There might be a bit of sting in the tail and some complexity to this one now though after a late 11th hour message last night. Literally 11th hour!
I went to see the car on Saturday. A fundamentally good car I think with a couple of issues I can work through over time. Went away, had a think overnight then proposed a deal that worked for me and explained how/why the next day on the Sunday. He came back with a counter offer, then I went back with a final offer which he agreed to yesterday morning.
He sent over his bank details, I sent over payment of a deposit with the balance agreed to be paid before I arrived on Thursday or Friday to collect. As he is away for a couple days so that will be the earliest chance to collect.
Unfortunately it seems as though he didn't take the sales ad down and someone else went on late last night and did a Buy It Now. Not sure if they have paid a deposit and/or the balance just yet. So essentially the seller has now sold the same car twice!
I have spent a lot of time mainly, also some money on the deal/car to date and time is not something any of us busy people are abundantly blessed with. So I'm not exactly particularly happy of course. So will aim to work an amicable deal where we are all happy and people all do the right thing. Why is nothing straight forward sometimes?!