daf bit: Erchin 27

[cellio]

The mishna is talking about redeeming land back from the temple after it has been consecrated. If one said "I will acquire it for ten selas", and another bid twenty, and another thirty, and another forty, and another fifty, and then the one who bid fifty recanted, they take from him ten selas, that being the difference between his bid and the next-lower one. If the one who bid forty recants they do the same, and so on down to the first bidder. If that first bidder also recants they sell the field for what they can get, and the first bidder owes the difference between that and his bid. (27b)

The talmud here does not address timing. While the plain lesson is that once you bid you might be obligated until the sale is made, even if someone over-bids you, I don't know if this would apply to auctions where many items are auctioned off and payments are only resolved at the end. Do you have to keep your bids (or bid deltas) on hand when bidding on future items?

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

This rule would make eBay much more exciting. ;-)

[cellio]

Somebody brought up eBay's terms of service when I asked if these laws would apply today. I haven't actually read eBay's TOS yet because my question is more general, but you could if you wanted to. :-)

[http://users.livejournal.com/merle_/]

It would make for an interesting startup idea at the minimum. Yardsellr has a condition where the winning buyer pays extra, but I believe the penalty is only for the first-win bidder defaulting and the rest get off free (as does the seller for having to sell the item).