eBay rolled out a number of changes during the third quarter (July, August, September 2025), and it recently summarized the changes for third-party developers that offer tools and services for buyers and sellers. For example, this summer, eBay mandated sellers provide a minimum free 30-day returns on new (or new-other) items listed in Parts & Accessories for fixed-price listings that sell for over $10.
eBay advised developers to work with their customers (sellers) to make sure their US Parts & Accessories listings were compliant with this policy, explaining, “Add and Revise APIs are already returning warnings for non-compliant listings, and these warnings will be converted to blocking errors starting around October 7.” eBay had informed sellers in this announcement (part of the June Seller Update), and in August, it issued a press release to inform buyers.
That’s one example of the news eBay shared with developers in its recent post. It also shared that it has expanded changes previously rolled out in fashion listings related to condition. Instead of being able to select “Pre-owned” as the item condition, sellers have three options from which to choose: Pre-owned – Excellent; Pre-owned – Good; and Pre-owned – Fair. eBay informed developers, “The three ‘Pre-owned’ item conditions were launched globally to an additional 159 leaf categories, including women’s handbags, accessories, jewelry, and shoes.”
eBay also continues to expand its policies impacting refurbished goods, and it told developers, “The eBay Refurbished Program has continued to grow in Q3, with over 500 leaf categories added to the program in 2025, bringing the total number of leaf categories to over 2200. In the eBay Refurbished Program, there are four different refurbished item conditions, including Certified Refurbished (ID 2000), Excellent – Refurbished (ID 2010), Very Good – Refurbished (ID 2020), and Good – Refurbished (ID 2030). Sellers must go through an application and vetting process before using any one of the four refurbished item conditions.
“The eBay Refurbished Program applies to leaf categories across the following verticals: Home & Garden, Business & Industrial, Electronics, Fashion, Motors, Jewelry & Watches, Lifestyles, and Collectibles. For all leaf categories that support the eBay Refurbished Program, the item condition of Seller Refurbished (ID 2500) can no longer be used, and sellers must change the condition to Used (ID 3000) or use one of the newer refurbished conditions if they apply and qualify for using that item condition.”
eBay also explained its efforts to improve accessibility information for buyers; it has a way for sellers to provide “details on the accessibility features of a product, ensuring it can be used by individuals with disabilities or special needs,” and it added support in the Media API used by developers.
eBay updated Promoted Listing reports in the Sell Marketing API and made numerous other changes detailed in eBay’s announcement to developers.
Also worth noting: Third-party developers operating in China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela have undergone changes – eBay will replace US buyer and seller Usernames with immutable user IDs, and it will protect financial data for certain users. “Effective September 26, 2025, access to financial data related to U.S. buyers’ payment methods and payment instruments will be limited to select developers only. For all other developers, any response field returning a U.S buyer’s payment details will have its values replaced with “CustomCode.”
