"Buy It Now" on a classified listing is an offer, not a purchase

Clicking Buy It Now on a normal fixed-price listing does not buy it. It sends the seller an offer at their asking price, and the seller has to accept it. Only then do you pay.

So if you clicked Buy It Now and nothing seemed to happen, that is usually the system working correctly — you are waiting for the seller.

The same button means two different things

This genuinely is confusing, and it is worth checking which kind of listing you are looking at:

What happens on a classified listing

1. You click Buy It Now. An offer is created at the asking price, marked pending.
2. The listing stays on the market. Nothing is reserved for you, and other buyers can still make offers on it.
3. The seller is notified.
4. The seller can accept, reject, counter your offer, or do nothing at all.
5. If the seller accepts, the listing comes off the market and is reserved for you. You get an invoice and 72 hours to pay.
6. If the seller never responds, your offer expires after 7 days.

What you might see

Points that catch people out

• You do not own it when you click Buy It Now, and you do not own it when the seller accepts either. You own it once you have paid and the transfer is complete.
• Nothing is charged at the point of clicking. No money moves until an offer is accepted and you pay.
• A seller is not obliged to respond. If they ignore your offer it simply expires after 7 days.
• Someone else can get there first. Because the listing stays on the market while your offer is pending, a seller can accept a different buyer's offer, and yours will be closed.
• You can only have one live offer per listing. If Buy It Now is refused because you already have an offer in, withdraw the existing one first.
• Once accepted, the 72-hour payment deadline is real. Miss it and the sale is cancelled and the listing goes back on the market.

If you want to move faster

Because a classified listing stays available until the seller accepts someone, the useful thing you can do is make it easy for the seller to say yes — message them through the listing to confirm you are ready to proceed. See Messaging a buyer or seller for the first time.

For how payment works once your offer has been accepted, see Paying for Your Purchase.