[Cody77]

I had the items posted early Friday morning. I had already received several messages before the OP commented on my thread “if this is still available I’ll take it”. He posted the comment at 5:51pm. In my original post I asked to contact me directly, but he only commented. I saw his comment and responded via private message saying that I was getting a lot of interest in the item already and was asking 1750 and would prefer a non fee method or if he preferred goods and services that he would cover those fees and to please respond quickly due to said interest from others. I sent that message about 30 minutes after his comment was posted. I never got a response from him until 10:48pm that night.

Since I was already in discussion with others (many will message asking for additional photos, offers, etc, but I sent the same message to another buyer and got a response around 7pm and posted a comment on my thread at 7:04pm saying it was sold. Again, the OP didn’t confirm my message or that he was willing to take the item to me personally until 10:48pm. I didn’t see his message until the following morning and told him the item had sold and I had already made the “Sold” comment. He stated that his comment should have been binding and I should have immediately held the item for him. I’ve been buying and selling in memorabilia for nearly 20 years, have done deals with many members here and other places and built a rapport with buyers and sellers for being honest and trustworthy. I have over 5000 on eBay with 100%. When selling or buying I have always confirmed the deal with the seller or buyer before I consider a deal complete. His lack of response in a timely manner to my message, even with my message telling him to respond quickly and there was a lot of interest in the item, lead me to believe that he wasn’t interested in my terms is sale or that he just lost interest. Believe me, I’ve had many people contact me about items during my time selling and they either don’t pay or don’t respond for days. So my rule of doing business is a confirmation between both parties in an agreement before exchanging payment information. I allowed him a chance to confirm and let him know others had interest, so assuming he understood the first to confirm and communicate with me in real time would take it.

Was his comment binding? I don’t believe it’s binding until I get confirmation. I had to reach out directly to him. If he commented, why wouldn’t he contact me directly confirming? That’s how I buy. I’ll comment for the timestamp and then promptly message the seller to confirm my interest and willingness. Instead he left a comment at 5:51pm and didn’t respond back until 10:48pm. Was I supposed to wait until I heard back from him? How would I know when that would be?

To make matters worse, when I messaged him this morning in response to his 10:48 message to let him know the item sold (I had already posted a comment on the thread saying the same at 7pm) he became quite upset to the point that he threatened to take me to court and also report me to Leon. By that point I had already asked him twice to stop messaging me and had to eventually block him to keep him from continuing to harass me in messages. I have spoken to Leon and given him all of the information I just wrote and he removed my infraction notice.

I never spoke directly to this person about the purchase of the item until his response at 10:48pm. To me, if we haven’t directly spoken and confirmed purchase, then the item remains available to someone who can do so. If you have interest in an item and post a comment, then don’t make any effort to contact the seller or confirm the sale, for nearly 6 hours after the comment, that, to me, means he wasn’t serious in the comment and I should move on with the sale to those actively messaging me.