Accepting an offer

[daisyblue888]

I accepted an offer for an item I have for sale and then nothing happened. No 'congratulations you've made the sale', no messages to say that the offer had been retracted by the buyer. My item is still listed for sale and the offer is still showing in my inbox, but when I click on it, it takes me to a screen that says  that I don't have any current offers. The buyer still shows as a live ebayer (ie: the account hasn't been shut down or removed). I haven't seen anything like this before, does anyone know why this might happen? Thx 

[jckl1957]

The offer and your acceptance are valid for 4 days.

Ebay let the buyer know their offer was accepted and invoice them, giving them 4 days to pay - the same amount of time buyers get after a winning auction bid.

During that time, your item stays live until the buyer pays for it.  The sale is not complete until the buyer pays.  In the meantime, assuming it is a 'buy it now' item, somebody else could purchase it.

This changed several months ago - I assume Ebay thought it was a good idea.