Problem.Dispute.Purchase of juke box

     For ten years after his graduation from college, Robert has been a sales representative for Worlds of Knowledge Encyclopedia, Inc., selling encyclopedias door-to-door. With financial help from his in-laws, he recently decided to open a 1950's style coffee shop.  (Although not relevant to this problem, you may be interested in regulation of door-to-door sales practices promulgated both by the Federal Trade Commission and by some state legislatures to combat abuses in the door-to-door sales industry, such as deceptive and high pressure sales presentations.  The Federal Trade Commission Regulations, which create a three-day cooling-off-period for sales made at home and at certain other locations, are located at 16 Code of Federal Regulations 429.   See also Cal. Civ. Code 1689.5 - 1689.24.)

     In one of his last door-to-door sales visits, he met Barbara. Barbara owns and operates a local pub. Several years ago, Barbara relocated an operable old fashioned juke box from the pub to a basement room in her house, for use by her teenage daughter and her daughter's friends.  Recently, Barbara's daughter left for college.

     Barbara wasn' t interested in an encyclopedia, but she and Robert talked about Robert purchasing the juke box, for $2,500, for his soon to be opened coffee shop. A few days after that conversation, Robert sent Barbara an e-mail message reading as follows: 

"To: Barbara
From: Your friendly encyclopedia rep
Subject: Juke Box

Confirming our juke box deal. The coffee shop opens in three weeks."

     When Barbara receives e-mail, her computer displays the name of the sender and the subject line. To open and read her e-mail, Barbara needs to point her mouse to the subject line and click. A day after Robert sent the e-mail, Barbara looked at the computer display of her e-mail messages and saw that she had a message from Robert.  However, because she was about to leave for a visit to her daughter at college, she did not open Robert's e-mail. She returned a week later, but didn't open her e-mail for another week. When she finally read Robert's message, two weeks after it was sent, she replied:

"To: Robert
From: Barbara
Subject: Juke Box

My daughter wants the juke box. No deal."

     Robert called Barbara and they had an unpleasant conversation in which Robert claimed that the two had a deal and Barbara denied ever reaching a final agreement. Robert opened his coffee shop without the juke box. After carefully shopping the juke box market, he was able to find another, comparable, juke box for $5,000. He has sought your advice to see whether he can recover any money from Barbara, including what he estimates to be about $1,000 in lost profits because of early customers who left without buying a meal when they discovered that the heavily advertised juke box was not yet in place. What is your advice?  See UCC 2-201, 1-201(39), (46), section 101 of the Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, Hoffman v. Boone, R.2d Contracts 139.