From what you posted I read that you were interested, but were waiting for money to roll in. He gets a guy who is interested AND has the money to pay for it. Why should he wait to see if you are going to come up with the cash, or maybe make excuses for a few weeks, or maybe you find a different set and leave him twisting in the wind? He had a buyer and an 'interested guy'. Which would you choose? It sounds like you have never had someone come to look at something, express great interest and then blow you off (usually without any explanation at all).
He also let you know as soon as possible that they were actually sold instead of waiting for you to contact him. Sounds like a pretty stand up guy to me.
You are wrong in this case and even if he had told you there were other interested parties (if there even were at the time, perhaps he wrote to you and then 30 minutes later a guy called and said he was on the way with cash), it would have made no difference, you did not have the money at the time, or you would have bought them. Let's say he had 4 interested parties, he tells you that and you are going to assume he is blowing smoke so that you pay full asking price right away without dickering. It hurts to miss out on something you wanted, not saying it doesn't, but blaming the seller because your conditions at the time did not allow you to purchase them is silly. You will find another deal.
