Pre-sale listings are those that describe items for sale that are not in the control or possession of the seller at the time of the listing. These listings generally consist of items that are sold in advance of a delivery date to the public.
eBay permits Pre-sale listings only on a limited basis. The seller must guarantee that the item will be available for shipping within 30 days from the date of purchase (i.e., the day the listing ends or the date the item is purchased from a store front listing). The seller must also clearly indicate within the listing the fact that the item is a pre-sale item with a delivery date that indicates the item will be shipped by the 30th day from the end date of the listing. Additionally, this text must be no less than the default font size of the eBay Sell-Your-Item form. Currently, the default font size is HTML font size 3.
Violations 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
Referral to Law Enforcement
Alice sells video games. Alice will receive a shipment of a new, very desirable video game from the publisher within 39 days. Alice starts a 10-day online auction on eBay, offering these games to buyers. Alice’s online auction clearly states that these games are offered as pre-sale items, but that she will ship them to her buyers within 30 days of the end of her online auction. Alice’s listing does not violate the eBay Pre-Sale Listings policy.
Her competitor, Albert, also sells video games. He also will receive his shipment from the publisher within 39 days. Albert starts an online auction identical to Alice’s, except that he chooses a 5-day format. Albert has violated the eBay Pre-Sale Listings policy because he will not be able to ship the item within 30 days after the listing closes.
eBay, at its discretion, for special promotional events, may approve an actual manufacturer of an item (like the game publisher in the examples above) to sell an item outside of the 30-day pre-sale guideline as long as the actual manufacturer is supplying the actual item for sale. These exceptions will be made for certain promotions and must be approved prior to listing items for sale on eBay that fit the exception above.
Why does eBay have this policy?
eBay has strict guidelines for pre-sale Listings to protect our members from potentially poor buying experiences while still enabling members to buy and sell items which are not yet available.
