New Flippa Auction - Is this legit?

by 51 replies
59
Hello everyone,

I have been reading on WF a lot recently but just made an account. I was hoping someone has some insight into how this website for sale on flippa works, and if it is legit.

This is the auction:

https://flippa.com/2810327-no-reserve-ecom-store-w-750-daily-order-1-500-monthly-profit-22k-august

It is a Shopify ecommerce store, which I am familiar with, but the seller says the orders are processed via a drop shippers merchant account and the dropshipper pays you a commision via PayPal based on every sale (between 5 - 10%).

I have been involved in ecommerce for over 10 years and have been using dropshippers since then but I have NEVER heard of this type of arrangement. It seems more like an affiliate agreement, but I don't know any affiliates that offer almost 200k products and pay via PayPal on a sliding scale of 5 - 10%.

Does anyone know of anything like this? I know personally I would build those sites all day and be happy with my 5 - 10% commissions if I did not have to worry about merchant account/customer service issues.
#main internet marketing discussion forum #auction #flippa #legit #scam
  • It's BS, as you can imagine. "Earn $1500+ per month on AUTOPILOT with this eCommerce MEGASTORE."

    Look at how low the traffic is at Alexa. As you said, why sell off your AUTOPILOT revenue? What possible, logical reason would you have? Do you hate recurring revenue and NO WORK? LOL
    • [1] reply
    • Exactly... the thing is the seller even sold another site like that a couple weeks ago for $6.5k claiming it would bring in at least $750/mo on autopilot.. it's currently receiving orders BUT they haven't processed any yet because "that's not their business". They go on to say that all you have to do is plug in your PayPal account info and you will start making money within the first hour.

      What a joke, all you have do is "plug in your paypal info" to make money but they won't even plug in there own while they own the site.

      Is there anywhere to post things like this so more people will see it? I feel bad for potential buyers, especially if someone gives them $20k for it... I'd ask questions on their listing page but I'm sure they will just delete them.
      • [1] reply
  • It doesn't sound that legit but you should more research.
  • Banned
    Wow ... what a bunch of BS. Listen to this:

    They want to sell this for $20K and haven't made a dime with it. Attempted orders? lol.
    • [1] reply
    • Yeah sounds like a scam to me. I have had a couple of good buying experiences on Flippa. Also, check out the seller profile & the sellers history as it looks like a couple have done here.

      Yeah if we could get paid on attempted orders I would be hanging out in my floaties sipping a Mai-Tai in Hawaii about now......
      • [1] reply
  • I guess they're doing some work then. At least Flippa is trying to mention a few red flags like the connection to the suspended accounts.

    The claims alone should scare people off: "guaranteed 1st page Google results for your top 100 products, 4 star reputation management, and a 6 month moneyback guarantee. This is in addition to our established and succesful “1.0” program."

    6 months money back guarantee? Oh, really! Good work on turning him in, Suzanne
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Don't waste your money. There are empty categories, links pointing to incorrect locations, etc. Alexa rank of nearly 9 000 000 means hardly any traffic and their statement of 'It currently has over 25,000 backlinks, but they have probably not even been discovered yet' says it all - what value to you think these links will have (if they exist). At best nothing, at worst they'll get the site deindexed.

    As soon as you have any doubts about auctions/transactions such as these, it's usually with good cause and it's best just to walk away and look for something else. Personally anything that says I can earn money on 'Autopilot' makes me run the other way..

    There seem to be more and more scam auctions popping up on Flippa and I'm surprised that they don't take action

    Chow chow,
    Kevin
  • Buy now id $20K but reserved price is meet at $400? Sounds not logical to me.... Site has copied content, no revenue, no traffic, etc... I'll stay away from this auction.... This comes from lowlife sellers...
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      That's not really the issue. A lot of sellers will list a site with no reserve, expecting the bidding to get hot and drive the price up and in a lot of cases, it works. You can also get burned as a seller doing that, but there's nothing illegitimate about that.

      The problems with this seller are:

      1. He has two Flippa accounts, and probably had a third that was suspended, but he has two open ones now, all selling the "shopify" model. Same deal with all his listings.

