Getting Contact Information via option in Ebay

Well, I just started using the option "Find Contact Information" in ebay where you
go to "Advanced" search and fill out the member ID name and the item number.

I never knew about this until now lol. I've used it twice and both times I got an email
from ebay, "ebay United States User Information Request" and it shows the buyers
address and it has their phone number on it (but no emails?).

My question is, is there a limit to how many of these requests I can use per month
or something like that? Will I get a defect or flagged for using it too much trying to get
buyers' phone numbers?

I just want to make sure because you know how crazy ebay's policy can be and anything is possible
since they make up the rules as they see fit.

Now, normally, we are NOT ALLOWED to ask buyers to give us their phone numbers in the ebay
messaging system. They say that it is against TOS because they think we are going to try and
make sales off ebay or abuse/spam them with that info.

So then, is using the INFORMATION REQUEST method the proper way to get a buyer's phone number without ever having to ask them? It seems weird. What's exactly the difference then if I'm not supposed to ask them for contact information in messages but I'm allowed to sniff out their phone numbers by using the contact information request option in advanced search?

anyone? I'm still wondering if I can use this function liberally or does it have a limit before something bad could happen to your account?

Do you not get the buyers email, phone number and address in the sales record of the transaction?
When I click the sales record all this info is displayed and says email address will be display for 45 days after transaction ends.

If you want a buyers information maybe to help you with future sales, just collect data from paypal after every sale. Could help your ecommerce website even though it technically isnt allowed.

Be warned, it sends an email to the person you are researching and lets them know that you requested it.
I absolutely hate when people do it to me and if they call my personal phone number, I block them permanently.

It's better to just collect emails from PayPal if you want their information.

Old Dog said:

Do you not get the buyers email, phone number and address in the sales record of the transaction?
When I click the sales record all this info is displayed and says email address will be display for 45 days after transaction ends.

Click to expand...

No, after every sale, I only see the buyers shipping address and their paypal email (which isn't always working because many paypal emails are so old like hotmail etc nobody uses it anymore to check messages). I don't get a phone number anywhere either in ebay order details OR in paypal transaction details. It seems the only way for me to get a phone number is to either ask them (which I think is illegal but I have been doing that a lot the past 3 years) or to use the "Find Member Contact Information" option which I only discovered like 2 weeks ago.
I'm abusing the hell out of it now cuz I want to have a phone number on every order I ship out but I'm worried that I might be using it too much if there is such a thing?

Also, I don't understand why ebay would tell us that we are not allowed to ask buyers for contact information in the messaging system but we can get their contact information
just by using the simple advanced search function and get their phone number. That doesn't make any sense.

I would just call ebay and ask you don't have to tell them who you are