Past experiences with Flippa
- Thread starter SAXIE
- Start date
Shane
Top Contributor
I've sold two $x,xxx domains on Flippa. The process is pretty straightforward. I just invoiced the buyer, paid the Flippa fee and did the COR. I then gave the buyer the cpanel login details so they could move the site themselves.
Both times with payment we agreed to do 50% upfront and 50% upon successful transfer.
If you're selling an AU website I'd recommend sending a message to each bidder before approving their bid to confirm they are eligible to own an AU domain. That's what I did, and I think it helps build confidence with the bidders knowing that they only bidding against other eligible people.
Overall it's a good way to sell an established site in my opinion.
Both times with payment we agreed to do 50% upfront and 50% upon successful transfer.
If you're selling an AU website I'd recommend sending a message to each bidder before approving their bid to confirm they are eligible to own an AU domain. That's what I did, and I think it helps build confidence with the bidders knowing that they only bidding against other eligible people.
Overall it's a good way to sell an established site in my opinion.
James
Top Contributor
Have done a few sales on Flippa, some X,XXX to XX,XXX+
Did the funds transfer with the following methods:
- Direct debit for some au buyers,
- Paypal for some us buyers
- Larger sales they usually want escrow.com payment and 3 day waiting period, you can run into problems with this where the buyer doesn't get the funding that happened once.
Overall I have worked out most of the sales over the years but =), is any one finding it decent to sell .com.au's on Flippa these days??
Did the funds transfer with the following methods:
- Direct debit for some au buyers,
- Paypal for some us buyers
- Larger sales they usually want escrow.com payment and 3 day waiting period, you can run into problems with this where the buyer doesn't get the funding that happened once.
Overall I have worked out most of the sales over the years but =), is any one finding it decent to sell .com.au's on Flippa these days??
neddy
Top Contributor
Are you able to share what sites you sold James? Just interested to see how you did your listing etc.
James
Top Contributor
These are not .com.au sales, other TLD's, built out websites and not domains...
If a site is making good revenue people will pay 12-16 months revenue based on the site, its all about providing history or revenue, traffic and showing every thing possible to make sure the buyer is comfortable with the sale.
only had one sale over XX,XXX AUD on Flippa..
domainlover
Top Contributor
hey james, can you share the names of these built out websites with us and maybe some strategies/tips on how you were able to achieve the X,XXX and XX,XXX aud sale. It may help others on the forum achieve better flippa sales.
James
Top Contributor
Most of the high value sales the users ask you to make the Flippa page private to conceal the information for the sale, that been said I am willing to share some information on how to make a good Flippa sales page if people are interested?
But as I said from my experience if you have verified, long term revenue which is seen as stable people will bid, if you have no revenue and tell people about the "Possibility" the site will be a success people will not bid...
neddy
Top Contributor
+1
James, I just got the impression from your initial post that they were your own sales, that's why I thought you could share.
Have you sold any of your own, or were they all client domains?
neddy
Top Contributor
I remember one of your sales Shane. The "apartment" one. You got a fantastic result.
I remember saying (quite seriously) you should start up a business telling people how to do it!
payattention
Archived Member
I've used it a few times to buy/sell sites but the site is rife with blatant fraud that Flippa ignores. Scroll down the most active list and you'll spot a tonne of auctions with 50 odd bids yet they're priced under $200. That's because that's the price point Flippa requires phone verification (which they only added recently). It's so obvious they're shill bids yet Flippa prefers to say buyer beware instead of taking responsibility for the fraud committed on their website.
I tried to close my account but Flippa will only disable an account, not delete it. They refuse to remove my billing information and will spam your inbox long after you've left the service.
It's really the wild west over there and personally I avoid it now as I won't pay their huge fees when they wash their hands of any problems by saying sorry, buyer beware! At least with Paypal's high fees, you get some buyer protection but not with Flippa.
Flippa also spend more time responding to claims of Flippa fraud by using Google alerts to track comments and giving a bullshit line of reassurance instead of being proactive about the scams on their site.
