auctions Whiskey.com [was] at $2,000,000 on Flippa [fake bid removed]

[JudgeMind]

Whiskey.com

Auction on Flippa currently has 10bids and is at $2,000,000

 

[tomcarl]

I'll definitely have to read this thread after a couple of cups of ice coffee one day

 

[Archangel]

There are maybe 6 posts on-topic and the rest is a castigation of Flippa :p

I'll definitely have to read this thread after a couple of cups of ice coffee one day

 

[HeyNow]

There are maybe 6 posts on-topic and the rest is a castigation of Flippa :P

You're right. But the "castigation of Flippa" is relevant and warranted. If not for this thread, there wouldn't be the platform (pun intended) to vent and call a spade a spade. Remember, the key here is any bogus aspect of an auction at Flippa. Fake bids, shill bids, lies, and spin control all have contributed to the frustration of domainers here.

Being taken for fools and treated like idiots by some dweeb who's job it is to put out fires and placate us with BS is certainly "on-topic" as you might characterize it. I certainly would.

Castigation truly deserved, IMHO.

 

[Archangel]

"Calling a spade a spade" -- probably the best way to look at the situation, indeed.

 

[mad409]

Still at 105,000, 12 days left.

 

[wwwweb]

I only have 1 question, why are bidder id's hidden? Who benefits from such actions? What is the purpose of such action? If the bidder, and seller wanted to cut a side deal whois is right there, what purpose does this serve?

 

[tld_org]

Like messaging me on Skype to ask if I knew anybody who'd buy OahuResorts.com from you? When YOU yourself live in Hawaii!?!? I'm not a C-level executive at a Hawaiian resort, Ali. Those people are your neighbors, for God's sake.

That's funny. Worth the thread read in and of itself.

If someone is going to outreach to executives why do you even need the Flippa platform to sell the domain? I never hear of the top brokers refer people to bid on domains on a third party platform. I doubt many C-Level executives will take the time to understand what Flippa is, make sure it is legit, and register and use it.

 

[jideofor]

Kevin, this will be my first time of speaking with a Flippa rep. I must say that I admire your work. You have done great job thus far on flippa domain marketplace.

My only suggestion would be to introduce feeds that report what domain is getting bids, more like an alert on trending bids. This way, it could help those who couldn't use the premium listing to get a fair advantage of the marketplace.

Namejet has similar feature and Godaddy as well.

This will help sellers more.

MHO

 

[FlippaDomains]

Kevin, this will be my first time of speaking with a Flippa rep. I must say that I admire your work. You have done great job thus far on flippa domain marketplace.

My only suggestion would be to introduce feeds that report what domain is getting bids, more like an alert on trending bids. This way, it could help those who couldn't use the premium listing to get a fair advantage of the marketplace.

Namejet has similar feature and Godaddy as well.

This will help sellers more.

MHO

Thank you; I appreciate your kind words, and feedback especially.

Portfolio sales are flourishing on Flippa, albeit the $1 reserve portfolio auctions seem to get the most visibility.

Your portfolio sale that ended today was a pretty cool batch of domains. Let's work on getting that relisted and sold (I'll provide credits and a few suggestions; I am out of office til next week, though).

As for your feedback -- it's a good one, but if you head to www.flippa.com/buy-domains, you can filter by Most Active -- this is measured strictly by bid count, not by who has an upgrade or not.

Drilling down deeper into this suggestion, were you referring to a section that 'alerted' buyers in real-time as to what was trending *that very moment* - i.e. if there's a bidding war going on, or something very popular that's ending, etc; that sort of thing?

 

[domainer111]

Intro: I had a couple of experiences with auction houses recently. A friend of mine had a large collection of magazines so we tried to sell them as collectables.

Now it's ages since I had been on eBay. I noticed we were unable to sell on ebay.com we had to limit ourselves to .ie and .co.uk.

Fair enough I thought, I have just not put the work into eBay in any shape or form over the last few years.

