My experience with investinbaseball, a Net54 Advertiser

[KCRfan1]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

This thread reminds me of the '75 Brett thread a few months ago. Anyone remember that? A buyer bought a PSA 9 '75 Brett RC on eBay for $500 (normally a $1500? card).

It was a pricing error by the seller. How did the seller handle it? He honored the sale. Here are his own words:

"The George Brett card in question came from my collection . I am slowly selling many of my graded single cards as well as other ungraded cards .
My son has been selling cards for awhile and I asked him to handle the transactions for me at a commission percent . I would give him the cards with descriptions and prices and he would post them. The Brett card in question was given to my son to sell for $1500.00 BUT he misread the price and posted it at $500.00 and it sold immediately before I could proofread his postings to check for accuracy and proper pricing. When I noticed the error I wanted to cancel the sale for the gross error in the price but my son and I decided to live with our error and let the card go for the $500.00 in order to prevent a potentially bad situation from eBay and the buyer .
I am sure if we had canceled the sale for the pricing error he would have been mad too and notified eBay ...so you see we were in a lose - lose situation ."

There is no legal obligation to complete the deal. Moral obligation? Yeah, somewhat - maybe not to complete the deal, but to do something for the customer (sell at/slightly above cost, discount on another item, or something) especially when it happens 2 separate times.

If we went to a store to buy something and we get to the register to pay and the item rings up significantly more than the posted price and the store refuses to honor their price, it might leave a bad taste in our mouth. If it happened on 2 separate occasions, then the customer has a legitimate complaint.

So we're expected to hold the seller to a moral compass, and not the buyer? I would hope we want the seller and buyer on the same moral ground.

If we look long enough and hard enough, pricing errors can be found in ANY business. There are shoppers ( on the internet or brick and mortar ) who troll looking for those mistakes and try to take advantage.

Businesses are not in business to give things away. Most reasonable customers understand that. It falls back to, if it's too good to be true then it probably is, in terms of the price in relationship to the item.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by KCRfan1

There are shoppers ( on the internet or brick and mortar ) who troll looking for those mistakes and try to take advantage.

Do you honestly think the OP was trolling around on eBay looking for price mistakes? If so, what makes you think that?

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by vintagetoppsguy

Do you honestly think the OP was trolling around on eBay looking for price mistakes? If so, what makes you think that?

This is also what I think, and what the OP seems to indicate in his own post.

"Aside from these listing/pricing errors, there isn't anything of interest from the seller, so my revenue will not be missed."

Sure sounds to me like he's only interested in prices that are obvious mistakes, or well below market value. He also seems to be hoping sellers won't notice rare variations, another mistake he can take advantage of. He is correct in that this type of customer would not be missed by any business.

[Eric72]

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[begsu1013]

he isn't "trolling" looking for pricing errors.

what he's basically saying is that he feels he's being targeted for his purchases after he has made them only to have the seller recheck the value of the card(s) or if it's a certain variation of the card once he sees the op's name has made said purchase solely because that's the op's niche. "hmm, why's he buying this card?"

again, i didn't waste my time looking at the cards/prices in question...but not taking sides one way or another on this one, even w/ the mantle.

but i think anyone would naturally feel the same way if it kept happening on a repeated basis.

however, to say he's "trolling" looking for pricing errors is simply unjust at this junction.

[pokerplyr80]

Originally Posted by begsu1013

he isn't "trolling" looking for pricing errors.

what he's basically saying is that he feels he's being targeted for his purchases after he has made them only to have the seller recheck the value of the card(s) or if it's a certain variation of the card once he sees the op's name has made said purchase solely because that's the op's niche. "hmm, why's he buying this card?"

again, i didn't waste my time looking at the cards/prices in question...but not taking sides one way or another on this one, even w/ the mantle.

but i think anyone would naturally feel the same way if it kept happening on a repeated basis.

however, to say he's "trolling" looking for pricing errors is simply unjust at this junction.

You may be right, and the OP is the only one who can say for sure. My take is that he was looking for cards that were priced below their market value, either by mistake, or the seller being unaware of the added value of a variation.

My guess is that he was trolling for pricing errors, but I do not have enough information to make a definitive statement.

I stand behind my initial assessment that if this was the case, it was inappropriate to write a post complaining about the seller catching the error.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by pokerplyr80

My take is that he was looking for cards that were priced below their market value, either by mistake, or the seller being unaware of the added value of a variation.

So what if he was? Isn't that what eBay is all about, looking for deals? Or are you one of those buyers that when you search, you sort by "Highest Price First"?

You need to look at the poll on the main board. There is nothing wrong trolling eBay looking for bargains (cards priced below market value), looking for errors in listings (misspellings in title or key words), unknown variations, etc. That is what eBay is all about.

[packs]

If the seller is going to say the list price was simply a mistake and that means they have no obligation to honor the sale, I'm curious how the same seller would respond to a bidder who claimed they simply entered the wrong bid amount.

[vintagetoppsguy]

Originally Posted by packs

If the seller is going to say the list price was simply a mistake and that means they have no obligation to honor the sale, I'm curious how the same seller would respond to a bidder who claimed they simply entered the wrong bid amount.

That's a great point!

[Rookiemonster]

All I do is look for cards that are priced wrong or that I can bid for below what it's worth ! That's the name of the game . Any buyer that gets a good price is not doing anything wrong . I don't know the sellers reasons for the price listed . Maybe they want a quick sale , or they got it on the cheap , or its consigned and the price doesn't matter to them . The seller is in the wrong period . Your errors in life are your to live with . If someone benifits from it it's not there fault .

Just leave terrible feed back and check back in for more chances . Either the mistakes will stop or the seller will .

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by packs

If the seller is going to say the list price was simply a mistake and that means they have no obligation to honor the sale, I'm curious how the same seller would respond to a bidder who claimed they simply entered the wrong bid amount.

Theres a different dynamic about the cancelling issue bidder versus seller

The seller actually has the card, the buyer may or may not have the money to buy..

Cant get blood from a turnip....if a 'committed' buyer all of the sudden has bills to pay as you see sellers complain on ebay all the time..they are going to just not pay...what are you going to do....part of the business....

as to the seller, we assuming they have the card in hand....so its frustrating to see them not sell it due to a pricing error is the argument,..i get it...i dont agree but i get it....they have the card right there!...just send it...i paid them now send it!....

you cant compare the buyer versus seller because the buyer can always say they dont have the money to pay....they can come up with other fake excuses...hit wrong amount, bad description, but when it comes down to it they will say they dont have the funds to pay....

so you really cant say its the same thing as a buyer retracting a bid (with no ability to pay is what they are going to say whether real or not) versus a seller refusing to sell for a price error (because unless they committing fraud, they shoud have the card) its only a one way street of an angry transaction...the buyer knows the seller has the card and he not sending it...

the opposite isnt true...always a risk the buyer doesnt have the money..happens all the time..

[packs]

My point was people are defending the seller but I doubt they'd defend the buyer. If everything is explained away as a simple mistake from the seller perspective, people should be more accepting of buyers making "mistakes" when they bid too.

But if someone is going to say it's impossible for a buyer to bid wrong, I'd say the same is true for someone claiming they listed a card wrong. Both have multiple safe guards in place to prevent such an "accident" (i.e. double confirms before something is submitted).