I tried to close my account but Flippa will only disable an account, not delete it. They refuse to remove my billing information and will spam your inbox long after you've left the service.
It's really the wild west over there and personally I avoid it now as I won't pay their huge fees when they wash their hands of any problems by saying sorry, buyer beware! At least with Paypal's high fees, you get some buyer protection but not with Flippa.
Flippa also spend more time responding to claims of Flippa fraud by using Google alerts to track comments and giving a bullshit line of reassurance instead of being proactive about the scams on their site.
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James
Top Contributor
These are my own sales, I have never sold any thing for clients, buyers want to keep information from sales private.
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Blue Wren
Top Contributor
I find listening to podcasts with Danny Batelic and Ed Dale helpful on this subject. Worth some earbuds in your ears.
PodcastsWithEd.com
PodcastsWithEd.com
payattention
Archived Member
Oh not those scum bags. Try a healthy dose of salty droid instead.
Hey Jonathan_B -- you've mentioned your concerns about account deletions before on the forum, and I've offered to help, and perhaps delete your account, but you haven't taken me up on it.
Neither Andrew or I (the two people who typically respond to mentions of Flippa on forums) are developers, so be assured that we're not taking time away from developing our fraud-detection and fraud-fighting tools.
A lot of the fraud-fighting we do is behind the scenes, and we're not too keen on letting scammers know exactly what we're working on, as I'm sure you can appreciate.
If you have specific concerns I can address, either in public or private, I'll be around to answer.
Neither Andrew or I (the two people who typically respond to mentions of Flippa on forums) are developers, so be assured that we're not taking time away from developing our fraud-detection and fraud-fighting tools.
A lot of the fraud-fighting we do is behind the scenes, and we're not too keen on letting scammers know exactly what we're working on, as I'm sure you can appreciate.
If you have specific concerns I can address, either in public or private, I'll be around to answer.
payattention
Archived Member
I'll start by stating the obvious for 2 very good reasons.
The first - to deny you the token response Flippa typically give any criticism. The second - so that it's clear what I'm referring to when I use the word fraud which Flippa only speak of in very broad terms. I'll be very specific and I ask that you respond accordingly instead of the general "LULZ.. buyer beware & due diligence!!" deflections Flippa typically dish out.
I'm not denying that buyers have a responsibility to undertake due diligence when buying a website on Flippa (or anywhere for that matter). There are potential upsides and downsides when buying a site. Some of the obvious risks which most people here would be familiar with are lost rankings, reduced revenue and/or traffic and other unknowns such as a lack of understanding of the niche itself. I'm not talking about those situations when I say Flippa is a fraudsters paradise and I'm not asking or suggesting Flippa provide buyers with a safety net or parachute when good purchases go bad. Neither am I suggesting Flippa need to vet each and every website to ensure it's a profitable proposition for the end buyer. All of the above plus more comes down to due diligence on behalf of the buyer.
When I talk about fraud on Flippa, I'm referring to the shill bidding on auctions that are at the very best misleading and at the very worst (the reality) fraudulent scams being perpetrated by criminals from the 3rd world. Considering they're out of reach for the victims to take action against, I strongly feel Flippa owe buyers and sellers a duty of care because they facilitate these transactions. God knows the fees we pay warrant such expenditure by Flippa. It's important we discern the difference between a bad website with no value proposition to listings which only exist to scam people and part them from their money. Flippa would have you believe there is no difference but it's obvious to anyone that spends 5 minutes on the most active that there is. These scams line Flippa's pocket day after day and this has been going on for quite a long time.
I don't want to speak for others but I think it's fair to state many people here are familiar with how bids usually play out on auctions. I don't know any other auction platform where a listing receives upwards of 25 bids by at least 5-10 bidders yet dies on the vine as it approaches the buy it now price. This is the point where I can usually end the conversation with most people but not with Flippa! They'd have you believe it's totally legitimate.
Let's take a look at today's most active or as I like to call it.. today's most active shill bidders!
