Offer accepted, then sold to someone else

[lovebeanies1]

I just made an offer to a seller. She accepted and when I clicked to pay, the item was sold to someone else. Is this normal?

[femmefan1946]

Yes.

Until you actually pay, the item is still available to the one who pays first.

And in this case, likely paid more.

It is best if making a Best Offer to accept within a few minutes of the seller's acceptance.

[pjcdn2005]

No, that isn’t normal. Once an offer has been accepted than the item is no longer for sale so I’m not sure what is happening.  Is it showing in your purchase history?  Have you asked the seller about it?

[pjcdn2005]

When an offer is pending and hasn’t been accepted by the other party, someone else can buy the item but it is considered sold when both parties have agreed on a price.   A few years ago they experimented with keeping the item available until payment but I don’t think that lasted more than a month or so.  Unless I’m missing something....

[lovebeanies1]

I offered a price to the seller, she responded « I accept » and that she was sending me the offer so I can click and pay. Then she told me the item was sold, when I tried to click on the offer and it didn’t work. 

[lovebeanies1]

No there was not the option to make an offer. I wrote to her in private, and she said I accept, sending you the offer link so you can pay. Then the link didn’t work. It was sold. 

[pjcdn2005]

Ok...that’s just a matter of timing then.  Someone else must have made the purchase before the offer between you and the seller was official.  In that situation ebay would require the seller to honour the sale that was done through the listing.  The seller would be penalized if they cancelled the other ‘first’ purchase. If the seller sent the offer through the system and you had already accepted it, then the other person would have been unable to make the purchase.

But eBay doesn’t take the listing off of the market until an official offer has been accepted through the system.  They don’t mark it as sold just because an agreement was made through the message box...they aren’t even aware of an agreement at that point.

I’m sorry that this happened to you but it isn’t something that happens normally. Two people just happened to be interested at the exact same time.

[mis76can]

I'm a buyer and I do make offers to sellers now and again.

It seems to me that if a seller accepts an offer; notification is given to the buyer and the latter is bound by contract to make payment within an expected time frame.

If that payment is not received within the required time period; then the seller should be entitled to sell the item to an alternate buyer.

I would think that the seller would also be entitled to file a non-payment case with e-Bay as well.

[femmefan1946]

The seller is entitled to start an Unpaid Item Dispute but in this case, the offer was not paid before another buyer scooped up the still active listing.

If a seller cancels an accepted offer the buyer can start a Dispute too. But again in this case it came down to timing.

It's not the first bid that wins, it's the... nope, that doesn't work.

[zee-chan]

Just poor timing. Even if you made an offer with the "make offer" function, if the seller hasn't actually clicked the "accept" button (or if the buyer hasn't clicked the "accept" button to the seller's counteroffer), it's still available for other buyers to buy - and sometimes an active pending offer could trigger a different watcher to hit the buy-it-now button right away. With buy-it-now it's always sold to whoever clicked buy and paid first. "Verbal" offers done via the message system are not official until you actually hit the buy button. Would you have bought it at the original price? If you wouldn't have, then you weren't missing out anything anyway. The seller is obligated to mail the item to the first buyer who pays, not the first one who messages them... as per the ebay's system.

[lovebeanies1]

Thanks. That makes sens. I guess I was very disapointed and the seller was kinda rude so... Oh well, I will find another one!

[ddawson108]

Now that's the right attitude. It is likely as others have said, just bad timing. I have had this issue before, millions of people access Ebay so occasionally you lose something you are staring right at. I have clicked buy it now to find that someone had done the same thing a second or 2 before me and lost an item. Had I been 2 seconds quicker the other buyer would have had the same problem I did. It is unfortunate when this happens but it is the nature of the system.