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I am constantly amazed by the "side offer" actions of some sellers on eBay. You would think the sellers would say "hey, if you want it for that amount, put that bid on eBay so I am protected". However, time and again, sellers pull an auction and take a side offer or worse yet, do so AFTER the auction. I hate to hear about it happening and even moreso when it is one of our members here. What follows is the account of what happened to our own "Strohsbro2" when he won the recent auction for a rare 1992 Tony Hawk Birdhouse "Scratch Graphic" deck....


Here is the auction:
Tony Hawk Signed Skate Deck Birdhouse Skateboard 1992

from Strohsbro2:
"When I first saw the auction I emailed the seller thanking him for putting the board up for sale. Here was his response.



How or where have you seen or heard of this board? I have never seen another one before. I was lucky to get my hands on it in 1992. I keep getting outside offers to end the auction sooner, but I just tell people to bid.


So the guy seemed cool and sincere about not ending the auction early and taking a side offer. I won the auction and paid for it a few hours later (July 4th). Later that evening (very early July 5th) I got an email from the seller. This is what it said...


Do NOT pay for this, I was given a last minute offer I couldn't refuse, this item isn't for sale anymore. I
wanted to end the auction early, but I didn't have a chance. If you pay for this, there will be a delay in
refunding your money. I sincerely apologize for this.


Like I said, I received this AFTER I has already paid for the auction. So I emailed him back (July 6th) and basically told him that he was obligated to send it to me since I had won it and paid for it. So he lied about taking a side deal offer. And here is his reply to my response concerning his side dealing actions...



I do apologize, and I did see that you sent the money. I sent my first email before checking my paypalmaccount. I got a payment for $509.47 after paypal took thier cut. I am willing to Paypal $525 back to you, however paypal will take about $15.53 and you will end up with $509.47. Or, if you want to wait a few days for it to clear in my bank account, I can send you a money order for $525. I will send it certified mail so you have to sign for it. I meant to
add to the description to tell the winner not to pay until hearing from me. So let me know what you want
to do, I want to get your money back to you. I didn't mean for this to happen, I take my e-bay seriously and
by no means am I keeping your money.


So I emailed him again telling him that I was going to do everything I could to make sure I got the board. And I politely called him a liar. Here was his response...


I'm sorry, you are getting the money back. I will paypal it back to you.


In the meantime my house got hit by lightning knocking out my phones and frying my modem in the process. By the time I got back online last Thursday he had already sent my money back.


I checked ebay and they suggested filing a case with square trade before filing a complaint with ebay. So I did. The guy hasn't responded to square trade's attempts to contact him (Not that I expected him to). I'll be filing a complaint with ebay once square trade has exhausted their attempts to get him to respond.
Basically I got screwed over by a side deal after the auction had ended."