Flippa: Enjoy my $9 because I will not be a returning customer

[saturn60]

I tried them based on a recommendation I received and overall it was a pretty bad experience, not to mention a waist of $9.

The sign up process was confusing and when I tried to find their customer service phone number for assistance with setting up my account, it turns out it doesn't exist, all I could find was a contact form to provide my contact info, not even a live chat option. In my opinion, any website that takes your money should have some form of live support.

During the listing creation process they try to sell you on upgrade options, which would be normal, except their upgrade fees are not $10 or $20, they're hundreds of dollars more!

Once my listing went live, I was surprised to see there was no description summary or thumbnail picture showing up on my listing in the search results. I assumed that my listing would include those features since when you click on "domains" from the homepage, nearly all the listings in the search results have those features. It's clear now that those listings are upgraded, but if you're new to the site, unless you're really paying attention, it's not clear that standard listings don't have those features.

I priced my domain with a starting bid of $10 and a reserve of $299. The domain only got 1 $10 bid and as the auction was about to end, I get a message from Flippa: We suggest you lower the reserve to $11 and if you do that we'll (reward you by) emailing the watchers on your listing. So they're pressuring me to sell the domain for around $11 even though the listing has a $9 listing fee + 10% success fee?

Lets do the math: If the domain sells, even if it's for a ridiculously low price, Flippa can collect the 10% success fee. No sale = No success fee for Flippa.

So the domain ended unsold, but don't worry, they have a backup plan to get more money from me. I am offered the option to "Buy a privacy upgrade". For $20 I can hide my listing from search engines like Google and the general public, for $30 I can make my listing no longer be visible to the public. Feel free to disagree with me, but I think it's pretty sleazy for Flippa to try and monetize the privacy concerns of their paying users.

 

[JB Lions]

I used to run a fairly successful alternative nightclub in the suburbs of Sydney. Being in the suburbs, there were always older, rough sorts wandering across from nearby pubs, attracted by the noise and curious to see what was going on. They'd just come in, drink cheap beer, perve at all the young girls, cause trouble and make everyone feel uncomfortable. So we through a $15 cover charge on the door. We didn't need to from an cashflow POV, but when the undesirables would come around and were told they had to pay to get in, being the cheapskates they were, would turn around and go elsewhere, whilst the regular crowd was happy to pay. The result was we had a cleaner, and higher quality clientèle.

I see Flippa's listing and upgrade fees as an effort to achieve a similar result. Does it work? Everyone will have their own opinion, but I don't begrudge them for it. (Though I do wish auctions were hidden from Search Engines by default.)

Except they let the cheapskates in (free listings for appraisals) and it makes some paying clients wonder if it's worth paying anymore. Or they know the only action is happening in the VIP and you have to pay to get in there and separate from the ones that got in free.

 

[SHINOJ G.S]

You had a terrible domain, I surmise. That's your fault, not theirs.

I don't understand the connection of page views and the quality of domain name.
Of course I can understand number of bids depends.

 

[Archangel]

Easy: if it's a terrible domain, ppl won't waste their time looking at it. You need to stop with the "if you build it, they will come" mindset: you seem to think you'd get more pageviews if you use a paid promotion. That doesn't work solely the way you're thinking: your domain has to be worth a damn before anyone will click to read your auction page. If you featured xfhxht-xdfvdrg.buzz on the homepage, you are guaranteed to have it on the homepage. You're not guaranteed bids or pageviews. If your domain is low-quality, ppl won't even bother to look. They'll ignore it & move on.

There is the correlation.

I don't understand the connection of page views and the quality of domain name.
Of course I can understand number of bids depends.

 

[SHINOJ G.S]

Easy: if it's a terrible domain, ppl won't waste their time looking at it. You need to stop with the "if you build it, they will come" mindset: you seem to think you'd get more pageviews if you use a paid promotion. That doesn't work solely the way you're thinking: your domain has to be worth a damn before anyone will click to read your auction page. If you featured xfhxht-xdfvdrg.buzz on the homepage, you are guaranteed to have it on the homepage. You're not guaranteed bids or pageviews. If your domain is low-quality, ppl won't even bother to look. They'll ignore it & move on.

There is the correlation.

