Fair to change ad from sale to auction?

I was on the buyer-end of a similar situation. Not that I think I was being a jerk, or would ever be a jerk, but I was the first to respond to a nicely priced item. It was the seller who actually turned out to be a real jerk. After he had committed to sell the speakers to me at a price I'd estimate around 25% under market value, and AFTER I'd sent him a money order, he decided from the amount of responses/offers he'd received that he should be able to raise the price. No, I did not appreciate it one bit, but I could understand he was frustrated at having not researched the item carefully. To be fair to him I agreed to a fair market value price but certainly was not going to agree to taking part in an (informal) auction. After bending over backwards to comply to his terms and get the additional money to him quickly, he took over ten days after receiving the funds to ship the item, packed it poorly, treated me as if I were putting him out, did not follow up on correspondence, and generally acted without conscience or integrity. The speakers arrived poorly packed and damaged, UPS refused to pay as did the seller. He was kicked off of Audiogon as the result of a conflict dispute which I filed.

My opinion is that if you advertise to sell something at a specific price, and not post it as an auction, then you should stick by your offer. If you've found you made a mistake AND you have already agreed to sell it to someone, I think the fair thing to do was to honestly lay it all out to the buyer you made the agreement with and see if he/she is willing to come to a different arrangement. Obviously whether you sell or not is entirely up to you, but I believe there are a set of ethics that most sites request you abide by and I think this kind of situation puts those to task. Whether or not the buyer is a jerk should not be an issue, unless they are somehow breaching those same ethics. As far as who was first, again, ultimately it is entirely up to you as only you know who's email was first (you can always confirm this by looking up the item under "MyPage" under which each item lists the email's that have passed through the system for that item in the order it was sent). If you made an agreement to sell, or implied that one buyer was first in line (I think anyone would assume that they had priority given that admission), I would not go back against that understanding, and try to resolve it as best you could.

Lugnut offers good advice. Put yourself in the other's position and do the right thing (...Do unto others...).

Good luck Elizabeth.

Marco

Missed being able to edit my post, but I wanted to add this: If you applied the same situation to purchasing a set of speakers at a store...Say you had your heart set on a pair of used Soliloquy 6.5's and the local retailer had a set that just came in on trade. You run over there with Visa in hand and they tell you, yes, we have this one chery pair and you are the first here. This is your lucky day as they are only $2500.00!! Well all of a sudden two more savvy shoppers overhear that price and turn around and declare they'd like to buy them too! Though the Internet may work in a different way and can disguise those details, it is essentially what I think you are describing. So who get's the 6.5's? And how do you feel if the salesperson decides to sell them to another of the shoppers simply because he didn't like your attitude? Or realized they could get more so raised the price to $3500?! Ultimately it is up to you, but I think I've made my point (probably oversated it, as usual).

Marco

This thread is a reassuring reminder of why I do enjoy most of my transactions generated through this site. To most folks here the answer is plain and simple. Very nicely stated Listener57. My thoughts exactly Onhwy61. Ultimately you certainly can do anything you damn well please, and disregard other people for the sake of making a few more bucks if that's how you want to conduct yourself. You can argue right and wrong, quote black-letter law or the Audiogon guidelines, declare yourself a business or just a poor lonely individual.....or declare diplomatic immunity if that wets your wick. In the end it's just WHAT YOU DO that really matters, and what YOU must live with. I believe strongly that you get back from the world just what you put out into it.

Marco

Pbb, I think there is a profound difference in the attitude of the average American to that of the average Canadian. Michael Moore makes light of this in his provocative film, "Bowling for Columbine". The recently released DVD version has even more Moore-thoughts on this point in the extra features. In a nutshell, while the attitude in Canada seems to be more along the lines that we're all in the same boat together and lets all help each other whenever we can, in America it is all about looking out for ones-self first and screw your neighbor and don't trust anybody. Here it's all about "ME, ME, ME!" It is capitalism gone terribly wrong. No, it certainly does not apply to every American, but sadly it is a pervasive attitude here in my experience. Why it has evolved this way is one of the key themes/questions of "Columbine". I don't know that Moore answers it definitively but it is certainly a thought provoking film, well worth seeing. It really stretches the limits of what may call "Documentary" though, as I believe it is clearly slanted and highly manipulated in order to get Moore's points across. I guess it might more rightly fall under the category of "Propaganda". If I didn't sympathize with many of his ideas I might object to his techniques more strongly. Essentially he is fighting fire with fire.

Just to briefly comment on Leftistelf's point; I think it is implicitly understood in most real estate markets where the market is overtaxed with demand that the buying process is essentially open to bidding as described, and is normally held on an auction-like basis. To compare this to the private sales of stereo gear is ludicrous. There is a forum for auctions here that is distinct from the classifieds. If you want to conduct your sales that way simply use that forum and take advantage of the reserve price. What's the problem with that?! OBO does not imply an auction-like process to me either, and Pbb described it's implications very well in his/her previous post. The conclusion of that post is hilarious and as painfully true as the scenario it illustrates. The suggestion that one should seek out a buyer according to how their 'attitude' pleases or displeases the seller is very sad indeed. To further be under the illusion that one may be able to, or should, judge another person from email correspondence related to a transaction for a piece of stereo gear is just,....well...sorry, but it's just pathetic. Again, "Land of the Free"....do whatever you want, and LIVE WITH IT.

Marco