My experience with investinbaseball, a Net54 Advertiser

[1952boyntoncollector]

I had had issues with Sean in the past, but if its an obvious pricing area no matter on the amount of cards than its understandable...if you were a consignor to Sean you wouldn't want your card sold at 10% market price you would want him to cancel the sale as an example..

if i had done that to you, i probably would of given you a coupon discount like 10% on future orders though to keep you happy

[Econteachert205]

I sold a bunch of cards to Sean only a few weeks ago. I said if they weren't as I described to let me know. He actually gave me a little extra cash after the fact because he thought they were a good deal to him. He's been fabulous and honest to deal with. I've had sellers cancel purchases because of a mislisted item probably 5 times. It happens.

[MattyC]

I have had Sean find me high dollar and low dollar cards over the years; I have had him help me sell when I needed to sell a piece to get a new one, and didn't have the bandwidth due to work-- and he's always been upfront, honest, and diligent. He responds promptly when I reach out, and I would recommend him to anyone.

He's a dealer, so he will never pay a collector's price, which is an important thing to keep in mind when a collector is trying to sell TO any dealer. As opposed to THROUGH the dealer. Though once we were able to match numbers on a larger deal, and he wired high five digits in my account immediately. That action talks.

Anecdotally, at a show once I saw him give a customer extra money, after he paid for and then bumped a card. I remember remarking to myself that not many dealers would do that, well after buying a card. I felt it was a stand up gesture and I felt it telling of his character.

Seems there was some kind of clerical error here, as opposed to anything nefarious. If I saw cards that were listed in such error on eBay I might hit the BIN, but I would understand if the seller saw and asked to correct his mistake, seems reasonable.

[yankeeno7]

Ebay is a contract. There are legal obligations for both the buyer and the seller. The seller, in this case, breached the contract. Not only is it legally wrong for him to do, it is ethically wrong. It's also bad taste.

Ive made pricing mistakes on ebay as well. I met my obligation and took the hit. (and no, they weren't only mistakes of a couple of bucks but a significant amount) I then scanned my remaining items for pricing errors. It was the right thing to do.

At worst, the seller should have first asked the buyer permission to cancel the purchase. If the buyer did not want to then the seller was legally (and ethically) bound to sell the item.

[yankeeno7]

Past "good deeds" or "he is a stand up guy" or "Ive had great dealings with him in the past" does not matter...especially when he just did exactly opposite of the claim. People DO make mistakes but how you handle the mistake makes the difference.

You should not treat anyone differently just because you think that you can get away with it for the reason that you are a part of a similar community.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by yankeeno7

Ebay is a contract. There are legal obligations for both the buyer and the seller. The seller, in this case, breached the contract. Not only is it legally wrong for him to do, it is ethically wrong. It's also bad taste.

Ive made pricing mistakes on ebay as well. I met my obligation and took the hit. (and no, they weren't only mistakes of a couple of bucks but a significant amount) I then scanned my remaining items for pricing errors. It was the right thing to do.

At worst, the seller should have first asked the buyer permission to cancel the purchase. If the buyer did not want to then the seller was legally (and ethically) bound to sell the item.

I am not certain of legal issues, but see no moral problem with correcting an obvious pricing error. This is a common practice in other industries, and even websites such as Amazon.com. I work for a car dealership. If an ad is posted with an incorrect price, we print a retraction. I remember a used car worth around $25k getting priced at 2,500. We received several calls and emails the next day. We did not sell the car for 2,500.

I see a moral problem with someone trying to take advantage of a seller's honest mistake and buy a card for 10-20, or even 50% of its value. Like Matt said, had I seen a card like that on a BIN, I might have hit the buy button. But I certainly wouldn't hold it against the seller when he catches the mistake and cancels the sale.

[GregC]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I am not certain of legal issues, but see no moral problem with correcting an obvious pricing error. This is a common practice in other industries, and even websites such as Amazon.com. I work for a car dealership. If an ad is posted with an incorrect price, we print a retraction. I remember a used car worth around $25k getting priced at 2,500. We received several calls and emails the next day. We did not sell the car for 2,500.

I see a moral problem with someone trying to take advantage of a seller's honest mistake and buy a card for 10-20, or even 50% of its value. Like Matt said, had I seen a card like that on a BIN, I might have hit the buy button. But I certainly wouldn't hold it against the seller when he catches the mistake and cancels the sale.

I agree. People seem to have an issue with a seller not honoring the sale of a misprinted item but no one takes issue with a buyer looking to take advantage of that mistake and then sullying the sellers reputation on a public forum for not taking the financial hit?

Honest mistake made. I would want the buyer to be understanding if I was the seller in this case.

[yankeeno7]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

I am not certain of legal issues, but see no moral problem with correcting an obvious pricing error. This is a common practice in other industries, and even websites such as Amazon.com. I work for a car dealership. If an ad is posted with an incorrect price, we print a retraction. I remember a used car worth around $25k getting priced at 2,500. We received several calls and emails the next day. We did not sell the car for 2,500.

I see a moral problem with someone trying to take advantage of a seller's honest mistake and buy a card for 10-20, or even 50% of its value. Like Matt said, had I seen a card like that on a BIN, I might have hit the buy button. But I certainly wouldn't hold it against the seller when he catches the mistake and cancels the sale.

Really? You see a moral problem with the buyer in this case? SMH.
And no, there is no problem correcting a price BEFORE it sells. Like I said, the seller could have asked permission to cancel and if the buyer did not agree then the seller had the obligation to go good on the sale.
This is not a car for sale of a mis-advertised price. It is a collectible on an auction/selling website that has an explicit contract.

This type of thinking is why I have distanced myself from this hobby 90%.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by yankeeno7

Really? You see a moral problem with the buyer in this case? SMH.
And no, there is no problem correcting a price BEFORE it sells. Like I said, the seller could have asked permission to cancel and if the buyer did not agree then the seller had the obligation to go good on the sale.
This is not a car for sale of a mis-advertised price. It is a collectible on an auction/selling website that has an explicit contract.

This type of thinking is why I have distanced myself from this hobby 90%.

If it was an obvious error for well below the market value of the card, then yes, I see a moral problem with not only trying to take advantage of that mistake, but then taking the next step of posting in a public forum in attempt to hurt the seller's reputation. Bad form in my opinion.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by yankeeno7

Really? You see a moral problem with the buyer in this case? SMH.
And no, there is no problem correcting a price BEFORE it sells. Like I said, the seller could have asked permission to cancel and if the buyer did not agree then the seller had the obligation to go good on the sale.
This is not a car for sale of a mis-advertised price. It is a collectible on an auction/selling website that has an explicit contract.

This type of thinking is why I have distanced myself from this hobby 90%.

It seems we have opposite views on this one so perhaps we'll have to agree to disagree.

I will add that a seller who has 1000s of cards listed will probably make a few mistakes per day, I know I would. If a potential buyer is actively searching for them I'm sure he could find them. It may not just be a coincidence this happened twice. That being said we don't really have enough information to make that determination as the OP hasn't mentioned what cards he tried to buy at what price. Sean said one was a 52 Eddie Mathews for $650. As 1s usually go for over a grand, and this could have been a nicer example, I probably would have canceled that transaction as well.

[bobbyw8469]

and no, there is no problem correcting a price BEFORE it sells.

The problem with that is, on obvious pricing errors, the listing sells within minutes, if not quicker!!! Sorry, I am on Sean's side with this one.

[nolemmings]

Seller states

"It (pricing errors) happens many times a day. I do nothing but program spreadsheets and type numbers all day and mistakes happen"

Unacceptable.