[AT] Sold Tractor On Ebay - Unusual Issue

Thu Nov 1 07:57:08 PDT 2007

LeRoy,

Had a slightly similar issue with two Rototillers I sold on Ebay. Pickup Only. Buyer paid promptly on November 2006. He lived in Canada and said he would be down sometime to get it. 

In August 2007 I contacted him and said it's time to come and get it. I offered to ship it to him at his expense, not my preference, auction was Pickup Only.... He said he really only wanted the engine so I offered to crate it up and ship it. He said fine... I just wanted the barn space and I did not want to be responsible for it. 

Shipping was expensive from Southeast PA, he lived in Niagara Falls Canada... Turns out I had a co-worker that worked in Philly with me and went home to Rochester for the weekends. He said he did not mind taking the engines back home with him. I then told the buyer that this was the best deal he could get and only an hour from his house. Told him to pay co-worker some $$$ for gas...

Hand off went well, everybody was happy. I had some Rototiller shells that I sold and made some extra $$$ to boot. 

But, what did I learn? I learned that I would start saying the things that other ebayers say when they sell stuff that must be picked up, like: "Must be picked up within two weeks, if you can't pick up within two weeks, please don't bid". Or "If you can't pick up within two weeks you must contact me to make arrangements for storage". 

Some buyers get caught up in the auction without thinking about the logistics (I am guilty of this). 

Hopefully something tragic did not happen to the buyer... Or maybe he is avoiding you...? Maybe leave a message that you will start charging storage. 

My wife works in a hospital, sometimes children of parents that are in the hospital don't want to pick up their parents. They avoid phone calls from the social workers... But, when the social worker says "If you don't pick your parent up you will be charged directly for their care, insurance will no longer cover this". The children call back within 5 minutes.... 

Do you have the old e-mails from the buyer? Is the history of the auction still on ebay?

I wonder what ebay says about this situation? 

Its great you have the money, but now you have to be responsible for the tractor and its not really yours...

If you do contact him. You may find that he can't figure out or afford a way to pick it up... Maybe you could tell him to relist the tractor on his end and the newest buyer can pick it up... Any profit or loss will be his problem. Or, I am going to re-list, if I recover your buying price I will send back your money minus my fees. If you have a loss, thats your loss, if there is a profit, that will be mine. 

Regards,

Will

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: LeRoy Price III <leroy_price3 at hotmail.com>
> 
> I sold a 1957 Fergusoon 40 on EBAY.  I gave the buyer a break to send payment 
> since I was going to be on vacation.  When I got back I had to bug him a bit.  
> Anyway, the Check showed up, I cashed it and it cleared.  However, the buyer 
> hasn't made any attempt to contact me with puckup.  I have emailed and called 
> his cell but nothing.  I gave up after 2 weeks of it.  Now I'm not sure what I 
> should do.  I didn't keep the address on the letter he sent figuring he would 
> WANT to pick something up he paid $2100 for.
>  
> Any suggestions?
>  
> LeRoy
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