Posted By:
Kenny ColeI am an attorney. You do have a valid contract. You have offer, acceptance, consideration. The terms are clear. That's a contract. By failing to perform, the seller has breached the contract. And the question is, so what?
If you live close by the seller, I suppose you can try to sue him/her for specific performance, assuming you can show that the card/pin is rare, you won't get another realistic shot at one, blah, blah, blah. That's fine. Maybe you win. How do you recover the card/pin if it is no longer in the seller's possession? An order requiring the seller to hand over the goods is lovely, but in this sort of circumstance its about as effective as you telling the seller to give it to you. If the seller doesn't have it any more, you pretty well can't get it.
I suppose there's theoretically some sort of potential contempt of court threat hanging out there if the seller doesn't comply with the specific performance order, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Otherwise, your remedy is money damages -- the amount you are out by virtue of the breach. That will probably be the amount you paid for the card plus, perhaps, attorneys fees. If its a small claims court matter, I suspect that the attorneys fees will be pretty modest -- about 10% extra in Oklahoma the last time I had the misfortune to wander over there to help a friend out.
FWIW, I say go forward with the dispute process because he's a liar and you should. Then take the money, leave the neg, promise yourself never to deal with that pos seller again, let others know about your poor experience with the seller (always being scrupulously truthful about it in order to avoid any sort of tortious interference with contract claim), and go on. That's my two cents