Texas Family Sad That The Buyer Of All Their Possessions On eBay Will Pay But Not Take Their Stuff
Meet Gregg and Brittiny Peters. They've had a pretty terrible year. Two of their children were diagnosed with costly medical disorders, and as the bills began to mount, they decided to start over by selling all their worldly possessions on eBay. Enter Donnia and Keith Blair, who upon learning of the Peters' plight, bid $20,000 and won the auction. Here's the catch: the Blair's are willing to pay, but they don't want to take any of the Peters' things. This has apparently infuriated the Peters.
The Peters spent Friday morning trying to persuade the Fort Worth family to accept their belongings, which include a 2000 Chevrolet Tahoe. They even tried to retract the couple's bid."They are apparently not willing to take our stuff," Brittiny Peters said. "They're purchasing them to give them back to us."
Now they aren't sure what their next step is.
They are also trying to figure out what to do with money raised on the Web site, www.everythingweown.org. They didn't ask for the money and their efforts to return donations have upset some people, Brittiny Peters said.
The Peters are perfectly willing to stick by the bargain. But the Blairs — who wouldn't give details on how they can afford to give away $20,000 — won't budge.
"We've really been blessed the last few years and we saw an opportunity to help," Donnia Blair said.
The items were worth about $40,000, so the Peters can take solace in knowing they got a pretty rotten deal. Why won't they take the money? They say that they were trying to "start over, not take a handout," which is noble and all, but not exactly the model of good manners or consumerism.
Other than giving the money to you, what, dear commenters, would you have the Peters' do?
EBay top bidder: Take our money, keep your stuff [The San Francisco Chronicle]
(Photo: Mr. Kimberly)
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Comments:
take the bloody mondy and give the winning bidder their 15 minutes of fame for being a 'good samatarian'
and buy me another bottle of coffee brandy.
Sounds like a nice problem to have. They should stop being difficult and take the money. If they really don't want the stuff, donate it to people who do.
Too bad the banks and wall street don't have the same morals.
@hillsrovey: Yup - That would be my suggestion also.
Take the love that was given them, and if they really don't want their belongings - donate it themselves to other worthy causes.... and pass on the love.
Simple enough.
i seriously could use that car if nobody wants it....
Seriously? Your children's lives are at stake and you're worried about your pride? Take the money and be happy you get to keep your stuff too. Do you want to get rid of your stuff? This just doesn't make sense to me.
Do the Peters qualify for a Darwin award?
???
They articulate all the hardship that their family has been through in the text of their ebay auction, which includes the headline "Please help our family ... if you can," and also have an update towards the bottom of the page that directs you to an email address where you may get information to make donations -- then they're too proud to accept the money?
???
Wow....I know Donna Blair and her husband. Great people. They are big donors in DFW, Texas to lots of charities.
I don't understand the Peters family. Why don't they take the money and donate their worldly possessions to people who didn't get $20,000 for nothing?
They ought to accept the money, their is no shame in accepting other peoples help. In fact they should consider themselves lucky. For many people a $20,000 head start could change their lives.
Pride goeth before the fall (or some such idea).
And the Peters ought not feel like a charity case, some people win the lottery, they took a risk with the E-bay auction and they won. Be grateful and move on.
I was going to say that I hope the winning bidders don't get a negative feedback for not taking the stuff, but then I remembered that eBay doesn't let sellers leave negative feedback anymore.
@MisterE: Eh? Darwin? SRSLY? It may be silly, but they are taking a stand - we don't want a handout - that is hardly Darwinesque.
Pay It Forward.
Donate all of the items to charity or people that need them. Im sure somebody they know could use a car, for example.
That seems like the best way to me, so that the Peters' don't feel like they have accepted a bailout.
I have a daugther that has Austim. A year ago (1 Dec 2007) she lost her mother. Its hard raise a child alone let alone without a mother, better put a mother that is still alive! Sorry, its hard on us but I think I am missing something.
Couldn't accepting the belongings be considered a gift. I am thinking it is possible that the family would be better off with 20 thousand and be homeless, and qualify for government aid, than have 20 thousand and then pay taxes on a 40 grand gift. Also, if there is any money owed on the Tahoe, wouldn't the Blairs bought the debt associated with it?
Count me in for the whole "say 'thank you' and donate the items to charity" option. If everything they owned, including the car, is worth $40k, wherever the Peters end up they at least have a tax writeoff. Don't they? For the car, at least.
It's not greedy to sell all your possessions a second time around if that's what they need to do to pull themselves out of dire straits. If they just wanted to unload, it's not a difficult conclusion to come to.
I smell scam.
Somebody, somewhere in this story is trying to rip off the other. Just can't figure out who or how.
i love texas
the only state where this is okay.
Buy them a $20,000 gift card to Chilis or iTunes and mail it back to them.
If they really don't give a damn about the money, the bidder should take it all back. Then these idiots can take all their crap to the landfill and walk away with nothing but the skin on their bones, because now no body's going to give them a dime.
