So you THOUGHT Flippa was shady?

[S-B]

Sorry in advance, Kevin. Should have had your people leave me alone.

Flippa has been the subject of much controversy over the last 6 months. Speculative talk has ranged from shill bidding to bloated sales reports. Most of the accusations are pure garbage but the company is sketchy as hell.

While you might be thinking that I’m bitter because I haven’t any luck there, you should know that I moved $75,000 of domains in 6 months. At one point, I was the first to go to bat for them all because I try to show some loyalty when someone is taking care of me.

However, I recently had my Super Seller status revoked “due to comments made towards other users.” In fact, this is due to my response to the auction where an individual claimed to have an offer on a 3 day old domain of 10,000 bitcoins — that’s $2,500,000. Apparently, calling out a scammer is grounds for retaliation from the business.

I suppose this is because Flippa values net revenue more than customer satisfaction.

Now that you know my motivation I will move on and share a little bit of insider information.

If you’re paying full price for listing fees and upgrades you have been scammed.

They have gone on the defensive in the past by saying that they “subsidize” upgrades for their top sellers. Subsidize is a cute word for giveaway.

I received somewhere between $3,000 to $5,000 in “subsidies” — as a private seller — over 6 months. At one point, I received $2,000 in credits at one time.

Now I won’t lie, sometimes I had to pay for listings. When I did, I still got hooked up. For every upgrade or listing I purchased I received 2 free.

So when I paid, which was rare, I paid 1/3 of what you’ve been paying. I’m sure you now see why some people make a killing off their platform while others have lost hundreds of dollars per listing.

Oh you thought Editor’s choice was for good domains? Nah. It has been a filter for friends of Flippa.

When I sold on Flippa’s platform, I was given Editor’s Choice for nearly all of my domains. Why? Because I asked.

I know some of you noticed that only 3-5 people showed up when visiting that page. Some might not care but others might understand the value of this.

Domains at Flippa sell for much more when given the Editor’s Choice designation.

Oh so you suspect shilling? I’ve known many users who have shilled their way to a profit. It doesn’t benefit Flippa to eliminate shilling. High sales mean higher success fees.

Simple as that.

Straight up scamming? Yep.

I’ve reported verifiable scams to customer support and I didn’t hear back until after the auction closed. They stated that it was now the buyer’s responsibility to report the sale if something fishy occurred.

Hmmmm.

Would the buyer receive a refund? No. Would the seller be suspended? Yes. Would Flippa still profit? Damn right.

At the end of the day, you can choose to use their platform of boycott them.

I will choose the latter.

P.S.

Have you been curious about what Flippa has been doing?

They are working on adding small business to their platform.

Yeah. Dump money into selling physical business without verifying any of their claims.

That should work. Everyone is honest. Right?

 

[HeyNow]

Flippa is not dead, i will start my first premium Flippa auction this week, and will write an update on the results

Good for you. You should get first-hand experience, and not rely on the opinions and misfortunes of others here. If you're a Seller at Flippa, you have the inside edge over those clueless, ignorant outside bidders, whom, as far as I know, aren't privy to all the rules and allowances of Flippa-enabled auctions, which allow Flippa employees to bid against clueless, outside bidders, perhaps driving up prices to Flippa's advantage.
Perhaps not, but the possibility is there. You should love it! Just think, possibly getting more for your domains due to auction-platform employees if and when those auction-platform employees bid at YOUR AUCTIONS! You must be one helluva businessman/businesswoman to take advantage, in that fashion, of clueless individuals who aren't purposely alerted the same auction policy info as you, the Seller.

Congratulations!

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

@HeyNow... You are simply amazing. I like people like you who are frank.

 

[HeyNow]

@HeyNow... You are simply amazing. I like people like you who are frank.

Thank you for the kind words.

 

[AndyM]

I like it how the flippa newsletter advertises popular blogs and discussions from NamePros but, I am wondering if this one will be promoted through their newsletter?

 

[ODST.com]

Alas my experience with Flippa has also been bad as both a seller and buyer. Despite winning domains through auction as well as selling domains through auctions nothing ever really changed hands between any parties. Both buyers and sellers backed out once it came time to pay the piper. All I am left with is a hole in my bank account from their steep listing fees.

