Buy Now, offers and your cart

A fixed price: no bidding, no waiting for a closing time. You pay the price shown, plus sales tax where it applies and any delivery you choose.

Once your payment goes through. From then on it is a binding purchase at the price you were shown.

On the Buy Now page, which lists every item you can buy outright, without bidding.

The product comes in more than one condition or option, each with its own price, and the card shows the cheapest one on sale right now.

Each condition or option of a product keeps its own price — a new unit and an open-box unit of the same item are priced separately. Pick the one you want on the product page.

On the product page, pick the option you want before adding it to your cart. Each option shows its own condition and price.

No. Buy Now orders add a 2.5% service fee on the price of the items, and sales tax where it applies; delivery is extra if you choose shipping. All of it is shown before you pay.

A charge of 2.5% of the price of the items in a Buy Now order. It appears on its own line in your cart and at checkout, before you pay.

Some are, many are not. We sell returns, overstock, open-box and salvage goods, and each listing's condition grade, photos and notes say exactly what you are buying.

If a price is plainly a mistake — a missing digit or a misplaced decimal — we may cancel the order before it is collected or shipped and refund you in full.

Yes, while stock lasts: set the quantity before adding it to your cart. The quantity stops at what is in stock, and a cart line has its own upper limit.

Stock is limited and sold to whoever pays first. An item in someone's cart is still on sale to everyone else until it is paid for.

That is exactly how many units remain on sale, so the item may sell out soon.

Only if you or someone you send can collect it from our Brentwood, Maryland warehouse. Pickup-only items cannot be shipped.

Not always. Buy Now gives you a known price today; an auction can end lower or higher depending on who bids. Compare the total, fees included, before you decide.

No. Nothing is held while it sits in your cart; it stays on sale to everyone until you pay for it.

About an hour. After that we clear the cart and email you to say so; the items may still be on sale.

Your cart had sat for an hour without checkout, so we emptied it. Nothing was reserved meanwhile, so check the items again — they may still be available.

No. The cart holds Buy Now products only. Auction lots are bid on, or bought outright with a lot's own Buy Now button where it has one.

No. If the basket cannot be read for a moment, nothing is removed; reload the page to try again.

Yes. For each item that allows both, choose shipping or collection before placing the order; the summary prices each line the way you chose.

Open the cart icon at the top of any page, or go to the cart page.

On items that accept offers, yes: the listing shows an offer box where you enter your amount and an optional note.

Yes. Offers can only be sent from a signed-in account.

Because an accepted offer becomes an order straight away, so it has to know how you will receive the item and what any postage costs before it is sent.

Yes. If we accept your offer before it expires, it is a binding purchase, and you pay within the time shown when it is accepted.

14 days. If nobody acts on it by then, it expires automatically.

It met the seller's minimum for that item, so it was accepted on the spot and turned into an order for you to pay.

It was below the seller's minimum for the item. Try a higher amount; for fairness, the minimum itself is never shown.

No. The minimum stays private; you are only told when an offer falls below it.

Yes. We can accept your offer, decline it, or counter with another price. Accepting a counter-offer also creates an order you must pay for.

On your account page, which lists your offers and where each one stands.

Yes. An option of a product can accept offers on its own — for example the open-box units only — so make the offer on the option you want.

The price was fine; a system problem stopped the automatic acceptance. A team member completes it by hand and you are told as soon as it is done.

14 days from when we send it. A counter restarts the clock, so you get the full window to decide on the new price.

Bidding has passed the counter price, or the lot has finished or sold. If the lot is still live, place a bid instead; a counter that cannot go through charges nothing.

Offers are taken only on items that are on sale and set to accept them. If the offer box is missing or refuses you, the item is fixed-price only.

By email. When you send an offer the site confirms: "Offer sent. We will reply by email."