Putting Items On EBay That Aren't In Your Possession?

[Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine]

Very little of you may remember this.
Ok, so I get an email from the guy who sold them to me today. (After he finally replies to me reporting him to eBay’s fraud reporting about a month ago) He says this,

The boots have been put back on ebay as a “2nd chance offer” to the next highest bidder(s) and for all public too.
Once a buyer wins the boots, i will re-direct them to you, so you can both
work out payment details/delivery etc etc, so the $$$ goes directly to YOU,
and not to me.

I dont’ get a chance to reply… the next email I get is this

Congrats,
I have a winner for the boots.
IF you can send me your bank details, or a mailing address to receive a
money-Order, then i’ll forward that to the buyer.
This will guarantee that you get the money (not me) and then it’s in your
hands to send the boots to the buyer.

I write back saying I’d rather they contacted me directly, so he sends them my address and they email me, etc etc.

Now this does not sound legal to me. He had not consulted me about this second auction. And he should’ve considering, they’re my boots! He has not changed the fraudulent description in his auction. Nor does he state anything about how he doesn’t actually own the boots. You can view the finished second auction here.
This stinks to high heaven. I’ve emailed both the buyer and the seller and told them I am halting proceedings until I sort this out.
Is this legal?

[Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine]

Tiny correction, he emailed me on the 1st of October, but I didn’t check my email until this morning.

[norinew]

I don’t have a cite, but it would surprise me all to hell if what this seller is doing is legal/ethical. If I were you, I think I’d send him one final email saying “Nevermind; I’ll list the damned things myself” and then go list the damned things yourself. This guy has already proven himself to be dishonest, as well as a real jackass. Do you really want to deal with him further?

[Joey_P]

I would get a hold of ebay real quick about that. There’s no way it’s even kinda legal to sell something of someone elses without their permission. “BTW Bob, I sold you’re boat this afternoon, the buyer will be over later tomarrow to pick it up.”

Obviosly you can’t send the boots to the new buyer, and don’t accept any money they send you. Just tell them you have no idea what they’re talking about and that they should report it to ebay as will you. So HE decided how much to sell them for, and HE decided how much to charge for shipping, HE decided the return terms, HE decided…

[Futile_Gesture]

Sounds to me like a cop-out to avoid returning your money. Whether he manages to re-sell the boots and at what price isn’t your problem and shouldn’t involve you in any way. It’s his problem and he’s just trying to off-load the situation onto you. What if the new buyer isn’t happy? Guess who is going to get the complaints.

As others have said; if you’re going to allow him to do this you’d be as well selling them yourself and by-pass this guy completely.

[Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine]

I’ve sent an email to ebay and told the buyer that the sale will not go ahead. Now I await a response.

[Go_You_Big_Red_Fire_Engine]

Wow. Ebay actually responded. Whood’a thunk it?

Hello,

Thank you for writing to eBay with your concerns. My name is Carlyle and
I’ll be happy to assist you further.

We would like to take a closer look at this, but would like to ask for a
little more help from you first. We will need a complete copy of this
email including the full header that you received from the other buyers.
This will help us to fully look into this for you. Could you please send
us a copy of this information?

It took a long time to copy all those emails with full headers.

[Gfactor]

There is a basic principle of law: nemo dat quod non habet, or you can’t give away more than you have. It applies here in spades. The guy has basically sold the item twice, and then offered you the sales price as your “refund.” If you wanted to go along with it, you probably could have. But the seller had no business selling the boots the way he did. Moreover, if the sale does not net you every penny that you are out of pocket, then he has not really settled your complaint. And he’s made a bunch more work for you.

I hope Ebay bans him.