Flippa's "Catalog" domain portfolio listings (Free to list and 10% commission)

[NameFu]

Maybe I'm super late on this, but I just noticed today that Flippa has a new service to compete with Sedo, allowing you to list your whole domain portfolio for free with a 10% commission on sales.

Have any of you listed your portfolio there yet, and how's your experience been so far?

 

[FlippaDomains]

Thanks for your inquiry. We're constantly improving this section of our marketplace (it's been live for a few months, and "officially" for a little more than a month), and I'll leave other members to sound-off on what they think of it thus far.

Some quick things to note:

- Free to list any number of domains; verification is necessary in order to allow the listings to go live.

- The Catalog offers Offer/Counter-Offer and Buy/Now, with Push to Auction capability

- Flat 10% commission on everything sold; no additional fees (but pushing to an auction is $9 each, unless you email me first to discuss strategies and inventory, in which case it's usually highly subsidized if not free)

- As mentioned above, we're constantly improving it -- so some of the things we're working on currently is: better verification via WhoIs data, ability to view and edit in bulk, a CSV upload functionality and a very imminent way to separate auction from catalog results on the homepage.

Any subsequent questions or feedback, please let me hear all!

Thanks,
Kevin Fink
Director, Domains
@FlippaDomains

 

[Weber]

Hi Kevin,

Use of the basic Flippa search can give irrelevant results and more concerning, results with precedence to pages upon pages of catalog or expired listings over current, active auctions. Good for catalog listings. Bad for active auction listings.

Concerning expired auctions, how long do they stay listed on Flippa for offers and how do users remove them from taking offers status? An opt-in, opt-out option?

 

[FlippaDomains]

Hi Kevin,

Use of the basic Flippa search can give irrelevant results and more concerning, results with precedence to pages upon pages of catalog or expired listings over current, active auctions. Good for catalog listings. Bad for active auction listings.

Concerning expired auctions, how long do they stay listed on Flippa for offers and how do users remove them from taking offers status? An opt-in, opt-out option?

Hi @Weber -- Great points, and I appreciate the feedback.

Within the first chunk of October, we'll be unveiling some massive changes to domains' visibility. In that, we'll be completely revamping the search experience. I'd like to hear followup feedback upon this new launch. Things should be much clearer and easier to navigate, and you'll be able to separate Auctions from Catalog listings with the click of a button.

As for expired auctions, they'll remain live for six months as a 'Make Offer' listing -- unless you (the seller) decide to delist. There is a button we just added that every seller is able to click (visible at top of the expired auction's listing) in order to do just this.

Hope this helps, and don't hesitate to reach out with further questions...

 

[NameFu]

@FlippaDomains You guys should make it so that sellers can delete their auctions if they go unsuccessful. There is of course the option to set an auction to "private" but we shouldn't have to pay for that after an auction has run it's course. Charging us to set an auction (that's completely over) to private could be seen as taking advantage of your customers.

If I want to sell a domain somewhere else (not on your platform) and a failed Flippa auction is sitting around for potential buyers to find on google, that could effect not only my chances to sell, but also how much I could sell it for....especially considering that a domain over the years can gain value and the bids on a 2 year old auction page may not represent a domain's current value.

We shouldn't have to pay to sweep things up...This should be a given feature at least after an auction has closed, successful or not.

It's not my business to tell folks how to run theirs, but just giving you heads up, because I highly doubt that I'm the only one with this problem

 

[discobull]

Thanks for your inquiry. We're constantly improving this section of our marketplace (it's been live for a few months, and "officially" for a little more than a month), and I'll leave other members to sound-off on what they think of it thus far.

Some quick things to note:

- Free to list any number of domains; verification is necessary in order to allow the listings to go live.

- The Catalog offers Offer/Counter-Offer and Buy/Now, with Push to Auction capability

- Flat 10% commission on everything sold; no additional fees (but pushing to an auction is $9 each, unless you email me first to discuss strategies and inventory, in which case it's usually highly subsidized if not free)

- As mentioned above, we're constantly improving it -- so some of the things we're working on currently is: better verification via WhoIs data, ability to view and edit in bulk, a CSV upload functionality and a very imminent way to separate auction from catalog results on the homepage.

