Am I allowed to accept a (private) 'Buy It Now' offer on EBay?

You can end the auction early, however you will need to re-list the item as a Buy-It-Now.
If no one bid, you may be able to edit your listing to accomodate for the Buy It Now.

Watch out it could be a scam

I’m pretty sure you can add a buy-it-now option to any auction.

As others have said, be cautious it isn’t a scam… though that’s unlikely so long as you don’t ship before paypal clears.

If it’s off Ebay, then you really shouldn’t since all protections from Ebay go bye-bye. Most people who want to buy away from Ebay are either scammers or people who want the item at a “discounted” price. Some claim that it’s to avoid the fees, which is understandable, but they will still want your items at a discounted price.

Because of this, most sellers either ignore such offers or say “no thanks” and move on. Some will go so far as to block the bidder for even proposing on an off Ebay sale.

@NosyBut E-bay offers a “buy-now” option, which can be enacted at anytime.. and allows someone to purchase the item outright (at a set price) rather than bid for it…. they would still pay for it through the usual channels of e-bay, and e-bay would still get their cut.

@tedd. Yes, I know that, but I was talking about those who try to bypass Ebay.

If the OP is talking about a “Private Buy It Now” auction, then that’s a totally different thing.

@NosyBut I assumed they were talking about a PM from someone on ebay requesting they put a buy-now option on it? lol

Yes, you can edit the listing and message that buyer it’s been changed. Make them agree ahead of time to pay immediately. I often make offers on ebay like this and it works well, I just stand buy and make the payment as soon as they change the listing.

It is against eBay policies to accept an offer, to buy and sell outside of eBay

Here is their policy

They go as far as to request that you report any user attempting to do this. That would be up to you, but if you are asking if eBay allows this, then the answer is no.

All eBay transactions are required to go through the item listing. If the buyer wants a “buy it now” price you would have to have that in your listing and that buyer would have to be the first one to take the item at the buy in now price.

Thank you for your feedback everyone!
Turns out she did just want me to edit my listing and add the ‘buy it now’ option to my auction, which I’ve done, at a price I’m happy with.

@Linny000 Good and everything on the up and up. Playing by the rules and reputation are everything on eBay. If you want to stay on there, that is.