I also had tried Flippa for a name airlineclub.com a few months back - no luck. Again - while I did quite a good description (imho!) and had the logo and all that - I messed up as I was not aware that I had to actually approve each bid as it came in!

So in the end - fiasco! Completely my fault. Just a novice at the system having a go. Some of the description styles used by some of the "flippa brokers" in this thread is very impressive and I tried to use some of the techniques when I ran airlineclub.com.

To conclude: I think it makes perfect sense that there are "flippa brokers" who can do a really professional job on the auctions. It takes time to do it right, it's a job for a specialist. The names look ultra-premium, but is there a list of these brokers anywhere?

 

[jideofor]

Thank you; I appreciate your kind words, and feedback especially.

Portfolio sales are flourishing on Flippa, albeit the $1 reserve portfolio auctions seem to get the most visibility.

Your portfolio sale that ended today was a pretty cool batch of domains. Let's work on getting that relisted and sold (I'll provide credits and a few suggestions; I am out of office til next week, though).

As for your feedback -- it's a good one, but if you head to www.flippa.com/buy-domains, you can filter by Most Active -- this is measured strictly by bid count, not by who has an upgrade or not.

Drilling down deeper into this suggestion, were you referring to a section that 'alerted' buyers in real-time as to what was trending *that very moment* - i.e. if there's a bidding war going on, or something very popular that's ending, etc; that sort of thing?

Thanks I will relist it but I am currently negotiating. However, highest bidder made 3 times auction bid as his offer, I explained why it can't go for that price and offered my price.

He hasn't rejected my offer nor declare if he will still go on with the deal.

What should I do?

 

[HeyNow]

What should I do?

Perhaps you should get some employees of the "auction platform" to bid against the clueless customer and drive up the price. It's the latest rage. Everyone's doing it. Just like the Twist and Mockarena. Oh boy! Just think of all the shekels you can make at the expense of some dumbass bidder who thinks they're getting a fair shake!

Are you proud of yourself yet?

 

[JB Lions]

Perhaps you should get some employees of the "auction platform" to bid against the clueless customer and drive up the price. It's the latest rage. Everyone's doing it. Just like the Twist and Mockarena. Oh boy! Just think of all the shekels you can make at the expense of some dumbass bidder who thinks they're getting a fair shake!

Are you proud of yourself yet?

Can you list some of the auctions you're currently seeing this with?

 

[ImageAuthors]

Can you list some of the auctions you're currently seeing this with?

You can't see it. That's the point / problem.

We have no idea who is bidding in whose auctions. So we have no way to judge how many of those bids are from people / aliases with no intention of buying.

There have been some very suspicious auctions recently. Bids up to $xx,xxx. Next bid will meet the reserve. Yet no sale. Not even after the auction.

Plenty of cases like that over the past months. And only the clumsy scammers would be that blatant. Most will cover their tracks better.

I don't think we ought to make a habit of pointing at specific Flippa users as though we know for a fact that they're engaging in fraud. From a legal perspective, that's dangerous. Without access to the evidence that could confirm such allegations -- which is maintained privately by Flippa -- we'd be walking on thin ice.

But it's obviously happening. The only question is how much. Well, I guess the other questions are "Where?" and "Who?" But we can't really discuss these topics except with the lights off.

If I wanted to "out" people, I could. But why make enemies? Why damage somebody's halfway legitimate sales just because they use shill bids?

For instance, I have emails / PMs from at least one Flippa user whose transaction history totals $xxx,xxx in which he asks me to place bids beneath his reserve in order to generate an impression of buyer demand.

And I have emails / PMs from prominent domainers volunteering to place bids beneath my reserve for Flippa auctions in order to give them a boost. Those offers I've always politely declined, although I believe they're generally accepted. In case those people are reading this, I can assure you that I don't intend to identify you. Calling attention to those people would be a lousy way to respond to an offer meant to be generous, friendly, and cooperative. Even though I object to fake bids, I understand why people consider them / offer them / use them. The system itself is dysfunctional.