      2. He has given a "Flippa" valuation based on a Flippa tool that valuates a site based on its income and he's using a fake income to perform that valuation.

      3. It all sounds like he has actual orders and sales until you read and re-read. Then you discover that they are not sales at all. They are "attempted" sales. How many sellers do you know that would disable the payment gateway of a site so that it could not make real sales, particularly when real sales are a key factor in buyers wanting a site?

      I know of no one who would do that and I can think of only one reason why they would, and that is fraud. The site has no revenue and there's absolutely no way to prove that the so called "attempted" sales were not purchased "attempted sales."

      Heard back from Flippa and they're letting it stay open, but monitoring it. I think that based on the above, and the fact that having two accounts is not allowed, there's plenty of reason not to let this guy operate, but that's my opinion only.
  • Why don't we all blitz the comments sectiowith valid questions? I'd be happy to give him a good grilling with questions.
  • The "attempted sales" industry just formed overnight. Imagine how high you can drive revenue if you only have to count 'attempted sales?"
    • [2] replies
    • Banned
      Yeah ... I can see it now ... a sudden rash of "attempted sales" gigs on Fiverr. Really, this flipping model is probably about to explode once others catch on to the "attempted sales" pitch. Why didn't I think of this? :rolleyes:
    • The seller posted screenshots of these "attempted sales". Obviously that proves nothing because he can be on his own website "checking out" multiple times daily by using different names and no one would know because he is not actually fulfilling any of these orders. The website doesn't even charge your credit card when you checkout so they can do this 20x/day if they want do.

      I've reported both of this "live" auctions as well. It has got to be against flippas TOS to have a listing title that reads like this "NO RESERVE eCom Store w/ $750 Daily Order - $1,500 Monthly Profit - $22K August" when it's simply not true. If that's not enough the "Reported Revenue" section is also filled out claiming the same number in sales.
      • [1] reply
  • Best to just report auctions like this. Sounds like there are quite a few things that the seller is doing that break Flippa TOS. Claiming revenue in a title that doesn't actually exist is just plain misleading.

    Better to report it and stop someone getting ripped off than do nothing. Also makes life easier for legit sellers as there are less rip-off merchants selling their sites like this.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Already reported. Flippa is not suspending his auctions.
      • [1] reply
  • I must say i'm shocked that you've contacted those at the top Suzanne and they've told you they're just monitoring and not suspending. Why would they act like this especially when they could easily come to this thread and see for themselves everything they need to suspend?

    Sounds very disappointing to me that Flippa would be so lenient with the vendor.

    Joel
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Well, there are plenty of auctions on Flippa with deceptive copy. The biggest TOS violation I see here it that the guy has two accounts. I believe that is not allowed. He clearly identifies himself as the same company in this thread under the name conglomerates.

      https://flippa.com/2757836-ecommerce...back-guarantee

      Same logo and in the second paragraph of the listing, he identifies himself as Data+Design. In the profile of the suspended guy, the auctions are the same MO ... shopify and Flippa has linked the suspended guy to both of the other profiles.

      I don't know what the reasoning is for allowing this type of auction with "attempted sales" and Flippa site valuation based on "projected" income rather than real income. It's the kind of copy that will suck newbies in ... those who really don't know how and haven't learned yet the need for due diligence. Heck, most of the time, they remain blissfully unaware of how badly they've been ripped off.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • This is shocking. How can people actually get away with this stuff. Shouldn't every auction be run through some moderators so that they can check all of the claims he is making? The fact is, these type of auctions are making Flippa look bad, a place to avoid rather than a place to look for a website. Only the naive would consider purchasing these sites which makes moderation even more important.

    Flippa could take an extra $5 from every site listing and employ people to check these sites out before they go live. Anyone genuine shouldn't have a problem with that, and Flippa wouldn't lose out as their costs are covered and their reputation would be improved.

    Anyway, this is the company that is listed in that first auction, seems like one to avoid at all costs -

    http ://dataplusdesign.com
  • There is an easy solution not to get scammed. When sending money through escrow, simply enter 7-10 days as an inspection period. If the site doesn't make as much money as claimed(nor nothing at all), simply cancel the transfer. If the seller doesn't agree with escrow, he is most likely a scammer.
  • Hi everyone -- Ophelie from Flippa here.

