Comments on: SELL MY EMAIL ADDRESS?

Question: SELL MY EMAIL ADDRESS?

punkbitch — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:06:49 -0800

Can I auction-off email addresses that I maintain? would that be legal?

I have some good ones, not tied to corporate accounts or anything. Actually, there are two and they're both @hotmail.com.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:10:47 -0800

Does this clause from MS's term's of service preclude selling an account?

"PERSONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL USE LIMITATION.

Unless otherwise specified, the Services are for your personal and non-commercial use. You may not modify, copy, distribute, transmit, display, perform, reproduce, publish, license, create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information, software, products or services obtained from the Services."

By: special-k

special-k — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:12:12 -0800

Ebay will kill the auction in no time. You may be able to get away with it by selling to someone you know who badly wants the address and doesn't care about legalities.

By: special-k

special-k — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:14:07 -0800

Or maybe not. I remember two years ago when gmail invites were auctioned off on ebay. You could get around this by say selling a piece of paper and the winner will get a free ***@hotmail.com account. Still not sure if this would be legal.

By: travis vocino

travis vocino — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:20:50 -0800

If I remember correctly, Gmail invite auctions were allowed but eBay didn't allow the sale of already created addresses. A lot of people were selling the range of novelty addresses when it first started -- as well as common names.

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Mon, 01 May 2006 10:28:11 -0800

Actually I couldn't imagine someone willing to pay for a hotmail address no matter how spectacular the username. I'm not saying hotmail email isn't bad but the whole "hotmail" domain name doesn't necessarily sound impressive. But that is just my opinion.

By: mendel

mendel — Mon, 01 May 2006 11:25:06 -0800

I think jj86 nailed it: these 50 people are doing it and getting no bids. Searching completed listings shows 231 auctions, most with 0 bids, a few PS3-related ones around $10-15 or so, one at $50, and the rest of the ones with bids in the $1.00 range.

The guy selling the PS3-related one seems to have dozens of them, all combinations of similar words. Seems unlikely to be worth the trouble for two.

By: D Wiz

D Wiz — Mon, 01 May 2006 13:00:41 -0800

I actually had the same question... I have a couple of yahoo addresses that would probably sell... It doesn't look like ebay is killing these auctions. I looked at the ps3 auctions that mendel was talking about. One finished for over $100. I say give it a shot... what's the worst that can happen? Ebay pulls your auction and you lose the listing fees?