Go back to the auction your husband tried to bid on and see what the shipping to location is set to (sometimes its for local pick up only and you can block anyone that does not fit the criteria). Also you can set a preference to only have people bid on your item who have a paypal account, a confirmed paypal account ( i know you can set that up through paypal... but not positive about ebay). There can be a number of reasons... from private (invitation auction) to location.