Can other sellers see our eBay messages?

[triber]

Yesterday I had a buyer asking about a pattern I was selling, she needed another picture, which I did. Today I asked if she saw that I had added the picture to the listing and she told me that another seller offered her the pattern at a big discount, which she accepted. How did the other seller know she was corresponding to me?

[marnotom!]

My interpretation of the events you recounted is that the buyer was in touch with the other seller at the same time they were with you and seeing who could offer them a better deal.

[triber]

No, she was surprised that she was contacted by the other buyer, she didn't look at this item on their listings, or so she said.

[needsmorerobots]

Either she had the item from the other seller on her watch list and when he decided to offer a discount to the watchers, she was one of them. Or she viewed it at one time recently and when the person marked it down in price eBay did an automatic notification (as it's done for me).

[pjcdn2005 · Accepted solution]

Another seller can not see your messages.  More than likely the buyer looked at the other sellers listing recently and when the seller offered a discount to watchers, eBay also offered it to those who had just ‘looked’ at the listing.