Question airgun selling ethics

[DocGadget]

This happened to a friend of mine on the other forum and I wanted to have your opinions about it.
Gentleman 1 is selling an airgun
Gentleman 2 wants to buy said airgun (pretty easy to follow up to now huh)

Buyer contacts seller about the gun, seller informs him it's already sold.
A little while later the seller contacts the potential buyer offering the gun to him because the original buyer is a no show and states a price for the gun.
Potential buyer ask if he may get a small price reduction.
Seller doesn't want to lower the price of his gun so sells it to a third buyer.
Now the second buyer writes back asking what is happening with the gun.
The seller informs the buyer he didn't want to lower his price and sold to another gentleman.

See anything wrong here? Should the seller have contacted buyer number 2 informing him he didn't want to lower his price before selling to buyer number 3?
Can you guess who I am errr I mean my friend... is in the story?

[AirGunEric]

I don't know if this is an ethics question, or more a courteousness issue (?) I think the time that elapsed between communications might play a part in this sort of thing.

If this were a store/professional seller- then a response to the lower-price question should be considered appropriate in order for the potential buyer to judge what they can/want to do- but for a single-item seller it gets a bit 'up in the air'- their motivation is to get the gun/item out the door, preferably at their asking price- so if two emails are received in relatively short sequence (i.e. close together) I can see someone just picking the one that was offering the asking price. Is this 'ethical' ? Not sure. Is it courteous? Maybe not so much.

If there was alot of time between this lower offer and then the submission from another potential buyer at asking price with no response to the lower-offer-buyer- then I think it becomes more of an "ethics" question as it seems likely the potential seller was just waiting people out to see if any more offers came in without letting you know what was going on- i.e. fishing. "Fishing" is never cool and tends to aggravate everyone in my experiences dealing with these sorts of things.

[Dukemeister]

Should the seller have contacted buyer number 2 informing him he didn't want to lower his price before selling to buyer number 3?

Like Eric said ( or maybe just my interpretation), if seller is not a store or dealer then its up to both parties to negotiate in good faith. Neither is obligated to the other - until an agreement is reached at which point it is ethical to complete the deal. So if the seller didn't accept your offer then it is void and if you didn't accept his counter offer it is also void. Communication is a good thing, and I think that's what's missing in this case. I recently made an offer on a rife, seller never responded yay or nay. I would have been best for him to just respond and say "nay".. or make a counter offer, that's the way price negotiation works. I haven't tried it with an on-line dealer but I have done it in stores. An honest offer is just that, if the seller doesn't want to accept it he has the option to decline, make a counter offer, insist on his asking price. It's the way the economy works in many parts of the world and is a valuable skill. Cheer up, there's a better deal waiting 'round the corner.....

[ARSIE]

I learned long ago that if I really want a for sale item. I don't fool around and I pay the asking price. If I throw a lower price at the seller than they are asking, and the item gets sold to someone else. It wasn't really a must have on my part.
Ya Snoozes, Ya Loses.

[SureShot]

I learned long ago that if I really want a for sale item. I don't fool around and I pay the asking price. If I throw a lower price at the seller than they are asking, and the item gets sold to someone else. It wasn't really a must have on my part.
Ya Snoozes, Ya Loses.

I have to agree with you ARSIE. If I see something I want I am willing to pay the asking price. Heck I've even been known to pay more if the seller has lowered his price to entice more offers. In my opinion I want a happy seller selling me an airgun. An unhappy seller may affect future sales or at worst a poorly packaged airgun shipment to me.

To get back to the original topic, I agree that it's not sales ethics but sales courtesy. And once again if you wish to make more sales/buys you should treat everybody with respect no matter how much you may feel your airgun is worth.

Occasionally I see airguns for sale on the forums for maybe $20 less than a guy paid for it at Cdn Tire. Those guns don't sell. But that's not ethics just sales inexperience.

