personally , I never bid or make an offer unless I can pay immediately . I know I've been bumped up in line in the past due to an offer to pay cash , right now . Not to sound all smug and self - satisfied , because I did recently back out of a craigslist deal . I had made an offer on a piece of furniture and arranged to pick it up and pay cash the weekend after i called the seller , then had a ball-joint break on my truck ( while i was driving . scary as hell , but a dif story ... ) Made the offer on mon , truck broke on tue . I obviously couldn't afford the dresser , repair was a little over 3x what i offered . I felt like such a douche backing out , it took me 2 more days to call the guy and even then wasn't honest with him . I told him about the repairs , but pretended i could afford to come get it as soon as my truck was running , then finally called him the next week to back out . and while he was understanding and not too pissed , I still felt terribly embarrassed . its like admitting to a stranger that I live so paycheck - to - paycheck , I can't squeeze a measly $150 into my monthly budget .
So , while I agree , backouts suck , I can sympathize with how hard it can be to back out .