WWYD? An ethics/ etiquette question

[Phoenix]

So, what would esteemed PSers do? I'm pondering and want to make sure I do the ethical/ right thing.

As you may know, I've put up my 2.656ct BGD H&A super-ideal cut diamond/ pendant for sale in the Pre-Loved sub-forum. I've had quite a few enquiries on it and a nice gentleman has *tenatatively* agreed to buy it for a certain price, after negotiation. Now, his offer is conditional upon a third party's evaluation, which of course is the right thing to do.

My Q now is am I obliged to sell it to him at this price, if someone else comes along and offers me a higher price? I still have the pendant/ have not shipped it out yet and the third party has not done the evaluation yet, not sure if any of this matters at all.

Thank you.

 

[Phoenix]

FWIW, I had another person expressing serious interest before and I mentioned it to this nice gentleman. He told me that (I'm not paraphrasing here) he'd be ok if I wanted to deal with this other person. This other person never followed through, but now I have yet another and higher offer.

This gentleman also asks me, when he emails me, whether the stone is available. Again, not sure if this would make any difference in what I should do.

 

[TristanC]

An item is not available indefinitely. A deal is done once you have accepted an offer from the buyer and the buyer confirms the purchase.

If you have not accepted his offer, and he has not followed through to confirm the purchase, you are free to sell it on. Whether you feel you should or not, is up to you. If you have accepted his offer, and sell it out from under him, he may be able to make a claim against you.

Lawyers please chip in.

 

[Phoenix]

An item is not available indefinitely. A deal is done once you have accepted an offer from the buyer and the buyer confirms the purchase.

If you have not accepted his offer, and he has not followed through to confirm the purchase, you are free to sell it on. Whether you feel you should or not, is up to you. If you have accepted his offer, and sell it out from under him, he may be able to make a claim against you.

Lawyers please chip in.

Thank you, Tristan. My Q is not so much on the legality of the situation, more what is the "right" thing to do. I'm unsure because I have never put up anything for (direct) sale myself in the past. There are many PS'ers whom I understand have been dealing on eBay, Craigslist, whatever, who may be more well versed in what the practice/ the norm is.

Having said that, out of interest and curiosity, is this already deemed to be a contract? He's made a conditional offer and I've accepted but there's been no consideration yet (ie. no money has been paid). I understand from contractual law that you have to have all three of: i) offer, ii) acceptance and iii) consideration, for there to be a binding contract.

 

[Pandora II]

On ebay, if you make an offer and win the auction then the item is yours unless you fail to pay within a stated period of time.

IMO, if you agreed to accept his offer and just need to ship the pendant to the appraiser then you have a binding contract at that point.

You could go with the other offer but expect the guy to be pretty unhappy. It's a bit like accepting an offer on a house and then turning round a week later and selling it to someone else - not illegal but not very ethical either.

Hope that helps.

 

[luv2sparkle]

I think you can sell it for the highest bid. If money had exchanged hands, and he had followed through, that would be one thing. But he
hasn't. You could give him a courtesy call and give him the option to up his bid, but you put it up for sale, not to give someone a great deal.
That is nice, but not your original purpose.

If there was something I really wanted, I certainly wouldn't delay my purchase. To do so would be a risk. It doesn't seem like the gentleman is that committed.

 

[Amys Bling]

On ebay, if you make an offer and win the auction then the item is yours unless you fail to pay within a stated period of time.

IMO, if you agreed to accept his offer and just need to ship the pendant to the appraiser then you have a binding contract at that point.

You could go with the other offer but expect the guy to be pretty unhappy. It's a bit like accepting an offer on a house and then turning round a week later and selling it to someone else - not illegal but not very ethical either.

Hope that helps.

Hmm, tough call. It totallystinks that the higher bidder came after. My personally, I would go with the firt buyer. I kinda feel the same as Pandora.

 

[NovemberBride]

Phoenix,

I think that if he has made an offer and you have accepted it with his conditions (i.e. an appraisal), then you are ethically (and potentially legally) bound to sell it to him. The fact that he required an appraisal doesn't figure into it for me because you already agreed to it. If I understand the situation correctly, you two have struck a deal, even though neither party has performed yet.

 

[VRBeauty]

I agree with Pandora and November.

 

[Guilty Pleasure]

When I sold my wedding dress, I didn't consider it sold until the money was in my account. I was very clear on this though with all potential buyers when they'd email me. I did email a woman out of courtesy to let her know that an acceptable offer had been made and I was accepting it. She had asked me to keep her posted on if it sold or not, I think - details are fuzzy, as it was two years ago.

I don't know all the specifics of your case, so I'm not sure what I would do in your situation. However, I don't think anyone would have a problem with the man changing his mind before he wired the money, so I think the same can apply to you. If he found the same quality diamond for less money and hadn't paid you, then I would see no problem with him going with the lower price.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I don't really agree. We made a verbal offer on a house and it was verbally accepted. We met the realtor later that day to sign the contract (with earnest money) and she took it by the other realtor's office. The next morning she called and was told that another offer came in higher than ours before our contract was signed. Not very nice, but seriously, the new offer was $15,000 more than ours! Do I blame the builder? Absolutely not! The deal was not completed because he had not signed the contract.