Hope this helps.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

It did happen to me a couple of times when I won auctions that had no reserve. When the auction ended, I instantly paid , and both times the seller backed out and sent a message saying the domains worths $5000. Of course , Flippa refunded me and both sellers were banned.

I am not sure what else could Flippa do in this regard as it could not force the seller to transfer the domain. Ironically, both domains had .IO extension lol

 

[Mkcoy]

Marketplace Integrity department

Marketplace Integrity department? Do you really have a "Marketplace Integrity department" or did you just make that up on the spot?

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Marketplace Integrity department? Do you really have a "Marketplace Integrity department" or did you just make that up on the spot?

There actually is and there are those suspending /banning users. Since I won a number of disputes where the seller refused to transfer the assets, I got to know that department cause they handle such cases. There is Josh, Parnell also I think. Of course when emailing them, you email them using the support email.

 

[Raindrops]

Transparency. Not necessarily in who the bidders are because arguments can be made both ways - but in other fashions. As an example, and this is just one:

User Hatfield Ventures has a listing for Bundled auctions com - https://flippa.com/5580986-125-premium-domains-aged-valuable-high-cpc-rare-bundle

He lists his name as Josh and Hatfield Ventures, and a brief internet search turns up Hatfield Ventures and Josh and their activity in the domain market. The thing is, most of the domains in that listing are registered to Jason King and do not resolve to Josh and Hatfield Ventures at all. Somehow Hatfield Ventures (Josh) is selling domains in a bundle for Jason King. Is Hatfield a broker? Flippa insider?

As well, Hatfield ventures has an impressive sales history with Flippa, doing over 98k on 5 transactions there - yet has no feedback positive or negative, and no history under their user name of the previous transactions. Hatfield's history is not prone to vetting by anyone because Flippa doesn't have it, but that is not the case for all users who buy/sell domains there. So, things get suspicious from lack of transparency.

In order for Hatfield to sell someone else's domains as a broker he should have "Broker" labeled on his profile. His sales history is such that with his prior listings having been private, nobody knows who/what he is about. Likewise, it could be assumed by some that Jason King may have a history with Flippa and for whatever reason (ban, shill, whatever) he can still do business with people who may not wish to do business with him simply by using Hatfield Ventures as the Straw Man. Again, Transparency.

Furthermore, using the example, people have to wonder - is Hatfield/Josh actually paying for their premium listing, was it a gimme from Flippa for Hatfields huge revenues on 5 prior transactions, or..........? Personally, I don't care what Flippa gives away and to whom they give it, that's their business- but it brings me to my second piece of feedback......

Reasonably equitable:

Using the same example above, if you go to Flippa right now and simply click on "auctions" under domains, the second listing is for the one mentioned above. It is at $300 as of this post with 2 bids and 29 days remaining. But why? Looking further down the list you can find premium auctions of better quality, lesser time frame, more bids, lesser/more money - but this one is number 2. That doesn't seem equitable at all, and this same "flaw" for lack of more direct terms is a huge stop sign for using Flippa. It isn't equitable when one user may be brokering domains for someone else, and getting carte blanche treatments doing so, but they don't have their history there for us to see like most others do. As well, why should someone pay top money to promote their domain if Flippa can't run an equitable process?

Change your default auction tab to one metric only and stick with it so people know what they're getting. You know you can't make it ' views, or bids, or amount' because those metrics can be.....influenced? Make it by ending time by default.

When lacking transparency and equity, given the website's' history, changes to costs/layout/features...etc, will be moot to most domainers here at Namepros. Flippa's bread and butter is raking revenue from new users on a pipe dream willing to lay out big money on a low value domain with dreams of riches. Eventually that market will dwindle, and if Flippa hasn't bridged the gap with Domainers as a whole, Flippa will dwindle along with it.

Good luck.

Marketplace Integrity is a relative term open to a slanted perspective. But since there is a Flippa thread asking about feedback - it comes with a caveat that if it isn't constructive and without an off color odor it will be deleted - I wanted to post my reply here as well. Marketplace integrity seems a good segue -

 

[Raindrops]

Actually, in my quote in the above post I question why "Josh" is selling "Jasons" domains, and who is Jason in all of this. I just found the answer:

Jason is this person - https://flippa.com/users/698100/listings

 

[HeyNow]

Alas my experience with Flippa has also been bad as both a seller and buyer. Despite winning domains through auction as well as selling domains through auctions nothing ever really changed hands between any parties. Both buyers and sellers backed out once it came time to pay the piper. All I am left with is a hole in my bank account from their steep listing fees.

