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Making a Best Offer

Best Offer is an option available for Buy it Now items that allows you to make an offer to buy the item at price that you select. The seller can then accept or decline. A seller chooses to receive Best Offers when they are creating a listing for their item. If you see the "Submit a Best Offer" link in the listing below the Buy it Now price, the seller has decided to consider Best Offers from buyers.

Important: If the “Submit a Best Offer” link does not appear, the seller is not interested in receiving offers and you should not try to contact this seller through other means to negotiate price or terms. This is a violation of eBay’s Offers to Buy or Sell Outside eBay policy.

When to use Best Offer

You should use Best Offer only when you’re serious about purchasing the item at your Best Offer price.
Like the bids made on auction-style listings, your Best Offer is binding. if your offer is accepted by the seller, you are obligated to pay for that item.

Best Offers are good for 48 hours. If the seller accepts your offer, the listing is immediately closed.

Best Offer gives you the chance to negotiate the price with the seller. The advantage of a Best Offer is that you have the opportunity to buy the item at a lower price than the Buy It Now price. There is no minimum Best Offer price. However, you should only make what you consider to be your "best" offer for the item because any seller who receives multiple offers for an item is likely to accept the highest Best Offer.

Tip: To get an idea of a typical selling price for the item you are considering, you can search for completed listings.

Finding Best Offer listings

To find Best Offer listings:

  1. Search for the item you want to buy.

  2. On the search results page, click the Buy It Now tab at the top of the search results page to show only Buy It Now listings. Since not all Buy It Now items have a Best Offer option, you will need to view each item and see if the option is offered by sellers.

You can also find Best Offer listings by entering the key words "Best Offer". Sellers who select the Best Offer option may include this in their item title, to indicate that they are accepting offers from potential buyers.

Submitting a Best Offer

To submit your Best Offer:

  1. Find a listing that accepts Best Offers.

  2. Click the “Submit Best Offer” link in the listing.

  3. Enter your Best Offer price.

  4. Enter an optional message to the seller in the Message text field.

    Note: Any message you include as a part of your Best Offer request to the seller is not a private form of communication. The Best Offer message is considered to be a formal term of your proposed agreement and may be reviewed by eBay to ensure that it does not violate eBay policy or represent fraudulent activity.

  5. Review the terms at the bottom of the page, select the checkbox, and then click the Continue button.

  6. Review the information on the Review and Commit Best Offer page, and then click Commit Best Offer button.

Postage Costs

If the seller has specified postage costs for the item, postage is not negotiable. If, however, the seller has requested that the buyer contact them regarding postage costs, you may offer the seller a price for the item that includes postage costs.

Here’s how to submit a Best Offer that includes postage:

  1. Submit a Best Offer request to the seller.

  2. In the message box, add "including postage".

  3. Submit your offer to the seller.

Limits to Best Offers

The number of offers you are allowed to make per item is limited based on the category where the item is listed. If you are making a Best Offer on an item that allows only one Best Offer, the following message appears on the Submit Best Offer page: “Make this offer your Best Offer. You can only make 1 offer on this item.”

For items listed in categories which have a higher limit on the number of Best Offers (per buyer), sellers may reject your offer and invite you to submit a new Best Offer with a revised price.

Note: Expired offers, declined offers, and retracted offers all count against the "offer limit per item."


Contact Customer Support

If you have an additional question about this subject, email us at Customer Support.
If you would like to ask a question on another subject, please use the Contact Us page.


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