Yeah, it was a kinda crappy thing to do to you. Morals, ethics and just plain common courtesy are becoming rare commodities these days, sadly enough. I've made deals where I was selling something with a similar situation, but I ALWAYS extend the first person who voices serious interest the courtesy of telling him that I had a higher offer. I think that it's just the decent thing to do. If the first serious buyer doesn't want to match the higher offer, then I sell to the second guy, but at least I wouldn't have had him drive out to meet me only to tell him it's not available. That's just plain wrong.

The truth is that you might have a legal claim, given that you seem to have had a verbal contract. The problem is it's probably not worth fighting. Given this guys character, or apparent lack thereof, you might consider yourself lucky that you didn't complete the deal and then had a problem later.

Mike