Hey Donny,

The only out that the seller has is if he listed the item in error. eBay's terms and aggrements list an error in the listing as an out on the obligation to sell you those rims. In this case, I don't believe he can use that as an out.

Since he contacted you and gave you that mumbo-jumbo, he's obviously trying to get more money out of you on the rims. He's also probably lying... if the second bidder wanted them for $1400, he would have bid that high. Since he didn't, it doesn't stand to reason that he would want to pay that now.

You could sue the guy for breach, but the reality is that you probably won't. I wouldn't budge on the price, and I would bring pressure on him through eBay to sell them to you at the winning price. You fullfilled your obligation as far as eBay is concerned. If the guy doesn't sell you those rims, the best you can do is have him thrown off eBay. But eBay will only do that under extreme circumstances.

Ultimately, what will probably happen is that you'll both back down and the rims will be relisted. You can leave him a negative, but he'll just end up giving you a negative in retaliation. Isn't life and eBay grand?

Now, you could go to eBay, with the emails the guy sent you and accuse him of fraud. eBay is pretty tense about those type of claims. I've seen a lot of cases like this (I work for an auction management company with very close ties to eBay), in the very least, you'll get this bozo kicked off eBay. On the other hand, you may or may not get the rims.

Personally, I would threaten the guy with a fraud charge at eBay and see what he does. If he's not bothered with the threat of being kicked off, go to eBay and make his life miserable. To me, it's not worth putting up with this type of BS.

My $.02 -- John