31 shill bids up to $200 ($1000 BIN) - relisted twice which I'm guessing was due to non paying buyer so Flippa refund the listing fee and they can relist waiting for the mark to come along.
31 shill bidds to $180 ($499 BIN)
30 shill bids to $205 ($600 BIN)
27 shill bids to $200 ($2700 BIN)
25 shill bids to $175 ($2500 BIN)
24 shill bids to $205 ($1900 BIN)
23 bids to $140 ($750 BIN)
22 bids to $160 ($399 BIN)
There are some days where at least 50% of the listings are scams. Not no or low value propositions or bad websites but where the only reason the site exists is the list it on Flippa to facilitate a scam.
The $200 price point is also significant as Flippa recently introduced (poorly thought out) verification for people placing bids above $200 although this hasn't stopped some of the scammers taking people for a couple thousand dollars.
Most of these auctions have between 5-10 active bidders yet often the listings fall flat as they get closer to the BIN price. If it looks like they won't find someone to scam, they buy out their own auction, report it as a non-paying bidder and then relist at no additional fee. The content of these sites doesn't matter as your focus should be on the bids themselves. It doesn't take blind freddy to realise something is up here yet Flippa's fraud detection system doesn't detect it and that's because that system is designed to protect Flippa from fraud, not buyers. You can have all the phone verification, Adsense and Analytics verified stats in the world but it falls flat when scammers can shill bid to their hearts content.
Flippa love to email their user base about another record month so surely it makes sense to invest some of the profits into a staff member that can proactively monitor the most active. For those who can spot the scams, they move on and ignore it while buyers probably don't even know they've been scammed and this is what has allowed Flippa to turn a blind eye to fraud on their site while at the same time parroting the same copy/pasta job about how they're working hard to combat it.
The shill bids alone make it obvious but it doesn't stop there. Some of the scammers are so blatant and have grown lazy due to Flippa's inaction that they don't even bother to create the accounts featured in their doctored screenshots. I've reported this to Flippa before and again it goes ignored. Wherever a seller displays Paypal earnings, a simple check to see if it's legitimate is to attempt to send that email address 1c. You'd be surprised the amount of times Paypal reports back to you that the account doesn't even exist. Not to call the scammers savvy but the ones who are wise to this issue doctor their own screenshots by sending money to one another so that at face value the transactions at least look legitimate.
I have more to say but I'll wait for your response as I don't hold much hope for anything other than a generic response (we're doing what we can, we take it seriously, blah blah blah, we enjoy lining our pockets with the fees too much to tackle fraud). You're already being disingenuous by stating I never took up your offer when I've actually submitted numerous tickets and emails to Flippa over the past 6 months that have gone ignored or fail to answer my questions.
The first - to deny you the token response Flippa typically give any criticism. The second - so that it's clear what I'm referring to when I use the word fraud which Flippa only speak of in very broad terms. I'll be very specific and I ask that you respond accordingly instead of the general "LULZ.. buyer beware & due diligence!!" deflections Flippa typically dish out.
I'm not denying that buyers have a responsibility to undertake due diligence when buying a website on Flippa (or anywhere for that matter). There are potential upsides and downsides when buying a site. Some of the obvious risks which most people here would be familiar with are lost rankings, reduced revenue and/or traffic and other unknowns such as a lack of understanding of the niche itself. I'm not talking about those situations when I say Flippa is a fraudsters paradise and I'm not asking or suggesting Flippa provide buyers with a safety net or parachute when good purchases go bad. Neither am I suggesting Flippa need to vet each and every website to ensure it's a profitable proposition for the end buyer. All of the above plus more comes down to due diligence on behalf of the buyer.
When I talk about fraud on Flippa, I'm referring to the shill bidding on auctions that are at the very best misleading and at the very worst (the reality) fraudulent scams being perpetrated by criminals from the 3rd world. Considering they're out of reach for the victims to take action against, I strongly feel Flippa owe buyers and sellers a duty of care because they facilitate these transactions. God knows the fees we pay warrant such expenditure by Flippa. It's important we discern the difference between a bad website with no value proposition to listings which only exist to scam people and part them from their money. Flippa would have you believe there is no difference but it's obvious to anyone that spends 5 minutes on the most active that there is. These scams line Flippa's pocket day after day and this has been going on for quite a long time.
