Ebay seller, sour experience
 

Curious if anyone else has dealt with edoberr-0. Yesterday he accepted my offers for 3 T206 cards. I even came up to his prices after I offered better than VCP values initially. I told him I could buy 2 last night and the other on March 1.He said no problem, that he'd hold all three until then. My money showed up early, I messaged him the good news and ...

He said he had a better offer.

I have spent thousands of dollars on well over 100 purchases on Ebay the last couple of years. This is my first negative in any way experience. So I guess I was due?

Sorry to vent. Just a heads-up. I rarely get angry about ANYTHING in life, but this one stinks.

Mike Eisenbath

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Thats just wrong!
 

I'll be sure to add him to my blocked list. Sorry that happened to you. Amazing how quickly some people are willing to sacrifice integrity for greed!

Blocked

Did you lose any money?

No, but this wasn't about money. For me, the hobby isn't about money. I'll find the cards again, and honestly at less expensive cost most likely. I lost respect for a person, though, and that is invaluable. Essentially, we had a handshake, "virtual contract" agreement. He confessed that even after he an I had agreed to prices and terms, he continued haggling with a different person.

Mainly, I feel sad. I've generally met only really good people in my 52 years of collecting (since I bought my first pack of cards at age 8 and had a seller's table at my first show at age 13). I lament a time when you couldn't put a price on integrity.



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Sorry it happened
 

Hey really sorry that happened ..... scumbaggery is alive and well for some people! Don’t let that bad apple steal your joy and happiness that this wonderful hobby has brought you during a lifetime. Like I’ve always said ... the friends and the stories ( maybe even the bad ones!) are what collecting is about for me with the “Stuff” coming in second. On to the next deal!!

that's unfortunate. It sounds like he was asking for pretty high prices. in this crazy market, sellers are going to close their fist on the best deal they can get. until the money is wired, it is not really a done deal. Not justifying it, but if you were not defrauded it is not really a big deal.

Sorry to hear about your disappointment

The day of the NFC Championship a number of Brady rookies sold on Net54 for about $1,000 less than what they were going for days later. Those sellers honored their obligations; this is not an anonymous community. eBay's anonymity allows those sellers to screw people like you because they know they won't be held to account.

the seller was sitting on risk because the buyer was waiting to receive a payment. I get the handshake deal, but who know what happens over the course of a week - check might not arrive, buyer loses job, gets robbed, who knows. in any of those cases, the buyer would just walk away. I can't imagine a seller not acting in his financial interest in a market that is exponentially rising and might be over any moment. the seller offered an accommodation that probably works out most of the time, but I would not be 100% comfortable on the buyer's side of that deal, and consider myself fortunate if it got done.

I think the seller had an agreement, he should have fulfilled his end of the agreement.

They had an agreement and even agreed upon payment plan.

yes, and buyers should expect the deal to be at risk under those circumstances. perhaps i misunderstand what happened, But when I buy on Ebay, a sale is done only when a seller agrees to my offer or I won an auction. After that, the item then goes into my cart and sits there until i pay. that is an 'official' recognized sale by both parties. I then have some time to pay according to whatever the stated rules are. For some sellers, this is 7 days as they allow you to accumulate and combine shipping...

if a seller backed out when the item was in my cart, i would be annoyed and probably not buy there anymore. however, this deal seems to have been done through email exchange. which is just not the same thing, at least on Ebay

If this was an Ebay transaction, once he accepted your offer, the listings would end and he would be obligated to sell to you. How did he receive a better offer?

Sounds like there was an offer, acceptance and consideration, which would make it a legally binding agreement. The seller communicated that he was going to breach as the buyer was attempting to perform his obligation (early, no less).

there was no consideration.

everyone claims their word is "Strong as oak' like the guy from Jerry Maguire. That is, until circumstances change and they too will change their mind.
this is why the world invented contracts.

As a seller, I've had buyers come to me with similar offers. What I'll typically try to say is, I will accept your offer at that time, IF I still have the card by then.

I've had too many buyers commit to buying something, and then vanish - leaving me in a spot where I may have turned down another offer because I thought I had a deal in place.

So, I see where the seller is coming from - a sure thing buyer today is better than a likely buyer next week. But he shouldn't have said he would hold the cards until next week, if he wasn't fully planning to honor that commitment.

Consideration is something that is promised. It doesn't only become consideration when it's actually delivered. Otherwise we'd have no system of contracting.

Exactly. That's how you avoid creating a binding agreement.

there was no promise to accept.

But there WAS a promise to accept.......the OP said "He said no problem, that he'd hold all three until then." That is a promise to accept the offered amount at that time and to HOLD. HOLD.

If he intended to continue negotiating with someone else, that should be clear when he said he would HOLD. In my book, HOLD means cease all further negotiations because a deal has been consummated. Mar 1 is next Monday. It wasn't May 1.

I agree it's a shame that you can't trust someone who you've consummated a deal with.

thank you tom

I will accept your guys interpretation of the legal facts.
but no one is going to court over this because it is not worth anyone's time.

I can only speak as a buyer because I have never sold a card. And in buying over the internet I would not have confidence in this type of agreement, and would accept the risk that a seller (who i don't even know) might weasel out.
if I buy on FB or Net54, I pay immediately, perhaps after a short process of reference checking. The seller may extend a few hours courtesy, but if someone came over the top offering 20% more I'd expect the chance to match (which I'd decline) but would not take it personally if the seller took it.

Sellers have all sorts of nightmare stories about buyers ghosting, getting refunds AND receiving cards, etc.... and they are in a position of weakness in digital commerce as far as I can tell.

There was a promise to pay for two upfront, and then the third on 3/1. Those are the terms of the buyer's obligation. Future performance is perfectly acceptable in an agreement.

This is happening more and more. I wouldn't get my hopes up until something is mailed.

Not sure if this is relevant, but yesterday I was going through my storage room looking for a few items, when I stumbled across a box that had been sitting around for awhile.

Looked inside and it was a bunch of stuff I set aside for a customer a couple years ago. Inside the box was a paper with notations that mentioned his name, where he was from (Arizona), and a price list for all the stuff in the box.

In quotations on a piece of paper I wrote down "Will call back when he gets paid next week"

Well, he never called back.

Inside I saw, this guy had pretty good taste for future value. There was a Muhammad Ali card, + a full set with that card also in it. One priced at 12 bucks, and the other at $29.95. Both sell in the hundreds today. More if I decide to grade some of the stuff. The set also has a Pele card and a Jack Nicklaus card that people are chasing now.

There were also a bunch of Minty looking 80's Thomas Hearns Panini cards, that I was going to sell him for a couple bucks each.

Never was so happy that somebody didn't pay their bill.

I think it's ok to say, the guy lost out, and it may be time to take a higher offer. :D