DM Purchase and "I'll Take It" Purchase Occurred Almost Simultaneously 1 1

[Math Teacher]

I had a situation occur tonight that has never happened to me before, and I would like to find out if I handled it correctly.

A fellow board member and I were negotiating a price for Showcase #6. In the PM where this person accepted my counter-offer, it shows that this occurred two hours ago. At virtually the same time, another board member posted an in the thread. This post shows that this also happened two hours ago.

All I know is that when I went to update the thread to state that SC #6 had been sold, the was already there. So, I decided to sell the book to the person who posted in the thread, instead of the person who PM'd me.

Was this the right decision? I looked about, and I didn't see where I could find information that was more accurate than "two hours ago."

In my rules, I wrote, "A  in the thread trumps any ongoing PM negotiations." So, I believe that I followed my specified rule.

I just want to avoid any hard feelings and I want to know how to handle this type of situation in the future. I would appreciate it if you would share your thoughts.

Thank you.

@Joe_Fish

@rjpb

Edited May 17, 2021 by Math Teacher

[Galen130]

1 minute ago, Math Teacher said:

I had a situation occur tonight that has never happened to me before, and I would like to find out if I handled it correctly.

A fellow board member and I were negotiating a price for Showcase #6. In the PM where this person accepted my counter-offer, it shows that this occurred two hours ago. At virtually the same time, another board member posted an in the thread. This post shows that this also happened two hours ago.

All I know is that when I went to update the thread to state that SC #6 had been sold, the was already there. So, I decided to sell the book to the person who posted in the thread, instead of the person who PM'd me.

Was this the right decision? I looked about, and I didn't see where I could find information that was more accurate than "two hours ago."

In my rules, I wrote, "A  in the thread trumps any ongoing PM negotiations." So, I believe that I followed my specified rule.

I just want to avoid any hard feelings and I want to know how to handle this type of situation in the future. I would appreciate it if you would share your thoughts.

Thank you.

You did the best thing.  I’ve done the same thing, which lost me profit, but it was the right decision.  I explained it to the boardie who PM’d me with an offer and someone else snagged it in the thread.  Gotta follow your own rules, as long as the other party understands what happened and why. 👍🖖

[allthingskryptonite]

Per the rules, the person who posted the in the thread first gets the book. 

 

[William-James88]

12 minutes ago, allthingskryptonite said:

Per the rules, the person who posted the in the thread first gets the book. 

 

That's it, gotta be fair.

[theCapraAegagrus]

8 hours ago, Math Teacher said:

In my rules, I wrote, "A  in the thread trumps any ongoing PM negotiations." So, I believe that I followed my specified rule.

Seems like you did the 'correct' thing.

[Ryan.]

14 hours ago, Galen130 said:

You did the best thing.  I’ve done the same thing, which lost me profit, but it was the right decision.  I explained it to the boardie who PM’d me with an offer and someone else snagged it in the thread.  Gotta follow your own rules, as long as the other party understands what happened and why. 👍🖖

Did the person who PMed you offer you more money than what you had it listed for in the thread? 

[Galen130]

12 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

Did the person who PMed you offer you more money than what you had it listed for in the thread? 

Actually, no.  I didn't communicate that properly...the individual who PM'd me was looking to buy a raw comic lot.  Another individual grabbed a few of them in the thread, thus negating the deal we were working on in PM.  He decided he didn't want any of them after I explained what happened.  He was unhappy with himself, but he understood. 

[Jordysnordy]

@Math Teacher I don’t think you did anything wrong but you can usually get exact time stamps for posts to help you sort something out so close.

See attached screenshot from a random sales thread and you can see exact time of 7:10. Some posts will say 2 hours or 10 hours ago etc but there is a way to get the exact time if someone will take you to task on this.

[Math Teacher]

4 hours ago, Ryan. said:

Did the person who PMed you offer you more money than what you had it listed for in the thread? 

No, he did not.

[Galen130]

7 minutes ago, Math Teacher said:

No, he did not.

That question was for me...

[Math Teacher]

Well, here's my thread. If you notice, the post by @rjpb still shows 22 hours ago. And the PM from the person who was negotiating with me also shows 22 hours ago.

I think you will not see an exact time stamp until 24 hours have passed. I don't think anyone would have been in favor of me saying, "Since this was so close, we are going to have to wait until late Monday night to determine who was first."

I did what I thought was best, and the buyer that PM'd me is OK with it. Is there someway I can avoid something like this happening in the future?

[Fisionbomb]

1 hour ago, Math Teacher said:

Is there someway I can avoid something like this happening in the future?

Yup.  Don't put this

20 hours ago, Math Teacher said:

"A  in the thread trumps any ongoing PM negotiations."

in your thread.

[comicginger1789]

I mean it is impossible for someone who posts "I'll Take It" to know if a negotiation is happening. So yeah, you honour the "I'll Take It". Now suppose I was in a negotiation with someone and maybe I liked where it was heading (like say they were offering a trade and cash or whatever that intrigued me more than a straight cash sale), I would put pending for a period of time and spend time on them. Typically if pending is seen and someone still wants a book, they might at least put in a backup claim. That way you still don't miss out on a sale if the negotiations don't work out.

But whoever PMed you supposedly knew the rules. They knew your ask and the risk of them negotiating is the risk that someone may grab it in the meantime. Sucks but it happens. 

[Arkham]

I agree with Ginger. 

If I was negotiating with you - I’d probably post that in the thread. But, as I write that I realise it is very imperfect as, although I would write a “take it as per pm” if it went ahead, I probably wouldn’t go back to update it if that negotiation fell through… 

[Math Teacher]

I think this is how I am going to handle this in the future.

Buyers may engage in negotiating through PM. But the sale is NOT complete until the buyer has posted an "I'll take it" in the thread.

I'm hoping something like this will resolve an issue like mine.

[MattTheDuck]

Could you go back into the thread and say you're "pulling" the book pending negotiations?  You'd create an extra extra step for yourself if negotiations fell through, but the communication would be clear and the snag you ran into couldn't happen.

[Math Teacher]

7 hours ago, MattTheDuck said:

Could you go back into the thread and say you're "pulling" the book pending negotiations?  You'd create an extra extra step for yourself if negotiations fell through, but the communication would be clear and the snag you ran into couldn't happen.

That's possible, but during that sale, I had PMs popping up every 15 - 30 seconds. That's probably an exaggeration, but it certainly seemed like that.

[chrisco37]

14 hours ago, Math Teacher said:

I think this is how I am going to handle this in the future.

Buyers may engage in negotiating through PM. But the sale is NOT complete until the buyer has posted an "I'll take it" in the thread.

I'm hoping something like this will resolve an issue like mine.

The only "problem" I see with that is some people (privacy) don't like that info public.   I have bought books in the past where I've put the  directly in the thread and there are others where I've requested that I didn't want to do it.  

[Jeffro.]

On 5/16/2021 at 10:51 PM, Math Teacher said:

In my rules, I wrote, "A  in the thread trumps any ongoing PM negotiations." So, I believe that I followed my specified rule.

Yes. Seems to me that you followed your own rules, which is good and the right thing to do. Had you gone against your own rules that would have been a big issue.

You, as the seller, can set the "takeit" rules that you want. I've seen some sellers state that they accept the first takeit whether it's in the thread or in a PM. The main takeaway is whatever rules you set, follow them.

[MattTheDuck]

4 hours ago, Math Teacher said:

That's possible, but during that sale, I had PMs popping up every 15 - 30 seconds. That's probably an exaggeration, but it certainly seemed like that.

Yeah, probably not a practical idea in that case.