Based on my most recent selling experiences, a few answers above aren't correct any longer for UK sellers. Cash is not king as far as ebay is concerned and they prefer online payment as safer for both parties (their words not mine). You can now only offer cash on collection for listings in specified categories, such as Motorcycles, Cars and Vehicles -predominantly classifieds and with fixed advertiser costs to compete with Autotrader etc. All other categories are set up for instant payment with cash on collection no longer an option, even if you change your payment settings to not requiring instant payment (which I tested). This is because ebay are/will be charging the purchaser fees. Cash on collection would get around these fees, so it's not enabled. If you try to take cash on collection, the AI used in the messaging will prevent you from exchanging any personal collection details with a buyer until online payment has been made. There are ways around this (which I know of), but the issue you will have later is that ebay will not recognise a collection without the collection code (and that's only issued on payment) and will keep sending payment reminders to the buyer, until you either claim the buyer didn't pay, or the item is damaged so you are cancelling etc etc. Do this too many times and ebay has recourse to a number of punitive actions they can take against you as a seller should they believe you are trying to help the buyer avoid the fees payable to ebay. On a separate but AI -related issue, the annoying thing about the use of the overly- zealous AI being now also deployed to cover listings descriptions is that even if you say you are potentially willing to meet for a handover of goods or deliver yourself and to contact you to discuss further prior to bidding, it will flag this incorrectly as an attempt to sell outside of ebay and suspend your listing until all such wording is removed.