Expert: Marvinator - 7/30/2009

Question
I bid on a large maple hutch on 7/27/09.  The item is located in the middle of the US and I live in CA.  The yellow free shipping sticker was posted.  I thought it was odd.  But the other item info stated taht they ship to N and s Amercia etc and then when I checked teh shipping and payments tab, it said local pickup free AND shipping free.  I missed the line in the item description where it said local pickup.  There was a lot of info about the defects in the item which I was not concerned with, as I'll refinish it.  With teh exception of this line everything indicated it was free shipping.  It wasn't until last night that I saw the revision the seller made late 7/26.  I've been hoping someone would outbid me, but that does not look like this will happen.  Item number is 110417109272.  Your thoughts?

Answer
I know this is not what you want to be hearing, but you are at fault here.  Yes, the seller sort of added to your confusion by posting "Free Shipping" but he put in a revision before your winning bid was recorded.  

Here are the facts:

1) You bid Jul-28-09 23:40:37 PDT which is AFTER the revision was added. This means you are liable to know this information.  

2) If you are wanting out of a deal, don't ever wait for someone to outbid you.  If you don't want an item, go to the site map and retract your bid..  

Now, it is true that the seller gave a bit of 'miss' information in saying that shipping is free, but it's a known fact with Ebay that SHIPPING OTHER (read item description) usually means "Pick up".  

Ok, so what can you do?  First contact the seller and explain how you made the mistake.  Expect one or all of the following things to happen.
1) Seller will get angry and insist you pay for the item.  Obviously, you don't want to, so you should always be polite, and try to negotiate.
2) Seller will file for Final Value Fee Credit.  Nothing you can do here.  He wants his listing fee back, and he deserves it.  YOU will get a strike against your account but so long as you bid caefully in the future, you should be ok.  
3) You might want to offer to pay the seller for his lost fees, along with a nominal fee for his time and understanding.  I'm guessing about $20 should cover it.  (Remember, he can get the final value fee credit, so you're only lookingat the listing fee of about $3-5.)
4) Expect the seller to give you a neg feedback.  Relax, it happens sooner or later to everyone and you CAN add a comment under it when he does.  

Remain polite, contrite and carry the blame here.  You made assumptions and didn't communicate enough to get all the information you needed BEFORE you bid.  (Yes, yes yes, the seller can be found partially at fault, but saying so will not help you negotiate your way out of this.)