eBay's policy against unsolicited, commercial email (spam) is strict. It's not permitted to send spam to eBay users to advertise an eBay listing or to solicit private sales outside of eBay. If an eBay member sends you spam, you can report it.

Spam: General Guidelines
Spam is unsolicited, commercial email. Unsolicited means the email is sent without the recipient's permission. Commercial means the email is related to selling a product, service, or opportunity.

For example, if a user sends you an email describing a product or item they're selling (whether or not it's on eBay), it's considered commercial email. If it's sent without permission, it's unsolicited and considered spam.

Examples of what's not allowed:

• An email sent to active bidders in an open auction offering the same or similar items.
• Adding email addresses to your mailing list without first obtaining permission from the users (this includes past bidders and sellers).

Examples of what is allowed:

• Sending email to a user asking if they're interested in a particular category without indicating that you sell the collectable. But you may only send such email to users you've dealt with before or users you reasonably believe would want to receive such information.
• Sending email to users requesting their permission to be placed on a mailing list. But if you don't receive a confirmation, you may not send unsolicited email.

Related Help topics

• Privacy Policy Overview
• Your Contact Information
• Reporting Spam