posted on October 25, 2000 07:49:56 AM
1. DEFINITELY against ebay rules - spamming.
2. Unethical? Depends on your ethics.
3. Commonplace - probably not, as you are subject to suspension if caught.
What is MORE commonplace is sellers emailing to former customers letting them know of similar items up for auction by them.
PS - the "get an idea of how much to charge" part of your question is perfectly fine and very very commonplace. Its the email part you should probably avoid.
posted on October 25, 2000 07:53:15 AM
The idea of emailing possible users from a study of past similar but closed auctions is not only against the rules, it is frowned upon, even if you are auctioning on ebay.
(The reason it is frowned upon is that once you cull the email addy's ... you could direct the user to your own personal site, another auction site or ebay quite easily. It is simply easier to say no to the entire practice.)
Second, why break this rule anyway. The people you've identified:
1. know where ebay is
2. are searching for this type of product
3. have demonstrated they can find it
In the church, they'd call this preaching to the saved.
What appears to be against the rules but is not necessarily frowned upon is the promotion of your goods to your friends ... including those whom you've had a few kind words dealing with ebay. Now ebay will say that these are their customers and you may not contact them except to complete the sale but if you are like many sellers, you've shared your life and times (and their's yours) with folks you met dealing on ebay.
So while you'll probably not have that individual who came across like Joe Friday and bought the $2.98 item and stiffed you a quarter on shipping in your email list, there are many who will 'cross the line' and become your online customer. Go ahead and contact them ... and while ebay may squirm ... tell them they don't have the right to pick your friends.
posted on October 25, 2000 08:04:05 AM
I've gotten this type e-mail several times. When I do, there is no way in he** I will go look at that auction or buy anything from that seller.
I keep all of these in a little file in my e-mail program titled "Sellers to AVOID!"
Since this is one of the few times I can do something about spam, I do it with a vengeance.
posted on October 25, 2000 08:04:14 AM
Maybe I have been lucky but so far I have not had anyone complain and The items I sell are usually to these people I "Market" to.
I have had countless people tell me to give them a heads up when I get similar items.
I really wasn't sure about the spamming thing. I kind of approach it with the idea
that I am performing a service for them.
Whether *you* consider it a "service" or not is kind of irrelevant. The fact is that it only takes *one* complaint from a buyer to have you suspended from ebay. Do you want to risk it? Only you can decide.
As long as someone *asks* you to "give them a heads up", then you are fine, since it is no longer UNsolicited email.
No, you aren't the only one to do it...but you'd certainly be in the minority.
Neomax:
I disagree a bit with your conclusion that emailing prior bidders on a similar item is a waste of time. While they have demonstrated the 3 characteristics you describe, what you find is that buyers come and go from ebay. They may still be interested in an item like that, but just haven't gotten on ebay lately, so an email *might* be just enough to induce them to log back on and bid on your item. With many items, just one or two more bids will make a BIG difference in the final ending price, so the "return on investment" from sending out emails to, say, 10-20 prior bidders is probably pretty high. Which is why folks like lastknot are sorely tempted to do so...
posted on October 25, 2000 08:25:06 AM
I got a similar email on Sunday. I replied back and told them not to solicit me by email. I should have turned them in to eBay.
posted on October 25, 2000 08:28:58 AM
I rarely get this sort of email. Frankly, I would consider a seller's auction if he had the item I was looking for and had lost out on in a previous auction.
posted on October 25, 2000 11:27:53 AM
It is unsolicited commercial email, better known as "spam." Besides all the above potential consequences, some recipients might also complain to your ISP.
I've bought about five dozen items on eBay. If every one of those sellers sent me one "Look at the neat stuff I'm selling this week" note a week, I'd have about 10 extra pieces of spam a day. If other sellers grabbed my address and spammed me, I'd be getting even more spam. In fact, I believe buyer addresses should not be accessible to anyone except the seller of items that the buyer has actually bid on -- maybe even only the high bidders. The seller's address needs to be accessible to all potential bidders, but why expose bidders' addresses to anyone but the seller of the item they're bidding on?
There is no valid reason, in my mind, why others should have access to bidder addresses. All it leads to in my mind is spamming, auction interference, bottom feeding (if I'm remembering the meaning of that term correctly), etc. I'd say eBay should change this, but they're not good at doing that without destabilizing the system further.
Search is a powerful tool. I don't need or want sellers sending ads directly to me, whether they think I would be interested or not. Some people know they are getting spammed because of people lifting addresses from eBay, and I suspect some are getting disgusted over it and bidding less, whether they realize it or not.
In the "Information Age," there are plenty of ways for consumers to find product information, without needing to be buried under growing volume of direct marketing.
----
What's being done in the name of direct marketing nowadays is crazy.
The above are all just my opinions, except where I cite facts as such.
Oh, I am not dc9a320 anywhere except AW. Any others are not me.
Is eBay is changing from a world bazaar into a bizarre world?
[ Edited for slight bit more of clarity. ]
[ edited by dc9a320 on Oct 25, 2000 11:29 AM ]
posted on October 25, 2000 06:15:52 PM
It's SPAM and you will quickly hit a buyer who hits back by forwarding your email to eBay, and then you get a nastygram about spamming and life gets tougher than need be.
"I kind of approach it with the idea that I am performing a service for them."
That's what all spammers say, to justify their violating the TOS of the site, and forcing the recipient to subsidize the advertising.
If they are previous customers and ASKED to be informed when you get similar stuf, not spam. If your first contact with them is asking them to buy your stuff, it's spam.
