On this page
Top Rated is the badge eBay puts next to your name (the star colours are a different thing, earned from feedback), and Top Rated Plus is the version that takes 10% off your final value fee. Getting there is arithmetic, not charm. eBay checks five numbers on the 20th of every month, and you either clear all five or you don’t.
Here they are, straight from eBay’s seller standards policy, read on 27 September 2026.
The five numbers
| What eBay measures | Top Rated limit |
|---|---|
| Transaction defect rate | No more than 0.5%, and no more than 3 different buyers |
| Cases closed without seller resolution | No more than 2, or 0.3% of transactions |
| Late shipment rate | No more than 5, or 3% of transactions |
| Tracking uploaded on time | At least 95% of transactions, validated by the carrier |
| Sales activity | At least 100 transactions and $1,000 with US buyers in the past 12 months, account 90 days old or more |
A defect is a transaction where you cancelled because the item was out of stock, or a case closed because you didn’t resolve it. Slow shipping isn’t a defect; it’s counted separately as late shipment. Negative feedback isn’t a defect either.
“Or” in that table means whichever is larger. A seller doing 60 orders a month can have two late shipments and stay under the 5-count limit even though two of 60 is 3.3%. A seller doing 2,000 a month is held to the percentage.
How eBay counts
Evaluation is on the 20th of each month. If you did 400 or more transactions in the last three months, eBay looks at those three months. If you did fewer, it looks at the last twelve. Small sellers carry their mistakes for a year; big sellers clear them in a quarter.
Below Standard is the other end: more than 2% defects across four or more buyers, or more than two unresolved cases past 0.3%. Below Standard sellers get lower search placement and can have limits put on their selling.
Top Rated Plus is where the money is
Top Rated on its own gives you the badge and a small search boost. Top Rated Plus is per listing, and each listing has to offer same-day or one-business-day handling and 30-day free returns. In exchange, eBay takes 10% off the final value fee on that listing (the per-order part isn’t discounted).
On a $50 jacket with $8 shipping and tax, the fee is about $8.44; Plus brings it to $7.60. Eighty-odd cents a sale doesn’t sound like much until you multiply by a year’s orders, and the free-returns condition is the reason a lot of sellers who qualify don’t take it. Returns on a $20 item can cost more than the discount earns.
The one that actually costs people the badge
Out-of-stock cancellations. Late shipments you can fix with a label printer and a habit. Cases you can fix by answering. A defect from cancelling an order because the item wasn’t there is the one that arrives without warning, because the item was there when eBay sold it. It was just also on Etsy, or on your Shopify store, and someone bought it there ten minutes earlier.
Three of those in a quarter, across three buyers, and the defect rate on a 600-order quarter is 0.5%. Four, and you’re below the line until the 20th of the month after the last one drops out of the window.
That’s the problem we exist for. eBay doesn’t push a sale to us, so we ask it every two minutes and correct the other shops within seconds; Shopify and TikTok tell us instantly, so an eBay count drops before a second buyer gets to checkout. It doesn’t make you a better packer. It does stop the cancellation you’d never have chosen.
Start 14-day trial, no credit card.
Checklist for the 20th
- Under 0.5% defects, and under three buyers affected.
- Two or fewer unresolved cases.
- Five or fewer late shipments, or under 3%.
- Tracking uploaded inside handling time on 95% of orders.
- 100 orders and $1,000 in the last year.
Then decide, listing by listing, whether 30-day free returns are worth 10% off the fee. For most items over $30 it is. For most items under $20 it isn’t.
If eBay is one of several places you sell, we keep the stock count matched across all of them, which is the cheapest way to keep the defect rate at zero. Start 14-day trial, no credit card.