Hope this helps.

Oh, it helps.

Hopefully you'll learn not to hand your hard-earned cash over to a company that makes money from you and your property whether or not your domain sells there, and has no accountability when the buyer or seller craps out of the deal. No need to change policy, they already have your cash, and that's what it's all about.

Stop paying fees. Like real estate brokers, domain auction platforms should make nothing (nada, zip, zero) until a sale is complete. Just like real estate. Just like major-league domain sales.

Just think about how sleazy it seems making a few hundred bucks off of you then telling you that you're out of luck 'cause the buyer or seller changed his/her mind. And by the way, we're keeping the fees we charged you! Hahahahahahaha!

 

[ODST.com]

Oh, it helps.

Hopefully you'll learn not to hand your hard-earned cash over to a company that makes money from you and your property whether or not your domain sells there, and has no accountability when the buyer or seller craps out of the deal. No need to change policy, they already have your cash, and that's what it's all about.

Stop paying fees. Like real estate brokers, domain auction platforms should make nothing (nada, zip, zero) until a sale is complete. Just like real estate. Just like major-league domain sales.

Just think about how sleazy it seems making a few hundred bucks off of you then telling you that you're out of luck 'cause the buyer or seller changed his/her mind. And by the way, we're keeping the fees we charged you! Hahahahahahaha!

Agree

 

[discobull]

Oh, it helps.

Hopefully you'll learn not to hand your hard-earned cash over to a company that makes money from you and your property whether or not your domain sells there, and has no accountability when the buyer or seller craps out of the deal. No need to change policy, they already have your cash, and that's what it's all about.

Stop paying fees. Like real estate brokers, domain auction platforms should make nothing (nada, zip, zero) until a sale is complete. Just like real estate. Just like major-league domain sales.

Just think about how sleazy it seems making a few hundred bucks off of you then telling you that you're out of luck 'cause the buyer or seller changed his/her mind. And by the way, we're keeping the fees we charged you! Hahahahahahaha!

The interesting thing about Flippa is that they don't even pretend that their platform works. If you search through the forums you'll find them berating customers who expect to get sales simply by putting up listings and buying $350 upgrades. The message is that if you want to get a sale on Flippa, you have to be prepared to also do your own mailings. In other words, you have to supply Flippa with the domain, pay Flippa a $9 listing fee, pay Flippa a $350 upgrade fee, supply Flippa with a buyer, and then pay Flippa a 10% commission.

To me, that sounds like way too much aggravation. I figure I can save myself some time and effort by skipping the listing and simply sending Flippa a check whenever I get a sale on my own.

 

[m-i-k-e]

Alas my experience with Flippa has also been bad as both a seller and buyer. Despite winning domains through auction as well as selling domains through auctions nothing ever really changed hands between any parties. Both buyers and sellers backed out once it came time to pay the piper. All I am left with is a hole in my bank account from their steep listing fees.

Hope this helps.

I can one up this, my buyer paid (via Flippa Escrow), I pushed the name, but, it's Flippa that has decided not to pay me and keep the money.

I haven't used Flippa in months now but when I had, Flippa Escrow worked as you would expect it would, until it didn't

This time they asked me to send them a photo of me holding my ID. Apparently some people send them this as a "security measure". To me it creates a whole new security issue.. if I send that pic out once it's out there. What's stopping whoever has access to that image down the road from using that picture as 'proof' that they are me? Anyways I told Flippa that I won't send that picture to anybody, they already have a lot of info on me and I have already carried out my end of the bargain, the buyer has my name... yet still Flippa has my money.

They say they'll pay me if I send the picture of me holding my ID which seems ridiculous to me.

If you use Flippa Escrow and don't feel comfortable sending photos of yourself holding your ID to strangers on the internet take my story as a warning.

 

[Jen-Sin]

Anyone noticed similarities with characters played by Seth Rollins and Kane in WWE?

 

[ODST.com]

I can one up this, my buyer paid (via Flippa Escrow), I pushed the name, but, it's Flippa that has decided not to pay me and keep the money.

