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[MoonDawg]

The ad appeared yesterday "1950's Pepsi upright.Does not work, needs restoring $600.00 obo"
     I called him at 7:30 AM.  He described it to be an embossed VMC 81.  Sold!   " I have cash, When can I pick it up"?
     He was at work and said he would meet me at his house at 6:30 PM
     At 5:30 I was parked a few doors down from his house, with his phone # programmed on my cel phone, in case someone else should pull ahead of me.
     At 6:30 I knocked on the door. The man apoligized and said someone came by at 5:00 and bought it! Well I just blew up. Told him I thought he wanted to sit down for dinner with his family before taking care of buisness.
     Then he asked me how much it was really worth. Telling him $3000. was payback.
      
      Just how brazen do we have to be?

      Should we respect a sellers privacy?

Thanks for allowing  me let off steam. Glen

Glen, i know exactly how you feel. about two months ago a guy about three hours away had a Cavalier 72 on ebay. i emailed him and said how much if i buy it now. he said the 500.00 he started the bid at. i said well consider it sold and asked him how much can i send him down so he knows it is sold and he said 200.00. So i tell him cancel the auction and he said not till the money gets there. well we made the deal late on a saturday and the soonest the mail goes out is monday of course. he promised me he does this all the time and his word is good. well as the night goes on so does the bidding. he called and said deals off. i basically said he is a bad businessman but unfortunatly greed takes over and it just cannnot be stopped. so if i would do it all over again, just deal on the item ASAP. the longer a guy has to wait, anything can happen.

[Pat Pixley]

I had that happen also . I found a  ad in the local paper
that read HI klas Chest cooler still get cold selling for $75
So I called,  a man answered the phone,He told me that
they used it for there kids  but the kids were gone now.
 I said I'm still at workand get out at 5:30 And I would like to buy it for the $75.00 I gave him my name and told him I would be over after work,He said great and he would be looking for me.So  When I got home I called to make sure that they were not eating dinner ( it was 5:30 pm) and the man had answered  again  and I had asked if it was a good time to come over to get the chest,he told me it was gone.WHAT DO YOU MEAN IT'S GONE. the man said he sold it ,I asked when  he said  
a hour ago then  he told me sorry  but you did'nt sound like you really wanted it, and before I could reply to that ,He said good by and hung up on me. LIVE AND LEARN I GUESS.
 Pat P.

I have also had same happen to me.  About all you can do is send them a fax.  Program your fax to continue calling the number until the fax is received.  I suggest a short redial time.  Your fax will keep calling, if they do not have a fax all they get when picking up is fax tones, repeatedly.  If they have a fax, send them a politically correct but informative message, over and over.  This can continue until they block your number, but then you don't really ever want to talk to them again.  Don't do or say anything that violate a law, just be a royal pain in the ***.

[MoonDawg]

Several years ago an ad for a garage sale read:  Saturday 8:00 am to 4:00 pm.  "NO EARLY BIRDS" Well I arrived at 7:45,
and you guessed it, a Vendo 81 sat there sold, but not yet picked up. The man said someone came in at 7:00 and paid him $700.00 for it.        
I seriously thought about ringing his doorbell at 7:00 AM every Saturday  for a month!  

                "The early bird gets the worm"     '>

Keep in mind that you are trying to separate something from someone for usually FAR less than it’s actually worth. The mindset of the seller in these cases is generally that this is some old clunker, and that if they can find someone to take it off their hands they are blessed and happy to be done with it. This is common knowledge and therefore you must do whatever it takes to reel it in fast or someone else is going to step in line to rob them first. Do you want to get it for sure? Call them up and tell them what it’s really worth and say you’ll give them that, also tell them they will get a million calls so even if you somehow don’t show up they will easily sell it anyway. Not as much fun eh? So don’t grouse about not being first in line to screw someone.  Yeah, I’ve bought cheap machines too, but in the rush you can’t always get there first.

Oh Nate,  I called the "Gentelman", agreed to pay his full asking price, and it was a fair price.  I had the cash, was ready to drive over directly.  He asked to make it later, and set the appointment.  In between he sold it to someone else, and never cancelled the appointment, let me drive an hour across town, and then never even spoke to me face to face, left his wife to give me the bad news.  And no, he did not sell it for more.  Just a double dealing low life.

[Pat Pixley]

Nate, I will have to agree with you on some of that, In this day and age people just want to get ride of there  junk
( or in our case a treasurer)   but some of our older generation
still honors a deal . I have taken a new stand on this I 'm just not going to let it bother me any more, Its just not worth getting the blood preasure worked up.

 '>

Wise decision

[racerx45]

Well just thought I would throw in my story.

This was about 10 years ago. I use to buy a lot of Coca-cola items from an antique dealer in the town I worked in.
  One day I walk in and he has a Cavalier 27 with the ships wheel. It is un-restored but in very nice condition. He was asking $750.00, I told him I wanted it but need a few days to think about it. I came back the next day and asked if he would take $650.00 for it, he said yes. I said I need to run to the ATM to get the cash and that I would be right back. He then said hey it is closing time just come by in the morning. I said ok and was there at 8:30 am waiting for him to get there at 9:00. He shows up on time but with a puzzled look on his face. He says “Steve, what are you doing here?” I say “I came to give you the money for the Cooke machine”, He says “ Oh you where serious about that?” I say” yes”, He says “Oh, sorry. I was locking up last night and a guy came by asked if I still had it and bought it from me”. At this point I was more than a little upset with the guy.  So I made the deal and less then 15 minutes later it was gone. Needless to say I didn’t buy anything from him again. I went from being one of his best customers to a non-customer over that one deal.
  I had forgotten this happened until I read this post and have to say that it isn’t the best trip down memory lane I have taken, but it is better to remember the lesson so as not to repeat it, I guess.