I hope they didn't donate using PayPal. The fees would be... man.
I'm surprised ebay let them do this.
I feel bad for these people's kids. Makes me wonder just which side out of this equation was the one looking for publicity.
Honestly, when I first heard about this story a week or two ago, I was sure that this was going to be the way it turned out - did the Peters really not assume that? There ARE good people still in the world, and it's situations like this that bring them out, especially when there's such a public cry for help.
If those kids are really that sick, like I said, I feel sorry for them, for many reasons.
I am confused. Nobody can force them to take Paypal donations. Also, from their blog: "Medicaid - Yes. We do have the Medicaid that pays for the actual doctor & hospital "bills". Medicaid does not pay for Early Intervention therapy services for our son, medical dietary needs for our son, traveling expenses for all of the out-of-town visits to doctors & specialists, and all of the lost income that comes along with having children with special needs."
What are the tax consequences for accepting a $20K gift versus selling items for $20K?
Gifting is only allowed up to $10K without being taxable. Then it's fully taxable. Maybe they'd be screwed on taxes if they accepted it as a gift?
@madanthony: yea :( annoying if you're a seller and have a bad experience with a buyer...but anywho that's another story.
@hillsrovey: I think that's an excellent idea. If the Peters are too proud to take a handout, then they should take the money and give their stuff to somebody who's in an even worse spot than they are (and I'm sure there are plenty of people who qualify).
I think the Peters are having a hard time seeing a blessing when it's smacking them right in the face.
If they're worried about legal implications, have a lawyer draw up something that says the Blairs paid for the items but do not want to receieve anything and have all parties sign it.
Done deal. Now take care of your babies.
That's exactly what they are considering to do. From TFA:
The Peters said they will accept the money from the Blairs, but want to pass along the kindness to others. They are considering making donations, including giving away their SUV.
Seems to me Carey's editorial choices misrepresented the situation.
I will add that there is a significant difference between selling (or giving) all your possessions to one recipient and trying to find a dozen charities which will take your possessions. The problem with charities is that they do not accept everything. They specialize or they decide that some items cannot be donated. For instance, many schools in the US don't accept donation of old computers because they end up costing more in maintenance in the long run. It is a pain in the ass to manage. I know that from experience with donating some of our stuff.
Charity A: "Well, we'll take this but not that. Try at Charity B."
Charity B: "Sorry, we don't take that."
After checking out two other charities and the recycling center, it ends up in the dump.
@Julia789: The amount you can give a person before incurring gift tax has been increased to $13,000. By splitting the gift between the husband and wife, there shouldn't be any tax consequence.
Why not just drive the suv around till you spot someone in a really bad beater on the side of the highway just about to cry over their now shot car and hand them the key's.
If they won't accept charity. Fine, let them cancel the auction and they can have nothing. Someone really should smack some sense into them. Anyone willing to give them 20k for their "stuff" is never going to want the stuff. They are going to give 20k purely for charity. Odds are a legit bid to take ownership of the stuff is going to be sub 1k.
What the hell... if that is what someone wants to do for them, let them do it! Thank them for their incredible generosity and start working to improve life. If they're not happy continuing to own their possessions afterward, donate them to someone who does need them. That doesn't make any sense...
@Corporate_guy: That doesn't make sense - 40,000 of stuff at 20,000 is a steal, and I don't see how anyone willing to do that would therefore not want the stuff to begin with
@Overheal: Eh, bailout is the wrong term to use here. A bailout is what a greedy person gets after they've made bad, greedy decisions to try and get rich of of those that aren't, and failed at it.
It's just charity, plain and simple.
@Corporate-Shill: Yeah, because nobody can simply do something nice and offer charity to their fellow man without a scam involved.
@hillsrovey: I spent two hours at a Goodwill location recently; I was completely exasperated because they were picking over my donations and saying "Yeah, we'll take this... but we won't take this..."
Fuck Them. I hope they are getting killed now. They didn't want my kid's ride-on toy because I didn't clean it first. I cheer every time I hear that Goodwill is getting killed in this recession. They are a bunch of holier than thou pricks that deserve every problem they've brought upon themselves today.
@humphrmi: Gee, if I make over the top insulting posts with unwarranted profanities and wishes of ill-will to those who have barely even slighted me can I be a star commenter too?
They may have been less than tactful with you but they know what will sell and what won't and your insistence that they take what would likely end up costing them disposal fees (their dumpster doesn't come for free and taking unsellable products in just means that much less room for other trash) is a crappy way to foist your problem on to someone else.
@humphrmi: As a former employee of Goodwill, I agree with you, but most Goodwill stores don't have a repair shop, or time to clean everything. Most dirty items I used to push onto the floor would sit there for 4 weeks before we "salvaged" it into the compactor. Therefore we didn't take anything that was dirty like that, because we payed for our garbage removal.
I suggest they accept the $20,000 to "start over" and then donate their sold belongings so that others may enjoy the "handout" - and then everyone's happy!