Second Chance Offers allow sellers to sell an item to one or more non-winning bidders in an auction listing. Extending a Second Chance Offer for an item is entirely voluntary, and even if an item is eligible for a Second Chance Offer, the seller may opt to relist the item in a regular auction instead. Refer to Item eligibility for additional information.
Second Chance Offer may be extended when:
- The auction item was sold to the winning bidder, but the seller has one or more identical items that they like to offer to one or more other competitive bidders that participated in the same auction.
- There was a winning bidder for the auction listing, but that bidder never paid for the item. In this scenario, the seller must first cancel that buyer's order before offering the item to another bidder.
- The Reserve Price set on the listing was not met by any bidders, but competitive bids were made on the auction listing.
Additionally:
- A seller may make a Second Chance Offer to a non-winning bidder up to 60 days after the original listing has closed.
- The seller sets the duration of the Second Chance Offer. Refer to SecondChanceOfferDurationCodeType for information about supported Second Chance Offer durations.
- No Insertion Fees are charged for a Second Chance Offer.
- Sellers will be charged a Final Value Fee if the Second Chance Offer is accepted.
When Second Chance Offers are used to sell additional, identical items to non-winning bidders, the seller may be able to sell additional items more quickly than if that seller created a new auction listing to sell the same item. Plus, the seller already knows that the non-winning bidders have interest in the item since they made a competitive bid on the item.
The recipient of a Second Chance Offer is notified of the offer via email which asks if they would like to buy the item at a Buy It Now price equal to their last bid amount. It also includes a link directly to the Second Chance Offer listing.