BEWARE if you try to buy anything with "Best Offer" or "Auction"  eBay has a new policy that REQUIRES you to pre-submit a payment method via either credit card or paypal BEFORE you are allowed to submit your bid or offer !!

 Most of you out there probably won't have an issue with this as 95% of the world uses credit cards online without a 2nd thought .

 95% of my eBay purchases are paid for by using eBay gift cards as they provide me complete control of my spending . I have NO possibility of getting a surprise bill from forgetting about something I bought .

 This new policy doesn't apply to "Buy It Now" purchases . (YET)

 The other problems I found with this new system is that if the seller also has multiple shipping methods/costs  , you as the buyer no longer get to pick your choice of shipping methods/costs . you're now stuck with what eBay chooses for you . I don't think you can even leave a note to the seller anymore during checkout regarding packing instructions , etc .

 My recent (and LAST) "Best Offer" purchase didn't even give me a notice that my offer had been accepted by the seller. All I got was a email from Paypal  saying that I authorized a pament to eBay !!!  The best part is that PayPal took money from my dedicated savings account of which I keep an almost "0" balance in (the account is used strictly for online purchases and is NOT linked in anyway to my "normal accounts") So I had to make a mad dash to the bank and transfer money from the checking account to that savings account to avoid overdraft fees !

 YES , I know I'm a bit paranoid about this kind of stuff but spending money online still scares the crap out of me ! My way  , if someone hacks either my PayPal or eBay acccount , all they'll get is either an empty savings account or a mostly used up gift card !

I wonder if it's their way of guarding against non paying bidders and or people that submitted their offers. I suppose most people have their PayPal or CC linked to eBay so they're not aware of this new policy change so it's good you gave us all a heads up.

It sucks they got rid of the shipping options though, as a Canadian buyer having to deal with overpriced shipping, I'll gladly choose the cheapest option so I would be annoyed if they started getting rid of that a

 I never got an answer from the person I talked to . All they could do was keep saying "I'm sorry !" It just pisses me off that eBay gave NO warning of this coming .  I've bought several things of which the shipping option listed in the initial description wasn't the cheapest option . I'd much rather wait an extra day or 2 for something than pay more money ! Plus , sometimes there's different options for which carrier will ship the item . I'd much rather go with USPS than FedUP ! I've also done "Local Pickup" with alot of my "Best Offers" , I don't know how exactly that'll work now .

 It's just irratating !! 

Another option is for us to save our money and not buy there...probably not going to happen. 
I used to sell on there, but found eBay's ideas of selling intrusive...in the end, they're the only one who profit!

We've had our debit card details stored on eBay for a while, but I'm wondering whether we should remove them now. It's just a pain typing in the long number every time. Wish they'd never ditched PayPal, eBay is totally (...) now, especially for small sellers 

 UPDATE ! : Today , I made an offer on a 80's GE 1000w MV/MH ballast . I was able to choose a payment method INCLUDING A GIFT CARD ! And , it listed all shipping options !!  So , either my rant got someones attention at eBay or they weren't done with the new system set up during my last purchase . 

 WE'LL SEE !!!!

It could be it was a new measure, added just recently. There were just way too many jerks who bid on something and then they ghosted instead of buying the item they won.
Probably that policy needed some more ironing to become usable.

 That's a good possibility .