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Making a Best Offer (for Buyers)

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

Important: If the MakeOffer button does not appear on the listing, 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 respond to a Best Offer

You should use Best Offer only when you’re serious about purchasing the item, service or property 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 the item, service or property.

Best Offers are good for 48 hours, or until the listing closes, whichever comes first.

Best Offer gives you the chance to negotiate the price with the seller. One 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. 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. Note: The minimum amount for which an item can be listed is determined by eBay and varies by country.

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, look for the “Best Offer” icon in the bids column.

Submitting a Best Offer

To submit your Best Offer:

  1. Find a listing that accepts Best Offers (see A below).

    Note: Some listings will already have listing offers (see B above).

  2. Click the Make Offer button in the listing (see C below).

  3. Enter your Best Offer price.

  4. Click the “Add additional terms” link to add additional terms to your offer.

    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.

  6. Click the Review Offer > button (see D below).

  7. Review the information on the Best Offer: Review and Submit page.

  8. Click the Submit Best Offer button.

Shipping costs

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

Limits to Best Offers

The number of offers you are allowed to make per item, service, or property 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 that 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."


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