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Have you ever had a $1 no reserve disaster?

by acesites
26 replies
I read alot about $1 no reserve auctions and I recently decided to try it out.. As far as I can remember, I've never done this before on Flippa!

Currently, there are only 2 days left and I've got 1 bid at $1 lol!

If bidders don't come soon this could be a funny lesson in $1 No Reserves for me. When you sell something $1 no reserve, the benefit is that more people look at the auction, but the potential problem is that it might go for less than the listing fee lol!

Have you ever went $1 no reserve and only got a tiny amount of bids lol? Any funny stories?
#disaster #reserve
  • Profile picture of the author Al amin
    Don't worry at all. In flippa all bids come at last 4 hours. So wait and see.

    Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author sbucciarel
    Banned
    It's true that most bids come the last day, but yes, both me and a friend have had $1 no reserve disasters and I don't run auctions with no reserve any longer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Arunabh Singh
    Yes, it has happened to me. I guess its on the cards when you are selling with a reserve price of $1.

    I once had an auction which was sold for $20. I think it got two or three bids. I was hoping that the buyer would back out of sale but he sent me payment within half an hour.

    But in your case you should get more bids because there are more than 2 days left and most of the bids comes when your auction hits the ending soon page so I guess you don't need to worry.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chri5123
    Luckily I have not had any disasters like that - have you put all the add ons/features on the listing or been getting any interest.

    You want to get some interest in the listing at least and then you can gauge how it will go. Ideally I have found with $1 that you get a lot of bids with it going up in $5 increments and that increases the popularity of your listing.

    I think the worst price i got for a $1 was $55 for an Amazon blog.
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas Smale
    Never had any issues doing it. As long as the site is solid and you promote the auction properly, there should be no problems.

    If your site doesn't reach what you think it's worth, then you've either over-valued it or not promoted the auction properly.
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  • Profile picture of the author tylerjaysen
    yeah...most of the serious bidders will wait and watch and see what happens. Then they will bid at the end.

    But yeah the $1 reserve price can be brutal if your strategy was to get many people to bid....but at the end the final bid is really much less than you wanted. And then some dude gets your site for pennies...so all that work you put into the site..then to basically give it away..ugh..

    I mean you factor in the flippa listing fee..and the cost of the domain....and content costs..your time..etc...

    Well you just made royal blunder in letting it go for less than what you put into it...ouch.. Like buying a brand new car for $40K...driving it off the lot....taking a trip to Cali..and a few months later selling it for $6K.
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  • Profile picture of the author Websmartbiz
    If you think it will sell for less than what you expect you could team up with a flippa broker, he can let his previous buyers know instantly about your listing.

    Or any other idea you might think of in order to get to expousure to potential buyers, I saw that you still have a day and a half left ...

    HTH
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    • Profile picture of the author acesites
      Originally Posted by Websmartbiz View Post

      If you think it will sell for less than what you expect you could team up with a flippa broker, he can let his previous buyers know instantly about your listing.

      HTH
      That's interesting.. so there are brokers who advertise your auction in exchange for a percentage of the final price?
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      • Profile picture of the author Thomas Smale
        Originally Posted by acesites View Post

        That's interesting.. so there are brokers who advertise your auction in exchange for a percentage of the final price?
        I don't know about that, most brokers won't use Flippa at all as they will have a private list of buyers. There aren't any decent brokers who rely on Flippa for ALL of their sales.

        A broker can be a good option if you have a valuable site, but it's not suitable for everyone as most are very picky regarding what they take on.
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  • Profile picture of the author zicer
    You just promote your sale on social media websites and don't worry, most of actions come in last few hours / minutes. But be quick if you have any questions or comments on sales page
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  • Profile picture of the author TheSalesBooster
    Reserve prices are there for a reason.

    People will bid no matter what, if the starting price is $1.

    Protect yourself with a reserve price.
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  • Profile picture of the author Xtronikz
    Banned
    Most bids come within the last 24 hours. You will get a quick surge in bids within the last 6 hours.

    If no bidders come in though... well that was a HARD lesson learned lol.
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    • Profile picture of the author acesites
      Originally Posted by Xtronikz View Post

      If no bidders come in though... well that was a HARD lesson learned lol.
      Exactly lol, at least that's one way to look at IM mistakes.. even the ones that cost you money.. you can just say "Well I paid the money to learn an important lesson" haha
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      Aussie Domainer
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  • Profile picture of the author JabMonkey
    When I first started on Flippa, I had a couple of $1 no reserve disasters, you bet!

