Why do I have such a hard time selling mounts?

Ok,

Maybe it's me...maybe I'm just too nice or something (my wife would definitely not agree, btw).

A number of months ago I responded to a wanted ad here on AM. A guy was looking for a mount that I was thinking about selling. He immediately responded he absolutely wanted it, and would send funds via PayPal in 2 or 3 days, as soon as he got his money together. After being strung along by this guy for about 10 days, I finally ended up listing and selling it to someone else (very smoothly, too). The initial buyer wrote back with all sorts of sob stories and apologized for not getting his act together.

Fast forward a few months...I'm selling my second mount. I list it a couple times priced a little high and don't get any action to speak of. I drop the price $100 and boom - emails start rolling in. Great I think. The first guy who responds says he defitely wants is, but needs 2 or 3 days to get the funds to pay via PayPal. I start to have deja vu, but he's got a number of 5-star ratings whereas my other foot-dragger was a newbie with no transactions, so I say ok, mark it pending and write back to all the runners up telling them someone beat them to the punch. I immediately calculate the shipping and send him an email with the total amount due...no response...I think to myself, "Hmmmmmm."

Fast forward 4 days later to today. I send off another email first thing this morning mentioning that I hadn't seen any funds at PayPal and asking if everything is ok and if he still wants the mount. I explain to him that my wife and I are expecting twins (no, not eyepieces for a binoviewer), and I'm planning on using this money to pick up some stuff we need on sale on Black Friday. No response so far, but he is on the west coast.

Honestly...am I expecting too much, that when you say two or three days you actually act in two or three days? > Unfortunately, he didn't give a phone number to contact him, but even if he did I don't know if I would bother at this point. I think I've made up my mind to email runner-up number one tomorrow and see if they're still interested. I specifially dropped my price so that I could move this and have the funds in my PayPal account before Thanksgiving.

Any thoughts or suggestions?
Clear skies,

Gary

Sorry to hear about your troubles Gary... it "normally" goes a lot smoother than with your transactions...

Hang in there, it will get better...

My experiences on AM have been very smooth with only a couple of exceptions, but those few deliberately jerked me around and cost me a couple of sales. A simple solution that covers both misunderstandings and deliberate foot-dragging is to set a specific time limit for the buyer. For example, if he says he wants the item, tell him that if you receive payment by 6 PM EST Wednesday (be reasonable and give as much time as makes you comfortable, say 48 or 72 hours, keeping in mind that other interested parties will find other opportunities in the meantime) the item is his. If you do not receive payment from him by that deadline you will assume he no longer is interested and you will sell the item to the next interested party. It's clear cut, no misunderstandings, and if he wants your item he will get the payment to you on time. It also leaves the buyer an out if something comes up and he cannot carry through.

Notify others who have contacted you that there has been a tentative sale but if you have not received payment by time X the item will be available again. Then be sure to follow up either way with the others who have expressed interest so you don't leave them hanging.

Why would someone need ANY time to get their act together for Paypal (unless they have direct banking)? Most people do it with credit cards.
Bob P.