Zaikesman, perhaps I'm the naive one. My thinking is based on the following premise, unless there are provisions mentioned up front, I believe that a classified add is an offering of a specific piece of merchandise for a specific price. "I'll give you X merchandise for Y money", "I'll give you Y money for X merchandise" Done! Once that price is met you have a contract and the merchandise is promised and no longer available. Any other offers should be held as contingency only. Reselling the same merchandise that was previously sold (or inherently promised as such ) under the previous agreement is dishonest. Sellers and buyers take the same risk regarding actual value. If a seller could benefit from over pricing an item it stands to reason he could also suffer from under pricing an item. If a buyer suffers from purchasing an over priced item it stands to reason that he could benefit from buying an under priced item. Were all big boys and girls, there are no "do overs". All parties should do their home work before offers are made and agreed to. Of course should a mistake be realized before an agreement is made, retraction should be available. Should we allow sellers to accept multiple bids after the original asking price is met (especially in a fixed priced ad), we then allow buyers to make multiple offers on different pieces of merchandise even though they only have the true intention of buying one item, so that they may insure themselves the opportunity to back out of an agreement at the last momement should a better price avail itself or at the very least be in a less precarious situation to actually purchase a piece of merchandise. I'm sure that seller's would be just as upset by that practice, yet it would be fair if you codone the seller doing the inverse. This could have a domino effect that could effect many others who have made agreements based upon original agreements by others. All this can be avoided by honoring ones word. Should one breach this verbal contract there should be repercussions. Just like my restaurant analogy it all comes down to honor. While I have used auctions here on Audiogon before I never really liked them. This thread has forced me to reconsider. If we can't do business in an honorable way perhaps we should abandon the classifieds and stick to the auctions. As it now stands sellers can refuse buyers based on percieved race, religon, creed, etc. Furthermore if buyers resort to the tactics I've outlined to defend themselves it will most likely result in loss of privacy to all parties, as telephone numbers and addreses will probably be needlessly shared. We all know how that can spin out of control. We could add something to the effect that a minimum feedback rating would be required or something to that effect. Sorry, if I've been redundant and beat this thing to death, but I can't help but feel that the loss of honor is erroding our standard of living. If we can all agree to a standard of doing business we will avoid unnecessary complexties and hassles and enjoy better, less stressful lives.
