posted on January 29, 2003 09:34:56 AM new
There is an ebay user with and id that I'd like to have. He hasn't used it in almost 3 years and has only a fb of 1. If possible, how would I go about getting it...with his permission, of course.
posted on January 29, 2003 09:40:20 AM new
Pull his contact info and ask him. Hopefully his e-mail address will still work.
People used to sell their IDs all the time, but it started to die down when people started buying high feedback accounts for scam sales.
Previously, there wasn't a rule against it, but there MAY be now. Either way, as long as no one conatcts eBay, how would they know?
There's an inactive user ID I would love to have, but the twit has more negs than postives. It would be REALLY nice if eBay cleared out accounts over a certain number of years old, but then they couldn't say the have fifty quadrazillion members anymore.
posted on January 29, 2003 09:40:27 AM new
Why not just add a number or change a letter & have a new ID without any hassle? I did this for a new ID on eBay that I don't hardly use, but it works. Just for an example; charlysangel, got to charlysangel99. Its that simple.
posted on January 29, 2003 09:41:34 AM new
I do not believe it can be transferred legally, but if you have them change the email address to your email address, give you the password. Notify Ebay of a Change Of Name (legally changed name address so on). it would come out the same. I doubt it would be worth it... I also doubt whether or not you can get in touch with them The Email is probably out of date.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. B. Franklin
posted on January 29, 2003 09:52:58 AM new
all you would need to do is get them to change there ebay ID and wait the 30 days for it to become available. Then you could just change yours over with your feedback or make a new account. If they have negs then that would be better anyway since you wouldn't want them.
posted on January 29, 2003 10:01:09 AM newall you would need to do is get them to change there ebay ID
That's a mighty big thing for an ebay user that abandoned the acount three years ago to do. I'd think the email address is probably dead or that they would think it was some kind of a scam no matter how politely and clearly you asked them.
posted on January 29, 2003 10:19:14 AM new
Hi,
the reason I would like to have it as a second id is that it's my website name....so altering it slightly would defeat my hope that ebay people might check it out.
I would be willing to offer some dollars to the owner in order to encourage him. I like the idea of his changing his email address, but then a stranger would have the password...ooops, I guess I could then change it. However there's still the problem of contact address, phone number, my name.. etc.
posted on January 29, 2003 10:30:46 AM new
If you want to purchase the user ID, you can. ebay's rule is that you can not buy/sell usernames, but if you buy the "business" the user ID can come with it.
posted on January 29, 2003 12:56:54 PM newIf the contact info and/or email address is defunct, notify eBay and they will close the account.
Ebay will make the account a NARU account but the account will still be there as far as I can tell. It's not like AOL where the account will be dead for six months and then be re-released for reassignment.
posted on January 30, 2003 06:22:03 AM new
Thanks all....I got the straight poop from ebay itself...if you can have confidence in any statements from them, then here's their position.........
"Thank you for taking time to ask us about your request. At this time, we
do not release User IDs of members that are no longer active or have
left eBay.
The User ID cannot be released because there is a chance the member will
want to use eBay in the future. If they do come back, they may want to
resume activity with the same name. Since they were the first to choose
the User ID in question, they have priority of using that User ID. This
is the case even if the member agrees to abandon that User ID as we do
not recycle them.
I understand your desire for this User ID, however we are not dissolving
User ID names of previous or inactive members of the eBay community at
this time.
We value your membership and wish you the best with your future
transactions.
Regards,"
I can't think of any practical workaround to this...so I guess I'll abandon the hope...
posted on January 30, 2003 07:56:49 AM new
yep, it's frustrating. Both my first-choice variants on my name are inactive accounts. Recycling is good!
As you say, if old names were recycled, the number of ebay "users" would be cut back a significant amount.
"And All Shall be Well, and All Shall be Well, and All Manner of Things Shall be Well"
posted on January 30, 2003 08:29:57 AM new
Actually, this thread illustrates why you want to have a marketing plan before you get caught up in the day-to-day of eBay.
A friend of mine had to pay some serious bucks to get his chosen domain name after he had registered the name of his business. He went about it backwards.
All the plain English word domains are taken, and many of the two-word phrase domains are reserved as well. You'll probably have to get a little funky choosing your business name.
If your plan is to sell comfortable footwear:
1) Nail down 5ensibleshoes.com with a NIC registrar (like Network Solutions)
2) Register www.5ensibleshoes.com, 5ensibleshoes, 5ensible_shoes, and 5ensible*shoes as eBay userids
3) Locally, file for your fictitious business name
4) Reserve "5ensibleshoes@" free email addresses as many places as you can (hotmail, yahoo, etc.)
5) Get an ISP that will allow virtual domain name hosting. Put up http://www.5ensibleshoes.com, even if it is nothing more than a link to your eBay auctions
