Item conditions

Accurately describing an item's condition is required for the majority of eBay categories and will be displayed just below the listing title on the item's View Item page.

When buyers search for items, they often use eBay's Advanced Search options to narrow their search based on an item's condition. In these cases, your listing will appear in search results only if the condition has been included using one of eBay's structured methods rather than simply embedding the condition within the listing's general description. Refer to Item condition for more information about item conditions.

Depending on the specific item and the category in which it is being listed, specify an item's description by calling AddItem and including either — or both — of the following fields:

• Item.ConditionID

  This field is required for most categories.

  Many categories use the same condition IDs and buyers may interpret these conditions differently for each category. To help clarify what each Item.ConditionID indicates, the response payload for GetCategoryFeatures returns links to their official definitions using the Category.ConditionValues.ConditionHelpURL field.

  It is strongly recommended that these links be prominently displayed so that sellers and buyers can easily access, review, and understand these definitions.

  For additional information, refer to Condition IDs.

• Item.ConditionDescription

  Item.ConditionDescription may be used when describing items listed in all eBay categories on all marketplaces. Although it is currently an optional field, it may become required for some categories in the future.

  For categories that support Item.ConditionID:

  • Passing in a value of 1000 through 1500 indicates the item is new/brand new/new with tags/new in box item and additional information about its condition is not required. Any information provided in the Item.ConditionDescription field is ignored and a warning message is returned.

    If an application provides a user interface or a summary of warning messages to sellers who list in bulk, it may be helpful to display this message in case the seller has a good reason to clarify the condition of the new item in the item description instead.

  • When passing in a value greater than 1500 use Item.ConditionDescription to provide additional information about the item's condition rather than including it in the general Item.Description field.

  For those categories where Item.ConditionID is not supported (e.g., Antiques,) sellers are encouraged to use Item.ConditionDescription to describe a used item rather than describing its condition within the general Item.Description field.

  Note: If an auction-style listing has bids or ends within 12 hours, or when a listing has outstanding Best Offers, Item.ConditionDescription cannot be modified using ReviseItem or ReviseFixedPriceItem.

  Maximum length: 1000 characters