Flippa Review in 2015

[DomainVP]

I wanted to take some time and share my experience with Flippa in 2015 versus my experience with the service in 2013.

When I started using Flippa in 2013, my opinion of the service was very poor. There appeared to be rampant shill bidding and what seemed to be a lot of misrepresentation of products and services. I removed any names listed, and swore off using the service; which many of us did.

I wanted to give the service another shot, the get a better feel of the marketplace in 2015.

To start I chose a name I was willing to part with that was tech/IT related, as Tech/IT related names sell well on flippa; I chose MyHTML [dot] com. We went with the premium listing option, and included a custom logo on the auction; which I set with a $10k reserve and maximum time allowed for auctions.

Instead of just sitting back and hoping for the domain to sell, I started doing some end user research; first reaching out to businesses relevant to the domain, and then to specific Flippa buyers.

After a few days, one of those individuals that I reached out to decided to place a bid for the name; where he remained the high bidder at $5,502; I lowered the reserve to a dollar over and it was sold.

The entire customer service team was very helpful, especially Kevin; who made himself available to provide me with any answers and suggestions that I had about the current Flippa market.

I only noticed later that I had listed the very same domain on Flippa in 2013, with no promotion and no end user outreach. Listed as an auction, with a $1k start and no reserve; not a single bid.

The domain resale climate has improved since the nTLD launch uneasiness has died down, and Flippa is a different place in 2015.

So in the end, if you have a quality tech/it related domain; I recommend using Flippa as a marketplace where you will get a fair ROI for your domain if you are looking to liquidate.

One suggestion that I would like to make for Flippa is to have a marketplace education process that people go through before the list names at a premium pricing. This was suggested by a Flippa broker previously, however it seemed like more of a sales ploy on his behalf, rather than a helpful process to make the service a better place for customers.

I think that eventually Flippa will be a great marketplace for all names, however I don't think i'm ready to list names outside of the tech/it niche at premium pricing. Maybe my POV is just a reflection on domain value and the market in general, but I think it would be good for sellers to be aware of this before they make any lofty investment in their listings. This isn't a terrible thing, tech/it niche is great company to have a captive audience with; which they have done a great job doing.

Anyways, that's my 2015 experience of Flippa; very pleased and would use again in the future.

 

[S-B]

No worries. What's the $249 option? I thought it was $350 for an upgrade.

There are 2 levels of upgrades from the standard listing:

• Ultra Premium ($349)
• Premium ($249)

Each option has it's benefits.

 

[discobull]

There were other bidders in the auction and there were 40+ watchers on the listing, as well all know watchers can be quite different than actual bidders.

Keep in mind that I had a $10k reserve, and that the winner bid until they were at a comfortable price point, in order to discourage competition from bidding. I then set the auction reserve to $1 over because I was okay with the price point as well.

It would have been interesting to see where the auction would have gone if I started at $1 with no reserve, but since I paid a fair investment for the name I wasn't willing to take the risk.

That's a valid point. If your $350 brought in other bidders that drove up the price sufficiently then it's quite possible that it was a worthwhile investment. At the end of the day, you made money and that's always a good thing so I don't want to sound like I'm trying to diminish what you accomplished. I'm just still trying to assess whether Flippa is a good option for me or not. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.

 

[Genius327]

Can anyone explain to me why the Flippa super seller program is so unfair to a huge number of sellers out there?

I am aware that the criteria cannot be disclosed which is okay but I am amazed to see quite a few newbie sellers getting into the program with 3-4 sales and transactions totalling only around $500!

They should look into the issue and treat all the sellers fairly.

 

[TopChoiceDomains]

To be fair, I found the buyer via the Flippa platform and sent an auction notice to them. If it were not for the platform I would not have found the buyer, and it is entirely possible that the buyer would have not been interested in negotiating for it and prefers buying via Flippa.

