this is crazy. why can't I bid on items.

Question

ebay is preventing me from bidding because of unpaid items that I know nothing about. and were apparentlya year or two or three ago

woodland_gnome · Answer

If you are receiveing an error message that you can't bid because you had x (minimum of 2) unpaid item cancellations in the past y months, that is a seller choice. Whether you can buy from a particular seller depends on the seller you are trying to buy from. Some don't enable that Buyer Requirement (block) at all. Some enable it but at more lenient parameters than the strictest level of blocking anyone with 2 in the past 12 months (some leave it at the defaults which are the lowest number for each parameter--2 strikes in the past 1 month--some long-time sellers haven't updated it from the old maximum timeframe of 6 months, and some for whatever reason choose to give more than second chances--the choices go up to 100 strikes in the lookback period).

So for the strictest level you will no longer be blocked by any seller (for that reason anyway) 12 months (and 1 day) after your second to last strike was issued (I know eBay no longer uses that term but it's a lot easier to type and comprehend than what the PR types decided eBay would call it). For those who don't have it set you can buy right now (assuming no other issues, such as running into your buying limits or another Buyer Requirement by that seller). For any other combination of x strikes in y months they will not apply to you when your xth to last strike is older than y months.

If you are receiving some other error message, please copy and paste it if you want us to explain it. Most likely it concerns an eBay-set buying limit, which would of course be affected by prior non-payments.

lady_madonna · Answer

@nyc66

The unpaid item "strikes" remain on your buying record for only the past 12 months.

Not all sellers have their buyer requirement set to block bidders with unpaid item 'strikes", so you may find some listings that you CAN bid on/buy.