A chemistry professor offers to sell her autographed first edition of a novel to a colleague for $1,000. The professor provides a signed written statement that the offer remains open for one week. The colleague learns that the professor has already sold the book to someone else in the department. The next day, the colleague offers to buy for $1,000 and pays; the professor says it’s sold. Does the colleague likely succeed in a breach-of-contract action?

• A. No, because an option contract is not valid unless the offeror is a merchant.
• B. No, because the colleague learned that the book had been sold before accepting the offer.
• C. Yes, because the professor did not revoke the offer prior to the colleague's acceptance.
• D. Yes, because the offer was contained in writing and remained open.

Answer: (B)

The key idea is how offers can be kept open and when acceptance can form a binding contract. An offer can be revoked at any time before the offeree accepts, unless there’s a valid option contract that keeps the offer open for a set time. A true option contract requires consideration from the offeree to keep the offer open (or, in some cases, a firm-offer rule under the UCC for merchants). Here, the professor’s signed promise to keep the offer open for a week is not shown to be supported by any consideration, and the professor isn’t described as a merchant dealing in books. So it doesn’t automatically bind her to keep the offer open.

The professor did sell the book to someone else before the colleague accepted. That constitutes revocation of the offer before acceptance. Since the offer was revoked prior to acceptance, there is no contract formed when the colleague later attempted to accept and pay. The written note to keep the offer open does not create a binding option contract in the absence of consideration (or a valid merchant-firm-offer scenario), so the colleague cannot prevail on a breach-of-contract claim.