Making a Best Offer

Best Offer is a great way to buy the item you’ve been looking for at a bargain price. As well as saving money, you won’t have to wait for the listing to end to buy your item, if the seller accepts your offer.

How to make a Best Offer

You can make a Best Offer on listings that have a Make Offer button.

Once you’ve found an item you want to buy that accepts Best Offers, here’s how to make your offer:

1. Choose Make Offer.
2. Enter your offer. If you like, you can add a message to the seller.
3. Select Review offer.
4. On the next page, you may be asked to confirm your payment and shipping information. Select Change if you need to add or edit your details.
5. Select Send offer.

If you’ve added the item to your Watchlist, you can also select Make Best Offer next to the item in your Watchlist.

If you’re making a Best Offer on an item that offers personalization, you can add your personalization comments in the Message field once you select Make Offer.

Tip
When you make an offer, you’re committing to buy the item if your offer is accepted. If you entered your payment method when making your offer, you may be charged if the seller accepts.

How to find listings with Best Offer

Not all listings have the option to make an offer, but you can filter your search results to find sellers who do accept offers.

When you’re searching for the item you’d like to buy, you can select Accepts offers at the top of the search results to see listings with Best Offer.

You can also use Advanced search to find Best Offer listings:

1. Go to Advanced search - opens in new window or tab.
2. Enter your keywords.
3. Go to Show results and tick the Best offer box.
4. Select Search.

What happens after you make your offer

The seller has until your offer expires to decide whether to accept or reject your offer. They can also suggest another price. If they don’t respond to you in that time, or if the listing ends before they respond, then your offer expires.

If the seller responds, they may:

• Accept your offer: Just like any other sale on eBay, you’re obliged to pay the amount you offered. Immediate payment is not required when the Best Offer option is used in a listing, unless you were asked to confirm your payment method when placing your offer
• Reject your offer: You can still make another one (up to 3 on most items and 5 in most vehicles categories)
• Counter your offer: The seller may suggest another price. You can choose to accept, reject, or continue negotiating by making another offer to the seller

Tip
Your offer only applies to the item price. Shipping costs and all the other terms specified in the seller’s listing remain the same.

Canceling a Best Offer

When you make a Best Offer or a counteroffer, you're agreeing to buy the item if the seller accepts. However, if you've made a mistake when making an offer or a counteroffer, you can retract or cancel it in certain circumstances.

You can retract a Best Offer or counteroffer if:

• You accidentally entered the wrong offer amount (for example, you submitted an offer of $99.95 instead of $9.95)
• The description of the item has changed significantly since you made your offer
• You can’t get in touch with the seller

As well as the above, timing is also important. You can retract an offer if:

• There are 12 hours or more left before the listing ends
• The listing is ending in less than 12 hours and it's been less than an hour since you placed your most recent offer

You won’t be able to retract your offer if:

• The seller has already accepted or declined your offer, or sent you a counteroffer
• You’ve already made 5 offers in a specific category

If you’re using the eBay desktop site, here’s how to retract a Best Offer or a counteroffer if it meets the requirements above:

1. Go to Bids/Offers - opens in new window or tab in My eBay.
2. Find the offer you’d like to retract.
3. Select Review offer, then select Retract offer.

You can also cancel your offer on the item page by selecting Review offer and then Retract offer. If you’re using a mobile browser or the eBay app, go to the Best Offer cancellation form - opens in new window or tab to retract your offer.

Tip
If you’re a seller, you can retract a counteroffer through the Manage offers page. Open the item, select Manage offers and select the counteroffer you’d like to retract and then select Retract. Alternatively, you can access the Manage offers page through Seller Hub - opens in new window or tab or the Selling section in My eBay - opens in new window or tab.

Tips for making offers

When you’ve got your eye on something and have a certain price in mind, you can increase your chances of the seller accepting your offer by having a Best Offer strategy. Here are some tips for making offers:

• Be reasonable: Sellers who accept offers are flexible on price and generally take fair offers seriously
• Add a message for the seller: A friendly, personal message could help you get the item at the price you want. Look for the Add message to seller option when you’re entering your offer
• Check the item’s original listing date: If it’s been listed for a long time, the seller might be more flexible on the price
• Use your Best Offers wisely: For most categories, you can make up to 5 offers. Expired, rejected, and retracted offers all count toward this limit

Responding to an offer from a seller

If you watch an item or add it to your cart, the seller can send you a special offer for that item. If you receive an offer, you’ll get an email and a message in My eBay. You’ll also receive a notification on your phone if you’ve installed the app and enabled notifications. If you select Review offer in this message, you can review and respond to the offer.

If you'd like to accept the offer, select Accept offer and proceed to checkout to complete your purchase. If you’re not interested in the offer, select Decline offer.

You can also make a counteroffer if you'd like to negotiate a better price. Here's how:

1. Select Make a counteroffer.
2. Add your amount (this doesn’t include shipping).
3. If you like, you can add a message for the seller.
4. Select Review, then select Send.

The seller can then accept your counteroffer, decline it, or send you a counteroffer. You can send a maximum of 5 counteroffers to the seller. Find out more in our article on counteroffers.

Each offer is valid for 24 hours or until an offer is accepted, whichever comes first. With a single item listing, the first buyer to accept the offer gets the item. With a multiple quantity listing, buyers can continue to avail of the offer until all items in the listing are sold or the offer expires.