Isn't it a bit gross that we must point fingers as "tattle tales" (without access to concrete evidence) or else expose people who have written to us privately asking for or offering bids as favors? If we do either of these things, don't we degrade ourselves?

Yet if we say shill bidding is happening, Flippa will insist that we document it for them -- which always means speculating without evidence (Flippa has the evidence) or else informing on people.

 

[jideofor]

Perhaps you should get some employees of the "auction platform" to bid against the clueless customer and drive up the price. It's the latest rage. Everyone's doing it. Just like the Twist and Mockarena. Oh boy! Just think of all the shekels you can make at the expense of some dumbass bidder who thinks they're getting a fair shake!

Are you proud of yourself yet?

thanks but I am not interested in what you wrote above... even though you are trying to use my post to pass a message across. All I want to know is how to handle post auction negotiation as this is my first time.

 

[ImageAuthors]

All I want to know is how to handle post auction negotiation as this is my first time.

PM me if you'd like some tips.

 

[HeyNow]

Can you list some of the auctions you're currently seeing this with?

I'm not a Seller there, so I wouldn't know. All I know is the policy of Flippa, according to the CEO in 2012. Of course I don't know which auctions Flippa employees participate in and which auctions they don't participate in. I'm not a Seller there, so it seems I'm not entitled to that information if Flippa's policy, as stated in the interview referenced herein, is indeed current. Perhaps you can tell me, Mr. Lions, is that policy still current?


6) Does Flippa allow employees to bid on auctions ?

“We do allow our staff to bid on auctions as long as the bidders are
clear about this with sellers, however we’re usually so busy working
with Flippa, that our staff of 12 doesn’t have the time to be buying
more sites.


Here's the link to the whole interview: http://tldinvestors.com/2012/11/quick-chat-with-david-slutzkin-ceo-flippa.html


Seems like the only way I'd know if a Flippa employee was bidding against me would be if I was the Seller of the domain. Highly unlikely I'd be bidding on a domain I already own.

So tell me, Mr. Lions, how would anyone but the Seller know if a Flippa employee was participating in any particular auction in which Flippa was involved? Don't forget to answer this question, as inconvenient as it may be for you.

The problem is, as far as I can ascertain, a buyer/bidder wouldn't know a Flippa employee was bidding against them. So it would be impossible for a typical buyer to be able to say for certainty whether or not a Flippa employee was driving up prices or not. Do you see it differently? Please do tell.

With all due respect (and not much I might add), Mr. Lions, it appears to me that you don't seem to care much if an auction entity allows it's employees to bid against clueless customers. Your spots are showing.

 

[Archangel]

Simple solution: allow sellers to enable/disable Flippa employee's bids. How hard would that be? Have all employees' usernames in a MySQL table. If a box is ticked, all usernames in said table would be blocked from bidding. Easy as cake.

 

[JB Lions]

I'm not a Seller there, so I wouldn't know. All I know is the policy of Flippa, according to the CEO in 2012. Of course I don't know which auctions Flippa employees participate in and which auctions they don't participate in. I'm not a Seller there, so it seems I'm not entitled to that information if Flippa's policy, as stated in the interview referenced herein, is indeed current. Perhaps you can tell me, Mr. Lions, is that policy still current?


6) Does Flippa allow employees to bid on auctions ?

“We do allow our staff to bid on auctions as long as the bidders are
clear about this with sellers, however we’re usually so busy working
with Flippa, that our staff of 12 doesn’t have the time to be buying
more sites.


Here's the link to the whole interview: http://tldinvestors.com/2012/11/quick-chat-with-david-slutzkin-ceo-flippa.html


Seems like the only way I'd know if a Flippa employee was bidding against me would be if I was the Seller of the domain. Highly unlikely I'd be bidding on a domain I already own.

So tell me, Mr. Lions, how would anyone but the Seller know if a Flippa employee was participating in any particular auction in which Flippa was involved? Don't forget to answer this question, as inconvenient as it may be for you.

