topic knife policy in Seller Central

knife policy

bretonbrocante — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 13:10:07 GMT

HI I have had a number of issues with eBay's knife policy, which is somewhat erratic - They give me the opportunity to revise listings, by adding age verification postage, but when I tdo, I get the same knife policy message restricting the amended listing - Any suggestions, it's driving me mad!

Re: knife policy

4_bathrooms — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 15:02:20 GMT

You need to ensure that only an age verified domestic delivery service is specified - there can be no international shipping nor any options for collection in person, click & collect etc. You also need to check eBay allows the item by checking their knives and bladed items policy.

eBay's AI has been overcomplying with eBay's policy and the Offence Weapons Act ever since the OWA was updated. There have been a few cases where items that didn't even contain a blade were removed by eBay's AI.

Re: knife policy

cobwebcottage — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 16:16:44 GMT

Once a listing has been flagged, it cannot be relisted even after the correct Age policy postage has been added.

You need to start a new listing from scratch with the appropriate postage.

Re: knife policy

fribblecollectables — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 22:20:28 GMT

As per cobwebcottage above.

I had a product flagged as a knife from which I clicked the link to contest.

It was a spoon.

A bot or maybe a real person replied to say the listing was reinstated.

Good, I thought all was well . . .

Until the next day a regular buyer emailed wondering why he couldn't bid on it.

So something was obviously still broken at eBay’s end.

So yes, start a fresh listing.

Re: knife policy

bretonbrocante — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 15:26:04 GMT

Me too - Same problem - They seem to be trying to make it hard to sell on eBay

Re: knife policy

fribblecollectables — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 07:55:46 GMT

Whoever has designed, configured, tested and approved this have done a poor job.

Maybe it is time for them to step aside and let fresh eyes look into it.

Re: knife policy

deb966 — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 22:15:10 GMT

I have a lot of cutlery listed and am daily having spoons and forks flagged and taken down by the AI filter they are using - it’s incredibly frustrating

I am daily sending appeals and for the most part the appeals are granted and listings reinstated

I have however had 3 listings declined - a pickle fork and two listings for cake forks / sporks

I wonder if they are now assessing cake forks as having a blade edge ? - which is why appeal failed ?

I have no idea why the appeal failed in the pickle fork ??

I find myself very confused by what is allowed and what isn’t

If you go by the rule only to list knives you eat with and all serving knives being banned

I can’t figure out cake servers at all so took all mine down a year or so ago
In my opinion a cake server (trowel shape) - is different to a cake knife - but they get lumped together by eBay - and to be fair I guess also sellers listing them

Obviously the cake knife is banned but i can’t work out if the cake server is allowed provided you have age verification switched on or if they are also totally banned ?

I ended up removing all mine a year or so ago as I couldn’t figure out the rules and still can’t ??

it would be incredibly useful to have a detailed cutlery list of what’s banned and what’s allowed with age verification.

Re: knife policy

maarsy — Fri, 01 May 2026 08:27:10 GMT

i guess they changed the way they look for listings as i too had one pulled that had been there for a year . classed it as a butter spreader , blunt, the word knife was't in the same building

Re: knife policy

bizzy-lizzy99 — Fri, 01 May 2026 08:48:34 GMT

I've been doing a 'sell similar'. Copy and paste your original description and you can drag and drop your original pics. Enter the appropriate postage. Add a letter to the title to avoid a duplicate listing warning. When your sell similar item is listed OK delete the original and delete the additional letter in the title. It's a faff but this is the easiest and quickest way I can find without starting from scratch and re-doing the pics.

Re: knife policy

lamppostelectrical — Fri, 01 May 2026 09:05:50 GMT

Yeah, eBay have made a real mess of this. The AI bot isn't clever enough to determine bladed or restricted items (I've had holesaws removed amongst many other things).

The option to revise the listing doesn't work so is entirely pointless. Only option is to end and relist, thus losing all sales history.

Very poorly thought out and implemented by eBay.

Re: knife policy

bretonbrocante — Fri, 01 May 2026 09:54:21 GMT

Many thanks, will give it a try
Stay well, Colin