I haven't used Flippa in months now but when I had, Flippa Escrow worked as you would expect it would, until it didn't

This time they asked me to send them a photo of me holding my ID. Apparently some people send them this as a "security measure". To me it creates a whole new security issue.. if I send that pic out once it's out there. What's stopping whoever has access to that image down the road from using that picture as 'proof' that they are me? Anyways I told Flippa that I won't send that picture to anybody, they already have a lot of info on me and I have already carried out my end of the bargain, the buyer has my name... yet still Flippa has my money.

They say they'll pay me if I send the picture of me holding my ID which seems ridiculous to me.

If you use Flippa Escrow and don't feel comfortable sending photos of yourself holding your ID to strangers on the internet take my story as a warning.

Should give em your birth certificate and SS card too while you are at it. That is pretty cut and dry. They shouldn't keep your money.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

I can one up this, my buyer paid (via Flippa Escrow), I pushed the name, but, it's Flippa that has decided not to pay me and keep the money.

I haven't used Flippa in months now but when I had, Flippa Escrow worked as you would expect it would, until it didn't

This time they asked me to send them a photo of me holding my ID. Apparently some people send them this as a "security measure". To me it creates a whole new security issue.. if I send that pic out once it's out there. What's stopping whoever has access to that image down the road from using that picture as 'proof' that they are me? Anyways I told Flippa that I won't send that picture to anybody, they already have a lot of info on me and I have already carried out my end of the bargain, the buyer has my name... yet still Flippa has my money.

They say they'll pay me if I send the picture of me holding my ID which seems ridiculous to me.

If you use Flippa Escrow and don't feel comfortable sending photos of yourself holding your ID to strangers on the internet take my story as a warning.

I am not here to say Flippa is flawless but if you read ther TOS then it means you agreed to these sort of requests are their TOS says " You agree to provide Flippa with all identification documents (including copies of passports and drivers licences) which Flippa requests from you from time to time for the purposes of verifying your identity."

So I think it is unfair to make it seem and sound as if They make these requests without your prior consent. But of coursw it does happen as we most of the time dont read these long documents lol.

You were the seller but it happened to me as a buyer so it is random. What flagged me and made them request that was because the CC I used to pay was from another country than the country I was in at the time so they became suspicious . I was even told to hold my CC while showing the last 4 digits only lol.

I was upset of course but in the same time I knew I agreed to send them any documwnts they require and I couls not lose what I won that day

 

[m-i-k-e]

I am not here to say Flippa is flawless but if you read ther TOS then it means you agreed to these sort of requests are their TOS says " You agree to provide Flippa with all identification documents (including copies of passports and drivers licences) which Flippa requests from you from time to time for the purposes of verifying your identity."

So I think it is unfair to make it seem and sound as if They make these requests without your prior consent. But of coursw it does happen as we most of the time dont read these long documents lol.

You were the seller but it happened to me as a buyer so it is random. What flagged me and made them request that was because the CC I used to pay was from another country than the country I was in at the time so they became suspicious . I was even told to hold my CC while showing the last 4 digits only lol.

I was upset of course but in the same time I knew I agreed to send them any documwnts they require and I couls not lose what I won that day

Of course I didn't comb through their TOS when I signed up with them. I still haven't because it won't change the fact that I'm not going to put my privacy at risk so that they'll somehow feel more secure in paying me my money . There is no reason that they should need a picture of me holding my ID to send me payment. There was nothing suspicious about any of my log-ins or where they were supposed to send the money. Same place as always, to me in Canada.

If others haven't read through their TOS then this will seem to come out of the blue. If they don't care about that then my story doesn't matter, but it's a warning for those that do.

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

Of course I didn't comb through their TOS when I signed up with them. I still haven't because it won't change the fact that I'm not going to put my privacy at risk so that they'll somehow feel more secure in paying me my money . There is no reason that they should need a picture of me holding my ID to send me payment. There was nothing suspicious about any of my log-ins or where they were supposed to send the money. Same place as always, to me in Canada.

If others haven't read through their TOS then this will seem to come out of the blue. If they don't care about that then my story doesn't matter, but it's a warning for those that do.

So you mean you would never send your ID even if another company asked you? For example Godaddy, if you lock out of your account etc ? Sometimes we have NO choice and many companies ask for these things.

 

[discobull]

So you mean you would never send your ID even if another company asked you? For example Godaddy, if you lock out of your account etc ? Sometimes we have choice and many companies ask for these things.

