Can asking price be changed after offer is made?

I'm not a lawyer either, but I do know that a contract requires the agreement of both parties, and placing an ad does not constitute agreeing to anything. And while it may be annoying to a buyer to make a full-price offer and then see the price hiked, that is well within a seller's rights, and I don't see anything unethical about it. Of course, if you're annoyed you don't have to do business with the guy.

Also, CW, if you will permit a mild criticism, why are you posting? It doesn't look like you followed up with the seller to find out what he was up to. That should have been your first step, before taking this public. (If you did and got no response, I apologize, but you didn't indicate that in your post.)

I found an item listed here on Audiogon which was being sold by someone 30 minutes from my house in the Phoenix area. The price was fair and probably too low for the seller's described reason to sell-changing to silver Sony SACD player to match Mark Levinson (the company) gear. I called & offered to pay his asking price in cash on the following Monday. He said O.K., then gave me the runaround until the next Tuesday, when he re-listed at a higher price.
Needless to say I was miffed! I told my friends & all the local dealers what happened....
He had 3 glowing positive feedbacks a week later. Probably because he sold all the items at such a big loss. This is what happens when someone:
A. Has big bucks.
B. Buys equipment by reading reviews & not listening to the components in a system context!

I haven't seen him on this site since. He probably moved on to video only..........
He deserves it.


Integrity Counts!

Bomarc, may be I was naive, thinking that once a buyer agrees to pay the full asking price, then the seller cannot up the price. I did contact the seller and was offered the opportunity to buy at a higher price.

So it looks like you give me a dose of reality. On Internet and even on audiogon, buying and selling is a wild wild west. Until the money changes hands, anything goes.

'Fraid so, pardner.

Just remember folks, "best offer" REALLY means "BEST offer". It does not mean that the seller has to settle for an offer that is below yet close to their asking price, especially if someone offers MORE than asking price. That would obviously be the "best" offer that they could get.

If you really want something and you know that it is marked well below market value, offer the seller just a bit more than what they were asking. This happened to me ONE time and i learned my lesson well. The next time a situation like that came along, i offered the seller 25% more than what they were asking and i ended up with the item. This happened even though the seller had received a dozen different offers to pay full asking price prior to my email. The fact that the item was worth at least four times what i ended paying for it was also a great motivator in not being cheap about it : ) Sean
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