[travrosty]

I once had a bidder who made a deal with me outside of ebay to buy a luis firpo boxing autograph. He wanted to buy it to be handed down to his son.

He wanted to reserve the autograph so no one else would buy it, so I asked him for 100 dollars out of about 350 dollars, which he sent to me. With the balance due in 2-3 weeks.

3-4 weeks go by and no balance, so I contact him.

He said his best buddy just died in a motorcycle accident, so he couldn't pay for a couple of more weeks he was so distraught and had a lot of things to do to help his friend's family, so I waited him out because I am not heartless and I took him for his word. I didn't ask for the death certificate.

Then a couple weeks later, he unfortunately and very coincidentally had a stroke, so he couldn't pay. His 'sister' communicated the details for him.

Like a family member would care and take time to message me if their sibling who is supposedly in the hospital with a stroke had an outstanding autograph bill.

I am sure that is high on their priority list for things to take care of when their brother is struggling for his life.

His 'sister' said that since he had a stroke, he couldn't pay as all his money and the family's money was going towards his care.

She then asked for the 100 dollars back. She really fought me over it demanding over and over again that I send back the 100 dollars.

Obviously it wasn't the sister, but was the guy who had a change of heart and wanted his 100 dollar deposit back, even though he would never admit it. He played the part of the 'sister' until the very end.

I told him no way I was giving back the 100 dollars. I had waited 6 weeks or longer and I was inconvenienced, and stroke or no stroke, I wasn't giving the 100 dollars back.

But if they wanted to send me the balance before I sold it to someone else, I would gladly send out the autograph to them.

The sister theatened to sue me. They live in Mass., I live in Minnesota. I said go ahead. I only got a few more emails telling me how horrible a person I am for stealing his 100 dollars and I then I didn't hear from the 'sister' again.

There are just some people out there who will do things like that.