Someone used an email I sent them in their eBay listing

[Whoa_Nelly]

I collect a lot of original art. In particular, I have many paintings that were a gift to me by a dear Friend whose cousin is a listed California artist.
A little over a year ago, I had listed one of those artist's paintings, and got into a couple of email exchanges with another eBay'er who expressed his interest it as he collects art done by this particular artist. He wasn't going to buy the painting I had listed because he couldn't afford it at the time, but he did ask if I would look at one of the paintings he owned that did not have artist signature on the friend, but did have artist mark on back of canvas.
As it happens, because of my dear friend who gave me all those paintings that I have, I do know a lot more personal inside info about that artist, and I verified for him that his painting was an original, and let him know some of the family background and who the person in the painting probably was.
(BTW--all of the listed artist's paintings were done between 1920-30. My dear friend is a 94-year old woman who gave me written permission to sell any of the paintings she had given to me and to use her permission publicly when I do sell.)

So now this guy has that painting I verified for him up on eBay. After listing, he added my emails verbatim, sans my name and contact info, stating that he was sure that the person who had shared this info (that would be me) wouldn't mind. The guy never asked me if he could use this information, which included personal first names of the artist's family members, and other previously unknown to the public information that is known only to me and my friend's family.

Should I notify eBay? Is this a policy violation?

[Stinky The Clown]

1. I don't know about ebay policy, but I know personal ethics ......

.... and that's an outrageous violation of trust. I'd e-mail the seller and ask them to edit the info out of the listing. If it is also against ebay's rules, I'd file a formal complaint.

[Whoa_Nelly]

2. I did email the seller

He apologizes..says oops, lack of good judgment on his part...yeah, right. He had even prefaced my emails with "Also, I exchanged emails with a lady who was a friend of the Bennett family who had several Bennetts with similar signatures. Here's what she had to say about this painting, which I don't think she would mind me sharing here:"
Then, he goes on to share more than just what I thought about the veracity of his painting, but other personal family info with names. X(

He can't edit it out as he already has a bid on his painting. Like he is so sorry he shared all that.
I am getting ready to list a couple of paintings by this same artist, and I have written permission from the family.

I've looked through all the A-Z topics and elsewhere on eBay, but can't find anything that states this is a listing policy no-no.

I think I'm going to post in one of the eBay forums. Lots of eBay knowledgeable people there, including the mods called "The Pinks".

[Duer 157099]

3. Unreal

Lack of good judgement indeed! I would be pissed beyond recognition if it were me.

I have no idea about ebay policies, but I'd be surprised if they were able to regulate such a thing. It's really more of an ethical issue, and clearly this guy is just clueless. It makes me sad, because it inhibits people in the future from being helpful when such things happen to them.

What's interesting is that just today I sort of witnessed something similar, but maybe very different, but close enough that it's quite a coincidence.

I had sold a little ceramic piece on ebay this week, and the buyer just received it and sent me an email to say it arrived safely, and then he told me that it had been designed by his father and related some of the history, which I was totally thrilled to hear about. He gave me some info on his father and told me to Google which I did, and one of the links that I was eventually led to was somebody's website with various items for sale, and one item was a piece by this man's father, and in the listing, the seller posts the email that the son (the same person I sold to) had sent them telling them info about the piece done by his father -- and my first thought was: DAMN I hope they got permission from him to post that email!! And this was like 10 minutes ago that this happened, and then I come here and see this post, so you have to admit that's a little interesting eh? Maybe in his case he had given permission (very likely, since he seems very interested in having his father's work properly identified and attributed) but still, freaky parallel.

[Whoa_Nelly]

4. Wow! Did you email your buyer about that seller description and use of his email online?

You might want to kindly relate that to him. He may not know about that.

Yeah..the seller that used my email isn't really clueless...he's just an asshole.
The original reason he had emailed me via eBay when I had one of the artis's paintings up for sale was to ask that if i didn't get any bids, would I sell it to him after the auction was done.
Should have reported him then as THAT is against eBay rues, I believe.
Maybe because I said no to his original inquiry, he felt justified taking my email and exploiting the information about my friend and her family.

He's an asswipe all the way 'round.

[Duer 157099]

5. No, I didn't but now you have me wondering whether I should

and I guess I probably will, although I very strongly suspect that he not only gave permission but was happy to have it posted, but that's my own assumption. The info was just basically identifying his father as the designer and some notes about what he piece was, so nothing that I'd imagine he'd be concerned about -- but to me, it's the principle of posting someone's email. I suspect in that case he had given permission.

But I'll bring it to his attention anyway.

And I agree, the guy in your case was not clueless (well although he is in another way) but just a jerk, especially given the prior history. I suppose you could always report him for that still since it did happen and you probably still have the evidence...