Purchasing etiquette. Am I off base?

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jr45

jr45

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Question on passing up a buyer due to price. I was second in line for an item and made an offer to buy it at a specific price. Seller sends response that he will let me know if the first buyer falls through. First buyer falls through then seller sells item to another buyer (after me) at full asking price. I think he should have at least counter offered me before selling it. Am I wrong? This was from another board.
 
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Let me get this straight. You offered less than asking price & some else offer full price. He took the full price without giving you a chance to match?

I would have done the same thing. Full price offer wins, end of story. Those are the risks you take by making a lower offer.

It is not like he accepted your offer and then took a better one.
 
yeah i think so. Theres no obligation for him to inform you. If you had been willing to pay asking price you could have already paid it (you knew about the competition)

playing the low-balling game, its okay if to lose. as long as you keep playing you might eventually get the deal.
 
He should have contacted you when the first deal went through and offered it to you at full price to at least give you the opportunity to say yes or no - especially if he told you he would do so.
 
Thanks for the response. I am not mad just courious. Based on the seller's PM, I was second in line. I have sold many items and would always honor my word to a buyer even if after I was offered a higher price by another. I guess it is just me.
 
I have sold many items and would always honor my word to a buyer even if after I was offered a higher price by another. I guess it is just me.
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What word was broken? The seller made a commitment that you could make the second offer. You did. He also likely told the third dude that they were third in line and could make an offer, just as he told you. All up and up so far, I would think.

Second in line doesn't mean that it's YOURS - it means that you have dibs on making the next offer on it. If the seller has reason to believe that he/she can make more money by rejecting your offer - why would you expect them not to do so?
 
I hate to say it, but "I will let you know" isn't a promise to sell it to you at the price you offered.
 
I understand that the seller can/will sell the item to anyone he wants for whatever price. I guess I was confused on why the seller would not counter offer/ask for the full price before moving on...courtesy? I understand now it is the nature of the game. Oh well, life goes on. By the way, my offer was less than $40.00 off the asking price (from another board). Thanks again for your responses.
 
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I guess I was confused on why the seller would not counter offer/ask for the full price before moving on
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You made a lower offer, someone else offered full price.

Since you made a lower offer, you are more likely to say "Let me think about it." The other guy was willing to buy at full price.

I suppose he could have offered to you at asking price first, but let's say you wanted to think it over a day, then decided that you didn't want to pay the asking price. Meanwhile, in that one day, the other guy found what he was looking for elsewhere. So when he PMs the other guy, he's no longer interested.

So it gets relisted. And it starts over again.

Here's a story for ya:

I got a modified Z28 gauge cluster for my 94 Caprice when the digital quit. Six months later, the transmission dies. Due to the cost of a remanufactured 4L60E (which wasn't much more than having mine rebuilt), and the condition of the car, I part it out.

The gauges got a lot of interest. They were SPF 5 ****ing times before I shipped them. Five. And it was because "I'll offer this much if he doesn't get them." "Let me think about it." That turned into "Found them elsewhere." "Bought [this] instead." "Something came up, I dont have the money now."

If I was the seller, you made me a lower offer if the first deal fell though, and someone else offered me asking price if the first deal fell though, I woulda sold them to the other guy as well. That's an easy sale, vs a possible PITA that lasts a few months.
 
JR45,

If I am trading my last piece of pizza for an asking price of 3 cans of Dr. Pepper and the first guy in line offers me 3 cans, the 2nd in line offers me 2 cans, and the third in line offers me 3 cans...but I saw the first guy in line shake up his 3 sodas before he offered them to me... I am going to take the third guy in lines offer. I don't care who made the offer...I just want my asking price of 3 cans of soda!

It would have been polite if he had let you match the full price. You'll get it next time.

~Norinco
 
His courtesy was already extended to you by letting you offer second.

Put yourself in the 3rd guy's shoes: How would the third guy feel if he extended the full offer in his position only to have the seller go back to the second guy to match what the third guy was offering. What you are suggesting would be very wrong.

This transaction sounds like it was done correctly.
 
Based on most of the comments, it seems that I maybe off base. Here is an excerpt from the PM: "***** is ahead of you. If the deal falls through the ***** is yours. I will let you know". This happened on another board. I guess it really does not matter anymore.
 
By offering a lower that asking price you turned it into an auction.
And as in any auction, high bid wins. You should have offered full price as second in line, or were you trying to low-ball him?

The only time I would get upset with a seller (other than in an auction) is if he sold to some one that offered a higher than asking price after I had agreed to the asking price.
 
My experience as a seller has been that full price offers nearly always go smoother than working a deal with someone who offered less. Not saying it'd be that way with you, just saying it's been more than noticeable in my experience.
 
I did not know there was a buyer ahead of me; I found this out when I sent him a PM with an offer...not sure how this would cause an auction. As I stated in post #14, the seller agreed (via PM) to sell me the item at my offer price if the 1st buyer backed out. It really does not matter anymore, the item is sold.
 
Ideally, I suppose he'd have told you that he'd let you know if he got no full price offers and was ready to entertain lower offers....which is more likely what he actually meant. Maybe if you'd simply said "if #1 falls through, contact me" and left it at that, but you made it known your offer on the table was less than full price.

Nobody's perfect here and it's a grey area. I don't think anyone wants to turn these sales into auctions.

I think sells have a fair ammount of leeway here once it is anything but a full price "I'll take it"

I was selling a .22 pistol once and a guy responded with a canned list of 25 questions he must have typed up at some point..."has it ever been dry fired?, are the grip screws original to the gun?, has it ever been in a flood?, blah blah blah". Sorry, but it's a run of the mill Buckmark described as like new with 100 rounds fired and I've taken 10 clear hi res pictures...I'm not filling out a questionaire. I sold it at full price later and he sent me a note that he thought his list of questions with no offer somehow put him first in line.
 
Perhaps by the time the first deal fell through, you had been replaced from second in line by someone willing to pay full price.

Seller has every right to sell to new offer of full price without having to come back and attempt to dicker you up from your offer.
 
By offering a lower that asking price you turned it into an auction.
And as in any auction, high bid wins.
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This is the key.

And, in all auctions, highest price wins no matter in what order the bidde'rs twitch.
 
I can see all of you have very valid points. Hind sight being 20/20, I now see in this particular situation, there really is no right or wrong, just the name of the game. Lesson learned and rant over. Thanks again for your inputs.
 
Its one of those things that whether it is right or wrong you really shouldnt take it personally because of all the factors involved in buying and selling.
 
I was on the sellers side till you posted his PM......

"***** is ahead of you. If the deal falls through the ***** is yours. I will let you know".
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..if those are his exact words then he DID agree to let you have it for the price you told him. I assume the $40 meant more to him than his word.
 
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