    I don't do no reserve anymore, but I haven't tried to sell anything there for awhile, because I've made much more money selling to clients I already have.
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  • Profile picture of the author Justin W
    I've bid on numerous auctions for $5 or $10 only for it to later jump up to a few hundred dollars in the last few hours.
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    • Profile picture of the author acesites
      Originally Posted by Justin W View Post

      I've bid on numerous auctions for $5 or $10 only for it to later jump up to a few hundred dollars in the last few hours.
      Hope that happens in my case lol! Not sure if it will though as the traffic has been quite slow. If it ends up going for less than $10 though (it's on $6 now lol) I'll just write it off as a lesson learnt.

      I am probably not going to do $1 no reserve anymore after this. Even if it doesn't meet your reserve, you can always do post-auction negotiations or just re-list.
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      • Profile picture of the author Thomas Smale
        Originally Posted by acesites View Post

        I am probably not going to do $1 no reserve anymore after this. Even if it doesn't meet your reserve, you can always do post-auction negotiations or just re-list.
        That's assuming the site would sell at all. $1, no reserve only works if the site is desirable.

        No offence, but I had a look at your auction and it's not the most desirable site in the world. You've picked a hot-trend, but you've not found any ways to monetize the traffic which isn't going to make attracting buyers that easy. Plus, if Romney doesn't get elected (I don't know anything about US politics FYI) then I'd imagine the site will die down completely.

        You've shown how to get traffic which is great, but the average noob buyer on Flippa wants to hear about making money, not traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author gpwilson
    This is good for the new people. They can enter in this IM world through this process. But it would not be profitable in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author acesites
    Value is relative, especially in the website/domaining world. For me, some of my ideas work out well and make money, while some are mistakes and fall flat as this one currently is, that's the risk you take when you give it a go. Just gotta keep on improving your work and keep at it. I wanted to experiment with $1 NR and I sure got what I asked for haha!
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  • Profile picture of the author Vadimarket
    Everyone bids at the last hour so don't worry.

    PS. There were a couple of times when I used shill bidding from another IP, but you didn't hear that from me
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  • Profile picture of the author shane_k
    hmm, is this a real post or are you trying to bring attention to your sig in the hopes someone here might click on it and bid at your auction?

    Maybe it would be a good idea to turn your sig off so it doesn't seem self-promotional or someone might report you
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  • Profile picture of the author mikelmraz
    Originally Posted by acesites View Post

    I read alot about $1 no reserve auctions and I recently decided to try it out.. As far as I can remember, I've never done this before on Flippa!

    Currently, there are only 2 days left and I've got 1 bid at $1 lol!

    If bidders don't come soon this could be a funny lesson in $1 No Reserves for me. When you sell something $1 no reserve, the benefit is that more people look at the auction, but the potential problem is that it might go for less than the listing fee lol!

    Have you ever went $1 no reserve and only got a tiny amount of bids lol? Any funny stories?
    I make you an offer now for 4 bucks. Immediately quadruple your expected selling price.
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  • Profile picture of the author acesites
    hmm, is this a real post or are you trying to bring attention to your sig in the hopes someone here might click on it and bid at your auction?

    I make you an offer now for 4 bucks. Immediately quadruple your expected selling price.
    Haha someone beat you! It went for $6.. man.. what will I spend it on? So many choices.. a burger king meal... a new mousepad, perhaps.
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    Aussie Domainer
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  • Profile picture of the author GSX
    Honestly if the site makes money and it has a bunch of people watching it, don't worry. Pay to promote it on the front page, you should get fair market price. Always ensure that your auctions DON'T end on Sat/Sunday though as that's the closest I've come to having a disaster, best days a 7 days auctions Tues-Tues or Wed-Wed I've found based on my experience
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    • Profile picture of the author acesites
      Originally Posted by GSX View Post

      best days a 7 days auctions Tues-Tues or Wed-Wed I've found based on my experience
      Yeah if a site I'm selling is ever going well I'll probably try listing it on the front page again.. I tried it once, and I think I did it too late (4 hours before end) because it only got a few extra views.. I think putting your site on the homepage 24 hours before auction end is probably best.

      I figured Thursday night was best.. I might have to try this Wednesday and Tuesday idea though.
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      Aussie Domainer
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  • Profile picture of the author CBusiness
    Yup. Have had it happen and I didn't sell the project.

    I'm not going to cheat myself of $100 per month for $1 auction issue.

    Me being 'forced' to sell something that was 'bad luck' isn't exactly the best business ethic but i dont' even remember it myself.... I'm morally sound and have enough common sense to feel good about life even after that auction mishap
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