# Selling on eBay

Use this guide to get your eBay account ready to list with Nifty and understand how eBay’s listing limits, insertion fees, and auction rules interact with Nifty.

### Business policies

To create new listings on eBay, you must first set up business policies. You need at least one of each:

* Shipping policy
* Return policy
* Payment policy

To set up business policies:

1. Go to your [eBay Business Policies](https://www.ebay.com/sellersettings/businesspolicies)
2. Create at least one policy for each type

{% hint style="success" %}
**Tip:** We recommend watching [this video tutorial](https://youtu.be/Iv-LxM8yA0k?si=j6dgz8gb0f6185be) created by one of our customers, which guides you through the process step-by-step.
{% endhint %}

### Listing limits

eBay has two types of limits: a total number of listings, and their total value. eBay reviews your account every month and adjusts the limits automatically.

If you'd like to request a limit increase, you can follow the [instructions on eBay's site](https://www.ebay.com/help/selling/listings/selling-limits?id=4107).

### Insertion fees

eBay allows 250 free listings per month. After that, eBay charges a $0.35 insertion fee every time an item is listed, and every time an item auto-renews (every 30 days by default).

If you have more than 250 items, consider upgrading to an eBay Store. This is a monthly subscription that allows for more "free" listings, and often works out cheaper than paying insertion fees.

#### How Nifty's recreate feature affects insertion fees

Nifty's [**Automatic Recreates**](/automation/automatic-relists/automatic-recreates-ebay.md) feature doesn't change your total insertion fees versus eBay's auto-renewal. Here's why:

* eBay charges an insertion fee when a listing is created and when it auto-renews
* Nifty recreates listings about 30 minutes before auto-renewal to give you a fresh listing ID
* So although you pay the fee slightly sooner, your total cost doesn't change

### Auction-style listings

Nifty's **Inventory Manager** supports fixed-price listings only. Auction-style listings cannot be modified or ended freely, so we can't manage them.

If you already have auction-style listings and want to bring them into Nifty, you'll need to:

1. End the auction (if eBay allows — auctions with bids can't be ended)
2. Use eBay's **Sell similar** to create a new listing
3. Choose fixed-price format instead of auction

Sales from auction listings can still be imported into **Analytics**.

### Troubleshooting

#### “The item cannot be listed or modified…” error

When listing through Nifty, eBay may return an error that looks like this:

> The item cannot be listed or modified. The title and/or description may contain improper words.

Unfortunately, we don't receive any extra detail beyond this message. eBay doesn't tell Nifty which word, field, or policy is causing the issue.

**To resolve it:** contact eBay Support and share the exact listing details and error text.

#### "Please provide a valid Shipping Package type" error

This error means your shipping policy is incompatible with the item being listed. To fix it, you'll need to update your shipping policy on eBay directly. If you're unsure how to do so, contact eBay Support — they can help identify what needs adjustment.

### Limitations

| Limitation                     | Details                                                                            |
| ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Connect multiple eBay accounts | Only one eBay account per Nifty account                                            |
| Manage auction-style listings  | Fixed-price only; see above for how to convert                                     |
| Extract all shipping fees      | International orders, PayPal labels, and Bulk Shipping Tool labels aren't captured |
| Update "Your Cost" on eBay     | This is a new feature and not yet supported by the eBay API                        |
| Scheduled listings status      | eBay **Scheduled** listings are imported and shown as **Listed** in Nifty          |


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