Noticing interesting trend on Flippa

It may be that I noticed this just now, but it appears to me that sellers with bad deals who want to hide from the public are increasingly starting to use confidential listings where the rotten apples can't be publicly exposed because people cannot post public messages.

One such seller listed their stuff on October and sold it without a problem. Within a couple of months the backlinks from the sold site disappeared and started to point to his new site which was listed on Flippa. Buyers mentioned that incident on Flippa public board and the auction ended unsold. It was relisted as confidential the 2nd time and it was sold successfully. Now a month later I see the 3rd site from these guys. This time, of course, they staretd with a confidential listing straight away.

I thought confidential listings were of a higher quality, but apparently scammers are now using them to avoid public scrutiny.

One interesting thing happened tho. When the 1st auction was still public the seller deleted the comment from a buyer mentioning how the links disappeared from the 1st site and Flippa's admin reinstated the comment. If only that happened more often.

Flippa is bullshit, you can't sell shit there anymore, everybody is looking to buy a $10k/month business for $1000..

Flippa also increased their cut - on top of the listing fee. It's 10% for existing sites and 15% for new sites. That's just greed. They don't handle any part of the transfer process and therefore don't offer any protection for both buyer and seller. I'd look elsewhere to buy/sell.

Hadn't noticed this myself..But, I've heard of shill bidding and other things happening on Flippa in the past. I guess it just comes down reporting that type of stuff. Heck, I see people who waste $250 on premium listing for crap domains on almost a daily basis!

Flippa is dead/dying I cant stand it there

Not what it used to be, that's for sure. Moving into ebay territory when it comes to selling sites

How do you find returns on ebay?

flippa its full of scammers , stay away

is there any other site as flippa ?

I have followed Flippa for quite some time as I've always been interested in obtaining real businesses but ooh god have they become an absolute hell hole unless you have been personally approved for Flippa Deal Flow (+$10k sites).
The normal Flippa is filled with scamming sellers and bidders with no intention to pay. Also, Flippa are basically treating their income worse that dogshit. Up to 15% fee is pure robbery when the only thing they do is press a "GFY" button once a problem arise (and 1 will arise most certainly)

Hi,

If you see any listing that doesn't quite add up, we recommend you report it to our support team ASAP.

The support guys are best equipped to deal with issues like this and it means we can pull the auction and take action against the seller sooner than if someone just leaves a public comment on the listing.

Cheers,

Tim - Flippa

I guess you get scammers on any site though.

All I hear is "Flippa sucks"... how about some recommendations for alternatives...

I just attempted to sell my site on Flippa and my account was suspended! I tried selling a legitimate site --> Men's Weekly. I spent $380 listing the site and getting all the bells and whistles (twitter package, newsletter, front page, etc.). I'm a legitimate seller that anyone here can meet face to face if you'd like.

Within hours of posting the site on Flippa my account was suspended and I was NOT offered a refund. Flippa LITERALLY just stole $380 from me!!!

DO NOT USE FLIPPA! They will scam you and suck you dry for everything you have. That was my hard earned $ that I used to list the site. I was going to use the $ I was going to sell the site for to buy an engagement ring for my gf. But no that's not a reality anymore because of Flippa's greed! I'm still in shock that they just point blank stole my $.

I will NOT let this go. I will fight this till the end. Flippa - You fucked with the wrong guy. You really did. I'm giving you an opportunity to make this right and give me a refund. I will make it my mission to go on every forum and every blog informing the public about your scams.
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With the bad reputation that Flippa has, I am surprised that they aren't doing anything actively to keep away all the scam sites. It's really falling apart.

Hi everyone,

Just an update on the case above. The user was suspended due violating our terms of service and long running suspicious activity on Flippa, and we issued a refund of his listing fee shortly after sanctioning their account.

Cheers,

Tim - Flippa

I've not sold on Flippa, do they just have a bidding process then facilitate contact? Not handling any sale or escrow service?

I'm starting to feel like building an alternative is a good idea.