My item has been sold for less than I had it for?

[gmah1mane]

Hello,

I have some Bon Jovi tickets which I have put up for sale and have set the selling price as $1500.00 for both tickets.

I have since just read a message from Ebay saying, congratulations you have sold your tickets for , wait for it... $10.00!!!

Please explain, I am confused.

[springyzone]

Crikey, you could be right about the law etc

But in practical terms, we have a seller here who made a mistake in a listing and the item sold for $10 instead of the desired  $1500.

If we want to go down the path of what is morally right, you might say- a person has a moral obligation to follow through with a completed contract.

But what of a buyer, on finding that a seller made a bad mistake? Is it morally right to take advantage of another person's mistake?

I don't know we can really sort out the morality angle.

The legal one might be that the contract should be honoured.

All I am saying is there are contracts on ebay that are not honoured every day, it is a fact of life.

Unless it is a really big purchase, it is unlikely to hit the law courts. That's the reality.

So the seller has the choice-to follow through, or to send a message to the buyer and explain the mistake and say they don't wish to sell the ticket at $10.

[fixnwear]

OP.

You will not be sued or dragged into a public place and shot if you simply don't

delivery your tickets for $10.00

Learn from this experience and simply relist the item with the correct starting price.

Perhaps you were trying to avoid a high listing fee in the first place ?

Silly move but you can't be compelled to suffer such a loss.

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@springyzone wrote:

Crikey, you could be right about the law etc

But in practical terms, we have a seller here who made a mistake in a listing and the item sold for $10 instead of the desired  $1500.

If we want to go down the path of what is morally right, you might say- a person has a moral obligation to follow through with a completed contract.

But what of a buyer, on finding that a seller made a bad mistake? Is it morally right to take advantage of another person's mistake?

I don't know we can really sort out the morality angle.

The legal one might be that the contract should be honoured.

All I am saying is there are contracts on ebay that are not honoured every day, it is a fact of life.

Unless it is a really big purchase, it is unlikely to hit the law courts. That's the reality.

So the seller has the choice-to follow through, or to send a message to the buyer and explain the mistake and say they don't wish to sell the ticket at $10.

---

springs I get what you're saying, but isn't it better we let the new people know what the "right" way is and allow them to apply their own moral guidepost to the situation? Let them way up the potential problems, vs their ultimate decision.

Lots of people don't even know they are breaking the law when they do so,

And if these tickets really are worth $1500 and the buyer really wants them, he's got $1400 to play with to make sure he gets them, so might cause the OP some troubles.

and sometimes people really do want things quite badly, remember those woolworths aussie animal foldeers a few weeks ago? They cost $4, and people were paying up to $200 for them! Now imagine something like a concert ticket for some band you really, really, really wanted to see.

I was just coming from that angle matey,

[*crikey*mate*]

---

@fixnwear wrote:

OP.

You will not be sued or dragged into a public place and shot if you simply don't

delivery your tickets for $10.00

Learn from this experience and simply relist the item with the correct starting price.

Perhaps you were trying to avoid a high listing fee in the first place ?

Silly move but you can't be compelled to suffer such a loss.

---

people have sued for a LOT less than $1490....

but you're right about the firing squad, that was last month, this month it's keelhaulings

[fixnwear]

OP said...'as I was posting it for sale a window popped up from EBay saying it is better to list as an auction'.

OP thought $10.00 was where the bidding commenced and $1500.00 would be the reserve.

Crikey, OP is new to selling. Seems like an honest mistake based on big brothers pop up 'auction' advice.

I doubt the buyer would use his spare $1,400.00 to mount a court case if for no other reason than

the concert would probably be over by the time the case was heard. Both parties would lose.

The buyer winning a case and getting useless tickets for $10.00 and the poor seller losing his

original investment.

[*crikey*mate*]

*sigh*

I understand what has happened and i understand how eBay's advertising tactics have been successful, but this doesn't change the facts and potential repercussions, all things which the seller needs to take into consideration BEFORE making a decision, cos if they do breach the contract and the buyer does sue (ever heard of damages?) they'll get laughed out of court if they try to use the defence "some random poster on eBay told me it was ok to do this"

furthermore, this situation may involve "only" $1500 (although the buyer may consider the price irrelevant, maybe they're a full on groupie and woulda paid whatever it took, but they got lucky and scored a bargain cos no one else likes them that much)

but other people reading this may also believe the false information and only 2 days ago there was a situation on these boards involving $10,000 and one for $6,000 last week.

Regardless, for most people, $1500 is a significant amount of money so legal ramifications really should at least be a consideration and up to the seller to decide what risks they are prepared to take, but at least give them the opportunity of knowing the facts so they can make an informed decision!

A lot of people (including a couple of really large sellers) don't even realize that their eBay auction is a legally binding contract!

PS - a few months ago, we found a case where a buyer won a silver platter on ebay. The seller renegged and the buyer sued, as the sentimental value was significant for the buyer. (a lost family heirloom).

[fixnwear]

You are quite correct crikey.

There are quite a few legal ( Australian ) precedents out there.

Maybe best for the buyer and seller to reach some middle ground.

[*crikey*mate*]

oops, should have added - that platter was sold for $60