How fair is this?

Not fair at all. If I bid on something on Ebay and I win. I expect that item. Period. If I don't get it, I'm leaving negative feedback.

Pawlowski6132, not at all. Feel free to "play" me all you like. If I like your offer I'll sell to you, if I don't I won't.

People, what's so difficult about this: sellers are not obliged to sell and buyers and not obligated to buy. Go buy someone else's gear if you don't like this guy's tactic for getting a good price for his gear.

"That's BS! If I win an auction, I expect that item."

So bid on ebay and Audiogon and make sure you win it !

putting aside the question of fairness, i wonder who would be dumb enough to bid in the auction that ends first. in effect, the high bid in the auction ending first is merely the "stalking horse" bid for the auction ending second -- i.e., it merely serves to start the bidding for the "real" auction that ends later. from a buyer's standpoint, you wouldnt want to bid up the price in the non-binding first auction as it would create upward momentum in the bidding with no benefit to the high bidder.

Seandtaylor99, ever here of a contract????

An offer to sell at a certain price and an offer to buy at a certain price constitutes a contract in the most simple of terms.

Can anyone really imagine going to any auction anywhere, being the winning bidder and having the auctioneer say, oh sorry, we decided to sell it to someone else.

Don't be stupid.

Fairly obvious, this is a bad precedent. It is most likely that the seller will be in violation to previously agreed upon rules and regulations of at least one host auctioneer's web site. As such, the seller is in all likelyhood not a person of his word, and can not be trusted. I discourage everyone from enabling this practice.