Big Changes To eBay Pre-Loved Fashion Conditions Coming In 2025
Fashion sellers will need to contend with a more complex listing structure in 2025 as eBay expands condition grading requirements to include pre-owned fair, good, and excellent.
Australian sellers received an announcement that new policies will go into effect January 23, 2025, requiring them to update pre-owned items in fashion categories to comply with the new condition structure.
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To enhance transparency in our rapidly growing Pre-loved Fashion category, and to help reduce returns for “Item not as described”, we are launching new “pre-owned” conditions for clothing categories.
Instead of one generic “Pre-owned” item condition, sellers will have the option of three “Pre-owned” conditions to better describe their item.
From 23 January 2025, we'll replace the current "Pre-owned" condition with:
- Pre-owned - Fair
- Pre-owned - Good
- Pre-owned - Excellent
You don't need to do anything yet, but starting on 23 January, you'll need to use these new conditions and descriptors when updating or listing pre-loved clothing.
When the new conditions become available, all existing listings under the 'Pre-owned' condition will be automatically converted to 'Pre-owned - Good' and you'll need to review and update your listings using the new conditions to ensure that you represent your items accurately.
The announcement went on to advise the new condition requirements will apply to the following categories:
- Women's clothing (category ID: 15724)
- Men's clothing (category ID: 1059)
- Kids' clothing (category ID: 171146)
- Unisex Kids' Clothing (category ID: 155198)
- Baby & Toddler (category ID: 260019)
- Women's Vintage Clothing (category ID: 182047)
- Men's Vintage Clothing (category ID: 182044)
- Children's Vintage Clothing (category ID: 182025)
- Specialty clothing (category ID: 260033)
- Fancy Dress & Period Costume (category ID: 163147)
- Wedding & Formal Occasion (category ID: 3259)
- World & Traditional Clothing (category ID: 155240)
The full seller help page on the new Pre-Loved Fashion (PLF) Condition grading Guidelines also provides a handy chart with examples of how the values should be applied.
For example, pre-owned excellent may have been previously worn but has minimal signs of wear or flaws, while pre-owned fair may have significant visible imperfections and signs of wear.
eBay has also supplied a list of common issues an item may have - like broken or missing fasteners, discoloration, wear, stains, pet hair or odor - and how to grade the item to determine the best condition to select when listing.
That announcement applies only to eBay Australia and I have not seen any official public notices posted about similar changes for the US, UK or other markets - yet.
However, I have seen sellers outside of Australia discussing receiving email notices from eBay that these pre-loved fashion condition changes will be coming to the rest of the sites in Q1 2025 as well.
On a recent video, YouTuber and reseller Technsports showed screenshots of emails he says were received by several sellers he's spoken to, indicating the change will be effective January 23 for Australia and February 4, 2025 globally.
eBay has not responded to request for comment to confirm that information as of time of publishing.
These changes for pre-loved fashion items mirror similar updates launched in trading card categories last year, dropping the "used" condition and using "graded" or "ungraded" instead.
Liz Morton
Some sellers have raised concerns that the new pre-loved fashion conditions are less clear and provide more gray areas for differences of opinion that could lead to an increase in "not as described" claims being filed.
Others still have bad memories of glitches and extra work due to eBay's category and item specifics changes that caused chaos in years past, and are worried something similar could happen when this condition update rolls out.
What do you think of the new eBay pre-loved fashion conditions - do they add more transparency or just an INAD waiting to happen? Let us know in the comments below!
