Wally
Wally GRM+ Memberand SuperDork
10/10/08 9:19 a.m.

http://www.thelocal.de/14813/20081010/

Man accidentally sells yacht for €22.50 in online auction Published: 10 Oct 08 11:52 CET Online: http://www.thelocal.de/14813/20081010/ A Cologne court has ruled that a German man who accidentally sold his small yacht for €22.50 in an online auction will have to go through with the transaction. The owner of the five-figure “Jeanneau Sun Way 21” yacht apparently neglected to set a minimum bid for the six-metre boat, which he’d hoped to sell for at least €12,000, court spokesman Hubertus Nolte told The Local on Friday. The seller from Porz tried to retract the boat from auction on the site, citing “technical problems” and “errors” on the website, but his claims didn’t float at the Cologne higher regional court. “The standard laws of business transactions also apply to internet auctions,” Nolte said. “Now the seller must make good on his offer. He can’t say after the fact that he didn’t want to sell.” Otherwise the seller will have to pay the buyer €12,000 in damages for the failed auction on the site AllesAuktion.de. The case was conducted in writing, and the court ruled against the seller on September 3, though results were only released on Thursday. The court ruling once again strengthens the rights of internet auction buyers, Nolte said, explaining there have been several similar cases in recent years. "I remember a similar case that involved an tractor that should have been auctioned for a minimum of €60,000, but went for €51 when the owner forgot to set a minimum bid," Nolte said. "The bidder won the court case in this instance too."
ApexC
ApexC Reader
10/10/08 10:07 a.m.

Offer + Acceptance = Contract

If there's one thing I learned while my girlfriend was in law school, it's that.

jrw1621
jrw1621 Reader
10/10/08 10:21 a.m.

I clicked over to the article. I find most interesting that the accompaning picture is this along with the text of, "Doh, all this for 51 euros"

Have you ever seen a Jeanneau Sun Way 21? It is what is often reffered to as a "4 knot E36 M3 box" and is hardly a yacht but a small little family day-trip boat.

Photos of same boat: http://jeanneau.tripod.com/oldgallery/id195.htm

With that said, I will take as many as I could get for 51 euros!

carguy123
carguy123 HalfDork
10/10/08 10:30 a.m.

Good luck with doing the same thing on Ebay.

seann
seann Reader
10/10/08 10:33 a.m.

I'd love to have a 21' keel boat. Is there something particularly crappy about these?

Jay
Jay HalfDork
10/10/08 10:35 a.m.

Damn. I've been looking for a cheap boat but I was more thinking "rowboat." If only I'd known...

J

Salanis
Salanis SuperDork
10/10/08 10:39 a.m.

I was going to say the "21" in the name of that boat is almost always the length of the boat, in feet. A 21' boat ain't much.

jrw1621
jrw1621 Reader
10/10/08 10:40 a.m.

No, there is nothing particularly wrong with a Jen 21 and to that point, I too would like one for 51 euros.

What it is not is a Yacht that will land you "Mediterainian Boat-Babes."

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/10/08 10:54 a.m.

Reminds me of one time I was trying to sell an item in an MMORPG for $90,000. I set up the sale, came back and the item was gone. Yay! Oh, wait, I missed a zero and sold it for $9000. DOH!!!!!!

Also I guarantee you that even a geek such as myself could pick up at least one chick with a sailboat like that. The buyer got an awesome deal.

Strizzo
Strizzo Dork
10/10/08 11:35 a.m.

actually, they bought the boat for 22.51 euros. i think you all are getting the 51 euros from the tractor story at the end of the article

jrw1621
jrw1621 Reader
10/10/08 12:32 p.m.

51 vs 22

Well, it is still a bargain at twice the price.

neon4891
neon4891 Dork
10/10/08 1:14 p.m.

if we want to throw around the word yacht, I'll take anything grand banks. those have substansially larger fuel tanks than most of the competition.

bludroptop
bludroptop Dork
10/10/08 2:23 p.m.
GameboyRMH wrote: Also I guarantee you that even a geek such as myself could pick up at least one chick with a sailboat like that.

Umm, based on over a decade of owning a similar size "sailing yacht", I can tell you that small cruising sailboats have almost zero 'chick magnet' effect.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand Dork
10/10/08 2:39 p.m.

What you're probably doing wrong is trying to pick up chicks from the sailing crowd. You need to go to a woman with no boat knowledge and tell her you have a sailboat

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
10/10/08 3:02 p.m.

Well, I traded an IBM PC XT for my sailboat. With the trailer. It's a 5 meter. I did throw in a green screen monitor. So, I'd say 22 euro's is about a fair price here.

Yeah, good luck trying to enforce that on eBay. I've been high bidder several times only to have the bidder "withdraw" or shill bid it on me or otherwise refuse.

ClemSparks
ClemSparks SuperDork
10/10/08 3:28 p.m.

I called a guy out on shill bidding one time just for the fun of it (hey...I've been there). He had a really lame story.

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH GRM+ Memberand MegaDork
10/10/17 8:22 a.m.

John Welsh
John Welsh MegaDork
10/10/17 9:01 a.m.

Zombie thread from 2008!  Spammer deleted. 

STM317
STM317 Dork
10/10/17 9:18 a.m.

If I were the winner, I think I'd offer to sell it back to the seller for about 10k. I'd make a tidy profit with no work, and the seller could relist it properly to reduce his losses.

captdownshift
captdownshift GRM+ Memberand PowerDork
10/10/17 6:46 p.m.

I once sold a receiver to someone who INTENDED to purchase it for $65 worth of Bitcoin, but offered and sent 65 Bitcoin.

EDT
EDT New Reader
10/10/17 8:17 p.m.
captdownshift said:

I once sold a receiver to someone who INTENDED to purchase it for $65 worth of Bitcoin, but offered and sent 65 Bitcoin.

That's over $300k in the current market!

nutherjrfan
nutherjrfan Dork
10/10/17 10:54 p.m.
Marauderby
Marauderby None
10/11/17 8:08 a.m.

Good day with doing the same thing on E-bay.

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