Activity on eBay is required to:
- Follow all applicable laws
- Respect the rights of third parties
- Follow the eBay User Agreement
- Follow this eBay policy
If activity doesn’t meet these requirements, eBay may take action consistent with applicable laws and the eBay User Agreement, and may even be legally required to do so. Such actions may include, as an example only: administratively ending listings or cancelling transactions, hiding or lowering the placement of listings in search results, lowering seller rating, restricting buying or selling, forfeiture of fees, loss of buyer or seller protections, restricting access to member communication and rating tools, removing feedback, and account suspension.
What are the guidelines?
Duplicate listings for a single item
Allowed
- One listing if you have only 1 item (quantity of 1) to sell
- Two or more listings if you have multiple items (quantity of 2 or more) to sell. For example, if you want to sell 2 Beatles vinyl LPs, you can create 2 separate listings—one for each album.
Not allowed
- Two or more listings for the same single item (the seller has only a quantity of 1.) For example, if you only have 1 Beatles vinyl LP to sell, you can't have 2 listings for that single item.
Listings with no items
Allowed
- Listings that offer physical items, digitally delivered goods, or services (such as home improvement services)
Not allowed
- Intangible items, or things that buyers can’t confirm that they've received
- Items where the value is placed on something intangible. For example, listings that offer someone's "soul" or a container that claims to have someone's "soul" aren't allowed.
- Listings without an item or service for sale
- Listings that are out of stock but left active, often with a drastically increased price to prevent purchases
- Listings that tell people to contact the seller for info, including buying the item outside of eBay (see our policy on avoiding eBay fees)
Placeholder or blank listings
Not allowed
- Blank or placeholder listings, including:
- Listings to be fill in at a later time
- Incomplete listings that are created to take advantage of a temporary discount on eBay listing fees
- Listings that promote an item or a service that's for sale outside of eBay (see our policy about avoiding eBay fees)
Test listings
Restricted
To make sure buyers don't confuse a test listing with an actual listing, follow these guidelines:
- Use the Everything Else > Test Auctions category only.
- The word "test" must appear in both the listing title and the listing description.
- You can only have 10 test listings at a time.
- Listing fees apply to all test listings.
For test Feedback left or received for a test listing, follow these guidelines:
- Create an account that you can use to leave or receive Feedback for a test listing. Don't use the account you have for buying or selling. If we see an account that breaks this rule, that account may be subject to suspension.
- Make sure the test Feedback is used for testing purposes only. (If something looks amiss, we may remove test Feedback to avoid problems.)
Trades or want ads
Not allowed
- Listings that serve as want ads, where you post that you're looking for an item
- Trades – listings that tell buyers you'll accept a trade or a partial trade as payment
Why does eBay have this policy?
This policy helps keep eBay a safe place to buy and sell. Listings that are blank or don't offer any items or services can be confusing and aren’t beneficial for buyers.