Bidding Frustration

I would contact the person to whom I sent a counter and asked them to let me know as soon as possible if I received another offer and told them the time frame I needed a response or I would move on. To me that would be the honorable thing to do.

Then as a seller, you must put the other offer on hold, and give him time to rethink and withdraw his offer, and then the guy you countered says no within the "time frame." Now as the seller, your item is still "for sale."

Your scenario would probably work among friends, but not on an open market. Suppose you make an offer on a used car, then the owner counters, but you leave to think about it, and when you return, the car has been sold. As Pbnaudio said, "You snooze you loose."

IMHO, if I gave someone a counter offer, and did not hear from them for half a day, I would assume the answer was no, regardless of Audiogon's time frame.

I agree--it's snooze you lose. That being said, I think that should be more clearly spelled out. In real estate, a counter-offer (written) is binding should the buyer accept it.

I think Audiogon (or at least Audiogoners) should make it clear that, hey, here's my counter but if someone else comes along with a better or full price offer, then I'm gonna take it.

Agree that until a price is agreed upon, the item is available to be sold to a better offer.

wait a minute all...

Reading this thread, it doesn't sound as if the OP's situation is being addressed.

However, there are some problems with how things are stated since a seller cannot "counter" a "bid," which raises the question, was this a "bid" on an "auction" or an "offer" on a "classified" listing? Assuming the seller actually submitted a "counter offer" to Pgleekel's "bid," as stated in the post, then this had to be a classified listing and Bdgregory's comment;

all "best offer" systems work this way, where an open offer or counter does NOT lock up the seller. At least A'gon, and eBay work this way.

is not true here.

Classified listings here are subject to Audiogon's rules;

When a Seller submits a Counter Offer, you will receive an emailed notification. The Seller has committed to hold the item until the Buyer responds to the Counter Offer (or it expires in 48 hours).

The Buyer may then choose to either Accept or Decline the counter offer.

If the Buyer Accepts the Counter Offer, the Buyer and Seller have entered into a binding agreement based on the terms outlined in the Counter Offer.
If the Buyer Declines the Counter Offer, no agreement is reached and the negotiation has ended, with no obligation to either party.
The Buyer may then submit a new Offer if they wish. The Seller also may move onto other offers that may be available.

If this was a classified, and an offer was made by Pgleekel, and if the seller made a counter offer through the Audiogon system, then the item is in fact locked up until Pgleekel responds to the counter offer, or a maximum of 48 hours, as stated in the Audiogon Support Center rules under "Making Offers."

The Seller has committed to hold the item until the Buyer responds to the Counter Offer (or it expires in 48 hours).

If the seller somehow pulled the ad after making a counter offer (maybe he had it listed also on Aasylum or ebay and sold it there) then that is a violation of the Audiogon trading system and subject to negative feedback by the prospective buyer, or other sanctions if deemed appropriate by Audiogon.

They have buy sell rules here for a reason and if folks want to use this system they should respect and abide by those rules.

OTOH, if this was an auction, and if Pgleekel made a "bid" that was lower than the reserve set by the seller, then the seller could in fact pull the auction, if no other bids exceding the reserve were received as provided here;

If your auction has NOT met reserve, or there are no bids, then you may cancel or close it early.

Anyone buying or selling on this site should become familiar with the rules, which can be found here;Audiogon Support Center

Mitch,
Nice job clearing this up.
I want to point out that the OP stated that Audiogon responded "a counter is good for 48 hours unless the seller pulls the listing"
This does seem to contradict their rule "The Seller has committed to hold the item until the Buyer responds to the Counter Offer (or it expires in 48 hours)".