I don't want to speak for others but I think it's fair to state many people here are familiar with how bids usually play out on auctions. I don't know any other auction platform where a listing receives upwards of 25 bids by at least 5-10 bidders yet dies on the vine as it approaches the buy it now price. This is the point where I can usually end the conversation with most people but not with Flippa! They'd have you believe it's totally legitimate.
Let's take a look at today's most active or as I like to call it.. today's most active shill bidders!
31 shill bids up to $200 ($1000 BIN) - relisted twice which I'm guessing was due to non paying buyer so Flippa refund the listing fee and they can relist waiting for the mark to come along.
31 shill bidds to $180 ($499 BIN)
30 shill bids to $205 ($600 BIN)
27 shill bids to $200 ($2700 BIN)
25 shill bids to $175 ($2500 BIN)
24 shill bids to $205 ($1900 BIN)
23 bids to $140 ($750 BIN)
22 bids to $160 ($399 BIN)
There are some days where at least 50% of the listings are scams. Not no or low value propositions or bad websites but where the only reason the site exists is the list it on Flippa to facilitate a scam.
The $200 price point is also significant as Flippa recently introduced (poorly thought out) verification for people placing bids above $200 although this hasn't stopped some of the scammers taking people for a couple thousand dollars.
Most of these auctions have between 5-10 active bidders yet often the listings fall flat as they get closer to the BIN price. If it looks like they won't find someone to scam, they buy out their own auction, report it as a non-paying bidder and then relist at no additional fee. The content of these sites doesn't matter as your focus should be on the bids themselves. It doesn't take blind freddy to realise something is up here yet Flippa's fraud detection system doesn't detect it and that's because that system is designed to protect Flippa from fraud, not buyers. You can have all the phone verification, Adsense and Analytics verified stats in the world but it falls flat when scammers can shill bid to their hearts content.
Flippa love to email their user base about another record month so surely it makes sense to invest some of the profits into a staff member that can proactively monitor the most active. For those who can spot the scams, they move on and ignore it while buyers probably don't even know they've been scammed and this is what has allowed Flippa to turn a blind eye to fraud on their site while at the same time parroting the same copy/pasta job about how they're working hard to combat it.
The shill bids alone make it obvious but it doesn't stop there. Some of the scammers are so blatant and have grown lazy due to Flippa's inaction that they don't even bother to create the accounts featured in their doctored screenshots. I've reported this to Flippa before and again it goes ignored. Wherever a seller displays Paypal earnings, a simple check to see if it's legitimate is to attempt to send that email address 1c. You'd be surprised the amount of times Paypal reports back to you that the account doesn't even exist. Not to call the scammers savvy but the ones who are wise to this issue doctor their own screenshots by sending money to one another so that at face value the transactions at least look legitimate.
I have more to say but I'll wait for your response as I don't hold much hope for anything other than a generic response (we're doing what we can, we take it seriously, blah blah blah, we enjoy lining our pockets with the fees too much to tackle fraud). You're already being disingenuous by stating I never took up your offer when I've actually submitted numerous tickets and emails to Flippa over the past 6 months that have gone ignored or fail to answer my questions.
findtim
Top Contributor
Johnatan B you have said your piece, olechat hasn't heard from you so are you just not taking the offer so you can keep bagging them?
you obviously know the ins and outs of what you believe is happening so solve your issue and move on. I doubt you are the only person in the world who communicates with them on issues.
I don't think olechat is an idiot and shilling has been and is going on every day in the real estate market so its not new news.
unfortunately caveat emptor
tim
you obviously know the ins and outs of what you believe is happening so solve your issue and move on. I doubt you are the only person in the world who communicates with them on issues.
I don't think olechat is an idiot and shilling has been and is going on every day in the real estate market so its not new news.
unfortunately caveat emptor
tim