I recomend that if you have a bad sales experience with somebody on the forums simply place a negative feedback within the Buyer/Seller Feedback Center and don't make it personal, don't let it spill out onto other subforums. Lately I've witnessed a lot of bickering and name calling. This is just a hobby guys and we are all adults here.

[DocGadget]

I have to agree with you ARSIE. If I see something I want I am willing to pay the asking price. Heck I've even been known to pay more if the seller has lowered his price to entice more offers. In my opinion I want a happy seller selling me an airgun. An unhappy seller may affect future sales or at worst a poorly packaged airgun shipment to me.

To get back to the original topic, I agree that it's not sales ethics but sales courtesy. And once again if you wish to make more sales/buys you should treat everybody with respect no matter how much you may feel your airgun is worth.

Occasionally I see airguns for sale on the forums for maybe $20 less than a guy paid for it at Cdn Tire. Those guns don't sell. But that's not ethics just sales inexperience.

I recomend that if you have a bad sales experience with somebody on the forums simply place a negative feedback within the Buyer/Seller Feedback Center and don't make it personal, don't let it spill out onto other subforums. Lately I've witnessed a lot of bickering and name calling. This is just a hobby guys and we are all adults here.

All true, it might not have been ethics but more like politness and courtesy.
I didn't make him an offer either, he had a few guns for sale some sold, some didn't, he lowered the price on the unsold ones but he offered me this one after the original buyer stopped responding to emails. I simply said I was hoping for a small price drop and asked if he was willing to lower it a little bit. He never answered me... a simple "no" would have been fine I would have paid his asking price but I'm not angry at the seller at all, it's his gun and he can do whatever he wishes to do with it and when I asked him if was willing to lower it a little I was willing to let it go, I knew I was taking a risk and to me it was worth it.
I had first established the price I was willing to pay for it and was trying to get there, it obviously didn't work and I just wanted to know if I was crazy thinking he could have at least answered me, it seemed like the right to do, it seemed like it was the polite and gentleman way of doing it, I guess I'm just too old fashioned about this even if I'm not that old yet.

I'm not a haggler either, I don't always try to bargain things I'm buying even if the seller opens the door to negotiation. When I bought my muzzle brakes from jezX he asked me what I tought about the price he was asking me I said it suited me fine and I tought it was a fair price and asked if wanted more for shipping and did the same when buying my stock that JoeHickey is making me, paid in full and I asked both of them if they wanted me to pay before starting their work and when they declined I asked if they wanted a deposit for it.

That gun deal is the second deal that went "wrong" in my life and the first one was with an immature 16 year old guy so it doesn't really count and it's not something I'm used to. My deals usually go smoothly.

[daguasta]

ive been on both sides of the issue
but when i sell:
1st) i try to go 1st come 1st serve (if offering full price) and inform if they are in line in case of no follow thru on the first person
2nd) on offers lower than my asking price i go with the highest offer, but i will answer the lower offer with a "i have an offer that higher than yours but if does not go thru i will let you know" type of response

but my thing is i like having good communication....its the polite thing to do regardless

[Bartman]

I recently had a 'good' experience on the other forum. A gun came up for sale and I PM'd right away with an offer. In the meantime, another buyer made an offer which was higher than mine. The seller contacted me back, with all the details, and said I could have it if I matched the other offer. And, he quoted, as I was the first offer, I could have it even if I matched. That was a gentleman, but I declined the offer, but feel good that I was allowed to be first choice. I will never forget that.

[DocGadget]

The thing is he didn't make me a counter offer... or even took the time to reply, he just didn't reply, turned around and sold it to someone else.
I'm also a believer in good communication.
Like Arsie said it wasn't a must have otherwise I would have paid the full price.
Maybe next time

[ARSIE]

There would be no point or reason to make or allow you to counter offer when he already had someone willing to pay his original asking price. In fact by doing so he would be doing the person willing to pay the original asking price a disservice. Courtesy says that he should have taken the time and replied to you that the item had been sold for the asking price.