Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay policy
Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay is not allowed. Buyers and sellers also can’t share contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers, prior to completing a transaction on ntacting another eBay member to discuss moving a purchase off eBay exposes both the buyer and seller to the risk of fraud. It also means both buyer and seller are not covered by our protection programs.
What is the policy?
Buyers and sellers can’t:
Engage in any action with a user on the site designed to complete or facilitate a transaction outside of eBay
Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
Exception: Sellers may opt to provide their phone number as part of the Ask a Seller a Question (ASQ) or any other eBay endorsed functionality
In any communications with another eBay member, refer to or promote external websites that facilitate sales outside of eBay
Use contact information obtained through an eBay transaction to offer to buy or sell an item outside of eBay
List an item and then mention or link to additional identical or related items for sale outside of eBay
Offer catalogs or other items that are used to order items directly outside of eBay
Host item descriptions or images outside of eBay
Buyers and sellers should:
Complete purchases on eBay in order to be covered by eBay protections and eBay Money Back Guarantee. Confirmation of a completed transaction on eBay can be obtained by:
Using the eBay checkout to complete the purchase
Viewing the purchase in purchase or sales history
Use Best Offer or Seller Initiated Offer transactions to accept offers for items and negotiate a price
Use the Private Offer feature to send a customized offer within Messages to sell to a specific buyer
Activity that doesn’t follow eBay policy could result in a range of actions including canceling listings, hiding or demoting all listings from search results, blocking some or all of your messages/communication with other members, lowering seller rating, buying or selling restrictions, account suspension, application of fees, and recovery of expenses for policy monitoring and enforcement. All fees paid or payable in relation to listings or accounts on which we take any action will not be refunded or otherwise credited to your account.
Watch the video series about our policy on offers to buy or sell outside of eBay:
Part 1: What is the policy? – opens in new window or tab
Part 2: What happens if you breach the policy – opens in new window or tab
Part 3: Best practice guidelines for communicating with other users – opens in new window or tab
If you receive an offer from a seller to transact outside of eBay, please report it.
If you receive an offer from a buyer to transact outside of eBay, please report it.
Why does eBay have this policy?
Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers. Transactions conducted outside of eBay are not eligible for eBay protection programs and the eBay Money Back Guarantee. Additionally, eBay has invested a great deal to connect interested buyers with great sellers and we want to participate in ongoing transactions with them.
Was this article helpful for you? You might also be interested in:
Eight Things That Get You Suspended on eBay (And How to …
If you’re new to selling on eBay, you’re probably excited to get started and to scale. The last thing that you want to deal with as you ascend to new heights is an interruption in your ability to sell.
With that in mind, keep this list in mind. These eight things can lead eBay to either restrict your selling or to suspend you outright—so as you grow, do your utmost to avoid them.
Restrictions and suspensions can halt your growth in its tracks—so learn what to avoid.
Failing to deliver. Your listings are a promise—to deliver a particular item, in a particular condition, within a particular time frame. That’s the selling business, after all. Hopefully it goes without saying, but if you fail deliver repeatedly on this fundamental responsibility, your selling will be restricted.
Having problem transactions. eBay can see most of the problems that occur in your transactions—negative feedback, late shipments, late deliveries, refund or exchange requests, and of course complaints to eBay customer service. Accumulate a few of these and your selling will be restricted.
Keep tabs on your seller performance level. If you see it falling, redouble your efforts.
Selling outside of eBay. Sales on eBay are how eBay makes money. That’s why it’s against the rules to offer an eBay shopper a sale outside of eBay—even if the shopper is the one that makes the request. Do this and your selling will be restricted.
Sharing contact information with shoppers. You’re only allowed to to communicate with shoppers using the eBay message system, and you’re not allowed to offer them other ways to communicate with you. If you share other contact information—phone numbers, sales floor addresses, email addresses, or non-eBay websites—anywhere on eBay at all—it will be detected and your selling will be restricted.
Only contact through the eBay message system, either via eBay or inkFrog.
Intellectual property theft. Profiting from others’ ideas or intellectual property is forbidden on eBay. This means that you can’t use another seller’s photographs or item descriptions. It also means that you can’t offer knock-off goods that are clones (or fakes) of legitimate products. Do any of these things and your selling will be restricted.
Listing banned items or committing a crime. There are laws about items that can’t be freely bought or sold, and eBay rules on banned and restricted items that add further to this list. There are also laws that prevent you from saying certain things to other people—threats and harassment are good examples. Violate the law or any of eBay’s product or communication safety policies and your selling will be restricted.
Study eBay’s banned and restricted items policy for your niche, then abide by the rules.
Listing inventory that’s new for you in large volumes. eBay knows, more or less, what you sell. If you sell a thousand pairs of socks and mittens, then suddenly list hundreds of thousands of dollars in diamonds, iPhones, or other high-fraud products for the first time, without a gradual transition, eBay may assume that your account has been compromised by fraudsters, and may restrict your selling.
Failing to pay eBay. When you sell on eBay, you incur fees, which are then billed to you. Fail to pay your fees in a timely manner and your selling will be restricted.
Accidental failure to pay eBay fees is a common reason for temporary suspensions.
The list above isn’t comprehensive, but it gets us a lot of the way there. A ten-second summary version runs something like this. On eBay, if you want to continue to sell and grow, don’t:
Fail to deliver
Fail to satisfy customers on the first go
Trade outside of eBay
Give shoppers ways to reach you outside of eBay
Steal images, listings, or ideas
Sell fakes or knock-offs
Break eBay rules
Break the law
Give the impression that your account’s been hacked
Fail to pay your selling fees
It’s not uncommon for new sellers to dislike one or several of these rules, but eBay’s effectiveness as a marketplace (and sellers’ ability to profit by selling on eBay) is dependent on trust. Everyone benefits so long as buyers and sellers alike trust the eBay marketplace.
