Types of Goods in Sales of Goods Act

The  Sale of Goods Act

Types of Goods

Definition of ‘Goods’ Sec 2(7)

Every kind of movable property other than actionable claims and money and includes stock and shares, growing crops, grass, and things attached to or forming part of the land which are agreed to be severed before sale or under the contract of sale.

 1.Existing Goods: 

These goods are physical in existence and which are in sellers ownership and or possession at the time of entering the contract of Sale are called “Existing goods”. 

 1.1 Specific goods

 •        These are ‘goods identified and agreed at the time the contract is made’

Example 1 : one man enters into a pet shop and selects a dog to purchase it. This dog is called as specific goods.

Example 2 : If a man wants to buy any antic goods like a panting of any famous painter then this panting is specific goods which can’t be replaced by any other panting

 1.2 Unascertained Goods

The goods exists but which are not separately identified or ascertained at the time of the making of the contract.

Example-1 A man enters into a cement factory and expresses his intention to buy 1000 bags of cement. That time, when a man expresses his intention to buy 1000 bags of cement, there was 1 lakh cement bags in the factory.

Here the seller or buyer can’t be identified which cement bags are going to form the subject matter of the contract.

But as soon as the seller, separate these 1000 cement bags which form the subject matter of a contract, will become Ascertained Goods.

 1.3 Ascertained goods

Ascertained Goods are those which are  identified and effectively appropriated (set apart) after a contract of sale is made.

Example-1 : A man enters into a toy factory to buy 500 toys. In the factory, there were 5000 toys.  Factory owner identifies and separates these 500 toys from the bulk. Now, these 500 toys will be called as Ascertained goods.

Goods when ascertained becomes Specific

  2. Future

•        goods which are to be made,

•        manufactured

•        produced

•         acquired

•         by the seller after the making of the contract

Example-1  You agree to sell 1000 apples to a buyer after the apples ripe. This is a sale that has to occur in the future but the goods have been identified already and the agreement made. Such goods are known as future goods.

3. Contingent Goods

In this case, the acquisition of goods by the seller depends upon the uncertain contingencies, i.e., upon uncertain events which may or may not happen.

Example-1: If the seller promises to the buyer that he will sell him the goods on a certain date if he receives the goods from the manufacturer before that date, the the agreement is conditional and can only be practical on the happening or non-happening of an event.

 Example-2: A potato chips manufacturing company contact with a farmer to supply 100 tons of potato to the company after production. Here the farmer agreed to supply the potato on some condition like, he delivers the potato of production of potato will be more than 150 tons. This is called Contingent goods because the production of potato is not certain.