If you make a mistake when you list your eBay item, but don’t catch it until the auction is up and running, you can still make corrections. eBay allows revisions before the first bid is placed as well as after the bidding war is underway. You can’t correct everything, though. Here’s what you can change about your listing before bids have been placed (as long as the listing doesn’t end within 12 hours):
The title or description of your item
The item category
The item’s starting price
The item’s Buy It Now price
The reserve price (you can add, change, or remove it)
The duration of your listing
The URL of the picture you’re including with your auction
A private listing designation (you can add or remove it)
Accepted payment methods, checkout information, item location, and shipping terms
When you revise a listing, eBay puts a little notation on your auction page that reads: Description(revised).
Correcting an eBay auction before you receive bids
To revise a fixed-price listing or any auction before bids have been received, follow these steps:
Go to your My eBay page and find the item you want to revise.
If the item hasn’t received any bids, a message appears on your screen to indicate that you may update the item,
Click the Revise link from the drop-down menu on the right side of the item.
You arrive at the Revise Item page, which looks like the Sell an Item form.
Make changes to the item information and then click the Save and Continue button at the bottom of the page when you’re finished.
A summary of your newly revised auction page appears on your screen.
If you’re happy with your revisions, click Save Changes.
You’re taken to your newly revised item page, where you see a disclaimer from eBay that says you’ve revised the listing before the first bid.
If you want to make further revisions instead, click the Back button of your browser and redo the Edit your Listing page.
Correcting an eBay auction after you receive bids
If your listing is up and running and already receiving bids, you can still make some slight modifications to it. Newly added information is clearly separated from the original text and pictures. In addition, eBay puts a time stamp on the additional info in case questions from early bidders crop up later.
After your item receives bids, eBay allows you to add to your item’s description. If you feel you were at a loss for words in writing your item’s description, if you discover new information (that vase you thought was a reproduction is actually the real thing!), or if a lot of potential bidders are asking the same questions, make all the additions you want. But whatever you put there the first time around stays in the description as well.
