.

How a rating gets created

• A buyer completes a transaction (received the item).
• The platform invites them to rate the seller within 30 days.
• The rating is a 1–5 star score plus an optional short comment.
• Once submitted, ratings cannot be edited (to prevent retaliation cycles).

We only collect ratings tied to real transactions — there is no "rate anyone" feature.

What's rated

A single overall score, with optional comment. We deliberately don't ask for separate scores on packaging, communication and accuracy — they tend to all move together, and asking for five sub-scores leads to fewer ratings overall.

On the seller's profile

Each seller has a public profile at /sellers/<handle> showing:

• Average rating (rounded to one decimal)
• Total number of ratings
• A list of the most recent ones
• Public information about the seller (type, country, member since)

Profiles do not show buyer names or PII — only ratings.

What ratings affect

• Search ranking. Higher-rated sellers appear higher in catalog listings when multiple sellers offer the same release.
• Seller standing. A persistent low average (below 4.0 over a meaningful number of ratings) triggers our review. Low-rated sellers can have listing privileges suspended.
• Curation decisions. Ratings inform our internal seller review process — but a single bad rating never triggers automatic action.

What ratings don't affect

• The platform fee — flat membership, not commission
• Visibility of individual listings — only the seller order in search

If you receive an unfair rating

Sellers can flag a rating as unfair via the seller dashboard. We review the order context and the rating text:

• Rating clearly retaliatory (e.g., 1-star after the seller correctly refused an unreasonable return) → we may remove the rating
• Rating reflects a real problem (e.g., the record arrived in a worse grade than described) → it stays, even if the seller disagrees
• Rating is a misunderstanding → we leave it but the seller can post a public reply

We don't remove ratings just because a seller doesn't like them.

For buyers

If you bought something, leaving a rating helps the next buyer. A two-line note ("arrived quickly, well packed, exactly as graded") is enough. We send a single reminder after 7 days; we don't badger.