That has to be one of the worst excuses for backing out of a purchase. He would have been better off just saying he changed his mind. Really that is just being greedy and obnoxious. He wants his first choice of books and any discounts applied later.
No doubt. That's a new one on me. I don't think I've seen that before. I've seen all manner of self-entitled, navel-gazing, "my mommy says I'm special so the rules don't apply to me" type of behavior on this board, but this one is new.
And I've had a seller offer me books, responding to a WTB post I made, that were priced 40% higher than his prices in a sales thread he had currently running at the time.
He did manage to blame it on his wife. So he had that going for him.
It's not cool. We've seen threads for years with incremental price reductions. It's an accepted practice here and a common practice in most retail markets.
I do this on a regular basis, and have never had anyone complain about it. I try to price fairly to begin with, and if you had not taken the book before reduction, there is a good chance someone else would have. By waiting for a reduction you are risking that someone finds the price fair enough to purchase it before you. To ask for it retroactively is ridiculous.