I just recieved an interesting phone call

Supposedly the guy that won the auction for the CE got in a car accident today and is in the hospital in critical condition. A colleague of his called me tonight

At this point I dont know if its legit, smells kind of fishy to me.

Im really just worried about the $500 deposit required within 48 hours of the end of the auction that ended Saturday that hasn't been paid.

How should I proceed?

I already sent out a couple second chance offers but I doubt there will be anything that comes of it.

Not only am I out the listing fee, but since he did technically win I have to pay the $125 successful listing fee also.

how come I keep getting screwed!?!?!

Call the hospital and check if it legit, if not and if you don't get your money leave negative feedback.
It don't sound right to me as well, if the guy is in critical condition why would he even care about notifying you or have the where-with-all to even get someone your contact info?
What is the guys e-bay name who won?

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Also with ebay, it takes like 15 days but u can get credit of final value fee if winner backs out, u might be able to get listing fee back too. Work the customer service over alittle.

Yeah, contact ebay, they will refund you the $ and they will mark the buyers account.

I had someone who bought some pretty nice audio equipment from me over ebay and immediately after the auction, the buyer wrote me to tell me they felt they were going to pay too much and wanted to back out of the deal. So at least I knew up front that I wasn't going to be paid, anyway, Ebay took care of it...

Good luck!

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Yea I've been ebaying for 10 years now, I can't tell you how often someone has some bs excuse why they can no longer pay the auction they knowingly bid on. Family this family that, it all bs. Business is business, stop with excuses and pay up, that's what I say. Now you can neg a buyer without fear of retribution, that's how it used to be, couldn't leave feedback in fear of retaliation.

Selling cars on ebay is a little different now. If the auction ends with a wining bid, you will pay the successful listing fee, no iffs no buts. Remember that listing fees used to be very high. Now they are low for a reason. If the reserve was met, you will pay the successful listing fee. Regardless of whether the transaction will happen. This does not apply to regular items though.

IMO, he realized he bid too much, or decided he wanted that cordovan CE that just popped up on ebay after your listing.

The so called fine print:

"National listing fees

Basic fees
You'll pay an insertion fee and a successful listing fee to list a vehicle on eBay Motors. Other fees (such as PayPal fees and optional listing upgrade fees) may also apply.

You'll be charged a successful listing fee if:
you receive a bid on an auction-style listing without a reserve price
you receive a bid that meets your reserve price on an auction-style listing with a reserve price
a buyer clicks on the Buy It Now button in a listing offering a fixed price
you accept an offer from the buyer through the Best Offer feature
The amount of the successful listing fee depends on the final bid amount, as shown in the tables below. For listings ending with Buy It Now, the final bid amount is the Buy It Now price. For listings ending with acceptance of a Best Offer, the final bid amount is the Best Offer price.

There's no additional fee charged on the actual sale of the car after the vehicle sells. However, you'll be charged a successful listing fee regardless of whether you carry out the sale with the buyer."

When people bid on expensive items like cars they should be required to have a deposit held in proxy and verified before they are allowed to bid. And if you have the winning bid the deposit should be non-refundable unless the seller did not advertise the item correctly.

steve said:

When people bid on expensive items like cars they should be required to have a deposit held in proxy and verified before they are allowed to bid. And if you have the winning bid the deposit should be non-refundable unless the seller did not advertise the item correctly.

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In my auction it said "$500 deposit required within 48 hours of the auctions end" but i cant MAKE the guy pay me that money, so basically im screwed.

k9t8m said:

In my auction it said "$500 deposit required within 48 hours of the auctions end" but i cant MAKE the guy pay me that money, so basically im screwed.

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Yea i know, so to make sure you only have serious bidders it would be nice if ebay forced people to put that $500 into a proxy before they can bid so you would not be in the situation you are in now.

Same thing happened to me, but I ended up getting my deposit.

steve said:

Call the hospital and check if it legit, if not and if you don't get your money leave negative feedback.
It don't sound right to me as well, if the guy is in critical condition why would he even care about notifying you or have the where-with-all to even get someone your contact info?
What is the guys e-bay name who won?

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The hospital cant give you ANY info because of HIPPA laws.

well the guy finally emailed me back. said he lost his job now too. Sounds like total BS to me. I told him I would be contacting a lawyer to get the $500 he owed me, thinking it would scare him into paying, but it didnt.

k9t8m said:

well the guy finally emailed me back. said he lost his job now too. Sounds like total BS to me. I told him I would be contacting a lawyer to get the $500 he owed me, thinking it would scare him into paying, but it didnt.

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Did you contact ebay?