ebay has stuff all over their site about how buyer and seller are "entering into a legally binding agreement". I'm sure if you went to their site and signed up as a seller (you don't have to actually sell anything) you'll see wording like how selling on this site constitutes your agreement to their terms and conditions. They've got legalese all over the place, you know there have been attorneys at work to make sure that deals made on ebay are legally binding.
As far as the dealer going to dooma to recover their listing cost ya gotta be kidding! Even if it was $1000 and worthwhile to attempt to recover it, NO WAY is a buyer liable for a seller's listing fees if that buyer is absolutely willing to buy the item at the price of the winning bid!!!! If a seller makes a mistake listing an item and has to take the listing down and relist, how is that the buyer's financial responsibility? Or if someone wins an auction, is willing to send payment, and the seller reneges, under what conceivable legal theory would the buyer be responsible for ANY of the listing fees? C'mon, I'm tolerant but that's absurd!
Mooseman, please educate yourself-go to
www.ebay.com and READ THE MATERIAL plainly posted all over the site about legal obligations, terms & conditions of listing there, etc, etc. The fact that it is a legally binding contract is a given. The real question boils down to "if it is a LEGITIMATE MISTAKE, does the seller have to perform?" And (I'm not an attorney) my LAY opinion is that the burden of proof is on the seller to prove that it was a mistake.
At a minimum the dealership is open to the clearly-stated consequences on ebay of not honoring a deal. That one is a no-brainer.