"OBO" Sales

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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Three Valves »

I love small claims!!
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by edsel585960 »

"All offers considered" is a better way to state it.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by bort »

Thankfully, I do not plan to sell any oboes.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Carnival of Venice »

In a way... yes... I see where you are coming from. But if I were to fight the system...

" FS: Brand Name Tuba - $10,000 OBO"

In my eyes that means, the seller has the choice of selling it for $10,000 OR whatever the best offer is. No? He/she has the choice?
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by groth »

Carnival of Venice wrote:In a way... yes... I see where you are coming from. But if I were to fight the system...

" FS: Brand Name Tuba - $10,000 OBO"

In my eyes that means, the seller has the choice of selling it for $10,000 OR whatever the best offer is. No? He/she has the choice?
I understand it like that as well. It's the seller's option to sell at whatever he gets offered if it's acceptable. I don't see how anyone can sue from a Craigslist ad.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by TheGoyWonder »

This is fascism. All sales are to be voluntary between both parties. Even in a rigid system like Ebay, the seller can and should refuse to sell at the closing price if the consequence is less than getting "robbed" by low sale price. In a free-form system, anything should go until both parties agree. The buyer can not show up, the buyer can show up and offer less then negotiated, the buyer can agree to buy and then decline after seeing it. Sellers should have similar liberties.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Three Valves »

Three Valves wrote:I love small claims!!
But I love the TubeNet Trolls even more!! :tuba:
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Ken Crawford »

I can't imagine how a classified ad could be considered legally binding. Just saying that you want to sell something shouldn't be legal grounds to compel you to do so. Weird.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by pwhitaker »

In the case of a classified ad, how would the plaintiff know that his/her bid was the "best" offer unless the defendant (stupidly) provided that information gratuitously and then refused to honor the sale. Judge Judy would probably rule in the plaintiff's favor under that scenario.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Tabor »

There has to be more to this case that the seller isn't saying, probably in all the other communications.

I do not believe "or best offer" is typically a firm contract to take the highest of any offer with no period of consideration. "offer" is a well established legal term. "best" does not seem to be a legal term, and as it is qualitative term, I would argue differs from the quantitative "highest" in that "best" is a value judgement which specifically implies consideration by the seller, rather than plainly agreeing to be contractually bound to the highest amount. If none of the offers are the best one (meeting a certain threshold at the seller's judgement) none should need to be taken.

Ebay uses the words in exactly this way. "Or best offer" is used with secretly set "sell it now" and "reject" amounts, and explicitly gives the seller a period of consideration. This, I believe, is more consistent with normal use.

I would enjoy reading the legal reasoning on this case. I guess anything is possible. In Louisiana, the high court decided that someone saying, "I want a lawyer, dog" did not mean that he was asking for a lawyer, but a lawyer who is also a dog.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Carnival of Venice »

the elephant wrote: If you read and comprehend English, the statement, "I will sell this for $XXXX or the best offer made," is a statement that can be taken to court if you make it and then fail to do what you say.
I dont agree with that, but to each his own...
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by royjohn »

I really don't get this. I think the question, "What are you on about?" is appropriate here.

We all know what the colloquialism OBO means and we all know that any seller is entitled to withdraw something from a for sale offer at any time or to refuse even a full price offer. "I decided not to sell it." What some small claims court did in some jurisdiction does not make law for the whole country and probably the judgement is not collectable anyhow. Fulminating over a common practice won't make it stop and probably shouldn't.

A better argument against OBO is that it undermines your asking price and virtually invites folks to offer you less, sometimes much less. Most people know when and in what places bargaining is expected, so perhaps OBO is superfluous. If you want to put a price out there and put OBO next to it as a teaser to get people to contact you with an offer so that you can start a dialog, perhaps that's a good strategy. So don't see legislating a rule prohibiting something so harmless and universal as making much sense. If you feel strongly about OBO, don't use it and don't read any ads that say "OBO." My guess is that if you saw an Alex listed with OBO and you wanted one you'd OBO fast and ignore any strong feelings you have against using that phrase. Certainly you're not against saving money?
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by groth »

Or ask higher than you want for it by a few hundred and let the market naturally settle in a workable price you'll accept. I know a lot of sellers doing that and outside of a private website (whatever is decided or not) the seller has every right to do whatever he wants since he holds the cards.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by bort »

the elephant wrote:"Or Best Offer" implies the best offer will be taken. Period.
But who chooses the "or" part of it? I think it has to be the seller. There is an option -- either the asking price, or, the best offer. I think that "Or Best Offer" literally means, "The price is the asking price, unless I decide that I want to accept a lower offer... in which case, the "best" offer will be determined by me, by whatever criteria for "best" that I decide (e.g., an "easy" deal for less money, can be 'better" than a difficult deal for more money).

I would never expect that it means "The price is the asking price, unless nobody wants to pay the asking price, in which case I blindly will accept the highest offer I receive that is less than the asking price, no matter what." Because isn't that just an auction, where a buy it now option has not been exercised by the buyer?

Your scenario seems more like "Else, Best Offer."

Bigger question, IMO, is what kind of person bothers to sue someone about a best offer they made to someone on Craigslist? Talk about litigious... :roll:
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by LowBrassNYC »

"Or Best Offer" implies the best offer might be considered by the seller but not necessarily accepted if they view the offer to be too low and/or unreasonable.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Ken Herrick »

I'm a bit surprised that IIIPOPES hasn't chimed in here. (Keeping in mind that contract law in different countries can be different) OBO (or best offer) is an offer to agree to a contract (ie sale) and means "I will accept the "best offer". In many cases being the highest monetary amount. One could say OBO over XXX$$$ - in effect a reserve price or some other conditions to be met by the buyer. It goes back to "common law" where somebody says I want to sell this - make me an offer and if it is the "best I will sell even if it isn't" as much as I really would like to get.

The vendor is offering to be trustworthy and must fulfil that trust -OR - be untrustworthy.

Short story - be careful what you say, and in particular, put in print.
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by Three Valves »

bort wrote:
Bigger question, IMO, is what kind of person bothers to sue someone about a best offer they made to someone on Craigslist? Talk about litigious... :roll:
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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by hup_d_dup »

the elephant wrote: "Or Best Offer" implies the best offer will be taken. Period.
Any time something is implied, there is room for interpretation.

The concept that OBO carries a legal obligation is very interesting, so I just spent about 15 minutes trying to track down more opinions. What I found was a variety of opinions (some from people purporting to be lawyers) with the majority of opinions seeming to be that there is no obligation. I couldn't find a single statement that any state law requires a person to sell at an OBO that in unsatisfactory to the seller.

Mr. Elephant, please tell us the state in which this decision occurred, and any other pertinent information. I fell free in requesting this since you have written a long post advocating a policy change in TubeNet so it must be an important issue for you.

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Re: "OBO" Sales

Post by PMeuph »

Tabor wrote:There has to be more to this case that the seller isn't saying, probably in all the other communications.
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