I don't know how Gun Broker works but if its anything like EBAY you could get any negative feedback he leaves for you removed as long as you have all the communication between both of yall as proof.

Mistake or not, the seller could have taken action long before the auction ended---beginning the moment the auction opened. For whatever reason, he was not diligent in looking after his own interests. As far as I am concerned, he is obligated to deliver the goods to the high bidder.

This.

Don’t communicate on the phone, only email or text

Most people here know I buy and sell on auction sites also. I ALWAYS start with a low opening bid and no reserve on the items I sell. This seller did the same, he made no mistake or error. He gambled as I do that the market will set the price. Usually it does - sometimes it doesn't. For me it was when I listed something like 20-25 new in package Steyr 30 and 40 round AUG mags thinking they would sell for $20-25 each. I listed them in one auction as opposed to individual auctions because I wanted less hassle and honestly was lazy. Sure enough all 20-25 factory Steyr mags sold for like $60 damn bucks....but I packaged them up and mailed them off like I was supposed to. Maybe not as much a loss as this fellow did but if you don't set reserves/high opening bids in order to ensure you get more activity on your listings - it's a chance you take.

Leave him negative feedback and if it were me - I'd post up his seller name everywhere for all the world to see what type of a person he is. I sold those mags for $60 because my word is my bond and my integrity is worth way more than a few dollars lost on any transaction.

Earl

https://support.gunbroker.com/hc/en-us/articles/225413928-Before-You-Sell


Read this

Please remember by listing an item you are legally committing to accept the high bid for the item. If you receive a bid above the minimum price you set, and a reserve price is not specified, you are legally obligated to complete the transaction.

Right at the very top. I would contact him, tell him he can take the $351 and send you the revolver, or you are going to start legal proceedings against him. Do all contact through email or USPS, and alert GB immediately.

I once tried selling some golf clubs on eBay. There was about two minutes left and they were up to about 300 less than I wanted. So i used my wife’s account and won them for myself lol. Does this make me a pos?

You might have gotten what you wanted, had you waited. My bidding technique was to wait until there were about 5 seconds left to submit my top dollar bid, and I'm pretty sure lots of bidders worked it that way.

I once tried selling some golf clubs on eBay. There was about two minutes left and they were up to about 300 less than I wanted. So i used my wife’s account and won them for myself lol. Does this make me a pos?

You are s*** out of luck. Seller can do as seller pleases. All you can do is leave negative feedback, explaining the situation.

On the other hand, you can understand an accident.

You could complain to eBay to see if they will help.

You are s*** out of luck. Seller can do as seller pleases. All you can do is leave negative feedback, explaining the situation.

On the other hand, you can understand an accident.

You could complain to eBay to see if they will help.

It's frustrating. Collector's Firearms in Houston did something very similar to me. I won a near mint Colt Detective Special with factory hammer shroud in the original box for around $300. As soon as the auction is over they tell me they accidentally sold it in the store and forgot to stop the auction, but I could have a worn out Detective Special with almost no finish and no hammer shroud for the same as my winning bid amount.

I don’t feel bad for anyone that plays the auction game and gets burned by their own mistake. They went into it hoping to make more than market value, and they failed.

UPDATE:

So, because I wanted everything in writing, I emailed the seller and asked him to confirm the phone call from his employee, by email, that he was refusing to honor the sale because of a mistake in entering the starting bid amount. The guy then emails me with a completely different story that they sold the gun prior to the auction ending, but didn't take the auction down in time. This is in spite of the fact that his ad had no provision for local sales and in fact said that "there will be no face to face transfers..." Convenient.

I replied that when he created an account on Gunbroker, he agreed to their rules and policies. One of which states, "by listing an item you are legally committing to accept the high bid for the item. If you receive a bid above the minimum price you set, and a reserve price is not specified, you are legally obligated to complete the transaction." I then inserted the link for citation.

I explained that this means we had a valid contract for him to sell me the revolver for $351.00, plus $35.00 for shipping, that he breached that contract by anticipatory repudiation, and that neither of his excuses is a valid defense. I also explained what the "benefit of the bargain" measure of contract damages meant. His response was "Good luck with that."

Sooo, I just gave him an F rating, and left a generic statement that "Seller refused to honor my winning bid on a no reserve auction. His employee called and gave one excuse and when I asked for his repudiation in writing, seller gave a completely different excuse."

And... as expected he gave me an F rating too, even though I complied with all the rules and made the effort to complete the transaction as my part of the agreement. He even had the audacity, in the comment section, to call me "A piece of work," lie and claim he "offered to make it right by sending [me] some product" (I don't even know what this could be), and warned other users to "Beware" of me.

Anyway, I'm compiling all of our communications to send to gunbroker, with a statement, asking to have his comment and rating removed. I'm not asking them to do anything to the seller and whatever ends up happening, I'm just leaving it at that.

I figure what goes around eventually comes around and life's too short to waste any more time on someone like that.

I appreciate all of the outside input, as it is not always easy to remain subjective with personal conflicts. I know there are opposing views on most everything and all that I can do, is do what I think is right and hope that it is the right decision. With that, I'd like to thank each of you for your insight.

I will say this much, though...looking at the guys auctions that he has up right now, his listings all appear to be "no reserve" and with pretty high opening bids. In my mind, that supports the suggestion that he simply made a mistake when he listed the S&W. Just an observation.

