limiting sale items per customer

[peter-pan]

This is an addendum to a discussion I previously started. Having found no simple way to limit customers to buying no more than 5 of an item, without limiting my "quantity available", it was suggested I edit my "buyer requirements", which I did. Specifically I set the following requirement...

Buyers who may bid on several of my items and not pay for them

   Block buyers who are currently winning or have bought [5] of my items in the last 10 days

The trouble is, I have no way to test it. Ebay lets you "preview" a listing, but not actually test it. As far as testing myself, ebay prevents me from attempting to buy from my own listing. So here is my newly posted listing. Can someone test 9it and attempt to buy 6 or 7 of the item? Don't actually complete the purchase or "commit to buy", but tell me if there is any clue or message telling you you can't buy more than 5. I suspect it doesn't work at all and I have no clue what else I could do. I asked buyers not to attempt to buy more tha n 5 right in my description, so they should understand if I immediatly refund any purchases for more. But it sure would be nice if ebay made it easy to do this!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/232853584336

[pburn]

Your original thread is on the Member to Member Support board.

[pburn · Accepted solution]

I tested this for you. I can add five to my cart, and then it won't let me add any more. Starting over, I cannot add six or more to my cart. The only "issue" I see is that it does not "explain" why I can't add six--just goes to my cart and says a generic message about my cart being empty. I'm not sure whether this will get you a flurry of emails about why members can't buy more than five of your product when it says more than ten are available . . . yes--I know it's announced and explained in your listing information, and maybe that will be enough. I just wonder if you aren't opening a can of worms.

I'm also not sure how it's going to work if a buyer pays immediately, since your filter seems to say: 

Buyers who may bid on several of my items AND NOT PAY FOR THEM

But, yes! It works!

[lacemaker3]

@peter-pan

The block works on that listing. I was able to add quantity of 5 to my cart, but I was not able to increase the quantity any more than that.

FYI, your block on bidders in areas you don't ship to also works. I couldn't put any of them in the cart until I changed my primary shipping address back to my US address.

[bigdad_66]

I attempted to buy 8 and it stated in red letters that the buyer is blocked due to limit of 5....not exactly in those words, but the message came across.

Best of luck & glad it worked out!!

[lacemaker3]

If a buyer uses buy it now, instead of the cart, then they also get a good explanation:

[peter-pan]

Thanks everyone! (@lacemaker3, @bigdad_66, @lacemaker3, @pburn ). Especially those that tried other variations! Hopefully the fact that my item description has a warning in bold face right at the top will be enough to explain if someone doesn't understand why their purchase is being blocked. I probably can keep that setting for all my sales for now, It would be nice if ebay would include a simple "sales limited to # per customer") on a listing by listing basis. But this works for now.