Has something like this happened to other people?

[philliephyl]

The cole hamels foundation opened a store near me. I went to check it out and they have a ton of signed jerseys. The manager told me numerous times they are retail jerseys signed. I tried to tell her she was wrong. They have like 20 jerseys with tags, then they have a couple bp jerseys with a lot of use. The wash tags that aren't legible. They also had some jerseys with the year strip tag. I was going to buy a cole hamels 1991 throwback. it had the strip tag. As I'm about to take it the manager comes and grabs the jersey and another jersey. I ask her if she sold the throwback. She said no, there is a guy on the phone that might want it. I said I want to buy it now. She said she wants to give the guy on the phone a chance. I said ok, she comes back and says the guy is unsure and will let me know later if he wants to purchase the jersey. She took my contact info and said she'd be in touch. She never got back in touch with me. I'm guessing that means the other guy decided to buy it. I was baffled by the whole situation. You have someone in the store wanting to buy an item, but you let someone on the phone reserve it because he might want to buy it. I didn't have my hands on the jersey but was like seconds away from grabbing it. So if I had it in my hands would she have done the same thing?

All the money goes to charity there, but I'm just bitter because I wanted it to give it to my dad because he loves cole and that style. It was a decent price I felt and just disappointed how she handled it. Also, since it was a 1 game style I doubt another one of that caliber player would become available.

[solarlottry]

Sounds to me like she figured out that some of the shirts for sale were actual game worn or batting practice jerseys and that they were priced way too cheaply. It seems unlikely that if you were willing to purchase the shirt right then that she would turn you down unless she had other information that shed new light on the true value of the item.

This kind of thing has happened to me before. Besides collecting 49er game worn items I also collect Philip K Dick Sci-Fi books. Many years ago I was able to buy a rare signed first edition worth upwards of 10,000$ for 250$. The seller had just gotten a box of books and told me to look through them and pick out what I wanted. I grabbed the first edition and payed for it ASAP. As I was buying it the owner came over and knew what had happened but because I had already paid he could not do anything about it. What helped was that I pointed out that he had another 1st edition in the box worth even more. I didn't have any additional $$$ so could not buy that book anyway. Needless to say he quickly put aside the box. I still have the book today and have seen other signed copies sell for over 10K.

Always buying 49er game worn items and paying a finders fee.
Paul
garciajones@yahoo.com

[Mark17]

In a situation like that, the seller must've figured out the jersey was priced way too cheaply, and the buyer must've helped her figure that out - probably by offering more than the asking price. What I would've done is offered to pay more than the asking price. That's probably what the guy on the phone did. Then, if that was the situation, all you would have to do is offer more than the other guy, and since he isn't able to look at the jersey and you're standing there with money in hand, you probably could've gotten it.

I've been in situations like that, where a seller prices something too low and then realizes their mistake. If I want the item, I just offer to pay more, and if the seller and I agree to a new price we make the deal. In your situation, there was another buyer involved, so in effect, you would've had to outbid him.

[philliephyl]

all of it happened in a span of 2-5 min. I thought about the bidding issue.

The manager is in her low to mid 20's I don't think she was smart or experienced enough to want to change prices like that so quickly. Or tell me what her "new" price was to give me a chance to beat it. I wasn't thinking at the time to offer more. I was thinking she would offer me the jersey because I was there. Not the other way around. I was just so stunned at the time. also she seemed to say she felt she owed it to the guy on the phone. So maybe it was some friend or something. But obviously after leaving and thinking about it more, it got more frustrating.

I'm gonna go to the store tomorrow because she said initial if she sold it to the other guy she would try and get me something similar. So I'll ask and I'll also try and talk with someone higher up than her.

For them this is probably not a good start for their charity store, their first week open to do something like this.

[emann]

Philliephyl, I have a question, would you PM me or send an email: grindcrank@gmail.com

Thanks!

[philliephyl]

emann, email sent.

Eric

[Samets]

Let us know how it turns out today...

[yanks12025]

If you wanted to buy them why were you telling her they were not just retail jerseys. God luck when you go bac

[philliephyl]

i told because at the time it just felt like the honest thing.

So I went back and she barely remembered me. and said that the other guy called back a couple hrs later and bought the jersey. I asked to speak to a supervisor and she said she was the only one in the office. So she gave me an email. I emailed the supervisor and just got a very basic apology email. And that she hoped my next time shopping at the store would be better. No offer to help or try and rectify what happened. The supervisor said the manager promised the person on the phone the jersey. and didn't want to have her go back on her word. still seems very fishy and odd to me. i guess I should have put up a bigger stink at the time.

[rdeversole]

i told because at the time it just felt like the honest thing.

+1