All of the above practices put trust at risk, so eBay restricts sales or suspends sellers entirely when they occur. So even if you find some of these rules draconian, find ways to sell on eBay without breaking them. Millions of sellers already have!
How to Reverse a Restriction or Suspension
If you didn’t find this list soon enough, you may find yourself on the wrong end of selling restrictions or a suspension. If your restriction results from a failure to pay fees, then the solution is easy—log into your seller account, ensure that your payment method is up to date, and pay your fees.
In other cases, things get more complicated. How do you go about reversing another type of restriction?
The simple answer here is that you’ll need to contact eBay, come to understand what you did wrong, request reinstatement or the removal of restrictions, and follow the steps you’re given by eBay to bring your account back into good standing. Start at eBay’s holds, restrictions, and suspensions page and read the information there.
Then, scroll to the bottom of the page and use the contact options to reach out to eBay and ask for a reversal.
Visit the end of the holds, restrictions, and suspensions page for contact options.
You may be asked to provide various forms of identification, to sign documents, or to take other steps that eBay feels are necessary to ensure that you are who you say you are, that eBay knows who you are, and that you’re an asset, rather than a liability, to eBay and to eBay shoppers.
The more complicated answer adds to this two caveats:
There are no guarantees. Your selling privileges are entirely up to eBay—and there is no requirement that they reinstate sellers following a restriction or suspension. For this reason, it’s best to be humble and helpful as you try to go about restoring your selling privileges.
Registering a new account is a bad idea. eBay is surprisingly good at identifying sellers that register new accounts. Remember, they have tons of data on you—email, mailing, and IP addresses, cookies and browser identification, phone numbers, payment methods, product lines, listing content, and more. Get caught re-registering after a restriction or suspension and you’re unlikely to ever be reinstated.
For these reasons, at the end of the day, it’s best to follow the process that eBay provides to you, even if it seems frustrating or slow.
Even better, go over the list of don’t-dos above and take them to heart before the worst happens—then work hard to ensure that you’re never restricted or suspended in the first place!
Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay policy
Offering to buy or sell outside of eBay is not allowed. Buyers and sellers also can’t share contact information, including email addresses and phone numbers, prior to completing a transaction on ntacting another eBay member to discuss moving a purchase off eBay exposes both the buyer and seller to the risk of fraud. It also means both buyer and seller are not covered by our protection programs.
What is the policy?
Buyers and sellers can’t:
Engage in any action with a user on the site designed to complete or facilitate a transaction outside of eBay
Share or request direct contact information prior to completing a sale
Exception: Sellers may opt to provide their phone number as part of the Ask a Seller a Question (ASQ) or any other eBay endorsed functionality
In any communications with another eBay member, refer to or promote external websites that facilitate sales outside of eBay
Use contact information obtained through an eBay transaction to offer to buy or sell an item outside of eBay
List an item and then mention or link to additional identical or related items for sale outside of eBay
Offer catalogs or other items that are used to order items directly outside of eBay
Host item descriptions or images outside of eBay
Buyers and sellers should:
Complete purchases on eBay in order to be covered by eBay protections and eBay Money Back Guarantee. Confirmation of a completed transaction on eBay can be obtained by:
Using the eBay checkout to complete the purchase
Viewing the purchase in purchase or sales history
Use Best Offer or Seller Initiated Offer transactions to accept offers for items and negotiate a price
Use the Private Offer feature to send a customised offer within Messages to sell to a specific buyer
Activity that doesn’t follow eBay policy could result in a range of actions including cancelling listings, hiding or demoting all listings from search results, blocking some or all of your messages/communication with other members, lowering seller rating, buying or selling restrictions, account suspension, application of fees, and recovery of expenses for policy monitoring and enforcement. All fees paid or payable in relation to listings or accounts on which we take any action will not be refunded or otherwise credited to your account.
Watch the video series about our policy on offers to buy or sell outside of eBay:
Part 1: What is the policy? – opens in new window or tab
Part 2: What happens if you breach the policy – opens in new window or tab
Part 3: Best practice guidelines for communicating with other users – opens in new window or tab
If you receive an offer from a seller to transact outside of eBay, please report it.
If you receive an offer from a buyer to transact outside of eBay, please report it.
Why does eBay have this policy?
Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers. Transactions conducted outside of eBay are not eligible for eBay protection programs and the eBay Money Back Guarantee. Additionally, eBay has invested a great deal to connect interested buyers with great sellers and we want to participate in ongoing transactions with them.
Was this article helpful for you? You might also be interested in:
Frequently Asked Questions about selling outside ebay suspension
Can you get banned for selling outside of eBay?
Sales on eBay are how eBay makes money. That’s why it’s against the rules to offer an eBay shopper a sale outside of eBay—even if the shopper is the one that makes the request. Do this and your selling will be restricted.
What happens if you get caught selling outside of eBay?
Offers to buy or sell outside of eBay are a potential fraud risk for both buyers and sellers. Transactions conducted outside of eBay are not eligible for eBay protection programs and the eBay Money Back Guarantee.
How do I get around eBay suspension?
If you have been suspended, call eBay directly at 1-866-540-3229 and ask about ways to resolve the outstanding issues on your account. Don’t be afraid to call eBay and discuss the issue. They know sellers are real people with real lives and things happen.May 30, 2019