I was on the buyer-end of a similar situation. Not that I think I was being a jerk, or would ever be a jerk, but I was the first to respond to a nicely priced item. It was the seller who actually turned out to be a real jerk. After he had committed to sell the speakers to me at a price I'd estimate around 25% under market value, and AFTER I'd sent him a money order, he decided from the amount of responses/offers he'd received that he should be able to raise the price. No, I did not appreciate it one bit, but I could understand he was frustrated at having not researched the item carefully. To be fair to him I agreed to a fair market value price but certainly was not going to agree to taking part in an (informal) auction. After bending over backwards to comply to his terms and get the additional money to him quickly, he took over ten days after receiving the funds to ship the item, packed it poorly, treated me as if I were putting him out, did not follow up on correspondence, and generally acted without conscience or integrity. The speakers arrived poorly packed and damaged, UPS refused to pay as did the seller. He was kicked off of Audiogon as the result of a conflict dispute which I filed.
My opinion is that if you advertise to sell something at a specific price, and not post it as an auction, then you should stick by your offer. If you've found you made a mistake AND you have already agreed to sell it to someone, I think the fair thing to do was to honestly lay it all out to the buyer you made the agreement with and see if he/she is willing to come to a different arrangement. Obviously whether you sell or not is entirely up to you, but I believe there are a set of ethics that most sites request you abide by and I think this kind of situation puts those to task. Whether or not the buyer is a jerk should not be an issue, unless they are somehow breaching those same ethics. As far as who was first, again, ultimately it is entirely up to you as only you know who's email was first (you can always confirm this by looking up the item under "MyPage" under which each item lists the email's that have passed through the system for that item in the order it was sent). If you made an agreement to sell, or implied that one buyer was first in line (I think anyone would assume that they had priority given that admission), I would not go back against that understanding, and try to resolve it as best you could.
Lugnut offers good advice. Put yourself in the other's position and do the right thing (...Do unto others...).
Good luck Elizabeth.
Marco
My opinion is that if you advertise to sell something at a specific price, and not post it as an auction, then you should stick by your offer. If you've found you made a mistake AND you have already agreed to sell it to someone, I think the fair thing to do was to honestly lay it all out to the buyer you made the agreement with and see if he/she is willing to come to a different arrangement. Obviously whether you sell or not is entirely up to you, but I believe there are a set of ethics that most sites request you abide by and I think this kind of situation puts those to task. Whether or not the buyer is a jerk should not be an issue, unless they are somehow breaching those same ethics. As far as who was first, again, ultimately it is entirely up to you as only you know who's email was first (you can always confirm this by looking up the item under "MyPage" under which each item lists the email's that have passed through the system for that item in the order it was sent). If you made an agreement to sell, or implied that one buyer was first in line (I think anyone would assume that they had priority given that admission), I would not go back against that understanding, and try to resolve it as best you could.
Lugnut offers good advice. Put yourself in the other's position and do the right thing (...Do unto others...).
Good luck Elizabeth.
Marco