Seller's right to sell to whomever they want? Advice needed

[mbp]

I'm hoping for the community's help with an unclear matter. I sold a member (call him John) some items last night. I sent him a message asking if he wanted an additional item as well since he was already purchasing some similar items. I then posted said item for sale today, which I probably should not have done until hearing back--and I recognize that. Another member (call him Bill) replied to my sales thread indicating he wanted said item and asking for me to invoice him; I did so.

Before Bill sent payment, John replied to my PM and sent me the agreed upon price via PayPal. I immediately canceled the Bill's invoice and sent an apologetic message indicating that the item had sold based on a previously made offer, as well as offering a discount on any other items I sell to compensate him. Bill replied that I was in the wrong to do so and that he had first dibs to the item based on his reply to my thread. I acknowledged his point and my error, and told him that I was committed to resolving this to everyone's satisfaction--although as a seller, I have the right to choose to sell to whomever I want.

I reached out to John and told him the situation, and asked if he would be OK with me refunding him his money. He advised that he was not OK with that and now I have a bona fide dispute as to who is entitled to the item. I personally believe that I as seller can choose to sell to whichever of them unconditionally. However, I recognize that I was unclear in how I handled this, and I want to make everyone whole as best I can--although I only have 1 item to sell.

Can anyone help with providing some advice here and/or clarification of the forum rules? I checked and wasn't able to find any guidance from the official rules. Thanks for your time.

 

[SeppukuSamurai]

I think that at this point the item should be sold to whomever has already paid for it. In the future, if you aren't already doing this, be sure to clearly state your terms and conditions.

I can tell you what I would have done -

I'd of sold it to Bill. If you stated that the first "I'll take it" gets it and John hadn't yet responded, then by your own rules Bill gets first dibs. I would have apologized to John and politely let him know that the item has already been sold at your asking price.

Next time, if you offer someone a chance to buy something before putting it up for sale simply state your intentions and if they're not interested or do not respond in an allotted amount of time (I'll post it for sale tonight if I don't hear from you) that you plan on selling it on the forums.

I don't see a means of making everyone happy but it's not like you insulted anyone or did any harm. If they're not willing to accept an apology for an honest mistake then that's their problem not yours. Apologize and move on.

Easy peasy! :thumbup:

***Just to clarify*** Ultimately you DO have the right to sell to whoever you want and you don't need any reason for that decision what so ever but that's a quick way to get on a lot of peoples bad side. Just clearly state your terms.

 

[S.T.R.]

I think you should have waited to hear from John first before offering up the item for sale. You already acknowledged that in your post. Since you made made the offer to John first I believe he has priority. Bill may be mad but it's your item to sell.
Put it down as a lesson learned an move on.
In the future be sure to ad in you sales thread, "I reserve the right to sell to whoever I chose."

I looked at your recent sales thread and you are selling item at very good prices.
I missed out on a light you had because your PM box was full.
Did I cry about it. No, because I could have emailed you, as you had your email listed. I could have done more if I really wanted it.
It's YOUR item to sell to whoever you want to.
Either Bill will get over it or he won't buy anything from you again.
Not anything to get worked up about.

 

[KELAMA]

mbp:

I'm John!

Seriously, it's disappointing to reading these type of situations. Not so much from your end; but from the two people your dealing with. People sometimes get way too worked up over a knife, or material items.

How much time elapsed from the time you made "John" the secondary offer, to the time he replied (not that it matters- at least to me anyway).

I can't speak for these 2; I can only speak for myself. If this situation happened to me, I would be understanding, & just move on, it's not a big deal, IMO.

You may already know this, but just in case you don't: neither of these parties can leave you negative feedback, if your don't sell you item to them, only start a GBU thread (which obviously you've already addressed).

As for what you should do? That's your call.

 

[SeppukuSamurai]

mbp:

I'm John!

Seriously, it's disappointing to reading these type of situations. Not so much from your end; but from the two people your dealing with. People sometimes get way too worked up over a knife, or material items.

How much time elapsed from the time you made "John" the secondary offer, to the time he replied (not that it matters- at least to me anyway).

I can't speak for these 2; I can only speak for myself. If this situation happened to me, I would be understanding, & just move on, it's not a big deal, IMO.

You may already know this, but just in case you don't: neither of these parties can leave you negative feedback, if you don't sell you item to them, only start a GBU thread (which obviously you've already addressed).

As for what you should do? That's your call.

Agreed! :thumbup:

No sense in being upset about a situation like this. Or anything really!