I know that 55" flat screen TV's are on eBay for $1200, but I can go onto Craigslist and haggle someone into selling me one for $200. I like deals, and maybe buyer does as well. Or not, who knows.

But mainly, if I found a buyer via a platform I think it's only fair to give them their cut; I would not have found the buyer if not for the platform.

How did you search buyers on the platform?

 

[S-B]

Can anyone explain to me why the Flippa super seller program is so unfair to a huge number of sellers out there?

I am aware that the criteria cannot be disclosed which is okay but I am amazed to see quite a few newbie sellers getting into the program with 3-4 sales and transactions totalling only around $500!

They should look into the issue and treat all the sellers fairly.

I cannot answer those questions as I do not know the circumstances nor the rules. @FlippaDomains would be more qualified to address your concerns.

On a side note, do you have any examples of people with $500 in sales who are super sellers?

 

[FlippaDomains]

Good afternoon, everyone. I'm catching up after a few days under the weather.

I am impressed with a lot of Flippa's features. I have thought about using them, but I am slightly concerned over the transaction process. I have read a lot of stories over the years about buyers taking domains and saying they didn't receive them, in order to avoid payment. There's also a large risk of chargebacks and whatnot. I have sold many domains with Sedo and have never once had a problem. They handle the receiving & delivering of payment and the domain transfer. When and If Flippa decides to provide this same service that Sedo provides, I would be happy to try them out. Having to rely on the buyer to acknowledge they received the domain just seems to risky. Maybe things have changed?

-- Our Customer Success team would have better stats, but in my 16 months on the domains beat, I have only heard of this happening maybe once. And it was through PayPal, which is a notorious way this sort of thing occurs. We highly recommend using our in-house Flippa Escrow, or Escrow.com.

Should you have any further concerns or skepticism, I'd urge you to ask others on this thread about transactions of theirs -- sometimes there are hiccups, like everywhere else, but all in all I'm pretty confident with how things have progressed and improved over the past year.

I'm glad to hear that things turned out well for you, but, as others have said, it's a bit disappointing to hear that the sale came about as a result of your own marketing. My impression was that the whole point of spending the $350 was to make the sale effort-free for the seller. I would have been much happier to hear that Flippa had done for you what you ended up doing yourself.

Based on my own experience, I agree that the auction format adds a sense of urgency. I used to send out mailings to end users that would point them to my ebay listings and I managed to sell numerous domains that way including a bunch for $x,xxx. The difference, of course, was that ebay listings had no upfront fee (ie 0 risk ) and their 10% commission was capped at $100 no matter how high the closing price. I felt it was worth it because, in addition to the urgency created by the auction format, Ebay is a known entity and my 100% positive rating on their feedback system eliminated any potential trust issues ( I always got paid upfront and never had a single complaint about that arrangement ). To me getting those benefits for a maximum outlay of $100 made sense even if I was doing the marketing legwork myself. OTOH, I'm not sure I could justify risking $359 plus giving away an additional 10% of the total sale if I still have to do my own selling.

Sorry, but I remain unconvinced...

-- That is ok, to remain unconvinced. I can try to convince you, but sounds like you have had success elsewhere, and sometimes people like to stick to what works best. Your experience on eBay -- keep in mind -- seemed to hinge on a few things that Flippa Domain sellers also need in order to be successful: ability to reach out to a list of buyers to bring them TO the auction; prominence within the marketplace due to a healthy track record and persistence; and any sort of in-house promotion that you can apply.

Myself, I always search and find buyers outside Flippa just to have them bidding against the buyers which are already there (and there are a lot). It's a win-win-win situation and it is worth doing it, at least for me. And Kevin always stated that he will help new sellers, just read his interviews.

-- I'm really adamant about telling all of our sellers, especially new ones, that just because a domain is at auction does not mean you can sit back and assume a hefty sale. I mean, you can TRY this -- many times the domain (along with good pricing, exposure, or just interest in general) does sell itself.