I got your point but you are rude

 

[Archangel]

That I was. Your question was terribly obvious, thus I felt it needed to be unpleasant to get the point across. Apparently, it worked.

I got your point but you are rude

 

[Archangel]

They're ending the policy... or so they said months back

Except they let the cheapskates in (free listings for appraisals) and it makes some paying clients wonder if it's worth paying anymore. Or they know the only action is happening in the VIP and you have to pay to get in there and separate from the ones that got in free.

 

[Kiln Media]

Flippa is a decent platform, and definitely the best for selling WEBSITES where there most expensive upgrade is $100 for all the works and your website will get exposure and sell for a decent price even with no revenue.

For domains however, only list on Flippa if it is a high quality domain (value at $500 plus) and you have to upgrade for it to sell.

I agree the upgrades are ridiculously priced. There needs to be an option to upload a logo next to your domain for $10-20 extra and other more affordable reasonable upgrades. Everyone would benefit from this if more domains sold for higher prices.

TIP: If you really want to sell your domains on flippa, put a website on them and grow them for a few months. You will make much more profit this way for any non-premium domains.

 

[dmyre]

I bet the seller of custompostcards.com will be really upset with his auction results:

https://flippa.com/4359346-custompostcards-com-16yr-pr-2-estibot-20-000-solid

No reserve auction with a high bid of $6, but there were 17 bids still pending...

 

[DNVantage]

17 bids still pending...

Why are bids pending?

 

[Archangel]

My guess: he was away and couldn't approve the bids. And my other guess is just like yours: he'll be pissed at this.

I bet the seller of custompostcards.com will be really upset with his auction results:

https://flippa.com/4359346-custompostcards-com-16yr-pr-2-estibot-20-000-solid

No reserve auction with a high bid of $6, but there were 17 bids still pending...

 

[DNVantage]

My guess: he was away and couldn't approve the bids.

Who has to approve the bids? Seller? I thought it would be Flippa?

Will the domain end without bids being approved?

Just listed my first auction on Flippa two days ago and this thread has got be rethinking! No seller would want to be in a position like custompostcards auction!!!

 

[Archangel]

It's actually safety on the seller: We have to approve of bidders before they bid.This can have its bad side (see the auction I was quoting). But the idea is to disallow some bidders,like bidders you see who have negative feedback/history of bad things.

YOU CAN TURN THIS OFF, however, so you'll accept ALL bids as they come in.

Who has to approve the bids? Seller? I thought it would be Flippa?

Will the domain end without bids being approved?

Just listed my first auction on Flippa two days ago and this thread has got be rethinking! No seller would want to be in a position like custompostcards auction!!!

 

[DNVantage]

disallow some bidders,like bidders you see who have negative feedback/history of bad things.

I could not find any setting at flippa to allow/block bids from negative users or certain users?

But should this not be auction platform's responsibility to monitor/suspend users with negative history? or to allow seller to delete bids from negative users afterwards? It does not make sense to block bids upfront.

Are all these 17 bids from negative rated users or are bids from good rated users also blocked at Flippa?

This is opening up so many questions for an auction newbie like me.

So if lots of bids comes in during last hour, and if the seller is occupied or sleeping, will the auction end without good bids being accepted!!! What happens if a buyer would be willing to increase bid after see higher bids, which were not visible due to block? IF this is the case, then it is an odd choice between allowing bids from negative rated users or losing on good bids?

I am checking Flippa FAQ to see if these questions are addressed.....

 

[dmyre]

YOU CAN TURN THIS OFF, however, so you'll accept ALL bids as they come in.

I was unable to locate this option within my control panel.
Do you have the path to this option?

 

[biggie]

I could not find any setting at flippa to allow/block bids from negative users or certain users?

But should this not be auction platform's responsibility to monitor/suspend users with negative history? or to allow seller to delete bids from negative users afterwards? It does not make sense to block bids upfront.

Are all these 17 bids from negative rated users or are bids from good rated users also blocked at Flippa?

This is opening up so many questions for an auction newbie like me.

So if lots of bids comes in during last hour, and if the seller is occupied or sleeping, will the auction end without good bids being accepted!!! What happens if a buyer would be willing to increase bid after see higher bids, which were not visible due to block? IF this is the case, then it is an odd choice between allowing bids from negative rated users or losing on good bids?