    As sbucciarel mentions, she contacted us over support, and I've shared it with the rest of the support team. I'm personally in touch with the seller.

    As Thomas points out, our policy is to monitor auctions like these while we communicate with the seller and with prospective buyers for the listing. We never let watched listings end before we've had a chance to verify claims and ensure there's nothing dodgy happening.

    In this case, the seller is working with us, and we'll be able to update the auction soon.

    Sometimes protecting the integrity of the marketplace is a quick fix, sometimes it's a bit more time intensive. In either case, we try to fairly represent both buyers and sellers.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Okay -- I can finally come back and give a proper update.

    All specific revenue claims have been removed from the listing, including the revenue graph.

    The seller has added Verified Analytics to his listing, and everything seems to check out otherwise. The issue here (orders were coming in, but not actually being accepted) is an edge case, which we had never dealt with before. While I don't think this seller is running a scam, the wording was misleading and has now been fixed.
    • [1] reply
    • So the duplicate account has been overshadowed by this listing.......
      • [1] reply
  • I think It's simply an affiliate website with fake proofs ...
  • don't know anything about that site but i'm ranking a site right now that sells a physical product. I have ZERO intention of fulfilling any orders, don't want to go thru the hassle of buying product, reselling, shipping and all that...its a big headache.

    the keyword was just sitting out there not being touched but with 14,000 exacts per month. why not rank it and flip it?

    some people are good at building n ranking sites, they dont want to own sites.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      Not a problem as long as that's how you list it. It's a start-up with no traffic and no revenue.

      Thanks Ophelie for the update. I think that'll satisfy most. It's the deceptive income claims that were so misleading about this listing.
      • [2] replies
  • Before buying anything on flippa you should do your one research. I saw some people selling a make money website who was supposed to sell craiglist PVA account. If you know a little bit how CL works now you will understand that it was a scam. But some one bought this site for 8k, unbelivable. So always do your resarch before investing that kind of money.
  • Banned
    Never buy a site like this unless you are 10000000% sure of it's earnings.
  • Buy verified adsense revenue sites from flippa.....no PAYPAL business sites.
    • [1] reply
    • Adsense revenue can be easily manipulated, the seller can just send some paid traffic for a period of time to generate clicks simply to sell his site. To get paying customers is much harder than adsense clicks. And you can always verify the seller's paypal income on teamviewer.
      • [1] reply
  • Makes me wonder why listings are not vetted properly in the first place.

    I see a lot of users including revenue earnings in the sales copy rather than the correct section- does this fall into the 2 month rule?
  • Hi everyone,

    I am the buyer of this website in September last year. I spent US$6.5K to buy the site. The site was forced to cease operation after a month because the staff of order fulfillment left. I am now losing all the money I invested in this site, as it is now no longer able to function.

    I should have read all your comments before I bought the site.
    • [1] reply
    • Which may explain why the vendor has not turned on the payment system

      or have the staff all moved to work on the new website being sold on Flippa?

      Yea I know, not funny really. I got scammed in my (naive) IM early days on Flippa. Paid $2.5K for a web site selling refurbished iPhones. (Proven sales and suppliers to be given with site sale). Turned out suppliers were ebay and no-one would supply me outside the US. A few weeks later an identical site was selling on Flippa by the original sellers "ex-business partner".
  • Were you getting any sales before they left?

    I ran the domain through SEMRush and according to it (which I've found quite a reliable analysis) the site was never getting any organic traffic.
  • Im I reading this right? They are claiming revenue, yet they have not plugged in their PayPal email to receive the commissions? WTF Something sounds fishy to me. I would love to have this software they are talking about.

    If you check topbrandboating.com, one of the sites they sold a few months ago, and there was nothing there. So tihs seems to confirm my suspicion of this seller claim.
    • [1] reply
    • This domain topbrandboating.com is right after the time I bought, and I guess the situation is the same as mine. Without order fulfillment, the site owner may shut the operation to avoid false expectation of the visitors.
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