If you receive an offer to buy or sell outside eBay, please report it.
Watch the video series about our policy on offers to buy or sell outside of eBay:
- Part 1: What is the policy?
- Part 2: What happens if you breach the policy
- Part 3: Best practice guidelines for communicating with other users
What are the guidelines?
Allowed
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
Not allowed
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
- 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
Activity on eBay is required to follow this policy, the eBay User Agreement and all applicable laws, as well as respect the rights of third parties. If it doesn’t, 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: Removing the listing or other content, issuing a warning, restricting activity or account suspension.
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.