 

[mbp]

Thank you all for your responses. My reputation is very important to me. In the past I have sold items many other places, but now I exclusively sell here because I believe in and trust this community. I don't want to erode trust through a mistake on my part, which is why I did my best to make everyone whole. But I do think my conduct, while less than ideal, was above board. Most of the things I sell are things that I purchased for myself but maybe didn't like or want to move on in favor of something else. I don't usually mind selling something for a bit less than I paid because I like quick sales (hate waiting) and the difference is going to be a sunk cost anyway, call it a gear rental fee


I think the situation is resolved at this point. I offered a compromise to Bill where I would sell to John, and then purchase for Bill the same item, but brand new from the maker; the difference between his payment and the full price being on me. He passed on that compromise. I think both buyers have also conducted themselves very well here, they do have their own rights. Again, just trying to resolve this amicably for all involved.

 

[S.T.R.]

FYI, there was a whole fiasco yesterday in a thread titled " What does LNIB mean?"
What that one boiled down to was the seller refusing to sell to a pushy member who wanted a $100 discount on a custom knife. The seller refused and the buyer contacted his buddy to buy the knife for him. When the knife reached the buyer, he found the knife to not be in the LNIB condition and demanded a discount.
The whole thing was a scam from the beginning.

 

[KELAMA]

Thank you all for your responses. My reputation is very important to me. In the past I have sold items many other places, but now I exclusively sell here because I believe in and trust this community. I don't want to erode trust through a mistake on my part, which is why I did my best to make everyone whole. But I do think my conduct, while less than ideal, was above board. Most of the things I sell are things that I purchased for myself but maybe didn't like or want to move on in favor of something else. I don't usually mind selling something for a bit less than I paid because I like quick sales (hate waiting) and the difference is going to be a sunk cost anyway, call it a gear rental fee


I think the situation is resolved at this point. I offered a compromise to Bill where I would sell to John, and then purchase for Bill the same item, but brand new from the maker; the difference between his payment and the full price being on me. He passed on that compromise. I think both buyers have also conducted themselves very well here, they do have their own rights. Again, just trying to resolve this amicably for all involved.

^ The fact that you're here addressing this concern, attests to your good character. :thumbup:

Just about everyone here makes a mistake or three (especially when your new), along the way. If this is the worst thing that you do, then you're way ahead of the curve!

Good luck working this out.

 

[S.T.R.]

Thank you all for your responses. My reputation is very important to me. In the past I have sold items many other places, but now I exclusively sell here because I believe in and trust this community. I don't want to erode trust through a mistake on my part, which is why I did my best to make everyone whole. But I do think my conduct, while less than ideal, was above board. Most of the things I sell are things that I purchased for myself but maybe didn't like or want to move on in favor of something else. I don't usually mind selling something for a bit less than I paid because I like quick sales (hate waiting) and the difference is going to be a sunk cost anyway, call it a gear rental fee


I think the situation is resolved at this point. I offered a compromise to Bill where I would sell to John, and then purchase for Bill the same item, but brand new from the maker; the difference between his payment and the full price being on me. He passed on that compromise. I think both buyers have also conducted themselves very well here, they do have their own rights. Again, just trying to resolve this amicably for all involved.

I agree with what KELMA said.
I also think you are going way out of your way.
If Bill really wanted the item, he can contact the maker and pay full price.

 

[traumkommode]

Yeah man, you're doing everything you can and more than you should to make this right for everyone, and from what I've read I doesn't seem like there are too many hurt feelings about it. I am always very clear whether dealing in a listing or through private/text/email messages unrelated to a thread, as happens sometimes, that an item is first-come-first-serve, or that there has been X offer made and will require Y counteroffer to get preference, or I "may be willing to sell/trade/buy" etc. As long as everyone involved is appraised of the truth, responsibility to behave like an adult falls on each as an individual.

 

[SavageSmurf]

Yea, seems to just got a little too eager to sell it, and made a mistake. As a buyer, I personally would have just been like okay, things happen, and moved on. In the past I've even posted the first "I'll take it," and the seller still sold it to some one else. In the future, you should definitely sell by time stamp, but since they aren'yt out any money, there's no harm really done. Simply apologize and move on:thumbup:

 

[Spartan00]

Sell to whoever you like but whoever but in this case John should have dibs . In the future just tell "John" if you want it let me know as quickly as possible or I'm going to post it .

Had a sort of similar situation . I posted a knife for sale . One guy asked for pics to email at 1030 pm. Another member asked for pics at 1032 pm. I sent both pics . That morning the member who sent email at1032 said I'll take it and sent funds . I went to post office and shipped it out . Buyer 1 then emails me asking for the pics. I said I sent them as soon as you asked and screenshot where the email was sent when I said it was.

