Flippa stealth price INCREASE

Correct. You also have the option of a broker who specialises online (shameless plug!). Commission can vary with brokers, especially on smaller (<$200k) sites. Expect to pay 12-15% on smaller deals and 10% on larger ($500k+). Beware anyone charging less than that as they are probably desperate for business and not very good

Using a B&M broker is also an option and they may be able to get you a higher multiple but it's unlikely you will get a highly qualified buyer with the ability to run an online business. Using an online specialist will put the business in front of buyers who actually know what they are doing with a website (albeit they may pay a slightly lower multiple than an offline guy used to paying more for B&Ms).

And obviously, with a broker in general (whoever you use), you don't have to manage the whole process yourself like you would on Flippa and have to weed out tire-kicker buyers. For many, that alone is worth the broker fee. In general a broker will get you a better price than selling yourself as they will know the current market and the right buyers are to pitch to. Flippa has a lot more speculative buyers looking for a bargain vs. buyers willing to pay a fair multiple for a legitimate strategic acquisition.

Did you previously work for John Donehoe over at eBay?

So .... stop pretending it's a price decrease. Your audience isn't stupid and they can see it's obviously a price increase. Do what you want with your prices, but let's call a spade a spade.


No work, huh. They only build and market the sites. That's all. Without the hard work of sellers, there wouldn't be a marketplace. Flippa provides the site to list. You have to do the copywriting and unless you buy several enhancements to your listing, no one ever even sees it, adding even more cost to the price of Flippa.

I'm going to have to call BS on this one. In fact, I'll even go so far as to call you a liar. I'll back up my claim with concrete evidence.

According to what you've said, you have allowed your lowest tier customers to dictate your business plan (the customers selling websites for $100 (sub $200)).

So, according to you, you've taken all this "feedback" from your lowest tier customers and used that to provide better value to the entire Flippa community by drastically raising pricing to EVERYBODY except the lowest tier customers?

That is a lie and you know it.

I've never used Flippa, but heard that hardly anyone actually sells their domain names, so the only winner is Flippa.

Tim,

I posted something similar elsewhere but you seem to be doing the same so copying here:

I'm sure it is someone higher up dictating what to say publicly, but when are Flippa ever going to stop lying? I've never seen a company falsely promote so much rubbish. Fees have not decreased at all (as advertised) - they have significantly increased for almost any sized site you want to sell. No-one noticed until I posted it here and elsewhere (which someone then copied onto a blog comment). I wonder how many people posted new auctions off the back of your promotional email about lower listing fees but didn't notice the doubling of success fees. I can't imagine that will go down well when they get their invoice (assuming their site sells).

It is a shame as when Flippa first launched off the back of SitePoint it had tons of supporters with everyone in the industry wanting it to succeed. I have sent hundreds of sellers to Flippa over the years and I'm sure many others around here have as well. It is a shame as you have had to come in now and try pick up the pieces from some poor strategic decisions higher up - I certainly don't envy your position.

Comparing Flippa to a broker (who will only be marginally more expensive but far cheaper if you put any value on your own time) is laughable at best. If you think Flippa provides the same service (or even close) to a broker then you need to do a little more research before spouting nonsense. At 5% Flippa offered "fair" value in my opinion and was a viable alternative to using a broker as a seller as it was quite a lot cheaper to do it yourself (around 1/3 of the cost for a mid-end site). Now it is not. Your success rates and fraud levels alone are FAR worse than even a mediocre broker.

Saying there is "no guarantee" there will be other fees along the road with a broker is also false - very few brokers will charge anything other than a success fee. Flippa, on the other hand, make it almost impossible to get exposure for a sale without buying premium upgrades - so in reality it is Flippa that have other fees along the road, not brokers. If you have a broker adding in "hidden" fees then you've hired the wrong broker.

https://flippa.com/dealflow - Interesting how you say here it is a 5% fee yet on the dealflow page it is 10%. Yet more misinformation. It is worrying that the public spokesperson for Flippa doesn't know their own pricing model. IMO the only way you'll ever get dealflow off the ground is partnering with people who actually know what they are doing and clearly outlining the value proposition vs listing yourself. With all due respect, the Flippa team may be good at keeping a sinking ship afloat with inflated prices, but are certainly not experts at selling sites.

I don't think you quite understand how Flippa works. Your statement would be accurate if you are working with a broker (although there is still some work) but on Flippa you do all the work yourself - Flippa don't do anything except provide a platform (and I'm not even going to go into the issues with the platform itself).

