Offer

The MBE rarely asks “was this an offer?” head-on. The tell is a fact pattern lacking a definite price or quantity term, where everything turns on whether a definite, communicated commitment existed at all. An unpriced “Would you be interested?” is mere preliminary negotiation, so no power of acceptance ever arose and the later “acceptance” is itself the first offer. Watch the revocation-timing trap: because acceptance is effective on dispatch (the mailbox rule), while a revocation takes effect only on receipt, an offeree who mails acceptance before the revocation arrives still forms a contract.

Do not confuse the offer’s existence with whether the resulting bargain is enforceable — that is consideration’s job, so a valid offer can still yield an unenforceable (e.g., gratuitous) promise. Students also conflate a counteroffer with a UCC § 2-207 “acceptance” adding terms: the counteroffer kills the original power of acceptance, but a § 2-207 expression of acceptance can still form a contract (and between merchants, additional terms may even enter unless they materially alter the deal).