My Issues with Flippa

[STUART MALOFF]

I have used Flippa periodically over the last year or two and I have a couple concerns.

1. I bid on a domain for $155 a couple days ago and went to sleep. When I woke up, I saw that it sold for $65. When I emailed customer support, they indicated that it was the buyer that declined my bid, possibly to get a higher bid. I have never had negative bid history and I cannot fathom why anyone would turn down a $155 offer to sell a domain for $65. Customer support indicated that it was not a normal situation, but at the end of the day, the only one who benefited was the buyer who got the domain at less than 1/2 price. The fact that this can happen at any given auction is disconcerting.

2. The hour added on after someone bids is ridiculous in my opinion. Yes it may keep people going back to their website at all hours of the night and occasional new interest, but auctions extending just 5 minutes keep the bidders there and they will be less likely to be sidetracked. Even if domain investing is your full time job, I am not sure how many bidders will not sleep or set an alarm every hour to bid, especially now knowing any seller does not need to accept your bid. I think this tactic could work with super premium domains, but for the ones going in the $XXX to $X,XXX range, it is not realistic to expect 24-7 interest.

Flippa has a ton of potential, but I predict by the end of 2016 they shorten the auction extend time after additional bids. Adding an occasional new interest by extending it will probably not trump the bidding excitement of a closing auction that extends just a few minutes.

 

[domain invest3r]

I have only tried to use Flippa once (auction is still open) and the frightening susceptibility it has to shill bidding makes me very unsure whether to use it again.

The multitude of "new" users and complete saturation of the marketplace render it seemingly obsolete unless you have a premium name but even then, why would you want to limit your potential clientèle to Flippa users.

Probably being overly harsh. The chap who posts on here for example seems very helpful and honest. The platform is the problem and I don't see that they are doing anything to offer users greater

 

[Rajnish Prasad]

My view is that in Flippa, the seller is unable to view the bidding amount ( in your case it was $155) until he/she accepts you as a Bidder for that domain/website. It happens in most cases that the seller checks the details of bidder ( i.e whether the bidder has a valid email, phone, buyer certification, full name verified by Flippa.). If the seller feels that any of these four credentials are lacking OR if any Bidder has got any negative feedback in Flippa then the seller may doubt on the credibility of the buyer and then he/ she has the option to reject the bidder. The seller also checks the number of successful transaction the bidder has done in past and also sometime the $ value of transaction done by bidder in past also matters to the sellers.
In your case, i cannot say that the above points would be reason of your rejection as a bidder but yes these are the points which the buyer checks while accepting a bidder in Flippa which i myself do as a seller.
So, you were not accepted as bidder and hence the seller was unable to view your bidding amount of $155 and the seller later sold to $65 to some other bidder.
If the seller would have accepted your bid of $155 then the seller is obliged to sell it to the highest bidder and he has no option left to decline the bidding.

I hope this clarifies a bit.

 

[starizec]

I have used Flippa periodically over the last year or two and I have a couple concerns.

1. I bid on a domain for $155 a couple days ago and went to sleep. When I woke up, I saw that it sold for $65. When I emailed customer support, they indicated that it was the buyer that declined my bid, possibly to get a higher bid. I have never had negative bid history and I cannot fathom why anyone would turn down a $155 offer to sell a domain for $65. Customer support indicated that it was not a normal situation, but at the end of the day, the only one who benefited was the buyer who got the domain at less than 1/2 price. The fact that this can happen at any given auction is disconcerting.

2. The hour added on after someone bids is ridiculous in my opinion. Yes it may keep people going back to their website at all hours of the night and occasional new interest, but auctions extending just 5 minutes keep the bidders there and they will be less likely to be sidetracked. Even if domain investing is your full time job, I am not sure how many bidders will not sleep or set an alarm every hour to bid, especially now knowing any seller does not need to accept your bid. I think this tactic could work with super premium domains, but for the ones going in the $XXX to $X,XXX range, it is not realistic to expect 24-7 interest.

Flippa has a ton of potential, but I predict by the end of 2016 they shorten the auction extend time after additional bids. Adding an occasional new interest by extending it will probably not trump the bidding excitement of a closing auction that extends just a few minutes.

To me these are good things. Not bad.

 

[STUART MALOFF]

How much time that should be added on to an auction is opinion, but when you own thousands of domain names and never once defaulted on a payment, how can bidding more than someone during the auction time and not getting the domain be a good thing? Please explain your rational.

 

[starizec]

You are looking from one example.
What if you didn't pay? Then seller need to contact second bidder or relist domain.
He saw something on your profile that he didn't like and declined your bid.
Also, there is option to auto accept all bids.
In your case seller did lose money, and that is his problem. Small number of sellers will do what he did.
@Rajnish Prasad have said it nicely.

As for time thing.
5 minutes is way to short. You can be in midle of thousand things.
With hour added you have more time to counter.

 

[Rajnish Prasad]

How much time that should be added on to an auction is opinion, but when you own thousands of domain names and never once defaulted on a payment, how can bidding more than someone during the auction time and not getting the domain be a good thing? Please explain your rational.

