A “Second Chance Offer” gives a seller another opportunity to sell an item if a reserve price was not met or a winning bidder of an auction fails to complete the transaction. For unsuccessful buyers, Second Chance Offers provide an chance to purchase items at a price equivalent to their last bid amount.

How Second Chance Offers work. A Second Chance Offer is when a seller offers you the item you were bidding on, even though you weren’t the winner. This could be because they found more stock, or their reserve price wasn’t met, but they still want to sell the item.

If the bidder doesn’t respond within the duration you allotted, the offer will expire. Some sellers also recommend sending a follow-up email explaining why the item is available as a Second Chance Offer. If the buyer does accept the offer, you will pay the same eBay final value fee as you would on any other sale.

Can You Cancel a Second Chance Offer? Yes, just like a normal auction/listing you can do so using the end an item early form here on eBay (you’ll need the eBay item number).

Here’s how:

1. Find your listing in either My eBay Selling Activity – opens in new window or tab or Seller Hub – opens in new window or tab.
2. Select Second Chance Offer from More actions, and then Continue.
3. Select the quantity of items you have to sell, the duration of the offer, and the bidders you want to send offers to.

To cancel a Second Chance Offer, enter the item number of the offer you want to cancel (not the original item number) at My eBay > All Selling > End My Listing Early. We recommend canceling a Second Chance Offer if you want to send an offer to another non-winning bidder without waiting for the first offer to expire.

Sending an offer

1. Go to My eBay.
2. Click the Sold or Unsold link.
3. Find the item.
4. From the Actions drop-down menu next to the item, select Second Chance Offer.
5. Click the Continue button.
6. Select the quantity of items you have to sell, the duration of the offer, and the bidders you want to send offers to.

You have several options if the winner backs out:

1. You can make a Second Chance offer: Offer the item to another bidder from the auction.
2. You can request a full or partial Final Value Fee credit and then relist the item and hope it sells again.

If a buyer asks you to cancel an order, they’ll need to send you a cancellation request. If you approve it and the buyer has already paid for the item, you have 10 days to refund them. If you haven’t refunded them within 10 days, they can file a claim through the eBay Money Back Guarantee.

Sellers don’t need to open unpaid item cases any longer. Instead, orders can be canceled if a buyer hasn’t paid within 4 calendar days. You can cancel an order up to 30 days after a sale, even if your buyer has already paid.

If you made your purchase within the last hour, you can ask the seller to cancel your order as long as they haven’t sent it yet. Here’s how: Go to Purchase history – opens in new window or tab and find the order you want to cancel. Select the More actions dropdown menu and select Cancel this order.

If the seller has already shipped your order, they won’t be able to cancel it. Keep in mind that if your purchase contains more than one item, the entire order will need to be canceled – you can’t cancel individual items.

Cancel a return request

1. Go to your Purchase history – opens in new window or tab and find the item.
2. Select See request details in the More actions dropdown menu.
3. Select Close your request and choose your reason from the dropdown menu.

You cannot cancel the refund, once you have sent monies/refunded you can do no more. Contact your buyer and ask them to pay again once the refund goes through. Generally items to the US can take up to 6 weeks.

Here’s how:

1. Locate the order in Seller Hub – opens in new window or tab or My eBay Sold – opens in new window or tab.
2. From the dropdown menu, select Send refund.
3. Choose a reason for the refund.
4. Specify a refund amount for the item or for the order.
5. Enter the desired refund amount, and select Send refund.

You can issue a refund on eBay either by responding to a buyer’s request, or by proactively cancelling an order before it’s shipped. Once you issue a refund, you can ask for the item you sold to be returned to you — however, depending on the value of the item, this might not be worth it.