Buyer requirements allow you to block buyers from bidding on or purchasing your items based on criteria such as whether or not they have a PayPal account, their country of registration, and their buying history on eBay. You can also create a buyer requirements exemption list.

To limit buyers based on their User ID, see Managing Bidders and Buyers.

Adding buyer requirements

By selecting certain buyer requirements, you can manage the types of buyers you'd like to have bid on or buy your items. While this may reduce your exposure to buyers who might make transactions difficult or more expensive, or with a history of Unpaid Item strikes, or policy violation reports, it will also reduce the overall number of potential buyers you'll have for your items. For this reason, you should think carefully before using buyer requirements to block buyers.

The requirement(s) you select will be applied to your current and future listings and can be disabled at any time.

Note: The exception to this is the requirement that the buyers have a PayPal account. This requirement will apply to future listings only and can be disabled per item on the Sell Your Item form. Current listings, including good-till-canceled and selling tool templates, will not be affected. You'll need to revise these listings or templates to enable this requirement.

Requiring buyers to have a PayPal account does not mean that the buyer must pay for the item using PayPal. It only requires that the buyer be a PayPal account holder before they can bid on or purchase the item through whichever payment method you accept.

Other exceptions include the SMS process and phone verification. If your buyers meet an equivalent requirement (have a PayPal account or credit card on file, etc.), eBay will not block them from doing business with you.

You can use buyer requirements to reduce your chance of experiencing a buyer who doesn't pay for the item they have won or agreed to purchase. For example, eBay has found that buyers who are also PayPal account holders have up to an 80% lower Unpaid Item rate than buyers who are not PayPal account holders.

A table will be displayed showing all users who have been blocked from bidding on or purchasing your items over the past 60 days as a result of the Buyer Requirements you have selected. Additional information includes the date the member was blocked and which Buyer Requirement caused the block. Use this information to understand how your selected Buyer Requirements are impacting your business.

For example, perhaps you’ve chosen to block buyers in countries to which you don’t ship. Upon reviewing your Buyer Requirements Activity Log, you see that a significant number of users from a particular country are interested in your items. You may decide to begin shipping to that country, or to lift that Buyer Requirement, to capitalize on their interest in your items.

Creating a buyer requirements exemption list

If you have already set up buyer blocks, you can allow specific eBay members to bid on or purchase your items regardless of any requirement(s) you select by adding them to your buyer requirements exemption list.

If you have already set up buyer blocks, you can allow specific eBay members to bid on or purchase your items regardless of any requirement(s) you select by adding them to your buyer requirements exemption list. There are two ways to do this:

• From the Buyer Requirements Exemption List page.

• From the Buyer Requirements Activity Log.

Note: You may see an asterisk (*) in place of a User ID in the Buyer Requirement Activity Log because eBay cannot disclose certain User IDs in accordance with our Privacy Policy and User Agreement. In this situation, you will be unable to add those members to your Buyer Requirements Exemption List.