Mnrbig,
The majority of sellers on eBay are small scale sellers like myself who are trying to sell good quality items that they no longer require. (at least that's how alot of them began and are still operating)
I agree that there are some terrible sellers on eBay, I myself have fallen foul to more than one! I paid around £26 for an item through PayPal, (apparently with up to £500 buyer protection) it didn't arrive, I contacted the seller on numerous occasions without response, then I opened a dispute which I won, PayPal refunded me
£2.99 and the seller disappeared, presumably to start up under a different ID!
Another took over a month to deliver a pair of trainers, giving me every excuse under the sun before they arrived. I left him Neutral f/b as the service I received was less than satisfactory and I found him to be slow, uncooperative, rude and dishonest. He negged me!!
You're saying that a seller's negative feedback can be explained, but only if the prospective buyer invites the seller to do so, buyers are anonymous to sellers until they make contact but most don't, they just look at the f/b score and draw their own conclusions.
I refunded a buyer recently for an item which I KNOW I described truthfully, it was brand new and had never been worn or therefore washed, she said it had pit stains and belonged in the clothing recycling unit! She offered to return the item but I would have to pick up the return P&P costs too and she could easily have sabotaged the item so I declined. After a short while I got sick of arguing over a couple of pounds so refunded her and told her to enjoy her free item. I had NO OPTION but to leave positive feedback but the comment I left her was far from positive. She negged me then complained to eBay that my f/b was in breach of regs and they removed it, I had to send three very detailed and very angry emails to eBay in order to have the neg she left me removed.
She still has 100% feedback, sure, she keeps her buyers happy (as most of us who value our reputations do) but no seller can leave her negative feedback, so people are not getting a true representation of what she is really like to do business with.
After dealing with this horrible woman I visited the discussion forum and was astonished to see the hundreds of members who have experienced similar situations since the new rule came into effect, this spurred me on to start the petition but everywhere I post a link to it, it gets removed
I think you're right in saying that it's a few that spoil it for the rest, but it's on both sides of the coin, buyers AND sellers.
BUT......the fees that generate a vast amount of income for eBay AND PayPal are payable by the seller and ONLY by the seller, some powersellers have hundreds of pounds in fees per month, yet eBay has taken away basic rights such as freedom of speech and the ability to seek redress when they are wronged and pass their knowledge onto others.
eBay are becoming greedier by the day and soon people will only be able to pay for goods via PayPal, they've already brought that little gem in in other countries.
SM
eBay invites the scam artists in!! 