Any subsequent questions or feedback, please let me hear all!

Thanks,
Kevin Fink
Director, Domains
@FlippaDomains

I've tried it and the present lack of bulk editing is very frustrating. The biggest problem is that the default minimum offer is set to $1. If left as is, it means getting $10 and $20 offers all day. On the other hand, changing the minimum offer on a few hundred domains is a daunting task, because in addition to having to do it manually the interface is also still very primitive. For example, only 50 domains can be viewed at a time, and only 5 page numbers are visible at a time. So, to edit domain #300, you first have to click on the page 5 link before page 6 is accessible. If you want to view page 10, you first have to click on page 5, then page 9, then page 10. The more pages you have the worse the situation becomes.

Then, there's the issue of how errors are handled. For example, if I go to the trouble of manually changing the minimum offer on all 50 domains listed on page 6 and I inadvertently click on "update selected" before I've remembered to change the "bulk actions" drop down to "update pricing", too bad for me -- all 50 get reset to $1 and I'm taken back to page 1 and have to start all over again. That also apparently happens if there's an offer on one of the domains on the page I'm trying to edit ( ie if there's an offer on one of the 50, the bulk action is rejected on all 50 and they are all reset to $1) -- and it happens without an error message being generated so you're left to guess what the problem is.

My suggestion would be that until you get the bulk editing features in place, that you at least raise the default minimum offer to $100 or $250 to reduce the number of nonsense offers that we have to contend with.

Hope this helps.

 

[Jeeps]

@FlippaDomains You guys should make it so that sellers can delete their auctions if they go unsuccessful. There is of course the option to set an auction to "private" but we shouldn't have to pay for that after an auction has run it's course. Charging us to set an auction (that's completely over) to private could be seen as taking advantage of your customers.

If I want to sell a domain somewhere else (not on your platform) and a failed Flippa auction is sitting around for potential buyers to find on google, that could effect not only my chances to sell, but also how much I could sell it for....especially considering that a domain over the years can gain value and the bids on a 2 year old auction page may not represent a domain's current value.

We shouldn't have to pay to sweep things up...This should be a given feature at least after an auction has closed, successful or not.

It's not my business to tell folks how to run theirs, but just giving you heads up, because I highly doubt that I'm the only one with this problem

Agree with this. +1.

 

[NameFu]

Bump!

Thanks for any feedback on my request for consideration. It's just a heads up and it would be nice to know if you guys would be working on making it a reality.

@FlippaDomains

 

[NameFu]

Bump! @FlippaDomains Not sure if you guys saw it or not, but I suggested a new feature to delete auctions after they've closed. Please see my post (about up), and let me know if it's realistic. Not trying to be annoying, just letting you guys know about something that I know many of your customers are having to deal with and are probably thinking the same thing....thanks!!

 

[tomcarl]

I'd agree that archiving unsold domains for too long doesn't do anyone any good. A month or so is understandable for marketplace research purposes, but more than that is unnecessary and devaluing domains.

 

[NameFu]

I have a feeling Flippa may want to keep this function unavailable for SEO reasons....the more auction pages that stay up, the more Flippa.com gets indexed in Google....so why offer the option for us sellers to delete our pages?

Just a hunch.....until @FlippaDomains replies with an explanation on why they don't offer this feature, we can only guess.

If anyone else has any info on this please do let us know, thanks!

 

[FlippaDomains]

Hi all!

Some reason, I wasn't notified via email about this thread and just spotted it.

Full response forthcoming, but in short -- I see the point being made, and hope to work with all of you to make this happen on our end.

More soon...

 

[NameFu]

Thanks FlippaDomains. I appreciate you getting back with us about this.

