[Hallicrafters] Appeal for help with selling rules

Sun Nov 24 22:57:20 EST 2002

I agree totally with Glen.  Good practical advice.

I sell a lot of stuff on the reflectors and the new groups.
The first person who makes an unconditional offer to buy, usually
gets it.  

The following are good examples of what does NOT buy anything:
    "I'm interested in...."
    "Do you still have ....?"
    "Could you tell me if .....?"
    "I will definitely buy it, if  (blank)"

Furthermore, by non-commercial standards, (not a regular
dealer of the item), and non face to face, merely advertising 
an item at a price certain, really doesn't obligate the seller to 
sell it to anyone, including the first person who offers to buy it.
The reason is, absent a clear offer from the prospective seller, 
the responding party is the person making the initial offer to the 
seller, for the seller to accept.  There has to be a meeting of 
minds of the parties, usually as to (1) Sufficient description of 
the item, (2) The price and terms of payment, (3) Time and 
method of change of possession; and then a clear 
unconditional mutual acceptance of all those terms.  When
people go ahead with a transaction without nailing down 
some of those terms,
then reasonableness enters into it.  For instance: Payment in a 
reasonable time, delivery in a reasonable time, that the item is
reasonably in condition to serve its intended purpose,   .... but,
remember its those "reasonableness" terms that provide nice
work for us attorneys,  maybe as much as half of all civil law
suits.  

Then there are those weasel words of acceptance, for example:
"Yes, I absolutely accept your offer, presuming of course that
everything you said about the Yz-456DX Mark II, is correct".
(Another wonderful potential lawyers fee, in the budding.) 

YEP!  That's a lot of legal stuff, but it was all created over
centuries of time by neccessity, and leads to happy-campers
(another legal term).

One good rule of thumb:  If the buyer's reply ends in a 
question mark, it is a question, not an offer, let alone a 
promise.

Gene (cold hearted) Rippen 

> It is definitely appropriate for the seller to take
> the first cash offer made, especially when he/she has
> a set price.  Possibly, if you had made a definite
> offer with the provision that certain conditions be
> met (i.e. "I'll definitely buy the receiver for $50 if
> it is in at least 'such and such' condition"), and if
> the seller had answered you giving you "X" amount of
> time to make up your mind, then it is appropriate for
> him/her to wait to hear from you provided that you do
> reply in the time frame allotted.  
> 
> It is not the responsibility of the seller to
> determine the shipping costs to you before you make up
> your mind.  All you have to do to estimate these is to
> look up his call on QRZ.com or other Internet callbook
> to get his zip code and then go to UPS.com, Fedex.com,
> or USPS.com to get an estimate of the shipping
> charges.  
> 
> You can estimate the weight of the receiver if you
> don't have the exact weight to get some idea as to
> what the shipping charges will be (I always add at
> least 5 pounds for packing materials and the box, 10
> pounds if the item is over about 30 pounds).  On the
> older equipment, most people who know what they are
> buying have a pretty good idea as to what the weight
> is.  If they don't, then they can either look it up in
> various magazines, ARRL Handbooks, etc., or, if they
> are seriously considering purchasing the item, by
> asking the seller about how much it weighs while
> making a tentative offer to buy ("I'll buy it if the
> shipping charges are not more than $25.  Please let me
> know how much it weighs so that I can estimate the
> shipping cost.  Will let you know by 1:00 PM today if
> I am going to buy it.")
> 
> However, that is completely up to the seller.  If they
> want to take the first firm offer, that is certainly
> up to them.  At least he took the time to tell you
> what happened.  He definitely is not required to tell
> you anything!
> 
> Unfortunately, there are all sorts of people who ask
> questions and then never reply yea or nay to the deal.
> 
> I recently actually gave away something placing an
> advertisement in a local publication.  After none of
> the first five people who said that they were on their
> way to get the item never showed up (this was over a 3
> day period) and I had to tell people that the item was
> spoken for, I started telling people that the first
> one here got it, no matter who called first.  Someone
> finally came.  Then, for the next four weeks I got
> several calls a day asking about the item even though
> the advertisement appeared only a single time.
> 
> The "breaks of the game" is that when an item is
> "cheap" (and the price for the Howard receiver was
> cheap no matter what the condition - I almost
> contacted the person myself when I saw the post), you
> take your chances.  If you don't like the item when
> you get it, you trade it off or sell it to someone
> else.  You cannot expect someone to hold an item while
> you make up your mind while numerous other persons are
> willing to purchase it immediately.
> 
> Glen, K9STH
> 
> 
> --- GARDGORE at aol.com wrote:
> 
> The seller told me I was first to respond about the
> Howard but later I told it was spoken for after I
> tried to buy it. I learned about this after I sent my
> address along with a few questions about the set.
> 
> He told me the next day "the Howard receiver has been
> spoken for." His explanation two days later was "I
> sold it to the first person who made an expressed commitment."
> 
> =====
> Glen, K9STH
> 
> Web sites
> 
> http://home.attbi.com/~k9sth
> http://home.attbi.com/~zcomco
> 
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