But in order to be most successful, as others would attest to here, you (the seller) needs to be active -- through end user outreach or whatever methods have worked for you elsewhere.

Flippa is the best way to have your name sold within one month and no one else can beat them at that. Of course, ultra-premiums mostly sell themselves no matter the platform but on the other side, if the domain is really bad no upgrade or marketing will make the sale.

-- This is the 'Part II' of what I just voiced above: if you're looking for end user pricing, and don't have a timetable of when you want to transact by, then a Flippa auction might not be the best way to move your inventory. One way to test this is: set a reserve at your end-user pricing and see how far along it gets at auction. If it doesn't get to where you need to let go of the domain, ask yourself if it's worth it to hold out for X more months in order to achieve X more dollars in profit. If it is, then ...cool.

But if you know you can get a decent return, and have a month to spare (I recommend 10-21 day auctions, but 30 days seems to be the crowd favorite), an auction is a surefire way to create a sense of urgency among buyers. Buyers know that when a domain changes hands, the price immediately jumps, so it's like saying, "This domain WILL sell after X days -- here's your chance to get involved."

Assuming the domain is OF INTEREST to buyers and you have all the ingredients mentioned above (track record, realistic pricing, outside exposure -- upgrades only amplify all of this) then you can almost always guarantee a sale.

As a general rule of thumb, if you didn't achieve a great sale price, the domain wasn't a big hit with buyers, was priced way too high and/or you more than likely didn't put a whole lot of effort into funneling active eyeballs over to the auction.

One thing I'll quickly squeeze in here: it is NOW FREE TO RELIST (no matter how many domain auctions). Over the past few months, I've seen a few hundred domains -- that had once stalled-out shy of the reserve price -- only to be relisted and sell. Maybe not the second time around, but definitely after some persistence. Eyeballs accumulate. It's free to keep trying, so I highly recommend doing so.

If you don't want to do the legwork, submit your domains here. This eliminates all the issues you have with the platform for a mere 5% more. If you think 15% is a lot of money to lose on a sale, compare it to other platforms. It is a competitive rate considering the amount of work that goes into these auctions.

-- This expands on Part II just above. I think there's a misconception of "I'm paying for an upgrade, so Flippa is doing all the work for me."

We're a small company. There's no way we could help every individual seller do end-user outreach. Although with that said, we are in need of sales agents and brokers, as we need more hands on deck to help a growing number of sellers and buyers alike. So consider that an invitation, if you're reading this and are interested, to get in touch.

That's a valid point. If your $350 brought in other bidders that drove up the price sufficiently then it's quite possible that it was a worthwhile investment. At the end of the day, you made money and that's always a good thing so I don't want to sound like I'm trying to diminish what you accomplished. I'm just still trying to assess whether Flippa is a good option for me or not. Thanks a lot for sharing your experience.

-- @discobull At the moment, it escapes me if we've spoken off-forum or not, but I invite you to reach out to see how we might be able to tip-toe into a trial (this consists of telling me a few domains you're looking to sell and me telling you a) whether I think they stand a chance at selling on Flippa, and b) if so, how we can do that - with no upfront cost or risk to you.)

If we've already communicated, let's talk again.

Can anyone explain to me why the Flippa super seller program is so unfair to a huge number of sellers out there?

I am aware that the criteria cannot be disclosed which is okay but I am amazed to see quite a few newbie sellers getting into the program with 3-4 sales and transactions totalling only around $500!

They should look into the issue and treat all the sellers fairly.

-- The truth is that when the program was setup, a whole lot of sellers were let in, based on old criteria. Flippa (and the Domains unit in particular) has grown so much, the criteria must be reset. While I am not the one leading the effort to alter this, I do agree that it appears lopsided and that confuses things. It's a separate issue apart from all else mentioned in this thread, but it is on our radar.

...Will continue the dialogue in a few days when I'm back on the map. Thanks, everyone.

