Buying as a guest

When you buy as a guest on eBay, you can still track your purchases and return items you’ve bought, but you won’t be able to use My eBay to keep track of your activity, message other members, or sell your unwanted items.

How to buy as a guest on eBay

Once you’ve found an item you’d like to buy, you can go to checkout to complete your purchase. Here's how:

1. Select Buy it now on the listing.
2. Select Check out as guest.
3. Fill in your delivery address, email address, and payment information.
4. Select Confirm and pay.

You can buy without an eBay account as long as:

• The item costs less than £750
• The item can be purchased using Buy it now. If you want to bid on an auction or send a Best Offer to a seller, you’ll need an eBay account
• You pay for the item using PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or a credit card

Your guest order confirmation email

When you buy an item as a guest, ebay will send you a guest order confirmation email, with the subject line “Order Confirmed”. You'll need this email to view your order details, contact the seller, track your order, or start a return if you need to send your item back.

If you can’t find your guest order confirmation email in your inbox, select the button below and ebay will send you a link to your order details.

Tracking an order as a guest

If your seller is sending your item using a tracked delivery service, you can follow your item’s progress all the way to your delivery address.

Here’s how to track your order as a guest:

1. Find your eBay guest order confirmation email. The subject line starts with “Order Confirmed”.
2. Select View order details.
3. Select Show delivery details.

You’ll see a delivery status bar with a delivery company, tracking number, and the item’s current location.

If you don’t see the tracking information you can select Contact seller on the Order Details page and ask the seller if they will upload the tracking number.

Return an item you bought as a guest

If you need to return the item you bought, you can open a return request through the order confirmation email you received.

To start a return:

1. Find the email with the subject line starting “Order Confirmed”.
2. Select View order details.
3. Choose Return item.
4. Select your reason for returning the item.
5. Select Next.
6. If you like, you can add a message for the seller and add up to 10 photos.
7. Select Confirm return.

You can find more information about returning an item in our article on getting help with an item you bought as a guest.

Tip
If you can’t find your eBay guest order confirmation email, contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Creating an eBay account

You can still register as an eBay member after you’ve bought an item as a guest. Your guest purchases will still be managed separately, but you’ll find all your future purchases in My eBay.

To create an account, select View order details in your guest order confirmation email and then select Register at the top of the page.

Once you've created an eBay account, you'll get all the benefits of being a member. You can:

• access full order details
• bid on auction-style listings
• leave Feedback
• send messages to other eBay members
• use My eBay to manage and track orders
• access eBay community resources, such as discussion boards

Learn more about eBay accounts.

Tip
You can use your Facebook, Google, or Apple account to quickly sign up for an eBay account. Learn more about using your social accounts to get set up on eBay.