Alkmaar
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Some of you may have already noticed in the past few days: I have added a new feature called "Seller Badges" to our marketplace area. It's a simple concept that hopefully aids you in identifying the great sellers on Pinside.
Background
Over the past few years I have worked extremely hard to make Pinside the safest place on the internet to buy and sell (used) pinball machines. We have many systems in place that prevent scammers from abusing our platform. We have the public checks (account and address verification), the basic checks (IP etc) and then also some clever algorithms that recognise scam patterns (which I will obviously not disclose).
Now, of course, no system can be 100% scammer-proof. But consider the below stats for a moment and the fact that I don't think we've had any scams reported in at least the past 12 months means we're doing pretty well!
Also a big shout out to all the folks who notify me of suspicious lookin' ads!
Stats
On average we currently see around 1,000 games listed on Pinside each month.
About 40% of those listings end up being marked as "sold".
The total value going through the Pinside marketplace for machine sales is around $3,000,000 (per month)!
Having virtually zero scams going on is a testament to enormous effort placed in making Pinside scam free.
Anyways, enough boasting... Back to the topic: Seller Badges.
Goal
The goal I have for this feature is to give recognition to Pinsiders who have a great selling record on Pinside. Nothing more, nothing less. These Pinsiders sell plenty of games, have been doing so for a while, they have received good feedback and they pay their sales fees to Pinside 
This system only takes game sales data (not parts or mods sales) into account and badges are updated once a day. The system is automated and purely based on statistics and the criteria (shown below).
Seller tiers
There are 4 seller tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Diamond. Each tier has its requirements, listed below, where some requirements are totals (all time minimums) and some are on a rolling basis (past 12 months).
Criteria
BRONZE SELLER
Game ads placed (all time): ≧10
Games ads sold (all time): ≧5
Positive feedback (all time): ≧3
Game ads sold (last 12 months): ≧3
Positive feedback (last 12 months): ≧1
Successful sales ratio: ≧30%
SILVER SELLER
Game ads placed (all time): ≧15
Games ads sold (all time): ≧10
Positive feedback (all time): ≧5
Game ads sold (last 12 months): ≧3
Positive feedback (last 12 months): ≧2
Successful sales ratio: ≧35%
GOLD SELLER
Game ads placed (all time): ≧25
Games ads sold (all time): ≧15
Positive feedback (all time): ≧8
Game ads sold (last 12 months): ≧6
Positive feedback (last 12 months): ≧3
Successful sales ratio: ≧40%
DIAMOND SELLER
Game ads placed (all time): ≧50
Games ads sold (all time): ≧30
Positive feedback (all time): ≧20
Game ads sold (last 12 months): ≧10
Positive feedback (last 12 months): ≧5
Successful sales ratio: ≧50%
Current distribution of tiers
Now, in case you're wondering what the current stats look like:
We currently (november 22, 2022) have...
136 bronze badge sellers
88 silver badge sellers
48 gold badge sellers
and 8 diamond badge sellers
The system runs its checks once every day to update all badges. As such, badges are subject to change and can appear/disappear for a seller if he meets (or not) the criteria for a tier.
I hope you find this feature useful! This is only Version 1. We can build on this with your input, ideas and suggestions!
Crofton, MD
Newmarket, ON
