buyer has contacted me saying his paypal account has been disabled (auction not yet ended).What's the protocol for cancelling his bid?

[meemar]

He is an overseas buyer and I'm not prepared to use any method other than paypal so will be cancelling his bid.

I'm thinking him of sending a message saying the following.

"Thank you for letting me know before the end of the auction. I shall cancel your bid for you."

Is this enough? If he gets his paypal reinstated and wins the item I don't want him to think I've been shirty with him and leave negative feedback. Is there a protocol for this kind of thing?

You can legitimately cancel his bid if he cannot pay by an accepted payment method. I would email him and tell him you've done this as without a paypal account he cannot pay if he wins. Tell him he's welcome to place the bid again if his paypal problem is sorted before the end of the auction - there's no reason for him to get shirty about that surely. Alternatively you could just cancel his bid an add him to your blocked bidders list so he can't bid again.

Thankyou sarah

I'm actually pretty glad this happened in a way as he is an overseas bidder with no previous history, and I was feeling uneasy about him being the top bidder. I think I'll add him to blocked bidders list.