I would contact the first buyer and tell him you have received another offer and give him the opportunity to meet the price.

I do think you need to handle the purchase through an appraiser no matter what to protect you and the seller. The appraiser verifies the stone is as represented and holds the stone until you received payment. Then appraiser ships stone to buyer. But I would only let this be conditional on the stone being as represented on the cert.

 

[yssie]

Phoenix, I think you are worrying too much

It's not like money has been exchanged, or that you have two offers for your flat asking price, one after the other. In that case I do think you have an obligation to sell to the first responder, but... you have competing offers, both of which are less than your asking price. I can't see how you should feel the least bit badly about emaling the gentleman and saying that you have since received a higher offer, and would he like to match it. It would be courteous to give him the opportunity to purchase the stone at the higher price, since he did respond first, but if he's not interested I definitely think you have every right to go with the second party!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Well...did the person who wants the stone and is asking for an evaluation put a deposit down so you at least are able to take the potential buyer seriously? You should ask for that, IMO, because otherwise that person could just back out at any point. For a smaller purchase, it wouldn't be a big deal, but your stone is a lot of $$$ and it's unrealistic for you to have to sit there waiting and not knowing what the deal is.

I see DB similiar to CL in that it's first-come, first-serve, basically because on CL so many people call, express interest and then disappear. It's insanely frustrating. Don't want to see you go through that!

Good luck!

 

[Haven]

Since he hasn't paid you yet, I would tell the first buyer that another buyer has offered a higher price, so he can choose to let the stone go to the second buyer, or to pay the higher price.

However, the first thing I would do would be to include a line in the sale ad that says something like "I will continue to accept new offers on this item until a buyer has fully paid for it." The wording is off, but you get the idea. This way, you aren't tied into a buyer who is either not serious but acts serious until he actually has to pay, nor are you obligated to someone who makes conditions that hold up the process.

 

[Karl_K]

I believe in what goes around comes around, so I would sell it to the first person at the agreed upon price.

 

[movie zombie]

I believe in what goes around comes around, so I would sell it to the first person at the agreed upon price.

i agree with this. you agreed to his offer. the stone is "reserved" awaiting confirmiation of specs. the only way it is not "sold" is if the diamond does not meet the specs you stated and the buyer backs out. you could/should have asked for a good faith deposit to be returned if the diamond is not as stated or applied to the balance due on the purchase price agreed upon.

 

[Haven]

I believe in what goes around comes around, so I would sell it to the first person at the agreed upon price.

i agree with this. you agreed to his offer. the stone is "reserved" awaiting confirmiation of specs. the only way it is not "sold" is if the diamond does not meet the specs you stated and the buyer backs out. you could/should have asked for a good faith deposit to be returned if the diamond is not as stated or applied to the balance due on the purchase price agreed upon.

Hmmm, now I'm rethinking my initial response.

Originally, I was thinking about the few items we've sold on Craigslist where you get many offers but very few serious ones. In that case, you really do have to entertain only the real cash offers because there are so many trolls out there. I was also thinking about the process of buying a home, where you put in an offer, but the seller can back out at any point until the final docs are signed. This happened to us with a home, our offer was accepted but then they got a cash offer for the same amount and went for that one.

However, I'm not so sure if these practices apply to this situation anymore. It's hard to say, since there was no stipulation that the buyer must make a deposit to put the stone on reserve.

Now I just don't know what I'd do.

 

[LD]

Why not be honest with both?

With the lower bidder you could explain that you have a higher offer but would like to proceed with him BUT that it's conditional upon completion with X days (insert your own timeline).

With the higher bidder you can explain that you had tentatively accepted another offer but that you've given them X days to complete. If they don't then you will let them know and give them the opportunity to buy at that point.

Hopefully then everybody is in the picture and everybody knows what's required!

 

[Phoenix]

Thank you very much, everyone - Tristan, Pandora, luv2sparkle, Amys Bling, NovemberBride, VRBeauty, Guilty Pleasure, diamondseeker, Yssie, MC, Haven, Karl, movie zombie and LovingDiamonds.

You all have given me fanstatic advice and a lot of food for thought. I think I know what to do. I mean if I had to ask the Q, then I think deep down inside I already knew the answer. Regardless, it's still FANTASTIC to receive advice from the PS crowd and I will for sure employ/ take into account some of the very valid points recommended.

Thank you sooooo much again.

 

[partgypsy]

Hmm that is a hard one. When I sold stuff on Craig's list I was very clear in that I would not hold the item, that the first person to to pay would have the item. The reason I was very clear is that in previous instances someone would seem very interested, say they were coming by that day or the next to buy, and then nothing. In the meantime someone else wanted to buy the item. I am assuming the gentleman is very serious but it puts you in this limboland where you can't do anything if you are waiting on the other person. I think as the person is not paying the posted price but something less, you can just let them know you have a higher offer, take it from there.