The Marketplaces are customised to take care of the needs of both buyers & sellers and as far as the time factor is concerned, millions of Domains are traded on daily basis & as buyer or seller you are expected to be more vigilant if you are trading seriously and you are full time domainer.
On contrary, you are not always required to micromanage your deals as the you get timely and prompt notification from the websites if you are winning the deal or if you are a top bidder or if you are not accepted as a bidder.
In your case you would have got notification from Flippa support that your bdding was rejected irrespective whether your bidding was highest because to accept a bidder is totally on the discretion of the seller and the seller will not know whether your bidding was $165 or $1650000 until the seller accepts you as a bidder.


As @starizec said, these check points are good things which prevents manipulation and ensures fair and safe transactions.

 

[HeyNow]

Could employee bidding (with only the Seller aware of it, not the Buyer) have anything to do with it?

 

[Archangel]

30 min extensions... I think that's the 'sweet spot.' liquidation.com uses 30, if I'm not mistaken.

 

[markossy]

I have used Flippa periodically over the last year or two and I have a couple concerns.

1. I bid on a domain for $155 a couple days ago and went to sleep. When I woke up, I saw that it sold for $65. When I emailed customer support, they indicated that it was the buyer that declined my bid, possibly to get a higher bid. I have never had negative bid history and I cannot fathom why anyone would turn down a $155 offer to sell a domain for $65. Customer support indicated that it was not a normal situation, but at the end of the day, the only one who benefited was the buyer who got the domain at less than 1/2 price. The fact that this can happen at any given auction is disconcerting.

2. The hour added on after someone bids is ridiculous in my opinion. Yes it may keep people going back to their website at all hours of the night and occasional new interest, but auctions extending just 5 minutes keep the bidders there and they will be less likely to be sidetracked. Even if domain investing is your full time job, I am not sure how many bidders will not sleep or set an alarm every hour to bid, especially now knowing any seller does not need to accept your bid. I think this tactic could work with super premium domains, but for the ones going in the $XXX to $X,XXX range, it is not realistic to expect 24-7 interest.

Flippa has a ton of potential, but I predict by the end of 2016 they shorten the auction extend time after additional bids. Adding an occasional new interest by extending it will probably not trump the bidding excitement of a closing auction that extends just a few minutes.

You see the things from buyer point of view.

Let me tell you how I see the things from seller point of view:

1. I had to pay again hundreds of dollars to flippa for relisting and features some auctions just because some smart guys added bids and then they did not payed for their bids, so before I accept any new bidder I just look to his profile, at his listings, at all contact details and if it is a trusted buyer/seller I will accept, if not I will never accept it for an auction where I will get $100++, maybe for small sites that I am selling at 40-50 I will accept the new users or others.
2. One hour it is the perfect time to eliminate the last call 5 minutes bidders. If you really want something bid before, add you maximum price for it and autobid will be post in your name.

 

[Jen-Sin]

Will it be feasible if a marketplace implements an optional deposit or funding account for bidders who do not wish to be rejected?

4.cn seems to need bidders to place a deposit before bidding. Personally this has prevented me from bidding at 4.cn.

 

[ksusha64]

Flippa is beating all the records. They manage to screw the buyers and the sellers at same time. Thats hard to do! The allow fake bids like no tomorrow, but stop legitimate ones somehow. They overcharge for premium fees insane amount and give it for free to others. Namebio,com will show liquid domains lowest sales happened on flippa somehow, but worthless domains went for 50 K, then somehow they came back to flippa and were sold over and over. You be the judge of it, but I refuse to use them

 

[ForceAwakens]

Extending only 5 minutes (with each new bid) would definitely keep the bidders there.
An hour extension creates “analysis paralysis”. The more time a bidder has to think over their bid, the more they lose enthusiasm and start looking at other options.
Flippa would increase their bottom line a lot if they switched from an hour to only 5 minutes.

 

[markossy]

Extending only 5 minutes (with each new bid) would definitely keep the bidders there.
An hour extension creates “analysis paralysis”. The more time a bidder has to think over their bid, the more they lose enthusiasm and start looking at other options.
Flippa would increase their bottom line a lot if they switched from an hour to only 5 minutes.

Just take a look here in namepros.com auctions, all terms are 72++ hours, so just stop complaining with shitty requests and add some valuable requests for making that market better, not worst that it is now.

 

[notlikeyou]

Maybe I'm dense (highly possible) but let's say a seller has a successful sale, the buyer pays, the seller pushes the domain, and the buyer does not release the funds? What's the protocol or scenario since the seller has no domain and no cash.

 

[markossy]

Maybe I'm dense (highly possible) but let's say a seller has a successful sale, the buyer pays, the seller pushes the domain, and the buyer does not release the funds? What's the protocol or scenario since the seller has no domain and no cash.

That it is not posible as the money are at flippa, flippa must to sent the money to the buyer no matter what.

 

[notlikeyou]

Guess they track the whois to confirm transfer?

 

[NameOmnia]

The Marketplaces are customised to take care of the needs of both buyers & sellers

Marketplaces are customised to take care of the needs of the marketplace, then sometimes they happen to get it right for buyers..or sellers...once in a blue moon for both.

IMO Flippa had potential, they had their peak then something went wrong. What that something is I am not sure but it is almost a certainty that they are the least appealing marketplace atm.