Propose your own price on an item instead of paying the asking price.
You've found your item, you want it but think the price is too high. While it may be only your opinion, it's worth checking it with the seller. Make an Offer on an item page opens a private negotiation between you and that seller — they can accept it, refuse it, or come back with a price of their own.
Press Make an Offer on the item. You will need to be signed in; if you are not, the sign-in window opens first and you carry on from there.
The window that opens shows the item and its asking price, three suggested amounts — 5%, 10% and 15% below it, with 5% marked Recommended — and a Your offer box you can type your own figure into.
There is no minimum. Any amount above zero and below the asking price is allowed. That does not make every amount a good idea: a seller is free to decline without replying, and each offer you send uses one of your three turns.
The seller has 24 hours to answer. They can:
You are emailed when the seller answers, and told in the app by the red badge on your account menu — every negotiation you have is listed under Offers. If you would rather not have the emails, turn them off under Account → Offer emails; the badge stays either way.
Three offers from you and three counters from the seller, per item, for as long as that listing exists. Every offer counts — including ones that were declined and ones that ran out of time.
You can only have one offer waiting on an item at a time. Sending a counter closes the previous one automatically. When your three turns are gone you can still buy the item at its asking price, but you cannot negotiate on it again.
An offer that is not answered within 24 hours expires on its own. Nothing is lost beyond the turn it used, and you can send a fresh one straight away — the negotiation only truly ends when an offer is accepted or you run out of turns.
An order is created for you at the agreed price and you pay for it at the normal checkout. The agreed amount is what you pay, plus shipping — there is no buyer fee added on top.
You get a fresh 24 hours to pay, counted from the moment the offer was accepted rather than from whatever was left of the answering window.
If you let that window pass, the item does not disappear — but the discount does. Checkout will re-price the order at the current listed price and tell you why the total has moved. The offer window is the whole value of the negotiation, so pay inside it.
This is the one thing worth being clear about. While your offer is pending — and even after it is accepted, until you have paid — the item stays on sale to everyone else. Other buyers can have their own offers running on it at the same time, and one of them can simply buy it outright.
If that happens, the item is sold and the open offers on it are closed. Negotiating does not put anything aside for you; only paying does.
Message seller in the offer window opens a normal chat thread with them, and it is often worth more than another round of numbers. A seller who knows why you are offering what you are offering — you have seen a flaw, you are buying two things, you are collecting a series — has a reason to say yes that a bare figure does not give them.