Thanks for the advice. I consulted with a lawyer friend of mine from college who's also a huge ebay aficianado. Here's what he had to say:



Your seller is an ass. But only on his best days. He waited until there were three minutes left in the ten days the listing was running before he accepted which is certainly reasonable since you do not want to accept an offer of 100k if there is anyone insane enough to pay 500k but it also means that he has no legal case.



Yes, you are responsible for the offer since it was made using your account. Yes, he can file the UIP (Unpaid Item Process) against you and give you a strike as well as giving you negative feedback. And he probably will do both - there is absolutely nothing you can do to prevent it unless he is willing.



And he won't be.



He told me the listing fee on an item like this was in the thousands.



The listing fee was $4.80 for the auction, .35 for the Gallery and .40 for ten days. That is $5.55 which, last time I looked, was quite a ways from "thousands". You certainly should pay him this.



The Final Value Fee is certainly substantial. That fee is 5.25% of the initial $25.00 ($1.31), plus 3.25% of the initial $25.01 - $1,000.00 ($31.69), plus 1.50% of the remaining closing value balance ($1000.01 - closing value). On $100,000, that comes to $1533.00. However, he can get all of that canceled by simply filing the UIP.



He has a choice. He can wait 7 days and file using the "unpaid deadbeat" choice, wait another 7 days and close it (this gives you the unpaid strike which, if you get enough of them, will get you tossed from eBay - it takes at least 3 and often 4) or he can file instantly using the "Mutually Agreed " which, as soon as you agree to it, will give him the credit and will not impact you at all.



As for the lawsuit, forget it. Yes, he has a valid breech of contract case. It would require filing in Federal Court since I assume you are in different states (he is Illinois), would require him to pay a young lawyer many, many thousands of dollars up front (it would have to be a young just starting lawyer since no experienced one would ever accept such a case) and, 4 or 5 years from now, when it came before a judge, it would be tossed out in seconds.



He still has the car so his provable damages are the insertion fee and the extras. $4.80. The fact that he waited so long to accept the offer is proof positive that there is no demand for this car and any claim that it is worth a half million is pure idiocy. 40,000,000 folks came to eBay while it was running and not a single one went after it.



As you know, you are fully responsible for any activity on your account. However, there is no practical action he can take so you will be OK. Now, if he does give you a neg, you probably should abandon this account because your feedback percentage will be horrible and many sellers will have you blocked. All you need is a different email address and, since you only have a score of 13, it is no great loss.



I should be right here whenever you need me.