Asking an eBay seller contact info

**SaiJin** · #1 12-26-2018

ANy one has any idea how to safely and successfully ask an eBay seller for his / her email ?

It seems that nowadays even when you omit the @ or just do something like

abc gmail

the bots picks it up and won't let me send the email to the seller

yankee · #2 12-26-2018

If they paid, pull the email from paypal.

Direct reply from email usually does not block typed emails either.

**SaiJin** · #3 12-26-2018

No, it's just a seller that I want to buy from but outside of eBay.

Unless I have to buy from them first then pull the contact email from paypal

yankee · #4 12-26-2018

You could always ask for a phone number.

phaz0rz · #5 12-26-2018

If the seller is tech savvy enough to do it, you can ask them to put their email and/or phone number into an image and upload the image as an attachment in their response to your message.

Works great for me.

slokor · #6 12-26-2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

If the seller is tech savvy enough to do it, you can ask them to put their email and/or phone number into an image and upload the image as an attachment in their response to your message.

Works great for me.

Never thought of trying that.
I still find it risky though.
Is it really worth it to risk losing an account that way?

phaz0rz · #7 12-26-2018

Quote:

Originally Posted by slokor

Never thought of trying that.
I still find it risky though.
Is it really worth it to risk losing an account that way?

I agree it's risky. I do it because as long as I've been selling on eBay I've been trying to build a base of larger (b2b) customers who can contact me directly. I keep large amounts of stock around and it comforts me knowing I have ways to liquidate if for some reason it ever becomes impossible for me to continue on eBay. I convince most of those customers by saying it's faster and cheaper for both of us (which, it is).

You can mitigate your risk a bit by naming the image something inconspicuous like "detailed sizing chart", "embroidery options", etc. I would avoid naming your image "contactinfo.jpg".

My advice isn't really applicable unless you can somehow direct the seller to this thread, Saijin, but it works.

**SaiJin** · #8 12-26-2018

Maybe I'll just make a small purchase then email them afterwards.