 

[highondomaine]

I just put up a flippa catalog list of 60 domains.. will report on how it goes

 

[gene438]

I put up about 50 names .... We will see and report back

 

[Billy Wagner]

Just set up my catalog. Everything went smoothly, as I only added a few vs. all the domains I own. One feature I personally would like to be added would be the option to upload a logo for the domain. The few I listed all have logos, and I think having those posted could potentially increase interest. Thanks again for the new feature!

 

[NameFu]

I second that...it would be great to be able to add a logo for a domain. It would be a win / win for everyone IMHO...

 

[discobull]

Just set up my catalog. Everything went smoothly, as I only added a few vs. all the domains I own. One feature I personally would like to be added would be the option to upload a logo for the domain. The few I listed all have logos, and I think having those posted could potentially increase interest. Thanks again for the new feature!

Apparently, what you're asking for is already available. After I listed my domains at the end of Sept, I received emails for a percentage of them that went as follows:

"Hi <me>,

Flippa's Domains Team has tagged mydomainname.com as brandable. This signals to buyers looking for a branded or corporate identity that your domain could be a perfect fit and means more exposure for your listing.

Free upgrade for you

We’ve found domains like yours attract much more interest when coupled with a unique image, for example, a concept logo. As a free gift from Flippa, we’d like to offer to attach one on your listing (normally $120).

To take us up on this offer, simply reply to this email and attach the image you’d like to add to your auction.

Must be sized 160x135px

No adult imagery

Subject to moderator approval "


FYI, I didn't follow up on this so not sure how well this feature works.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Hey all,

re. Logos -- they are available, but for domains deemed brandable, and at auction only.

Are you saying you'd like a logo to be attached to your Catalog listing? How would you expect that to look, given the condensed layout?

As for deleting unsold domains, this is TBD...I'm working on gathering feedback about what we might do in meantime to make this shift.

And as for bulk-edit / delete issues with the catalog ~ I'm on it. We're going to be revamping the catalog soon after our next big push -- which will involve changes to the Domain View / Browse (and search) main page, as well as the Domain 'Sell' flow.

Will be in touch.

 

[Billy Wagner]

Even if it wasn't on the catalog page due to the current layout, if we could have logos in the top section next to the domain name on individual domain name pages that would be beneficial I believe.

 

[FlippaDomains]

Even if it wasn't on the catalog page due to the current layout, if we could have logos in the top section next to the domain name on individual domain name pages that would be beneficial I believe.

That's something we can look into for sure...

 

[Edgar Jacobs]

I want to bulk list a bunch of domains but I have 30+ email addresses associated with these. How will I be able to verify ownership of all these?

 

[FlippaDomains]

I want to bulk list a bunch of domains but I have 30+ email addresses associated with these. How will I be able to verify ownership of all these?

Do you have access to these email addresses?

 

[discobull]

Since flippa support seems to be non-existent, I'm wondering if anyone on here has any experience with responding to offers on a catalog listing.

Whenever I've counteroffered, the new offer alert hasn't gone away and my counteroffer doesn't appear anywhere on the record. Immediately after I place my counteroffer, I'm taken to a page that says that I need to verify my phone number and credit card number. Further down, it says that my phone number has already been verified so there's nothing for me to do there.

The credit card verification part says that that's for buyers so I've simply ignored it since I'm a seller. Do I need to verify my credit card number to sell? Has my counteroffer gone through? I have no idea where things stand and I'm not getting any help from support.

 

[discobull]

Since flippa support seems to be non-existent, I'm wondering if anyone on here has any experience with responding to offers on a catalog listing.

Whenever I've counteroffered, the new offer alert hasn't gone away and my counteroffer doesn't appear anywhere on the record. Immediately after I place my counteroffer, I'm taken to a page that says that I need to verify my phone number and credit card number. Further down, it says that my phone number has already been verified so there's nothing for me to do there.

The credit card verification part says that that's for buyers so I've simply ignored it since I'm a seller. Do I need to verify my credit card number to sell? Has my counteroffer gone through? I have no idea where things stand and I'm not getting any help from support.

Ok, the credit card verification seems to be the issue. Apparently you need to be certified as a buyer in order to make a counteroffer on your own domain. Arrrgggh.