eBay Best Offers Move To 4 Day Counteroffer Expiration In US & UK
eBay is making changes to how Best Offers work, extending time for buyers to respond to sellers' counteroffers to 4 days.
The change was announced today in the eBay community forum - the same day the new policy goes into effect, giving no advance notice or time to prepare.
Best Offer Timer Extension - Seller Announcement
What's Changing
Starting March 24th 2026, buyers in the US and UK will have 96 hours (4 days) to respond to a seller’s counteroffer on a Best Offer, up from the current 24 hour window. This change aligns with the Seller-initiated offer timer which was extended in 2024.Key Details
- Previous timer: 24 hours
- New timer: 96 hours (4 days)
- Effective date: March 24th 2026
- Markets affected: US and UK only
Why This Change Matters
The extended response window gives buyers additional time to make decisions, which can lead to:
- Higher acceptance rates for offers
- Increase completed sales
- Better buyer experience and engagement
- Reduced missed opportunities from expired offers
What You Need to Do
No action required. This change will be automatically applied to all Best Offer listings in the US and UK markets starting mid-March 2026.Your existing Best Offer settings and pricing strategies will remain unchanged.
eBay has several different iterations of it's "offers" feature:
- Best Offer allows sellers to add an option for potential buyers to make an offer on the listing page.
- Offers to Buyers or Seller Initiated Offers allow sellers to send offers to potential buyers who meet certain criteria set by eBay (added item to watch list, viewed item repeatedly, added to cart but didn't check out, etc.)
This change specifically applies to the Best Offer feature, but it should be noted that when eBay made the same update to Seller Initiated Offers in 2024, there was significant seller pushback.
Liz Morton
Sellers have frequently expressed concerns about 4 days being too long for offers to be held open, particularly because when an offer is in limbo, it locks the listing and prevents editing or revising most listing information.
Offers in limbo can also present challenges if a seller needs to put their shop on Time Away because extended delivery dates don't apply to auto-accepted offers, pending counter-offers, or seller initiated offers.
Sellers also criticized eBay in 2024 for making the change to Seller Initiated Offers without an announcement - and while technically eBay did a make an announcement this time, the lack of any advance notice and the fact that it's buried in the Seller section of the community forum (rather than being a pinned post or in the Announcements section) doesn't exactly show an improvement in communication.
Also, eBay's help pages for both buyers and sellers are still showing the previous 24 hour timeframe for counteroffers to expire as of time of publishing, leaving conflicting information floating around that could cause confusion and frustration.
These changes currently apply only to the US and UK markets, but eBay didn't rule out the possibility the may extend to other regions in the future. Offers that are already active during the rollout will continue under the 24-hour timer while new offers will automatically use the 96-hour timer.
The move comes as eBay has also been testing changes to the Best Offer button that some sellers worry could lead to more lowball offers.
Liz Morton
Let us know in the comments below what you think of these changes to eBay Best Offers!
