Contact end buyers regarding eBay domain auctions

[G_C]

Heya,

I am considering trying to sell some of my domains by placing then on eBay and then contacting possible end buyers and notifying them of the auction, thus encouraging them to bid on the name. I feel that this is the only way to ensure transparency and avoid any "fake bid" suspicions that the end buyer may have when dealing with me solely via email or phone. The plan right now is to send them an email, explain why the domain name has been placed on eBay and provide them with a link to visit it if they are interested.

However, I've heard somewhere that it may be against eBay rules to send out emails to interested parties. I am aware that spam is against the rules - however, all my emails are personalised (e.g., they all include the name of the individual this email is addressed to, as well as the name of the organisation which they represent).

So, do you reckon eBay would give me any trouble? And if yes, do you reckon that I could do a similar thing with Sedo auctions without getting into trouble?

Advice will be greatly appreciated!

Sincerely,
George

 

[allinone]

I do not think they would give you any trouble. But who knows, because google bans accounts with real clicks, so i really dont know. I would say that it is best to email them directly. But i do not think that it will be a big deal.
Sedo is another one of those sites like adsense that goes crazy about the most random stuff. So i would defintley have a chat with them before making any decision.

 

[sjaguar13]

I don't think eBay cares unless someone you sent an email to complains. If no one complained, how would they even know you contacted anyone?

 

[G_C]

Ok, I just finished going through eBay's TOS, according to which:

Spam is email that is both unsolicited and commercial in nature.

* Unsolicited: The email has been sent without the permission of the person who received it
* Commercial: The email discusses buying, selling or trading of goods or services

Are they, in other words, suggesting that e-mailing people to advertise your sale without their explicit permissions is strictly prohibited? Or has anyone here had any experience to show that eBay differentiates between personalised advertisement emails (emails where senders place the name of the person they are addressing, as well as the organisation that they represent into the subject field, as well as in the email body) and spam (which is normally defined as unsolicited bulk mailing.

I know it's a very fine technicality that I'm talking about here, but I'd be very grateful if someone could comment on this. It just seems a little bit bizare to effectively forbid any form of email advertising...