Can eBay users access the purchase history of another eBay member?

[iangiggal]

Today I was contacted by an eBay member who asked if I still had an item that I had purchased last year. I was totally shocked that, blue of the blue, someone would know that I had acquired an item and have the audacity to try and buy it from me. What happened to privacy? Does this seem possible? Please help.

[toby_le_pue]

Yes they can access what you purchased for the last 30 days by doing an advanced search as long as none of the items were from a private listing.

They can also do a 90 search by looking at your feedback, again as long as there was no private auctions.

However you can make your feedback private which will eliminate purchases made after 30 days ago.

A few years ago they could also acess what you were bidding on but that has been eliminated.

[oskye]

Remember, when you bid on an item, in all likelihood your id is shown in the bid history.  For all you know, this person may have bid on the item too, but lost. Or they may have just watched the auction.  In the meantime, they may have been hoping for something similar to show up again.  If it didn't, they decided to ask if you wanted to sell yours.  Pretty smart of them, it seems to me.  

I wouldn't be offended.  It's not like they were stalking you.  If you had been thinking of selling, this would have been a great opportunity for you.  No need to advertise or pay any selling fees!