First Look At The New Flippa Auction Interface
Last night, whilst reading through my Twitter updates, and reading the questions that I am asked every day about flipping sites, an announcement was made by Flippa that they had made some pretty drastic changes on site, and after doing my own video review on the new Flippa auction interface over on my blog and sitting back and reflecting on these new changes, it is becoming apparent to me that this change is intended for one thing, and one thing only. Let me take a minute to explain.
First things first, the Flippa marketplace is evolving, and this is not just due to new rules or features that are being implemented on site, this is due to an evolving base of sellers and buyers. On the way home from my other job today, I was thinking over this alot, and even talking myself through how these changes have come about.
There has been an argument over whether or not Flippa is starting to go out of fashion, and that people just aren’t willing to shell out god money for a good website. We have all seen it, the traditional start up site that used to easily sell for 500$ and above is now selling for not even 200$ if lucky, and even less at times. The thing is that as much as I may speak about this as the death of the startup website, there is still a market for these sites, the only difference is that in the course of a few months, they have become much smarter, not only in the way that they choose a site, but in the way that they bid for a site.
Does this mean that the start up website market has died? Likely not, more so, it has evolved, and become smarter.
Now, the guys behind Flippa, their main concern is that people who are buying on the market place are getting good value, and with the costs to list and finalize a sale on Flippa being quite steep (but very well worth the cost), it is going to be of massive concern to the team behind Flippa to keep customers on board as much as possible, and not only that, but maintain the quality of their auctions. It is obvious that through these changes, that the intention is to provide a transparent and clean interface that works in keeping sellers honest, and at the same time, reducing the number of disputes on site by means of incorrectly claimed data. Always a good thing in my opinion.
Anyway, if you are not too familiar with what has changed on Flippa, check out the video at the start of this piece, and that will give you a better insight. If you have any input (positive or negative), please, feel free to either comment below, or you can @reply us on Twitter, and we will no doubt chat about it on here if it makes us think.
PS. I know, we haven’t got around to changing things around here too much just yet, it is on the cards! We are just too darn busy getting this Website Flipping course up to scratch!
i’ve just about had it with flippa
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Dude, that’s not good to hear. I personally love the new interface, and would love to know what is it that is getting you down about Flippa?
I understand where nythemes is coming from. What Flippa is doing is affecting startup site sellers especially because those in your face stats are not necessary for these types of sites since they don’t have any. They are distracting to the eye and take away from the screenshot (which you now have to squint to see) and seller’s description, key areas for initiating a sale. Now there is more chance that the buyer will exit the listing and move on to the next one.
I tend to disagree that it’s only startup sites that are going for lower and also established sites are affected too. Sure you still see some ridiculous sales like 50 times the value but generally looks downward for both. Complaints all around. Whether you want to blame it on Flippa’s tactics, seller’s tactics, a smarter buyer (or just left the building), something is not quite right over there in Flippa land.
Of course, hat any site will sell for is entirely dependent on a few factors, in particular, a 3 day old site can go for several thousands of dollars if it is a great domain name that someone is willing to pay good money for, and I can definitely see where you are coming from.
Maybe if there were particular categories on Flippa? A way to eliminate those in your face stats by adding a category for an auction that is labeled as a start up site?
I mean, dont get me wrong, I come from a background where customer retention is huge. If someone buys a site that is three days old, and they aren’t all that aware of that until they have placed the highest bidder, there is a high chance that they aren’t going to return. However, if they know what they are bidding on, maybe they will be more inclined to return because they have bidded on something that they actually want, based on stats, etc?
I can see this being a bit of a debate.