Website Flippers I Have a Quick Question

I am by no means an expert in site flipping, but I have sold one website/blog.

I would recommend not telling the reserve because I would expect that to encourage more bidding activity.

On the other hand, refusing to share your reserve price could also turn away buyers.

Overall, I would probably not share the reserve price if someone asked me, but I am not sure what would be the best choice.

Thanks Nate. I agree with what you say to an extend but...

It almost becomes an act of goodwill to show your cards, but I could be very wrong here.

Yeah tell. However, always make sure you Reserve price is very close to the BIN price. I notice people don't bother bidding again once the reserve has been met.

Not always be majority of the time people don't bid again once another person has met the reserve price.

I never use a reserve price. I set my minimum bid to the minimum I will take. That is my 'reserve'.

As a buyer of auctions (not web sites) I always review a reserve price as a seller's ploy to not sell an item and hide things. I prefer 100% transparency on people I deal with online.

I guess though if you are trying to sell an item and create a lot of activity with lots of bids, setting a low ($1) starting price and having a reserve price would be the way to go, but if you are worried the bids won't go high enough, then I would work on the value of the site to make sure it is worth what you are trying to get.

Re. Success Fee: 5 percent. The seller determines who will pay the fee. May choose seller paying it; buyer paying it; or split equally between buyer and seller.

As for reserve...I see no logical reason to reveal that information. A reserve price is kept secret by Flippa (and eBay, etc.) for a reason, and they have the data to back them up.

My answer would be, I'll tell you the reserve price after you place a bid. This will keep the momentum going, even if the bidding is currently much lower than the reserve.

Makes sense gsport11, I would agree!

What would your advice be on the 3 options:
The Seller Should Take Care Of It?

I also like the $1.00 Beginning Price and The Reserve Price. What is your opinion is the best way to go about it?

I've sold a lot of sites on Flippa, and if I have a reserve and someone asks via PM, I tell them.

In my experience, if someone is asking for the reserve via PM, it's often because they're interested in placing a bid for that amount. You've placed the reserve at a price you're willing to accept, so why keep it a secret to a potential buyer? Maybe the BIN price is over their budget but they want to try their luck at grabbing it at the reserve price.

I've had several buyers ask me and then immediately bid that amount.

If you get over the reserve early, that's a good thing, because when other potential buyers view your listing, they see that others think it's worth the price (and are willing to buy), and that helps to validate their own interest in your site.

Buyers already know why you posted a low starting bid with a reserve (to get more action started quickly), so I see no reason to be secretive about the reserve amount via PM.

There are other benefits to gaining a higher number of bids though. You can actually gain more exposure from getting a higher number of bids. Not only because people will be more curious by the # of bids and be more likely to click through to view the listing, but also because the higher number of bids you get, the higher your listing will rise in the "most active" section. I've tested that by starting at $1 with no reserve, and had way more action/results because my site ended up in the top 5 most active.

Different approaches can work for different types of sites, so keep those things in mind and "test" things out for yourself (if you plan to continue flipping the same type of sites consistently).