I don't ever leave feedback until the item has been in the hands of the buyer for over 14 days, unless the buyer leaves me feedback first. I also check to see if the buyer ever leaves feedback for the seller, and if the answer is that they don't, I don't leave them feedback. If you think of it, anyone can be a buyer on eBay and be a dead beat, and there is nothing that you can do about it if they place a bid or make a purchase of your item, except to report them as a non paying buyer. eBay doesn't use the buyers reputation for buyers, only sellers complaints about the buyer when they don't pay. You will have to have a long string of buyer non payment reports before they will dump you as a buyer. Now, on the other hand, a sellers reputation is important to buyers, however, many buyers never think to look to see how your reputation numbers were earned. Most of my reputation numbers are a result of purchases, not sales. I always give good feedback when I make a purchase even if the seller doesn't leave feed back for me first. Many sellers withhold feedback waiting to see how the sale pans out. I recently had to return an item, since the manufacturer changed the item, and the seller was using an out of date picture. I still left him positive feedback, since it wasn't his fault, or at least I will assume that he might not have known the change in the product. The product that I bought was a flat faced bracket that I could drill my own holes in the face. What I got was a bracket that had predrilled holes in it, but the holes didn't line up for my application.