 

[silentg]

Some issues that has to be fixed:
1. Bring back Just Sold link on mobile page. Why was it removed from mobile site in the first place?
2. Fix the my account section on mobile. It's messed up right now (iPhone 6+)
3. Desktop site: Get rid of the scroll down to load more domains. When I am researching and click on a domain and if i hit back then I gotta scroll all the way down again to get the same spot from before.
4. Search / List filtering: Dictionary terms - This setting always list domains that are not even dictionary terms.
5. Improvement: Make advanced search like how namecatch.com does.

 

[discobull]

Your experience on eBay -- keep in mind -- seemed to hinge on a few things that Flippa Domain sellers also need in order to be successful: ability to reach out to a list of buyers to bring them TO the auction; prominence within the marketplace due to a healthy track record and persistence; and any sort of in-house promotion that you can apply.

Agreed. The point I was making is that if I have to do my own legwork to bring in buyers, I can do that on Ebay with a $0 upfront cost, and a maximum commission of $100. If bringing buyers to Flippa instead resulted in higher net profits then it might be worth it, but I haven't seen evidence that that's the case.

Regardless, I haven't done any mailings in over a year because I really hate doing them so that aspect of using Flippa is a deal breaker for me. Moreover, if at some point I found myself feeling differently about mailings, I'm inclined to think that once I'd done the work to find a buyer the only thing I'd be missing is an escrow service -- not some other party to share in my profits. :D I have no problem paying 10%, 15%, 20% commissions when the selling is being done for me, but if I have to do the selling myself I'm generally going to want to keep 100%, or as close to it as I can get.

For now I think I'm going to stick to just using your catalog listings, but thank you anyway for taking the time to respond and also for offering to help me get started with your platform. Cheers.

 

[dmyre]

I would like to see the upgrade include a logo, research, sales copy, and prospecting end users, so it truly is turnkey.

 

[S-B]

I would like to see the upgrade include a logo, research, sales copy, and prospecting end users, so it truly is turnkey.

That's exactly what the brokerage service offers.

 

[FlippaDomains]

...if at some point I found myself feeling differently about mailings, I'm inclined to think that once I'd done the work to find a buyer the only thing I'd be missing is an escrow service -- not some other party to share in my profits. :D
For now I think I'm going to stick to just using your catalog listings, but thank you anyway for taking the time to respond and also for offering to help me get started with your platform. Cheers.

-- No worries, and understood. There may be implementation of a Flippa escrow service to use *off* platform as well at some point, so we will keep you posted.

 

[HeyNow]

There were other bidders in the auction

Were any of the "other bidders" Flippa employees? From what I understand, you, the Seller, would know this, but the other bidders (except employees of course) wouldn't know this.

 

[DomainVP]

Were any of the "other bidders" Flippa employees? From what I understand, you, the Seller, would know this, but the other bidders (except employees of course) wouldn't know this.

I don't think so. These were early bidders; I could only speculate as to what their intentions were or who they were. The winner set the bar high, and all other potential competition fell to the wayside.

 

[HeyNow]

I don't think so.

Does that mean you're not sure?

 

[biggie]

can I put a down payment on a "Super Ultra Premium" listing?

 

[S-B]

can I put a down payment on a "Super Ultra Premium" listing?

PM me for Paypal details.

 

[Potential.Domains]

This is an interesting thread, and everyone's opinion, both in support and in opposition of selling on Flippa; has been helpful.
___

With that said, where I think Flippa 'may be' ripping off sellers; is the expensive homepage featured upgrade for $49.

With homepage featured listing upgrade, a link to your listing is only featured on Flippa homepage for barely 24hrs.

From experience, a domain (rental.so) listed by iDomainHoldings with homepage featured upgrade, only had roughly 72 views in 11 days. Majority of these views were due to self-promotion by seller. A close observation revealed the domain was barely featured on the homepage.

Also, the homepage featured listing upgrade failed to deliver 3x more bids as advertised.

