Over the last month or so I have been using a tactic and I am curious to know what you folks who sell think of it and most importantly what you think of it ethically. I have been watching auctions on certain items that I am getting ready to sell and then, after the auction is over, offering links to my item which I have listed as store inventory. I am curious what you folks think about this. To be honest I do not see anything wrong with this it all. I liken it to retailers that send out emails to people who have bought similar items from them in the past. Now I can see where this could turn into a situation where people abuse it but I am only sending out emails to people who have lost auctions for the exact same item that I have to offer. I am not trying to do it with similar items nor do I try to get them to visit my store (the link I provide people is only to the exact item and not to my store) or anything else that I may be involved in.

One of the reasons I am asking you folks is because eBay only allows you to send out five emails to people using the eBay email system unless you are answering questions asked directly about one of your items. That really limits the ability to use the tactic I described and I am considering asking about eBay about it but I figured I would ask your opinions on the subject first. I will say that I have gotten nothing but positive feedback from the people that I have emailed and one of the people even thanked me for sending out the email in his postive feedback on eBay. I plan on keeping a list of people that may ask me not to contact them in this way so that I do not do something to upset anyone.  eBay also does something very similar to this with their own emails when they send out emails to people with links to items a person may have searched for or bid on in the past. Anyway, fire away at me whether it be good or bad. I can take it Honest I can!

bonk! wrote:I think there was a thread here a little while ago where it was intimated that even "watching" an auction that you did not intend to bid on was somehow unethical.

If I'm thinking of the same thing, it was an auction someone found where the seller had a rant in the item text about people who watched but didn't bid.  Needless to say, it had the opposite effect than he likely intended.

I think you could be reported to eBay for it.

Of course, the reality is that 5 emails does not constitute a spam attack

From the same person to the same person? Sure is spam, especially if they are unsolicited (as they would be,) which is the definition of spam. In fact, it only takes one email you do not want or request for that email to be considered spam.

And, I did not say it was a "second chance" I said "second chance phisher" which is an entirely different thing. One is a legitimate offer to buy what the winner did not (sent from the original seller) - the other is an email scheme to get you do something you shouldn't, like giving credit card info, or PayPal info, or whatever, and is sent from anybody.

I don't disagree that some people could come to such knee-jerk conclusions about the email, especially if they don't read it.

Heh, that assumes it gets read. I, personally, would delete it before clicking it. Its a message from a sender I don't know, and I never asked for the email in the first place... so, to the trash it goes, immediately. I'm not the only one, either, especially as it pertains to anything that involves my money.

There are better ways to market your items than to email the losers of auctions. In a way, that's kind of sad.

darwinianlaw wrote:I am curious what you folks think about this.

1. It's the oldest trick in the book;

2. It's completely ineffective;

3. It's quite possibly a violation of eBay's user agreement.

Other than that, I love it!  

Seriously, though, if you're offering interesting items at a reasonable price, they will eventually be found by buyers without having to resort to any marketing campaigns. Your time would be much better spent ensuring that your listings are readable, have a nice photo, and — still the most important factor after all these years — have a keyword-rich title.

bonk! wrote:
Oh, well there you go, bclark, I was not aware that eBay had a different definition of spam than that which is generally accepted by everyone elsewhere in cyberspace --
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/s/spam.html
[Please see the "long lost brother" objection, and also that Darwinianlaw did not mention the employment of a 'bot' to send the emails, nor sending to a mass mailinglist or newsgroup.]

Using eBay's definition, an email containing an invitation and a link to an item in an eBay store does not appear to me to be a per se instance of a "message discuss[ing] buying, selling or trading of goods or services".  It is just a message suggesting you might want to look at something...  Of course, this all depends specifically on the way that Darwinianlaw words his/her actual message.  This thread now might help inform him/her on how best to do that.

The concept that any unsolicited email is spam is puritanical, and not even eBay's somewhat unconventional definition of spam goes that far.

bonk!

If you check the examples, its clearly defined actually:

 

Some examples of spam include:

Unsolicited email or Skype offers to potential buyers for items that are the same or similar to items a member is bidding on or has bid on in the past

Email or Smype messages sent to a member from a mailing list without the member's explicit permission

Direct or stand-alone invitations to join a mailing list

Email sent using the "Contact eBay Member" link on the eBay Web site to send unsolicited commercial offers

Personally, it really doesn't bother me, although I am quite sure that a lot of that is rooted in the fact that Ebay goes out of its way to help prevent it.  I am fairly certain that if my email box was getting bombarded on a daily basis by sellers trying to attract my attention, my feelings would likely be quite different.  The fact that Ebay does in fact try to prevent it through the limitations it puts on its own email system is the exact reason why it is not truely spamming by definition, as if they didn't put those guards in place, you can pretty much guarantee that those mass emails would be getting set out on a minute by minute basis.

bonk! wrote:
It is just a message that says "oh, hey, you're interested in this?  Then you might want to take a look over here where there is one available."  

bonk!

Which is an offer.  

bclarkie wrote:

bonk! wrote:It is just a message that says "oh, hey, you're interested in this? Then you might want to take a look over here where there is one available."

Which is an offer.  

It contains a link to a page where an offer might be presented, but the email itself is not the offer.

bonk!

bonk! wrote:It contains a link to a page where an offer might be presented, but the email itself is not the offer.

Semantics ... splitting hairs ... arguing for the sake of argument.

It's an offer.

Time to let this one go, man.