Questionable Estate Auction practice

I don't do auctions but this is the craziest thing I ever heard. What would the auctioneer do in the event the hammer came down and the winning bidder refused to pay unless the auctioneer lowered the bid price?

"However, the reality is that there is no practical relief you could be granted, because you didn't suffer any loss in an economic sense."

I know why you would think that but its not really relevant. Assuming there are no special laws for a case like this, or a wavier of rights by the OP, when those speakers were won by Fse, the auction company had a legal obligation to sell the speakers to him. When he won the auction, a contract was created. Beyond that, nothing else matters. Just because there was no loss doesn't mean they could just walk away from the deal. Raks, in his post is correct. If the OP decided not to pay, the auction could come after him for the exact same reason; there was a contract.

Zd- I agree, contract was created. Auctioneer broke contract, what are the damages? Not a lawyer (but I play one on TV) but again, what kind of relief could you get? No court is gonna take the items away from the system purchaser and Fse did not lose any $, so unless Fse asked the court to enjoin the auctioneer from that practice, there is not much else they could do. I suppose there might be a consumer protection law violation but that would probably result, at best, in a consent agreement not to do it again. Best to just chalk it up to experience and make a mental note to avoid that guy's auctions.

"No court is gonna take the items away from the system purchaser and Fse did not lose any $, so unless Fse asked the court to enjoin the auctioneer from that practice, there is not much else they could do."

Actually, there is something you can do. A lot of people overlook small claims court. Laws vary from state to state. Generally speaking, though, you can easily file a claim in the county where the auction was held. You would have a very good chance of winning. Also, if the auction company fails to come to trial, you win by default. Not only that, small claims court has the ability to collect money and/or issue some type of judgement on the looser even if they live far away. I can't give you more details on that because I haven't need to use small claims court in quite a while. If you are interested, there are several good books on the subject that are geared to regular people, as opposed to lawyers. The UCC is a very good reference as well.

Small claims, as far as I understand it, is when Joe says Frank owes him $X for a service or for an item that was delivered but not paid for. Frank says the service was not performed, or the item was not delivered, or the service/item was not as advertised or agreed upon. Since the $ value of the dispute is less than a certain amount, an abbreviated process with a judge deciding the matter based on the facts as described by Joe and Frank. But what are you gonna claim? The auctioneer does not owe Fse any money. Fse did not suffer any $ loss. He lost the opportunity to buy something. The auctioneer no longer has the item so he can't sell it to Fse at any price.