topic Re: buying bladed items in Buying

buying bladed items

mikemc182 — Sun, 04 May 2025 10:37:24 GMT

I am unable to to purchase a polesaw as it is a bladed item and I do not have a credit card only debit so am unable to verify my age. I rang Ebay and was told to contact the seller and get him to amend the ad or borrow someone's credit card. I contacted the seller and he told me that he couldn't do that. I rang Ebay back to be greeted with "congratulations you have been a member for over 21yrs" unfortunately even though Ebay know I am over 18yrs (69yrs to be precise) I am still unable to purchase the item without the verification of a credit card, also telling me to use someone else's credit card renders this scheme useless

I'm disgusted with Ebay!

Re: buying bladed items

**peaseblossom** — Sun, 04 May 2025 10:45:07 GMT

There's nothing the seller can do. Your only option is to ask someone with a credit card to buy it on your behalf.

Re: buying bladed items

hailbarneybob — Mon, 05 May 2025 12:44:27 GMT

Exactly the same problem I have with a chainsaw, no credit card, only debit card and I'm the same age [69]. No help from ebay !!

Re: buying bladed items

domino_champ — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 11:42:53 GMT

Yep! Me too! And Im 72!

Re: buying bladed items

jonatjonatjonat — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 11:47:25 GMT

But ebay doesn't know that you are 72 without you supplying a credit card.

ebay won't change this rule - you just need to buy your bladed items elsewhere.

Re: buying bladed items

hailbarneybob — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:19:01 GMT

I've been a member since 2002. That should give a clue that I'm over 18. Bladed items and Evri's unbelievably slow/lost deliveries are reducing my use of eBay.

Re: buying bladed items

jonatjonatjonat — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 15:29:50 GMT

Unfortunately all of this stems from the requirements outlined by the UK government for the sale of offensive weapons such as knives, bladed articles and corrosive substances.

Age verification is required on site before an order can be placed for these items (ebay just happens to be more forceful in the items they include as 'bladed items'). There are certain methods of age verification that the law advises is an appropriate means of performing age verifcation. the age of your ebay account is not one of them.

Re: buying bladed items

ward9810 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 12:52:16 GMT

Hi that's understood.

I have a credit card but it comes up with an error.

The issue here is that EBAY only accept a credit card for validation. Not everyone has a credit card.

It needs a bit more flexibility and a few more options for validation I feel.

Oh well will buy my hedge trimmer on another platform.

Re: buying bladed items

moldosgifts — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 13:08:44 GMT

The problem lies with the legislation and it's interpretation, hedge cutter has never been used an offensive weapon and the only danger from it is to its user, same for the various saws hole saw, drill bits, butter knives, the list is endless.

Yes they are sharp but hardly a weapon of choice some common sense needs to be applied here.

I get a warning every time i list a samurai patch "bladed item such as swords are not allowed on ebay" for an embroidered patch.!

Re: buying bladed items

ward9810 — Wed, 06 Aug 2025 13:54:38 GMT

Completely agree.

Don't think anyone would argue with the reasoning behind the action but common sense must prevail.

It's just not been thought through enough common failing unfortunately.

Re: buying bladed items

liljools1 — Wed, 10 Sep 2025 09:27:29 GMT

I want to buy garden shears and having the same issue. The customer service reps don't understand that the credit card options are too narrow..I have a Visa debit and that is not accepted either

Re: buying bladed items

rovboy58 — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 14:21:19 GMT

I just tried to place a bid on a chain saw with 10 seconds to go, only for it to be blocked by E Bay. This has just cost me £200 to find another replacement. Ive been a member since 1997, and dont use credit cards either. Absolute *bleep*.

Re: buying bladed items

lucy_farmer — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 16:23:40 GMT

Unfortunately ebay don't care about how much it costs *you* to replace your tools.

They care about how much it *doesn't* cost *them* to put in their own age-verification system.

It's much much cheaper to use a credit card company's a.v. system, and ebay will have done their sums to work out that they'll lose *less* in the sales that don't happen (because of the rule) than they'd have to spend to make those sales with their own system.

'Computer says no' is deeply entwined with the bottom line....

Re: buying bladed items

sher1ock-uk — Tue, 02 Dec 2025 19:35:33 GMT

Absolutely ludicrous I've had the same problem there must be thousands of use in the same boat and the sellers are losing out but it's alright to for people to come to this country without a passport but hey you can't buy a saw blade for your power tool because the government is strict ! 😫🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Re: buying bladed items

jon_malings — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 10:29:09 GMT

It's not a question of the government being strict, it's rather that Ebay would rather lose your business than spend some money to solve their problem. I've lost 2 sales in the past 2 weeks because Ebay thinks my items had blades (they didn't) but didn't tell me that. If, instead of stopping a customer from bidding they had told me they required age verification I could have indicated that in my product listing or argued my case with them.

Re: buying bladed items

lucy_farmer — Thu, 11 Dec 2025 12:08:36 GMT

'It's not a question of the government being strict, it's rather that Ebay would rather lose your business than spend some money to solve their problem. '

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Ebay have worked out that they'll lose *less* money by losing your business (and similar) than they'd have to spend on developing their own age-verification service. So they use Credit Card companies verification instead.

'.....or argued my case with them.'

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Don't waste your breath, keyboard time or stress levels doing anything like this, there's no humans with common sense involved here.

You'll just bang your head on a massive 'Computer Says No'.

Re: buying bladed items

mld74 — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 17:10:43 GMT

I got the same issue as you and found this is disgusting; I even call them and they didn't even suggest any other method to prove age even though you need to be over 18 years old to have an ebay account.

Re: buying bladed items

warwickbradford — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 18:59:53 GMT

I been with ebay 22 years. I carnt buy a jigsaw as it has pointy things on it. I don't have a valid credit card to prove my age

Re: buying bladed items

sher1ock-uk — Sat, 21 Feb 2026 19:06:46 GMT

I bought mine from Toolstation in the end with the same card no problems ! 👍😃

Re: buying bladed items

angeltoby — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 09:10:09 GMT

What aout verify with copy of passport or driving licence. Using someone else credit card seems more troublesome to me. I am 64 and facing the same issue.