EBay restricts listings by new sellers by number and by value. This is intended as a Buyer Protection. Some years ago, scammers would list hundreds of too good to be true items, take the money and run. It is harder to do this today.
Further, when your items do sell, your customer's payment will be held by Paypal for 21 days against your good performance. Again a Buyer Protection.
Since in many cases the customer's refund came from eBay or PP, it is also a protection for them.
There is some Seller Protection in all this, since a naive seller can't find himself scammed out of hundreds of items by a bad buyer, either.
The exact numbers are in your Seller Agreement, but some poster will probably come along and give more details.