I'm sure many sellers have been burnt by the expensive Flippa upgrades with no real or concrete results.

Also, I observed @David Walker's recent listing of QWPN.com website on Flippa, in which he paid over $250-300+ in premium upgrade fees for.

The QWPN listing undersold for $1,060; an asset I believe should've sold for more due to the premium Flippa upgrades. I've seen similar LLLLs (domain only) sell for $x,xxx (low to mid). But, this listing was for a premium domain and business-in-a-box coupon website with premium theme, plugins and scripts (WordPress site).

Even the "Editor's Comment" on the listing did not make any or much difference. Honestly, I'm still wondering why the QWPN listing underperformed?

Pls, we need more Flippa sellers on namePros to share their (unbiased) experiences and observed results — paying for the expensive premium upgrades, which were no doubt structured for super-high value domain assets like LLs, LLLs .com, etc.

Thank you.

 

[N-A]

Even the "Editor's Comment" on the listing did not make any or much difference. Honestly, I'm still wondering why the QWPN listing underperformed?

I'm satisfied with the results.

Although my stats aren't completely compiled yet due to 'finals week' and adjusting to school once more as well as 1 other domain being relisted, I will tell you why. The domain name 'QWPN' seemed to slip under the radar during GoDaddy expiring auctions before the domain names without a,e,i,o,u,v were desirable by the Chinese market. Nobody else saw the pronounceability or the potential usage of it; these come natural to me with being an LLLL investor for many years. I believe there was only 1 other competitor in the running and I was able to secure it for under a buck. With renewal and upkeep, less than $100 was vested into this domain, excluding the premium plugins and time put in on my part marketing the domain.

I haven't tallied everything up, but supposing that a total of $500 went into this name, a 200% ROI isn't the best, but it's acceptable. (I would have liked more, but who wouldn't? )

 

[Potential.Domains]

I'm satisfied with the results.

Although my stats aren't completely compiled yet due to 'finals week' and adjusting to school once more as well as 1 other domain being relisted, I will tell you why. The domain name 'QWPN' seemed to slip under the radar during GoDaddy expiring auctions before the domain names without a,e,i,o,u,v were desirable by the Chinese market. Nobody else saw the pronounceability or the potential usage of it; these come natural to me with being an LLLL investor for many years. I believe there was only 1 other competitor in the running and I was able to secure it for under a buck. With renewal and upkeep, less than $100 was vested into this domain, excluding the premium plugins and time put in on my part marketing the domain.

I haven't tallied everything up, but supposing that a total of $500 went into this name, a 200% ROI isn't the best, but it's acceptable. (I would have liked more, but who wouldn't? )

Thanks for sharing!

From my appraisal and understanding the potential of the QWPN business; it should have sold for up to $3k-$4k. Your sales pitch was also on point, and well delivered. Even without auction, but with a listing price: it definitely would've sold for more.

When I became aware of your active listing, I thought it would easily sell for over $3k — considering the premium listing status, Editor's Comment, high-quality theme/plugin from the guys at AppThemes, high-quality logo, market potentials, time and efforts invested, etc. It was indeed a business-in-a-box, and someone luckily grabbed it for a steal price.

The performance of the premium upgrade listing — is as if it's a regular Flippa listing.

I feel — as a courtesy (or, incentive), Flippa should reimburse you the premium upgrade fees since it did not deliver as promised. After all, Flippa still gets 10% from the sale price. I believe this is fair.

@FlippaDomains is this by any chance — feasible ? Pls advise, considering sellers are an important part of Flippa's success. Without sellers, there are no buyers.

 

[Angus99]

I know that Flippa can sometimes work out very well for people but also others have had a bad experience (even being scammed). It can also take a long time going back and forth with sellers and you have to do your own due diligence. I may be a little biased here but if you're looking for smaller sites in the $20 - $2,000 a month in income, motion invest dot comis a great place to start.