Revocation of an offer trips up more bar takers than almost any other Contracts topic. The rules seem simple until you hit a question with a twist — and suddenly you’re second-guessing everything you thought you knew.

Let’s fix that.

What Revocation of an Offer Actually Means

Revocation is the offeror’s withdrawal of an offer before the offeree has accepted it. The basic rule is clean: an offeror can revoke at any time before acceptance. Full stop.

But the MBE doesn’t test clean rules. It tests the edges. So before you can apply this rule confidently, you need to understand exactly when revocation is effective, how it can happen, and — most importantly — when it can’t happen at all.

The Core Rule: Effective When Received

Here’s the first thing to burn into your memory. Revocation is effective when received by the offeree — not when it’s sent.

This is the direct contrast to the mailbox rule, which makes acceptance effective upon dispatch. Revocation doesn’t get that treatment. If an offeror mails a revocation on Monday and the offeree mails an acceptance on Tuesday (before the revocation arrives), there’s a contract. The acceptance wins because it was dispatched before the revocation was received.

That’s a classic MBE trap. They’ll give you a timeline with overlapping communications and expect you to sort out which rule applies to which act.

Direct vs. Indirect Revocation

Revocation doesn’t have to come straight from the offeror’s mouth. There are two forms:

Direct revocation is exactly what it sounds like — the offeror communicates the withdrawal to the offeree. “I’m taking back my offer.” Done.

Indirect revocation is trickier, and the MBE loves it. Indirect revocation occurs when the offeree learns — from a reliable source — that the offeror has taken action inconsistent with keeping the offer open. The classic example: you offer to sell your house to someone, and before they accept, they hear from a mutual acquaintance that you’ve already sold it to someone else. That’s a revocation, even though you never said a word directly to them.

The key word is reliable. The offeree has to learn of the inconsistent action through a trustworthy channel. Rumors don’t count. If the offeree hears a vague secondhand rumor that you might have sold the property, that’s probably not enough to constitute an indirect revocation.

Revocation of General Offers

One more wrinkle worth knowing: when an offeror makes a general offer to the public — think a reward advertisement — revocation requires the same method and manner of publication as the original offer. You can’t publish a reward offer in a newspaper and then whisper the revocation to three people. You have to reach the same audience the same way.

The Big Exceptions: When an Offer Cannot Be Revoked

This is where most of the hard MBE questions live. Four situations make an offer irrevocable:

1. Option Contracts

An option contract is a promise to keep an offer open, supported by consideration. If the offeree pays (or provides something of legal value) in exchange for the offeror’s promise not to revoke, the offer is irrevocable for the stated period. Even nominal consideration — a dollar — is generally sufficient here. Courts don’t scrutinize adequacy of consideration in this context.

Watch out for the MBE fact pattern that gives you an option contract and then asks whether a late acceptance is valid. Under an option contract, the mailbox rule does not apply — acceptance must be received before the option period expires, not merely dispatched.

2. UCC Firm Offers (§2-205)

Under the UCC, a firm offer is a merchant’s signed, written offer to buy or sell goods that states it will be held open. No consideration required. The offer is irrevocable for the time stated, or if no time is stated, for a reasonable time not to exceed three months.

Two requirements trip people up here. First, both the offeror and the offer itself must qualify — the offeror must be a merchant (someone who deals in goods of that kind or holds themselves out as having special knowledge). Second, the offer must be in a signed writing. An oral firm offer from a merchant is still revocable.

Also: if the firm offer clause appears on a form supplied by the offeree, the merchant-offeror must separately sign that clause. Otherwise it doesn’t bind them.

3. Unilateral Contracts — Once Performance Has Begun

A unilateral contract is one that invites acceptance by performance rather than by promise. The classic example: “I’ll pay you $500 if you walk across the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Once the offeree has begun performance, the offer becomes irrevocable. The offeror has to give the offeree a reasonable opportunity to complete it. But — and this is critical — mere preparation to perform is not enough. Buying new shoes before you start walking doesn’t lock in the offer. Taking the first step does.

4. Detrimental Reliance

If the offeree foreseeably and reasonably relies on the offer to their detriment before accepting, the offer may become irrevocable under a promissory estoppel theory. This comes up most often in the subcontractor-general contractor context: a subcontractor submits a bid, the general contractor relies on it to prepare their own bid, and then the subcontractor tries to revoke. Courts have held that the offer is irrevocable in that situation because the reliance was foreseeable and reasonable.

A Fact Pattern to Test Yourself

Try this one:

On Monday, Sarah emails Tom an offer to sell her car for $8,000, stating the offer will remain open for one week. On Wednesday, Tom sees Sarah driving around in a new car and hears from a mutual friend that Sarah sold her old car to someone else. On Thursday, Tom emails Sarah accepting the original offer. Is there a contract?

Walk through it. The offer states it will remain open for a week — but is it an option contract? No, because Tom gave no consideration for that promise. So it’s revocable. Did Sarah revoke? Probably yes — Tom learned through a mutual friend (arguably a reliable source) that Sarah took action inconsistent with the offer. That’s indirect revocation, effective when Tom received that information on Wednesday. Tom’s Thursday acceptance came after the revocation was effective. No contract.

Change one fact — Tom pays Sarah $10 on Monday for the right to buy — and now you have an option contract. The indirect revocation doesn’t work, and Tom’s Thursday acceptance is valid.

FlashTables

FlashTables is a set of professionally formatted two-column PDF rule tables covering all seven MBE subjects — 704 rules total, organized by the official NCBE Subject Matter Outline. The revocation rules covered in this article, including the four irrevocable offer exceptions, are laid out side-by-side in the Contracts table exactly the way you need them for fast review. Whether you’re a law student locking in black-letter Contracts doctrine for your outline or a bar taker drilling active recall in the final weeks before the MBE, the tables give you the rules in a format you can actually use under pressure. You can see everything that’s covered at getflashtables.com.

Key Takeaways: What to Memorize

Before you move on, make sure these are locked in:

Get these rules straight and the revocation questions on the MBE stop feeling like traps. They start feeling like free points.