What is stopping this?

Are there safeguards against collusion between buyers and selling to fake bid on things to inflate prices?!

What happens if a buyer and seller agree end a bid and then don't exchange and finalize the purchase?... just curious is all.

Its called shill bidding. I dont think there is anyway that Flippa can tell if a transaction has been fully completed because of the numerous payment methods available.

I know for sure ebay has systems in place to prevent shill bidding but how effective they are is a different matter

But Flippa asks for a certain amount payable to them for facilitating the sale - couldn't you just not pay them?!

What would be the point of shill bidding too much, then you not selling it to a new customer? I dont get it.

Meaning if the attempt to shill bid failed and one of the collaborators was stuck with the winning bid?

Flippa takes $20 odd payment up front, (before the sale can begin) so it can get expensive pretty quickly if you keep getting stuck with the winning bid.

Plus, it does look kinda silly if the same domain is being sold, and resold several times with just the same group of people bidding on it, no?

I could totally see this, people trying to add fake value to these websites. Think about it. Have you ever heard of an AutoBlog service here on BHW selling for $120+ per blog? Nobody in their right minds would ever buy it. And that's all these sites are, AutoBlogs and sales pages (at least the newer ones anyway, they've got some good stuff but for waay more).

But now, when the consumer looks at this, they'll think "Hey, these things are selling like crazy for $120-ish. It has to be worth it, right?" Which is why we're all here on this forum. We should have thought of it first! As a matter of fact, it would be people from this place most likely. But it's all gonna be hush-hush....

Wonder what you would say to Flippa (or whatever site selling service), after all they expect their commission from the sale.

And I don't think you can close down accounts either.

Meaning if the attempt to shill bid failed and one of the collaborators was stuck with the winning bid?

Click to expand...

That happens all the time and the seller then sends a PM to the next highest bidder saying "The original winner didn't pay, are you still interested?"

It's believable because quite often the winners do not pay.

Shill bidding happens regularly in Flippa and is a nuisance.