eBay Tightens Trading Card Repack Rules, Limiting Sales to Vetted Live Sellers
eBay is rolling out a new trading card repack policy, restricting sale of repacks to approved Live sellers only as breaking practices across the hobby receive increased legal and regulatory scrutiny.
The new policy goes into effect June 15th, according to an email eBay sent to sellers this week.
To our valued sellers, We’re updating our policy for selling trading card repacks on eBay to support greater transparency, fairness, and trust for both buyers and sellers.
Starting June 15, 2026, only pre-approved sellers will be permitted to list and sell repacks on eBay.
What you need to know:
- If you are not approved for the repack program, you must promptly review and remove all your repack listings before June 15, 2026.
- Removing items yourself or any removals done by eBay during this policy change period will not negatively impact your account’s policy compliance history.
- Any repack listings that remain active after June 15, 2026, may result in a policy violation.
The email directed sellers who wish to continue selling repacks to an application form - where it becomes clear that eBay's intent is to limit repack sales exclusively to Live sellers.
The form goes on to ask questions about whether the seller has sold repacks before and if so on what other platforms and approximate monthly sales figures.
Other critical questions include:
- Do you sell repacks sourced from 3P manufacturers?
- Do you currently disclose pack odds and contents in the repacks to buyers? If so, how?
- Are you open to standardized checklists and odds disclosure if required by eBay?
- Would you be open to a standardized pricing or fee structure for eBay fulfilled repacks?
That last one is particularly interesting as it suggests eBay may be considering getting deeper into managed fulfillment services.
eBay has made several mostly unsuccessful attempts in the past to find ways to offer fulfillment services like rival Amazon while still keeping their traditionally asset-light business model by using third-party partners instead of building out their own warehouse infrastructure.
But in recent years under current CEO Jamie Iannone, eBay has moved into physical, labor-centric operations with acquisitions of Sneaker Con and TCGPlayer, as well as bringing authentication for watches and handbags in-house.
eBay opened a new warehouse location in Kentucky in 2025, which currently handles sneaker authentication as well as TCGPlayer's authentication and fulfillment operations after the company shut down the Syracuse, NY location.
Liz Morton
Given business investment in warehouses and authentication centers, it would not be surprising to see eBay offer broader fulfillment services in key categories like trading cards. It's also possible they could look to leverage existing business relationship with Collectors/PSA to offer fulfillment solutions.
Interestingly, the eBay page for repacks https://www.ebay.com/repacks appears to no longer be active and is instead simply redirecting to the eBay homepage at this time - a very recent change as the Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows that page was still active on May 1, 2026.
Regardless of what the details of eBay's new repack program will end up being, it's clear that competition and increasing legal and regulatory scrutiny are driving this change.
Live shopping platform Whatnot introduced similar policies back in November, requiring sellers of "Professionally Sealed Surprise Products" and "Surprise Sets" to be pre-approved and adhere to new guidelines including but not limited to mandatory audits and approvals, public checklists and minimum value thresholds.
More on those policies in this Behind the Breaks interview with Whatnot Head Of Collectibles, Eric Shemtov:
Whatnot is also currently facing multiple arbitration challenges alleging breaking and repacking practices on the platform amount to an illegal gambling operation.
Liz Morton
And eBay is also likely keeping a close eye on other hobby-related legal and regulatory issues, like the proposed class action anti-trust lawsuit filed against Collectors Holdings.
Liz Morton
eBay did not respond to request for comment for more details about the new repack policy as of time of publishing.
Stay tuned for updates and let us know in the comments below what you think of eBay limiting trading card repacks to Live selling only!