I think it's a matter of trust. If you feel that Flippa's reputation is one of integrity, competence, and professionalism, you'll be comfortable sending them your ID. But, if you've been paying attention...

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

I think it's a matter of trust. If you feel that Flippa's reputation is one of integrity, competence, and professionalism, you'll be comfortable sending them your ID. But, if you've been paying attention...

You are right and oh boy this thread did uncover a lot of things that we only suspected.

 

[m-i-k-e]

So you mean you would never send your ID even if another company asked you? For example Godaddy, if you lock out of your account etc ? Sometimes we have NO choice and many companies ask for these things.

+​

I think it's a matter of trust. If you feel that Flippa's reputation is one of integrity, competence, and professionalism, you'll be comfortable sending them your ID. But, if you've been paying attention...

discobull's suggestion weighs into it, but also the reason why they'd want the ID. I sent a copy of my driver's license to DropCatch which in hindsight I wish I didn't. The reason at the time was that they wanted to verify my identity prior to allowing me to bid above a certain threshold to maintain auction integrity. In this case Flippa wants a picture of me holding my ID before they'll send payment for a sale of a name that I've already pushed ?? Doesn't make sense.

A huge issue also is that photo identification is meant for use in person. I show my ID you look at my face and confirm that they add up, then you give my ID back to me. A photo of my ID or me holding my ID just means that somebody has a picture of that, not that they are me. Sites say their information is secure all the time, but sites get hacked and if a company like Godaddy is going to give access to my account because somebody sends them a photo of my ID online then that is some pretty sensitive information that I don't want to be sending out to any company that asks for it. It also means that that picture is very valuable to thief, so, I'd prefer to make sure that that picture doesn't exist

 

[Abdullah Abdullah]

nO

+​

discobull's suggestion weighs into it, but also the reason why they'd want the ID. I sent a copy of my driver's license to DropCatch which in hindsight I wish I didn't. The reason at the time was that they wanted to verify my identity prior to allowing me to bid above a certain threshold to maintain auction integrity. In this case Flippa wants a picture of me holding my ID before they'll send payment for a sale of a name that I've already pushed ?? Doesn't make sense.

A huge issue also is that photo identification is meant for use in person. I show my ID you look at my face and confirm that they add up, then you give my ID back to me. A photo of my ID or me holding my ID just means that somebody has a picture of that, not that they are me. Sites say their information is secure all the time, but sites get hacked and if a company like Godaddy is going to give access to my account because somebody sends them a photo of my ID online then that is some pretty sensitive information that I don't want to be sending out to any company that asks for it. It also means that that picture is very valuable to thief, so, I'd prefer to make sure that that picture doesn't exist

Noted and makes sense. Namejet does the same so you become verified bidder lol.

I think after that blog post of how GD allowed someone to gain access easily, many companies will start adding many more security measures since someone can easily get your ID.

 

[discobull]

+​

discobull's suggestion weighs into it, but also the reason why they'd want the ID. I sent a copy of my driver's license to DropCatch which in hindsight I wish I didn't. The reason at the time was that they wanted to verify my identity prior to allowing me to bid above a certain threshold to maintain auction integrity. In this case Flippa wants a picture of me holding my ID before they'll send payment for a sale of a name that I've already pushed ?? Doesn't make sense.

A huge issue also is that photo identification is meant for use in person. I show my ID you look at my face and confirm that they add up, then you give my ID back to me. A photo of my ID or me holding my ID just means that somebody has a picture of that, not that they are me. Sites say their information is secure all the time, but sites get hacked and if a company like Godaddy is going to give access to my account because somebody sends them a photo of my ID online then that is some pretty sensitive information that I don't want to be sending out to any company that asks for it. It also means that that picture is very valuable to thief, so, I'd prefer to make sure that that picture doesn't exist

I think you could make a strong argument that if they were going to require your ID to complete this transaction, that they should have informed you about it before asking you to push the domain. Despite the fact that there's mention of ID requests in their TOS, it's clear that they don't apply that policy with any consistency ( eg I got paid on a catalog listing sale @ low $xxxx without supplying any identification). That means that they can't claim that you should have known an ID would be requested. I don't know how much money is at stake but I wouldn't let them get away with this.

 

[johname]

Ask them if you can Skype flash them the ID