I had an unusual situation occur recently in making a sale through the classified section of the forum, and I would like your opinion so that I can avoid the situation in the future.

I listed a router plane on Monday. The first response was from someone who asked me to hold the plane until Friday, when he could make payment. I responded that I wouldn't do that - that I'd accept the first response that provided payment. He understood and replied that he'd check back on Friday to see if it was still available.

The second response was from someone who wanted the plane but couldn't pay until he arrived home that evening. Because of how I had responded to the first response, I felt it only fair that I respond the same way to the second person, and did so, saying essentially the same thing - I'd sell to the first person who provided payment.

I then received two more responses and sent my PayPal ID to the first of those two, who paid me via PayPal.

Do you think I handled this in a fair manner? The only difference between the first two responses was the time period. I felt that if I wouldn't wait several days, I had to take the same approach to several hours.

How would you have handled it?

Some issues I see:
1. What if someone wanted to send a check, while someone else was willing to pay via PayPal. The PayPal payment closes the sale immediately, while the "check in the mail" doesn't close the sale for several days. Would it be fair to favor the PayPal buyer over the check buyer, even if the check person responded first?
2. How much time should a person be given to provide payment via PayPal? Would you wait until tomorrow if you had other buyers ready to provide payment today?

A seller should probably specify a policy when listing the item so that everyone knows how things will be handled. Perhaps from the discussion in this thread we can come up with a policy that we can all follow.

Mike