Bankruptcy.biz Looking for a quick sale

Jernet · Aug 9, 2005

jberryhill said:
A contract is formed when a non-terminated offer, having terms definite enough to form a contract, is accepted.

Let's look at the offer (assuming it wasn't retro-edited).

This says the domain name will be sold in any of three ways of indicating acceptance.

1. An offer of $300, if no other offers are made.

2. A "buy it now" price of $995; or

3. The "best offer" by 5 PM EST August 8.

Whether you characterize this proposal as an "auction" or not, is not relevant. Option 1 appears to have been eliminated, as multiple offers were received. Option 2 was also eliminated.

Can you extend the time like that? No, you can't. That's a fraud on the people who, in good faith, submitted offers prior to 5 PM August 8. Among the people who made such offers, at least one of them was the highest offer, under option 3.

Whatchamacallit is correct there was no requirement for offers to be posted. The person who gets the name under option 3 is whomever makes the highest bid prior to 5 PM EST.

You didn't need to respond to jack. Your terms were the "'best offer' by 5 PM EST August 8". What that means is very simple. After 5 PM, you look at what was sent prior to 5 PM. You find the one with the highest price, and you sell to that person.

And it doesn't matter if you listed it as an "auction" or a "square dance". Your advertisement stated you would sell the name to whomever made the best offer by 5 PM August 8. Period. End of story.

Then, clemonzguy, don't participate in sealed-bid auctions - which is the most accurate categorization of what this was. If you suspect manipulation, or don't like sealed-bid auctions, then you don't have to participate, but the seller is entitled to run one.

No, a seller cannot do that.

It can be a sealed bid auction with people posting their alleged bids, or the seller announcing the highest one as it goes, unless stated otherwise. Here, it was simply 'best offer by 5 PM', so there were no restrictions on what anyone might, or might not, choose to post.

Because it was offered at the "fixed price" of $995 to whomever wanted to pay that, right then and there. There was also an auction component, if nobody wanted to pay that much. Wherever it was posted, and whatever he called it, taking the 'best offer' by the end of a defined time period is often referred to as a auction of some kind.

A bid is an offer. The way that contract law approaches the general concept of auctions, as opposed to sales, is as follows. In a straight sale, the seller makes an "offer" - I will sell X for Y$. That offer can be accepted, and sell a contract, by a buyer stating "Yes, I will buy X for Y$".

An auction actually reverses the roles of the "offer" and "acceptance". The buyers are making "offers" - one of which the seller has stated he will accept, and generally the highest offer on the table at the time the hammer falls. Hence, defining the terms that will be accepted - 'best offer' - and the time that the offer will be accepted '5 PM' are the defining elements of this sort of method of sales contract formation. In fairness to bidders ("offerors"), a reliance interest is recognized in the stated terms of the auction on the part of those who have made bids during the term of the auction.

Assuming that Mr. Deleted looked at whatever was bid prior to 5 PM, and picked the highest one of that lot, then he correctly identified the buyer.

Thank God we have a lawyer around here. This was a hard thread to follow, but John made it seem like a piece of cake :cheeky:

.biz · Aug 9, 2005

This kinds of problem happens regularly. Most if not all sellers are not lawyers. They post the sale terms the way they like and alter them as they wish even professional sellers here make this kinds of mistake. This is also because of more than 1 method of communication (PM, posts, and email) between seller and buyers.

In my opinion, it's the seller's best interest to sell the name as high as possible, but many buyers (bidders) will not be happy because they want to get good names at discount prices.

Even though many say that this sale was not an auction, but I still see that it's an auction with open & sealed bid. The reason sellers don't post in the auction section because it will get less viewers there! More people are visiting "Fixed price..." section more than "Auctions" section.

eBay doesn't have problem because it's all open bids. IMO this kinds of sale should be posted explicitly not using PM offer. The bidders who use PM system is just trying to sneak behind all other potential buyers in order to win and get the name cheaply which is totally unfair to other bidders.

Admin and mod should find out what went wrong with many sale threads and come out with a better solution.