eBay and religion

I would just roll my eyes and throw it away. 

I would chuck it in the recycle bin and not give it another thought. I wouldn't even bother rolling my eyes. It is not that big of a deal.

I would just recycle it. If nothing else, it's a personalized touch, whether it's my thing or not.

However, as this seller is playing in Ebay's sandbox, so I hope bear in mind that if they start accumulating negatives due to these (and I can definitely see that happening on occasion) Ebay will knock down their status down, which could result in higher fees and less visibility of their items in the search results.

Thats a very good point! 

I would knock at least a star off the review and be very clear about why. Imagine the uproar if sellers included pamphlets about all religion being fairy tales in their deliveries. Imagine how a Jewish or Muslim family feels receiving unsolicited Christian proselytizing in a country where there are already plenty saying awful things about them.

We tend to think of Christian proselytizing as benign and no big deal because Christians are the majority and mainstream. It's not benign. It's disrespectful at best and threatening at worst. People need to be told to knock it off.

I'm sorry, but I would have to lower my rating and write a review explaining why. I know it's really not a big deal in the whole scheme of things, and the seller probably did it with a pure heart. But I cannot abide proselytising.

If you had asked me a couple of years ago I would say that I would discard the pamphlet with the rest of the packaging material and never give it another thought. These days I am feeling a bit bitter about religious organizations imposing their views on others, the whole concept of America being a Christian nation and so forth. So yes, I would be angry enough to never buy from them again.

Yeah that. 

Or imagine the outrage if the person sending this Christian pamphlet were to get a Muslim or Jewish one! It would be more than eyerolling and chucking in the trash, I can guarantee.

The thing with Ebay is that there is not a public star system.

When you leave feedback it does give you the opportunity to give stars based on communication, description, and shipping speed & cost, but those stars are only seen by the seller, and do not offer the chance to add a comment. (They also do not change the seller's overall feedback score.)

So buyers have only 3 options that other buyers will see and that allow for a comment: positive, neutral, or negative. Now, I think a neutral would be a good way to express to the seller that I was unhappy with the pamphlet, and to warn others. It would neither increase their rating, nor decrease it.

But I am of the belief that most buyers ignore the "neutral" option because that's just how people tend to be--either they are happy, or they are ticked. And rarely do they consider being temperate in their response. Or, perhaps more precisely--if someone is just "meh" about something, then they probably don't leave feedback at all. So I can't help but think that eventually this seller will learn the hard way that this is not the best idea.

If the religious item was Hindu or Buddhist, political, abortion, atheist, Jesus, Mormon, 7th Day Adventist.. still the same, toss and move along.  Now if it was Trump crap, THEN I might pause.

I am not one of the people who said that, but I have occasionally gone back and purchased items more than once from a few sellers who specialize in one specific thing that I buy on a somewhat regular basis.  But I agree that for the most part, each seller is a one and done for me, just because of the nature of Ebay.  

I'm far more likely to be a repeat customer to an Etsy seller.

Good point. After I wrote my post I began to think how I’d feel if it was a political flyer or neo-nazi group.

Well, I don't shop eBay at all but there are those that are collectors and might have found a niche seller. Or two. I do know some of those folks. If I were one of the collectors and found a seller to include something I don't think necessary, I wouldn't go to them again for something.