"Anyone can still email anyone else, it just goes through eBay; they do _not_ read or keep the emails."
So they say. They have also been running sting operations and suspending
ebayers they catch trying to make a sale sans ebay insertion fees and
commission.
> "As part of eBay's commitment to preventing spam (unsolicited,
> commercial email), and addressing problems associated with eBay
> transactions that are not completed on eBay
Every transmission ebay sends contains it's own spam, but, apparently that's OK. The "problems" they are talking about is their laughable $25 deductible "insurance" and the fact that they get no commission out of the transaction.
John Dunn in Napa Valley
> Jerry & Liz Moos wrote:
> >
> (snip) I wonder if
> > eBay has changed some of this recently, like they restricted the access
to the
> > email addresses of the bidders shown. I suspect the latter change was
to
> > prevent sellers or fellow bidders from contacting those with common
interests
> > directly and thereby making direct deals on which eBay might otherwise
collected
> > a fee.
>
> Anyone can still email anyone else, it just goes through eBay; they do
> _not_ read or keep the emails.
>
> Here's the quote from eBay's site explaining why they started the
> restricted email access.
>
> "As part of eBay's commitment to preventing spam (unsolicited,
> commercial email), and addressing problems associated with eBay
> transactions that are not completed on eBay, we are limiting access to
> email addresses on the site.
>
> Members involved in a trade with each other will have access to each
> other's email
> addresses. Otherwise, members will be provided with the opportunity to
> send messages to other members through the Contact an eBay Member
> feature. Messages received by your recipient(s) will contain your email
> address so the response will be sent directly to you.
>
> This feature will also forward to you a copy of the message that is
> sent."
>
> Chuck