The Domain/Site Auction Platform You Probably Never Heard Of: Flippa.com
Well at least I never heard about Flippa.com until yesterday, when someone wrote me about a domain name they had for sale on this platform.
It looks like the service has been around since June 21, 2009.
Flippa.com (TM) was “created by a team from SitePoint, led by Mark Harbottle, co-founder and chairman of SitePoint.”
“Investors in Flippa include Mark and his co-founder in SitePoint, Matt Mickiewicz, as well as veteran internet entrepreneur Leni Mayo, and MelbourneIT Director and ex-CEO of Hitwise Andrew Walsh.”
Pretty impressive.
Flippa seems to use more of an eBay.com model than lets say at bido.com model.
And actually you can pay quite a bit.
$19 to get an auction up on the platform, plus a 5% commission for a successful auction, meaning the domain sells and the buyer pays, limited to a maximum of $498, but with a $5 minimum.
So the maximum rate will only benefit a domain that sells for over $10K. Sell a domain for $25,000 and you still only pay $498 commission.
Since you have a $19 list fee and a minimum of a $5 commission I would not expect to see any domains selling with a no reserve price.
Like eBay.com, Flippa has quite a few upgrades that you can pay additional fees for, to increase your exposure on the site, or even marketing of the auction, including asking Flippa to Tweet about your auction on their twitter account, but that will set you back $50.
If you bought all of the available upgrades, your listing would cost $135 plus the commission if it sells.
Like eBay.com most listings have a reserve price for an auction and also a buy it now price, the sellers get a trust rating from buyers, and buyers do not get to see the identity of the other bidders.
Each listing shows where the domain is registered and the expiration date, the site statistics as represented by the seller (traffic levels, unique visitors and ppc earnings) and independent site statistics are shown like Alexa.org, Compete.com, Google Page Rank and the number of pages indexed by Yahoo.
A quick look through the most active auctions on the system includes; tweet.in which has 9 bidders and a current high bid of $1,500 (reserve meet) and a buy it now of $8K; and tutorialoutpost.com which currently has 15 bidders, a current high bid price of $8,320 and a buy it now of $35K.
I know your saying that a lot of money for that domain name, but Flippa.com is not only is a platform for selling domains, but also for the sale operating sites, like this one.
According to the seller tutorialoutpost.com generates 62K unique visitors a month and makes $700 a month, meaning the site’s current high bid is just one year of revenue.
Not bad.
All and all there seems to be over 500 listings on the platform currently.
Yes its pricey for the seller, but again at the end of the day, if sellers get sales at levels they are happy with, people will pay the price.
Best of luck to Flippa
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Here’s a NY Times article related to this post:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/technology/29flip.html?pagewanted=all
http://http://marketplace.sitepoint.com/ is somewhat similar to flippa.
I have featured Flippa a few times on DotSauce, when it launched, and today actually within the top 20 places to buy domains in 2010.
On an unrelated note, it was a GREAT day to go domain dropcatching.
The following are all available for registration:
recordpublisher.com
gigwork.com
earkissing.com
settlementlife.com
charityvan.com
gasregister.com
cleangrill.com
blindamericans.com
liverpoolbroadband.com
owndog.com
Enjoy!
Flippa is quite popular… Before it ran as the Sitepoint established sites for sale marketplace… I bought my web businesses there back in 2000… Major place to buy/sell established websites.
Well now you know:) Welcome to the club.
Any thoughts on the domain name they had for sale?
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I’ve visited Flippa.com and probably I will use this service
however, the platform I like still is the 12 years old WebsiteBroker.com
http://websitebroker.com/
also, I’ve found very fast and simple to list domains on sale in the Forum section of DomainNews.com
http://www.domainnews.com/forum/domain-name-for-sale.html
of course, the giant SEDO always will be the #1 but, list a domain on small sites, is a way to have more visibility and avoids to potential buyers to search your domain in millions-domains’ ocean!
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Thanks for the list of domains to register. I took a few. Mike
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just two small criticism about Flippa.com
1. the listing fee is too high since it put out of the game great part of the low cost domains
2. the success fee is too high for a service that isn’t widely known like SEDO
my suggestions are:
- $5 listing fee
- 1% success fee
- no success fee cap
- no success fee minimum
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wrong the site is VERY well known among those that sell established sites… Millions of dollars worth of websites have been sold ever since it was sitepoint marketplace… (before flippia)
The listing fees are very fair… Who wants the low cost junk.. Sell it on DNF/NP
Thanks for the review MHB and great to read the other Flippa related comments and suggestions. One of our priorities at Flippa is to maintain a standard of the websites being sold on Flippa. We are constantly reviewing the offering and listening to our customers to find the sweet spot with listing pricing.
Luke
It of course makes sense that a seller in a pay to play platform would have incentive to list better domains with reasonable reserves than on a “free” listing platform
Best of luck with it and keep us updated.
The site I feel was actually a whole lot better when it was Sitepoint marketplace. I feel like it’s kind of died a bit since it switched.
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the similar WebsiteBroker.com (where I’ve listed three domains) wants $10 to $15 to list a domain but NO success fee
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I came across the site about a month ago. It looks very impressive. On closer inspection though i found myself wondering what the checks and balances there were. For example, I would see a domain listed for sale with a BIN price, and 1 bid, where the bid was like 90% of the BIN. to me that’s smells to high heaven. Like, if there is a BIN of $1k, and I want the domain, I am gonna bid $900, and not go the extra $100 to just outright buy it? I can’t see how that type of bid is not a shill bid, to be honest. Any thoughts on this Luke? thanks
Mike, we do our best at Flippa to ensure sellers don’t setup multiple accounts and bid on their own auctions. We check IP addresses, request phone validation, check for multiple PayPal accounts, and we’re always looking into additional forms of ID checking to try to reduce dodgy bidding and fraud.
At the end of the day though, a domain/website is worth what you’re willing to pay. If you’re willing to pay $1000 then that’s what it’s worth.
I recently purchased a site and paid the BIN. If I’d waited around I probably could have picked it up cheaper, but I did my research and thought the BIN seemed reasonable so I was happy to pay it.
Hi Luke, I appreciate your feedback and all of the steps you’re talking to ensure a proper platform
Not sure whether my point came across though, which is, why would anyone open with an initial bid of 90% of a BIN price? Let’s take the number down to show clearly why its absurd. You set a BIN price of $10 and I as the first bidder come in with a $9 opening bid. That looks a little ridiculous no?
90% is a number i’m pulling out of my keister, but i just had the general impression when looking over some of the inventory that some of the opening bids were so close to the BIN price it just seemed really strange to me.
Sorry if its just me. I’m not trying to put your site down, as I said I think its a really impressive looking platform. Just cant be too careful these days.
There a little to high in fees for me, I was doing some research and found one that’s fairly new but seems promising because of there name (Flip a Script) check them out here http://www.flipascript.com