eBay is holding my funds for 30 days — looking for advice from experienced sellers
Summary: rrdrivin-7 is experiencing frustration with eBay holding their funds for 30 days despite having completed over 50 sales and receiving positive feedback. They sought advice from experienced eBay sellers on why their selling history is deemed 'not strong enough' by eBay for early release of funds. kensgiftshop mentioned that new sellers with items over $1000 face this issue, but rrdrivin-7 clarified the holds occur with smaller items too. Other participants, like albertabrightalberta and janet9988, suggested that issues with item descriptions might be affecting their account. A detailed response from christworks pointed out specific feedback from buyers regarding inaccurately described items and issues with handling returns, suggesting these could be reasons for eBay's actions.
I’m hoping some experienced eBay sellers can give me some insight because I’m honestly frustrated and confused about how eBay is handling my account.
I started selling on eBay in March 2026, so I have now been selling for several months and am well beyond the initial 90-day period that I understood applied to new sellers. I’ve completed 50+ sales, and I’ve had orders successfully delivered to buyers. Some buyers have even left positive feedback confirming that the transactions were completed successfully.
Despite this, eBay has been placing 30-day holds on my funds.
I contacted eBay Customer Service several times to ask why my money is being held for so long and whether there is anything I can do to have the funds released sooner. The response I keep getting is that my “selling history in the past 90 days has not been strong enough for the system to consider early release of funds.”
That answer honestly doesn't make much sense to me.
I understand that eBay has policies and risk-management systems, and I'm not asking eBay to ignore its policies. What I don't understand is what exactly my account is lacking.
If I've been selling since March, have completed 50+ transactions, have successfully delivered orders, and have received positive feedback, what specifically is considered “not strong enough”?
Is there a certain number of sales I need?
A certain dollar amount?
A certain percentage of deliveries?
A certain amount of positive feedback?
A certain number of months of selling history?
Nobody at eBay has been able to give me a clear answer.
The situation is becoming extremely difficult because this isn't just money sitting in an account that I don't need. These are funds from sales that I need to reinvest into inventory, pay business expenses, shipping costs, and keep my eBay operation going. Having money from completed sales tied up for 30 days makes it extremely difficult to continue operating.
I'm not posting this just to complain about eBay. I'm genuinely looking for advice from other sellers who may have experienced the same thing.
Has anyone else been selling for several months, completed dozens of successful transactions, received positive feedback, and still had eBay place 30-day holds on their funds?
If so, how long did it take before eBay started releasing your funds earlier?
And if anyone knows what eBay actually means by “selling history has not been strong enough,” I'd really appreciate hearing what criteria eventually made you eligible for earlier payouts.
I'm trying to build a legitimate eBay business and do everything the right way. I just need to understand what I need to do to get past this situation.
Thanks in advance to anyone who can share their experience or advice.
christworks
·Aug 11, 2026 at 7:12 AM · Edited@rrdrivin-7 With all due respect, I think you know why eBay is holding your funds. Let's examine what type of seller you are, rather than all the noise you've provided us.
You've had at least three buyers who have stated you sent them something that was not as described. Two were kind enough to only leave you neutral feedback. One left a negative. Let's look at that buyer.
The buyer stated you listed a plush as new, but it arrived with a stain on it. When they contacted you, they said you told them to use stain remover. You then left a follow-up to their feedback where you assert you examined the plush prior to shipment and it did not have a stain. You suggest that somehow the plush must have gotten a stain on it during shipping and therefore it is out of your control. You end by saying you have 30-day returns.
Do I have all that correct? Have I lied or made anything up? Correct me if I'm wrong.
First, the plush should have never been listed as new. The tag is damaged. eBay specifcially defines new items as not having damage.
Here is the tag on the plush the buyer got.
We've not even gotten to the possibility of a stain, but that plush should have been listed as used. New items cannot have damage. I sell a lot of plush. I list stuff with tags as used all the time, because guess what? I didn't go buy it off the store shelf. That plush belonged to a child, which means it is used!
With that out of the way, a couple of things: First, if something is damaged during shipping, you are still responsible. You are responsible right up until there is a delivery scan, and even past that if the buyer opens the package to find something different than what they paid for.
Second, you told your buyer you have a 30-day return policy and gladly take returns. But....here is what the plush listing actaully said...
So right there you lied to your buyer and to all the buyers who read the feedback. Why did you lie?
Having a no returns policy does not mean no refunds. Rather than accept responsibility, you told the buyer to use stain remover. Stain remover on an item you sold as new. Do you really still wonder why eBay is holding your funds or should I keep going?
I think I should keep going, because we need to figure out whether your buyer lied or whether you did again.
I looked at the photos of the plush. Like I said, I sell a lot of it. I sell Squishmallows. They aren't as good as they use to be, but some like the one you sold have some nice value -- when they aren't damaged.
Your buyer said the stain was on the front of the plush, so I looked. Sure enough, there was the stain and also your poor attempt at trying to remove it, just as the buyer said.
How do I know that's where the stain was? Because the material is matted where it has been scrubbed, which is mistake by the way. That's not how you clean a Squishmallow.
You asked for advice, so I'll give it to you straight. Get your stuff in order. Buyers work too hard to hand their money over to shoddy sellers. If you can't do right, find something else because reselling isn't it. If you start doing right, you can turn it around. Until then, eBay can't trust you to properly sell and handle buyer complaints about a $50 item. How do you expect them to trust you when it comes to the higher dollar stuff you have listed?
janet9988
·Aug 11, 2026 at 5:09 AMIt is due to the item not as described cases most likely.
albertabrightalberta
·Aug 10, 2026 at 11:40 PMIt looks like at least 3 of your buyers were unhappy with incorrectly described items.
You really need to make sure your listings, pictures and description are accurate and point out any potential issues that buyers may find.
kensgiftshop
·Aug 10, 2026 at 11:27 PMFor items over $1000 and being a newer seller, they will hold the funds for 30 days.,
rrdrivin-7
OPAug 10, 2026 at 11:36 PMin my case is 20$ items and 1000$ items dont mater they all 30 days hold
annadryl
·Aug 11, 2026 at 5:56 AMThe three $3k items would do it.