Ebay seller, sour experience

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Wid_Conroy

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

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).

[Oscar_Stanage]

Originally Posted by ASF123

Sounds like there was an offer, acceptance and consideration, which would make it a legally binding agreement. .

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.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Wid_Conroy

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.

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.

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.

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

[Oscar_Stanage]

Originally Posted by ASF123

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.

there was no promise to accept.

[autograf]

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.

[rjackson44]

Originally Posted by autograf

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

[Oscar_Stanage]

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.

[ASF123]

Originally Posted by Wid_Conroy

there was no promise to accept.

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.

[parkplace33]

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

[D. Bergin]

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.