Heritage's Buy It Now feature?

[Mishmashman]

I tried finding this on the web and came up empty. Does Heritage's BIN feature work anything like eBay's BIN feature? Is the seller obligated to sell you the book if you make an offer to "buy it now" at the buy it now price? I got into a very circuitous and ultimately unhelpful discussion with a Heritage operator about this and she ultimately informed me that the seller was not obligated to sell to me at the BIN price because, among other things, the seller might no longer have the book, might not want to sell, etc. Has anyone ever used this Heritage feature and come away disappointed?

[Bill1]

If they have the book and you agree to BIN at their price, you will be an owner. I always make an offer first though, and they usually come down a little more. I have also had them turn down my offer, but they usually counter it. I have never had one where they no longer had the book, but I am sure it happens.

[cheetah]

The BIN feature is for both Heritage books and private books. I know from experience that, just because it is listed at a price, doesn't mean you can buy it. There is one Nedor on there that has been purchased at least four times. None got recognized.

 

You can view it more as a 'make an offer' at a price someone, at some time in the past, said they would sell the book for. It's by no means a lock that you will get it.

[quicksilver]

I've used this a few times, and got nowhere - it means very little, in fact the same thing has happened more than once with Comic Link as well - very disappointing.

[asteroid-comix]

I've never been able to buy anything through this feature. I think books that HA sells auto-lists with a "make an offer to the new owner".

[PastePotPete]

To be clear, we actually have three different features that could all be classified as Buy Now:

 

"Buy Now From Owner": The item sold in a Heritage auction previously and the current owner has indicated he would resell it for amount X. If someone offers this full amount and the transaction doesn't go through, I would want to know about it so we can take down that item.

 

"Make Offer To Owner": The winner of this Heritage auction lot may or may not still own this item and may or may not be willing to sell. This feature is on (for lots above a certain value) unless the owner of the items turns it off.

 

Comic Market: Items listed by a third party seller. Sometimes a seller will forget to take something down that he's already sold, which could happen because we don't require that these items be listed exclusively with us.

 

Feel free to PM me with questions on any of the above.

 

Barry

[Mishmashman]

I've used this a few times, and got nowhere - it means very little, in fact the same thing has happened more than once with Comic Link as well - very disappointing.

 

Say wha? Legally, when a seller tells prospective buyers that he's willing to sell an item at $X, and a buyer accepts, that becomes a binding contract and the seller *must* sell at the accepted price. Am I missing something here?