I called the seller of the Filter-Flo pair in thread # 41789 and left a message that I was interested in the set. He returned my call a little while later, pleasant chap, and we came to an agreement. I asked him if he would be willing to accept $100.00 for the pair, as it was listed in the ad for "$150.00 obo". He accepted my offer and we agreed that I would wait for him to research using PayPal for the purchase and I would then arrange to have the machines picked up. When I returned from dinner there was a call on my answering machine and two emails indicating that he had subsequently received two offers at his asking price,  from two different parties it sounds like; and "to be fair to me" he wants to know if I want to up my "offer".

I'm not going to go into a hissy fit against ANYONE on this site, because I believe no one knew about my pursuit of this sale. Rather, I'm disappointed and a little disgusted that again, a Craigslist dealer feels no ethical responsibility to honor a verbal agreement of sale. I don't know, at this point, how I'm going to handle this situation, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to do business with someone who doesn't value his word. If any of you are going for these machines, you might want to consider who you are dealing with and get some kind of binding assurance that your sale is final and he's not going to lead you into a bidding war. I know I've called many sellers and been told, "sorry, it's already sold"and that's how the game works and that's that.

Not the end of the world, but when you write, obo, don't accept that offer if your intention is to hold out for more.

Ken,

Funny how that works on CL.  Unfortunately most of the sellers think "OBO" means "make your offer, but even if we agree on a price I'm free to continue to accept additional and better offers at least until I decide otherwise", instead of "make your offer and if I accept the item(s) are no longer subject to additional offers".

I've seen examples of lack of maturity/honesty/responsibility in multiple categories of CL (don't ask).  I think a lot of this is due to the impersonal nature of the web-based lives we live and a lot due to less emphasis on honesty and character in general.

Best of luck with your purchase.  Let us know if you get them!

lawrence

The seller said $150.00 OBO, figuring they were 30YO+ machines, and if someone showed up with $100, they were gone. When someone else inquires at the original price, things changed.

 He should have said, "sorry, I have a deal working on them, if it falls through, you are next" or similar. But I can also see the sellers side, someone 600 miles away says he wants to buy them, I have a  local buyer who will show up with cash.

Ken sorry to here that you may not get this set, as has been mentioned by others there does not seem to be high ethical standards for many CL sellers. But I have found when the machine is some distance away you are not in a good position to bargain on the price, and the price the seller was asking was fair considering both machines were fairly rare. When We found the Easy Combo all the way out in the Portland Oregon area I immediately offered the seller double the $175 asking price and sent a cashiers check the same day as I knew it would take a while to work out the transportation of the machine back to Maryland.

At this point I would go back and offer the full price and maybe more, Good Luck,    John.

Ken, maybe the seller really got offers at the asking price and maybe he needed the extra money... It would be hard to blame someone in this situation. 

I agree with John, negotiating a price over the phone on something you really want is a bit risky. It's OK if you don't mind loosing the deal (I often offer 1/2 or even less the asking price when it's something I don't really want, and I often end getting them as their owners are about to throw them away!).  But on quite a few occasions, I have seen things for sale at really cheap prices or even offered for free and if the seller was willing to ship them, I offered more than the asking price because I know what's involved in shipping/handling items and I figured I wouldn't do it myself for such a small amount. 

Someone offered a dryer for free on this site and since no one grabbed it complete, she ended parting it out to send me the parts after I asked her doing so (she was also communicating with me during the process to know exactly what I wanted and how to remove these parts) . I was so happy with what she did that after I paid for the shipping, I sent her a $100 money order for the things she sent me (and packaged with great care). I'm far from being rich, I don't even have an income at the moment but I felt I couldn't offer less than that. She told me she was pleased and she did even send me an extra part for free after that!

Someone else offered a MW oven for $15 in a classified ad in Georgia. She thought it might be helpful for some local people as it still worked and she didn't want to throw it away. When I contacted her, she was a bit surprised to see someone from Canada wanted it and didn't really want to ship it as it was heavy but she did ship it to me even if I didn't pay for it. When I asked her how to pay, she said it was fine, that she was happy that someone would use it. I insisted and she gave me her PayPal address after I said that I wouldn't pay for the microwave oven itself but at least to cover the handling and trouble (and the international long distance phone calls she placed with her cellphone to communicate with me while she was having problems with my account number at the Fedex office). I did send much more than the asking price and I think she was a bit surprised and happy about that! And if I had been any richer, I would have sent more too!