It's still on him though. Lord knows I've made mistakes listing items on auction - but you have time before anyone places a bid to either end it and relist with the right info or revise it. It's no one's fault but his own that he didn't catch it if he did make a mistake. And he chose to sell his reputation and integrity for the price of an auction. That says much about the person.

Yep. Might be a mistake but it's still a contract that he's legally obligated to abide by.

I'd love to get this guy's username and just go win a bunch of his auctions and not pay so he can see what it's like. What a tool.

If you want to make a point on principal. Check to see if it's legally binding. Send the funds as obligated on your end USPS certified mail, and file a police report for theft. Then file a suit for breach of contract and say you will press for wire fraud. But I'd just walk away and let the gunbroker admin know with evidence. Sorry to hear.

only if the seller cashed the check, NO RECORSE, leave negative feedback and don't stress

USPS money order is listed as an acceptable form of payment. OP could mail it and see what happens, and it wouldn't be on the seller to "cash" the check at that point. But I agree with the OP that he should just cut bait and move on. Life is too short to deal with people with no integrity.

the OUT for sellers is to say that it already sold and they didn't git it removed from the auction, is C S, but that's not unusuall

You knew it was a mistake and he caught it late. I wouldn't give a gun away either if it was an honest mistake.

I would love to see an age distribution chart overlaid on the opinions posted on this thread.

Honesty and integrity are two of the most important words in my vocabulary.
Add a dose of common sense and you have a road map for life.

Marc

Inhnderstand what you are getting at, but where is the integrity of the seller? This was NOT the same as listing it for sell here and leaving out a number. Nobody would expect you to sell it then. This was a no reserve auction. The seller chose to use a no reserve auction because it saved him a few pennies. He could have set the reserve at the price he wanted, then he wouldn’t be required to sell. He chose not to do that. That auction was then up for the entire duration of the auction. It appears he does regular constant business on gun broker. He would have seen the bids as they came in and realized they were much lower than he expected and could have done something then (he could have bought the gun himself and relist in). He again chose not to do that. It appeared he decided to let it ride, and it bit him in the butt. A guy who does business that way has no integrity.

One look at the pistol told me a mistake was made and I'm not to sure you can make him pay. I've seen a dealership make a mistake on a new F-150 priced at 2,999 dollars, seems he or the paper left of the 3. Neither were held responsible. Kind of like giving somebody a 10 dollar bill and they give you change for a 100, it seems some here would keep it. (There's your lack of character and integrity) This was an obvious mistake.

I still can’t believe this.

You think those on here that say the seller is in the wrong and should sell are lacking character and integrity?

If this was a "buy it now" deal I could see seller maybe trying to back out, especially if it posted and sold super quick. Live auction though is different story. And yes, I will give over change back if somebody messes up.

One look at the pistol told me a mistake was made and I'm not to sure you can make him pay. I've seen a dealership make a mistake on a new F-150 priced at 2,999 dollars, seems he or the paper left of the 3. Neither were held responsible. Kind of like giving somebody a 10 dollar bill and they give you change for a 100, it seems some here would keep it. (There's your lack of character and integrity) This was an obvious mistake.

I figure what goes around eventually comes around and life's too short to waste any more time on someone like that.

UPDATE:

So, because I wanted everything in writing, I emailed the seller and asked him to confirm the phone call from his employee, by email, that he was refusing to honor the sale because of a mistake in entering the starting bid amount. The guy then emails me with a completely different story that they sold the gun prior to the auction ending, but didn't take the auction down in time. This is in spite of the fact that his ad had no provision for local sales and in fact said that "there will be no face to face transfers..." Convenient.

I replied that when he created an account on Gunbroker, he agreed to their rules and policies. One of which states, "by listing an item you are legally committing to accept the high bid for the item. If you receive a bid above the minimum price you set, and a reserve price is not specified, you are legally obligated to complete the transaction." I then inserted the link for citation.

I explained that this means we had a valid contract for him to sell me the revolver for $351.00, plus $35.00 for shipping, that he breached that contract by anticipatory repudiation, and that neither of his excuses is a valid defense. I also explained what the "benefit of the bargain" measure of contract damages meant. His response was "Good luck with that."

Sooo, I just gave him an F rating, and left a generic statement that "Seller refused to honor my winning bid on a no reserve auction. His employee called and gave one excuse and when I asked for his repudiation in writing, seller gave a completely different excuse."

And... as expected he gave me an F rating too, even though I complied with all the rules and made the effort to complete the transaction as my part of the agreement. He even had the audacity, in the comment section, to call me "A piece of work," lie and claim he "offered to make it right by sending [me] some product" (I don't even know what this could be), and warned other users to "Beware" of me.

Anyway, I'm compiling all of our communications to send to gunbroker, with a statement, asking to have his comment and rating removed. I'm not asking them to do anything to the seller and whatever ends up happening, I'm just leaving it at that.

I figure what goes around eventually comes around and life's too short to waste any more time on someone like that.

I appreciate all of the outside input, as it is not always easy to remain subjective with personal conflicts. I know there are opposing views on most everything and all that I can do, is do what I think is right and hope that it is the right decision. With that, I'd like to thank each of you for your insight.

I got to thinking and checked; I bid on the same model revolver from the same seller in a no reserve auction a couple weeks before yours. I checked, the serial numbers are different, but clearly they knew what they were doing listing that pistol with no reserve, they just expected it to sell for what the other one did.

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/747106507