Why am I not able to make a purchase on ebay when my status feedback is 100% perfect?

[mudshark61369 · Accepted solution]

@newt3,

Did you receive a message when trying to make a purchase, it could explain why you could not buy an item.

Some reasons you can't buy an item are;

You added the item to the cart awhile ago, but it sold out since that time.

The seller does not ship to your state, territory, country, or specific address if it is a P.O. box or APO.

You were blocked by the seller for some reason, possibly a past purchase from them that had issues.

The item you tried to purchase was a great deal more expensive than your usual ones. Which is an ebay restriction.

FYI. Your 100% rating is shared by every member who has bought only in the last year or longer. All buyers have a 100% rating because buyers cannot receive negative feedback, even the non payers and scammers. You cannot even get a negative comment with a positive rating.  Buyers are judged on the feedback they leave sellers.

[ittybitnot]

@newt3 

As suggested, there are many reasons why you may be blocked from making a bid or purchase.  One of the most common one would be if you had two unpaid item issues in the last year.  Sellers can block users that do have two unpaid items, and many use that feature.  

Your 100% status is not indicative of any wonderful behavior on your part.  All buyer IDs have 100% feedback be they wonderful buyers or the biggest scammer buyers on the site.  Nobody cares and it is funny to have people proclaim here how great they are since their feedback rating is 100%.

What message are you getting when you try to checkout and pay on eBay?  Is your credit card expired?

[newt3]

As far as I know I have never had an unpaid item on ebay that wasn't a return. This is new for me. I've been an ebay buyer and seller for many years. 

[newt3]

Every item that I attempted to  buy today was blocked not by the seller but by ebay. I don't understand this at all.

[downunder-61]

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@newt3 wrote:

As far as I know I have never had an unpaid item on ebay that wasn't a return. This is new for me. I've been an ebay buyer and seller for many years. 

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Go to your purchase history and scroll to find the ''Unpaid Items'' -  if you do have 2 or more then you are being restricted by the sellers who have blocks in place.

The only other thing it may be is a restriction on the $$ amount you are allowed to purchase - you appear to have returned after a break from eBay, so they could be treating you as a new buyer???

[woodland_gnome]

Why are you asking us to guess instead of telling us what the error message says?

[7606dennis]

We actually need more information to offer an informed opinion on why you may be blocked from buying from a particular seller.  What was the message showing when your attempted purchase failed?

By the way, since 2008 a 100% feedback rating for a buyer means very little since they can receive nothing less from a seller.

[newt3]

This is the message that I get from eBay when I tried to buy a gold coin just now:

"To ensure that eBay remains a safe marketplace to accept payments, limits are being placed on accounts based on reviews. These limits may change over time and are determined by your previous site activity and overall performance. This action was taken by eBay and not by your seller."

I was able to purchase airtite holders for my coins last night, but not the coin itself. Is there a limit on the amount of gold coins one can purchase on eBay?

[downunder-61]

I was able to purchase airtite holders for my coins last night, but not the coin itself. Is there a limit on the amount of gold coins one can purchase on eBay?

There is when you are being considered a new buyer as I said up thread, and the message from eBay sounds like this is exactly what is happening.

Try reaching out to eBay for business on social media to see if you can get this confirmed or denied.

https://www.facebook.com/eBayForBusiness  http://www.twitter.com/askebay

Send a private message.  Include your user ID, email address, phone number, and a brief

message. 

[woodland_gnome]

Historically registering a credit card is the most likely thing you can do to get your Buyer Activity Limits significantly increased in the short run.   See   https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/buying-limits-restrictions/buying-limits-restrictions?id=4012&st=12...  for more information and instructions.

You also might be running into your Open Transaction Limits (they used to be described in the above linked page, but got lost in a reformat). To get below your limits you need to pay for the outstanding unpaid items that now count towards your limits, but that might not be immediately possible because eBay counts items that you committed to buy but cannot pay for at this time against your limits:

1. At least some active auctions that you have bid on (including the one you are trying to rebid on). Originally only ones you were in the lead on counted, but it seems likely that since the information was hidden eBay expanded this to count all bids on active auctions and/or any pending Best Offer. To minimize the effect of these wait until near the end of the auction to bid only one time at your TRUE maximum you are willing to pay for the item, and then pay immediately after it ends, to minimize the time it counts towards your limit. You can't pay until you win, so don't use up your open transactions on bids you can't pay for until hours or days later.

2. Transactions cancelled at your request (or due to problems with your address). Note that these also can result in lowering the limit, so make sure you are going to buy (and CAN buy, that the item ships to your location) BEFORE you commit to buying.

3. Unpaid Item Strikes. Again, don't bid/commit to buy unless you KNOW you can and will pay for every item.


To get these and other buying limits raised or removed in the long run you need to establish a pattern of reliably paying for what you commit to buy.