The problem is, as far as I can ascertain, a buyer/bidder wouldn't know a Flippa employee was bidding against them. So it would be impossible for a typical buyer to be able to say for certainty whether or not a Flippa employee was driving up prices or not. Do you see it differently? Please do tell.

With all due respect (and not much I might add), Mr. Lions, it appears to me that you don't seem to care much if an auction entity allows it's employees to bid against clueless customers. Your spots are showing.

So your answer is no. Because you said - "Everyone's doing it." referring to people getting employees to bid against others. You made that claim, so I was just looking for you to actually back up something for once.

As far as employees bidding, in the other thread I already addressed that and gave solutions for it.

There are a few other things in this thread that are interesting, better response when I'm more awake. Shill bidding (here vs. other places), do performers deserve more (yes, short answer), is complaining about shill bidding and then not doing anything when somebody offers it, part of the problem? etc.

Side note, sales are happening there. There is no disputing that. I read here about Shane's 2 sales there recently. Checking out this week's sales report - http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

I see 4 Flippa sales in the top 20.

In the Non .Com gTLDs sales, they have 5 out of the top 8.

Myself, I only put up a handful, sold one recently without any problem. To a brand new user. Have some credits and will try some better ones in January to get a better idea of how I perform there. I tend to lean to the opinions of people who have actually used the platform vs. some in this thread who have never, even tho they raise some good points. You have people that have used it and don't like it, you have people that use it and do, and some are doing pretty good. In the end the only thing that matters is how you do with it. It's good to get opinions, do your homework, but sometimes you need to get your feet wet and try things out yourself.

Oh, and the Appraisals section, they should go ahead and kill that. It's one big negative/drag on the site.

 

[HiTechBiniou]

Hi everybody,

Interesting discussion.

But I can't seem to find out how to PM a member here? I just registered but can't see PM on members' profile page.

I know this is off topic but I must first contact people before I put my 2cents in this discussion since I am a new Flippa user for 6 months now.

Same thing for Flippa. I can't PM a member there. Please, show me how to PM members here and on Flippa.

best regards to all domainers

 

[FlippaDomains]

Oh, and the Appraisals section, they should go ahead and kill that. It's one big negative/drag on the site.

I appreciate all your thoughts, and am happy to provide personal assistance with your selling efforts. As for the appraisal credit, the slaughter of this will be occurring ANY day now. I look forward to popping back here to announce it. It's needed, and time.

Talk to you soon.

 

[equity78]

Hi everybody,

Interesting discussion.

But I can't seem to find out how to PM a member here? I just registered but can't see PM on members' profile page.

I know this is off topic but I must first contact people before I put my 2cents in this discussion since I am a new Flippa user for 6 months now.

Same thing for Flippa. I can't PM a member there. Please, show me how to PM members here and on Flippa.

best regards to all domainers

Click the member name the pop up will show you a link that says, Start A Conversation.

 

[HiTechBiniou]

OK, thanks TLD. I did that but I was afraid it was public as it says "allow anyone to participate" or something like this, I don't quite remember.
best regards

 

[mad409]

$170,000 top offer, unsold.

 

[DU]

F...heavy marketing, outbound and PR campaigns will and must be held to bring endusers into the bidding. I will always choose Flippa. I have had 100% success with them.

Sorry that you're no longer at 100% success - on the bright side, that heavy marketing, outbound and PR campaigns did bring all those end users into the bidding... you know those with a history of bids $416, $201, $100.

So your answer is no. Because you said - "Everyone's doing it." .

So when Irving Berlin wrote the lyrics to "Everybody's Doin' It Now" he literally meant everyone? Wow. There I was thinking he was using hyperbole as some kind of literary device.

I must first contact people before I put my 2cents in this discussion since I am a new Flippa user for 6 months now.

You don't need any permission to do anything. You can always put in 1c and use @userid to get specific people to see you want them to provide input for the remaining penny.