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Managing bidders and buyers


All members can participate in bidding and buying on eBay. However, as a seller you might prefer to limit your sales to people you feel comfortable with, such as those who have positive Feedback scores. We offer several ways to help you define the bidders and buyers you want to do business with.

Viewing bidder information
We help protect members by limiting how their information and bid history can be viewed. Sellers can view the user IDs of all bidders on their listings, but other members see only anonymous IDs.
Blocking bidders and buyers
If you don't want to sell to certain members, you can put their user IDs on your blocked list. Members on the list can't bid on any of your listings until you remove them from the list. You can block up to 5,000 user IDs.
You can choose whether or not to allow blocked buyers to contact you about your listings (by default they can't, but you can change this setting by following the instructions in the Setting up buying requirements section below). Blocked buyers will still be able to contact you about existing transactions, unless you add their user ID to your blocked list.
You can also get to Site Preferences from Seller Hub > Overview > Shortcuts.
Note: When blocking bidders, you must comply with any applicable laws or regulations. If you have any questions about your legal obligations, please seek legal advice.
To add a member to your blocked list:

  2. Enter the user IDs of the members you want to block.

  3. Click Submit.

To remove a member from your blocked list:

  2. Delete the user ID of the member from the text box.

  3. Click Submit.

Note: You should inform members after you remove them from your blocked list, so they can resume bidding on your items.
Cancelling bids
In general, sellers shouldn't cancel bids on their listings. However, there are a few legitimate reasons for doing so:

  • A bidder contacts you to back out of the bid.

  • You cannot verify the identity of the bidder after trying all reasonable means of contact.

  • You end your listing early.

Note: Bids cannot be reinstated after they've been cancelled.
To cancel a bid:

  2. Enter the item number, the user ID of the bid you’re cancelling, and the reason you're cancelling the bid.

  3. Click Cancel bid.

You can also cancel a bid from Seller Hub > Overview > Shortcuts.
Setting up buyer requirements
You can specify buyer requirements to manage the types of buyers who can bid on or buy your items. Doing so reduces your exposure to buyers who might make sales difficult for you, but it also reduces the number of potential bidders and buyers for your items. You can specify buyer requirements for all your listings, or you can specify the requirements only for particular listings.
To add buyer requirements to all of your listings:

  1. Go to My eBay > Account > Site preferences or Seller Hub > Overview > Shortcuts > Site Preferences.

  2. Under Selling preferences, click Show next to Buyer requirements, and then click Edit.

  3. On the Buyer Requirements page, select your buyer requirements. For example, you might not want to do business with buyers who:

    • Don't have a PayPal account

    • Have unpaid items recorded on their account

    • Have a primary delivery address in countries you don’t post to

    • Have reportedly breached eBay policies

    • Have a negative Feedback score

    • Are currently winning or have bought a large number of your items in the last 10 days

  4. If you want to apply these settings to all current and future listings, tick the box next to Apply above settings to current and future listings.

  5. If you want to prevent blocked buyers from sending you questions about your listings, make sure that the box next to Do not allow blocked buyers to contact me is ticked.
    (If you do want to allow blocked buyers to contact you, clear this box.)

  6. Click Submit to save your requirements.

To add buyer requirements for a specific listing, you can specify your requirements in the listing form.

Contact Customer Support

If you have an additional question about this subject, please email us at Customer Support.
If you would like to ask a question on another subject, please use the Contact Us page.

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