I am checking Flippa FAQ to see if these questions are addressed.....

you raised some good points

with traditional auctions, the seller doesn't approve bidders

as such with sedo/gd or namejet/snapnames auctions

and a system that doesn't allow all active users to bid on domains currently in auction (unless it's private), are inherently and potentially, limiting final sales price.

as the volume of bidders, raises the assumption of worthiness.

imo....

 

[dncafe]

If I could request one change from that platform, it would be better visitor metrics...Later, as I promote my auction, I could see how effective my promotions are versus the upgrades (ie, is that upgrade still driving traffic to my auction). That level of detail would be great I think.

Maybe if people really knew how much exposure they got on Flippa for listing their domain, they would stop paying $9 per domain and hundreds for the upgrades.

Look at all the active and big sales on Flippa, that traffic was not simply from listing upgrades. It is from the sellers doing a lot of outbound marketing to end users and bringing in their own traffic

 

[Archangel]

It's an option: the "approve bids" thing can be allowed/disallowed. But "disable" should be set to default. Still, ppl needn't act like it's a terrible thing--it can be switched however you'd like.

Sadly (correct me if I'm wrong) but you can only set the option during auction setup. That too should be changed. Last I saw, the option could be turned on/off around the area you choose the time of the auction.

 

[Archangel]

Many good questions were asked. It might be best for @FlippaDomains to come in and explain a thing or 2.

 

[DNVantage]

It's an option: the "approve bids" thing can be allowed/disallowed. But "disable" should be set to default. Still, ppl needn't act like it's a terrible thing--it can be switched however you'd like.

It is not a fair option if it leaves even one valid bid out or forces the seller to block bids, just cause few negative rated users will bid.

I have not come across any major auction place making the seller take care of bad bid filtering or blocking all bids due to potential bad bids. How can seller effectively figure out who is rogue user? Is the seller going to verify each and every bider?

Sadly (correct me if I'm wrong) but you can only set the option during auction setup. That too should be changed. Last I saw, the option could be turned on/off around the area you choose the time of the auction.

Also I did not see this option during listing my domain. Maybe it was a collapsed panel or something? The auction listing wizard should have highlighted this during listing the domain. Am I missing something obvious here?

Now I don't even know if this option is set for my account or not!

 

[Archangel]

I have auctions to set up here in a few days. I'll look over the entire setup page for it. If I recall, it is indeed in a collapsed menu.

I agree it's not a great option.The default should be set to "off"

It is not a fair option if it leaves even one valid bid out or forces the seller to block bids, just cause few negative rated users will bid.

I have not come across any major auction place making the seller take care of bad bid filtering or blocking all bids due to potential bad bids. How can seller effectively figure out who is rogue user? Is the seller going to verify each and every bider?



Also I did not see this option during listing my domain. Maybe it was a collapsed panel or something? The auction listing wizard should have highlighted this during listing the domain. Am I missing something obvious here?

Now I don't even know if this option is set for my account or not!

 

[jideofor]

Normally, I wouldn't comment on a thread like this but from all indications, the OP is wrong. Your domain didn't sell because it wasn't worth much more than reg fee.

I also agree that Flippa should slash their upgrade fees by half.

 

[VIPL]

Does the $9 listing giving any additional exposure versus the Free catalog listing?
I barely get any views on the $9 paid listings, not that bad of domains.

 

[Archangel]

Free listing is just that: a listing, one of the millions or whatever on Flippa. Your domain won't stand out in any way with a free lsting

Does the $9 listing giving any additional exposure versus the Free catalog listing?
I barely get any views on the $9 paid listings, not that bad of domains.

 

[solarix]

I had a $9 basic listing up for 30 days and it received a total of 552 views. I don't know what the average view count is, as this was only my second domain on Flippa. Once it had a few bids, the view count went up quicker.

The listing also had editors choice, so I know that helped quite a bit too Overall I was very happy with the process and would list there again.

 

[IntricateWare]

It would be nice if all upgrade options were available to purchase individually.

For instance, let's say I want to purchase just the newsletter promotion upgrade alone, or I want my listing to be bigger in the search results, I can't do that. I would have to purchase the Ultra Premium or Premium upgrade just to get one feature I really want.