eBay listing video: no URLs or calls to action, check before upload

eBay's images, videos and text policy says a listing video must not include contact information, web links, URLs or calls to action that send buyers off eBay. A clip made for TikTok or Reels often ends with exactly that: a handle, a shop URL, a spoken "link in bio". Before you upload, check the last seconds of the clip for on-screen text and the transcript for spoken calls, and cut or replace anything you find. On Sume that is one video inspect job to look and one video trim job to cut.

This post covers the check only. It does not cover how eBay's review works or whether a particular clip would pass, which only eBay decides.

What does eBay's policy say about video?

On the page I read on 2026-10-11, eBay asks sellers to take their own images and videos, and to hold explicit written permission for anything made by someone else. It lists what a video must not contain, including contact information, web links, URLs and calls to action that direct buyers away from eBay. It recommends videos shorter than one minute and says videos over 150 MB are not allowed. The page carries no date, so treat it as the current text rather than a new rule.

The policy says nothing about AI-generated footage on that page, so this post makes no claim about it either way.

• Own footage, or written permission for anyone else's.
• No contact details, links, URLs or calls to action in the video.
• Under one minute is recommended; the file must not exceed 150 MB.
• Blurry or distorted video counts as poor quality.

Which parts of a repurposed clip usually break the rule?

Clips cut for social feeds carry three kinds of off-platform prompts. Burned-in end cards (a URL or a handle), burned-in captions that repeat a shop name or a discount code, and spoken lines. The first two are visible in stills. The third is only in the audio.

The table maps each one to the Sume step that finds it.

How do I check the clip on Sume?

Import the clip so it lives on media.sume.com, then call video inspect. Send frames.at with explicit seconds near the end, for example the last three seconds, and the stills come back as image artifacts you can look at. Use frames.fps (0 to 2, capped at 24 stills) to scan the whole clip instead. Both cannot be sent together.

For the spoken part, add transcribe: true. The docs list the public rate as $0.01 per audio minute. A silent clip returns inspect_source_has_no_audio, so probe first with frames: false and read probe.has_audio.

{
  "video_url": "https://media.sume.com/artifacts/artf_demo/listing.mp4",
  "frames": { "at": [18, 19, 20] },
  "transcribe": true
}

How do I remove the end card?

If the offending part is the tail, cut it off with video trim: send start 0 and an end just before the card appears. The default precision is exact, a frame-accurate re-encode, and audio defaults to keep. The docs list the public rate as $0.02 per job. If the text sits across the whole clip (a burned caption), trimming will not remove it; you need the clip without captions, or you regenerate or re-edit the source.

Then inspect the new file again. Check the output size stays under eBay's 150 MB limit, and that the length suits your listing.

What does this not tell me?

A clean inspect shows what you can see in a few stills and read in a transcript. It does not prove eBay will accept the video, and it does not read text between sampled instants. Sample densely if the clip has fast graphics. Keep the job ids with the listing in case you need to show which file you uploaded.