Sellers may not concurrently have more than 15 active listings for identical items and of these listings, only one Buy It Now listing will be allowed. If a seller chooses to list in more than one category, the seller must still adhere to the multiple listings limit of 15. Sellers may not use multiple user IDs to list more than 15 identical items.

Breaches of this policy may result in a range of actions, including:

• Listing cancellation

• Limits on account privileges

• Account suspension

• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings

• Loss of PowerSeller status

What happens if I have more than the allowed number of auction-format or Buy It Now listings? Does eBay rely on the community to report those who breach the policy?

We review and remove duplicate BIN listings which have been reported by members, which may result in the normal actions being taken if the policy is breached.

If you have more than 15 identical auction-format listings (including auction-with-Buy-It-Now), we remove listings which have been reported by members, and this may result in the same actions being taken if the policy is breached. 

What is defined as a duplicate listing?

We define duplicate listings as two or more listings which are of an identical item for sale. When we review duplicate listings based on member reports, we look at the listing title, price, photo and description to determine whether two or more listings are duplicate.

What are legitimate differences in listings?

If you are selling genuinely different items, you should reflect the differences in the items in the listing title, price, photo and item description.

If some characteristic of the items listed are different then the listings will not be seen as duplicates, e.g. memory size of USB sticks.

If you would like to sell different quantities of items, you should generally use the multiple-item feature , which allows buyers to select how many of your item to purchase in a transaction.  If you sell bundles or ‘lots’ of items within one listing in different quantities e.g. packs of envelopes in different quantities, then these could be considered duplicate unless the different listings are satisfying clearly different buyer needs. For example, a pack of 10 envelopes is meeting a different buyer need to a pack of 100 envelopes, so these listings will not be considered duplicate. However two listings, one for 7 envelopes and one for 8 envelopes could be deemed duplicates, since they are not serving sufficiently different needs: in this case, the multiple-item feature should be used. 

If you have multiple quantities of the same item where the items are in different conditions (such as used books) and therefore a multiple-item listing is not appropriate, any differences in the items will need to be reflected in the listing title, price, photo and item description.

If there is no real characteristic difference in the items listed, just the way they are described, e.g. quoting length in inches vs. cm, then these listings will be deemed as duplicates.

What about sellers who need to list the same product in multiple categories?

We encourage sellers to use 'add a second category' to list in more than one category.

My item fits lots of different models. How can I list them?

In instances where your item is compatible with different models, you are allowed 15 listings in total per item, as normal.  However, if buyers clearly need to be educated whether your item will fit their model, then you are permitted to list one Buy it Now listing for each model, up to the maximum of 15 listings. You need to vary the listing titles accordingly to make clear the compatible models (see the examples below).  This will not be permitted where buyers clearly already know if your item is compatible with their model (e.g., AA batteries).