Turns out the emails went to some filter in the email.

 

[Peter Hartwig]

Just my opinion
1. Both should be ashamed, after hearing the situation in not volunteering to step aside if needed. It's just stuff.
2. Unless you told John to go ahead and send the money, he jumped the gun in sending it. Even though you didn't wait long, there is no telling when he was getting back to you if at all with a I'll take it. He should have confirmed it was a go before sending the money.
3. Thus I would have just refunded Johns money, sent him an explanation as to why and finished the sale I started with Bill. No doubt John would have been upset, but life goes on.
Obviously a no win situation since neither wants to help, someone is going to have hurt feelings. You could make a case to do it the other way also, but I would go with the buyer I had made my commitment to. If you did tell John to just go ahead and send the payment, I would flip this to him. Next time just tell John that the item is being listed and it is just a heads up. You could have also told Bill that you had already offered it to someone and would send John a PM for an immediate response & then let Bill know for sure.

 

[Leftytwogunz]

Sounds like you just made a big problem for yourself. If you offered an additional item to dude A then you should have held your horses and gave him a day or so to find out if he wanted it. You could have put it in the same flat rate box or whatever, saved yourself shipping and all this heartache. If dude A didn't want it, selling it do dude B would have been no issue.
Best of luck.

 

[IamMatt]

I offered a compromise to Bill where I would sell to John, and then purchase for Bill the same item, but brand new from the maker; the difference between his payment and the full price being on me. He passed on that compromise. I think both buyers have also conducted themselves very well here, they do have their own rights. Again, just trying to resolve this amicably for all involved.

I am impressed. This is exactly what I was going to suggest was the optimum way to handle it, with the most responsibility and class. Good on ya.

 

[Peter Hartwig]

I think the situation is resolved at this point. I offered a compromise to Bill where I would sell to John, and then purchase for Bill the same item, but brand new from the maker; the difference between his payment and the full price being on me. He passed on that compromise. I think both buyers have also conducted themselves very well here, they do have their own rights. Again, just trying to resolve this amicably for all involved.

I didn't notice this until it was quoted-that was a good out, if the item was available
You screwed the sale up a bit, but you seem to be a very honest seller, whom I would gladly do business with. All sellers are great when things go right. It is when there is a problem that you see how good they really are.

 

[craytab]

You can sell to who ever you want, sure. But if you are taking payments from two people for the same item? Well, you get a situation like this. Don't do that. You have one item. Only offer it to one person at a time. Give them a deadline for payment. If they do not meet said deadline, inform them you are moving on to the next buyer. Then offer it to the next buyer. Only way to handle this sort of thing properly. Seems to have worked out though. Hopefully in the future, people won't have to wonder if you have offered the item they are buying to someone else.

 

[Spartan00]

You can sell to who ever you want, sure. But if you are taking payments from two people for the same item? Well, you get a situation like this. Don't do that. You have one item. Only offer it to one person at a time. Give them a deadline for payment. If they do not meet said deadline, inform them you are moving on to the next buyer. Then offer it to the next buyer. Only way to handle this sort of thing properly. Seems to have worked out though. Hopefully in the future, people won't have to wonder if you have offered the item they are buying to someone else.

Agree with this . Also if more than one person is looking at it seriously then tell the buyers you have others interested . In some cases some may think it's a used car salesman trick and tell you to go ahead and sell it to your other buyer . Just be as clear as possible and be honest . I've only had maybe 1 deal on here that the buyer wasn't going to be pleased no matter what I did. That was a few years back and I haven't seen that member around.

 

[9Nine]

My vote goes to Bill. He called dibs per your thread's instructions, was set to pay, and then you cancelled on him. That being said, I thought your compromise was more than fair, but I can't blame Bill for not wanting to go down that road. I would imagine the transaction was already enough of a headache and frankly, he was probably sick of dealing with you.

 

[craytab]

Agree with this . Also if more than one person is looking at it seriously then tell the buyers you have others interested . In some cases some may think it's a used car salesman trick and tell you to go ahead and sell it to your other buyer . Just be as clear as possible and be honest . I've only had maybe 1 deal on here that the buyer wasn't going to be pleased no matter what I did. That was a few years back and I haven't seen that member around.

That really is all it takes.

I've only had to pull the "I can sell to who ever I want" card a couple times. And it was because the buyers were either acting strange, asking for discounts after they said they would take it, or clearly wouldn't be happy no matter what. All the items I refused to sell to said people all eventually sold to others. Never have I had multiple offers of payment open for a single item. To do so would not be clear or honest.