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. In order to secure the item, however, you’ll need to be the first to complete payment for it.

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 Continue.
4. On the next page, you may be asked to confirm your payment and shipping information. Select Edit if you need to change anything.
5. Select Send.

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
Even if your offer or counteroffer is accepted, the item will remain available to other buyers. Selecting a payment method and enabling autopay when making your offer, will mean you pay for and secure the item as soon as 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. Scroll down to Buying format and select Best offer.
4. Select Search.

What happens after you make your offer

The seller has 24 hours to decide whether to accept or decline 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: Even after the seller accepts your offer, the item will still be available to other buyers until you complete payment for it. If you’ve enabled autopay, eBay will collect payment from you once the seller accepts your offer and the item will be secured instantly
• Decline your offer: You can still make another one (up to 3 on most items and 5 in most vehicles categories)
• Counter your offer: You can choose to decline, continue negotiating by making another offer to the seller, or accept by going to checkout and paying for the item

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.

Retracting a Best Offer

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 an offer if:

• There are 12 hours or more left before the listing ends
• You placed your most recent offer less than an hour ago

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

• The listing ends in less than 12 hours and it's been more than an hour since you placed your most recent offer
• 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 in My eBay - opens in new window or tab.
2. Find the offer you’d like to retract.
3. Select Review offer, then select Retract offer.

You can also retract 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.

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: We limit the number of Best Offers you can make on each item, we'll let you know when you're using your last one. Expired, declined, 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 - opens in new window or tab. 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 Go to checkout to complete your purchase. Keep in mind that until you pay for the item, the item will still be available to other buyers and the seller can change their mind at any time. 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 4 counteroffers to the seller. Find out more in our article on counteroffers.

Each offer from a seller is valid for 96 hours or until an offer is accepted, whichever comes first.