Many brokers also have a substantial base of buyers, with no pretend price decreases. I've heard more than one seller say they got higher prices for their sites using a broker. Many of the "buyers" on Flippa are bottom feeders looking for a bargain.

@tbcooke: customers don't like to be tricked or lied to. If you're going to raise your prices, raise them and don't try to sell it as a price decrease when it isn't.

Perhaps buy an aged domain via flippa and develop it to compete against said marketplace.

It's a nice site but as a developer, I can say that none of it is brain surgery.

There is a STRONG viable alternative launching this month.

SiteBidz will offer you lower fees across the board as well as an affiliate program that not only rewards you for referring sellers but also puts a focus on attracting buyers by paying out up to 75% of our success fees back to affiliates.

Joe Russell

I'm sorry ... so you're saying that your customers requested higher overall fees?

You've certainly taken a lot of the backlash personally but what you need to understand is the way the "listing fee reduction" was pitched was extremely misleading. There was no mention of the doubling of success fees or removal of the fee cap. If you were just straight up about it upfront there wouldn't be such a problem. Users shouldnt choose your prices - that's your decision. I just feel if you're going to argue you have listened to customer feedback to make this decision that you at least do people the courtesy of an honest announcement rather than leaving the success fee increase out and then jumping back in to defend yourself once people notice.

I really hope that sellers haven't been listing sites and not realising the fees had doubled on success. I would bet the vast majority did not notice. To me that is not a good way to do business. If you're going to increase prices at least be transparent from the outset.

It's also rather unfortunate that Flippa chose to deliberately LIE to their customers about their pricing change.

And then...we have reasons to call you a liar, like for what you're about to say next:

Of course. I've always wanted a higher listing fee when I sell a website. It's been one of my secret hopes ever since I became an IM.

Alright warriors, who's up to start an *honest* Flippa clone?

You really need to refrain from making general sweeping statements like that. "Flippa is only about scammers"?....."...nobody would sell a reputable website over there"?

Listen, I agree that some of these companies are flat out lying about reasons behind price increases..oops, I mean decreases (lol).

I sell reputable sites on flippa that don't make any money. There are people selling on flippa who are not scammers.

Because of 1, or a few, bad apples you can't disparage the whole lot! We've seen where this has led to in many countries historically and in the present!

Wow what a blanket statement this is...

With words like "nobody" and "all" you must have some hard data to back up your claims?

I sold over $150k last year on Flippa and never once "pretended to make money".

This section was a great addition to the WF. Unfortunately for the section as a whole, one person creates around 13-15 threads per day for those plr blogs, completely overwhelming the section with their offers. I think there should be a limit on how many one person can have on the front page. This seller has been doing it for a couple of years now and it's really degraded the usefulness of the section, and it's probably not the best place for high end sites.

For the love of pete... We are talking about corporate America here. The price restructure makes sense to me in a number of ways.

The guys that are posting sites that don't sell are going to pay less, and those that do sell are making up for the listing loss.

As many have noted, but not really... The theory of supply and demand seems to be in affect here. Everyone is saying they have control of the market... so you increase prices. Its the American way!

And then there is the Obvious, which I have not seen noted here... They will be up for sale. High price tag would require higher earnings, hence the price increase, to increase overall value.

So looking at this now as a BUSINESS. Lower posting costs will likely increase overall listings. Thus increasing potential net worth. Increase the sales side expense, which will increase over all revenue. Then you add the probability of a sale, and it all makes sense.

Throw in for good measure tbcooke coming in and at least making an effort. ( That in itself puts him right up there in the class act category in my book )

Time to start looking for a new place to sell sites on. Flippa is getting too expensive for the little work they put into the sale.

Just like everything in life, with Flippa you're paying for convenience. I could say, "Why should I pay $5 for a beer at the bar. I can get the same beer at the grocery store for $1.50. I'm never going to a bar again!" With Flippa you can post a site and if it's valuable and you aren't trying to get something for nothing, it will probably sell.

The business needs to raise fees to increase profit in order stay in business and keep its owners happy. It's common sense. Could fees be lower? Probably. Are they still reasonable? Yeah.

What people should be asking is, "Where is the money going?" LIke I said. You're paying for convenience. Also, anyone who has been on Flippa over the years and has sold sites will testify that the process has become increasingly smoother. Not to mention that more and more people are selling junk. Listings that still need to managed. People are just so demanding. You should really think about what's happening:

1. You post some details about your website.
2. Free traffic from all over the world views your sale.
3. People make bids and you make money.
4. You pay fees for someone else to sell your website while you sit back and watch the Super Bowl.

Take a chill pill and pay the fees.