Posted By:
AaronThis is the kind of thing that gives us lawyers a bad name.
Josh, very few sellers on E-Bay accept credit cards. So to those that do, you almost have to treat it as a privilege they are extending you.
The few that do allow credit card payment, however, might be unwilling to allow a credit card charge for items that sell under a certain price because the credit card company charges them fees and they'd lose too much money on the sale. (You can see this at say, a Jamba Juice where they won't allow you to charge for less than $5.00.)
Maybe the seller simply feels that it's not worth it financially to accept a credit card payment for items sold for under $200. Who knows. But as long as that's spelled out in his payment instructions, that's his prerogative.
So is this exactly what the "vendor agreement" with Discover Card says? Uh, no, since you actually took the time to call Discover Card and check this out (shaking my head over that one).
But in the practical (non-law school books) world where perspective thankfully has a place and sometimes you just gotta say life's too short, you pretty much have to shrug your shoulders and deal with it. You either pass on the item or bid and pay according to his instructions.
You know his policy and if you challenge it and it ends badly for you, you'll have no one to blame but yourself.