I wanted to share my experience using Flippa to sell domains. I had three drop-caught domains I was looking to sell. *MapOnline* com, *PersianRugs* org, and *BabyStorage* com. These all had 10+ years archived domain ages, however on Flippa when you list a domain they place a glaring "The Domain Was Registered On" sign below your listing. When people saw they were registered within the year, it was a big turn off to their buying audience. I don't think that people still understand that the 'domain age' is not solely based on the registration date. Google will tell you immediately that if they had to query the whois server every time they needed to get a domains age it would dramatically slow their process down. According to Matt Cutts, they base a domains age on when Google has the first record of it existing, along with when other trusted databases (archive.org) have the first record of it existing. They may even have copies of the zone file going back to the original creation of a zone file, who really knows. However there still persists this general assumption that the WhoIs registry date is one of the most important metrics when buying a domain. If Aol.com dropped tomorrow and you caught it up, someone somewhere would ask you how you were able to register a 3L .COM last week; and would try to offer you $5k based on its age. I can almost guarantee that. With that said back to flippa... BabyStorage and PersianRugs each separately sold for $500, and MapOnline sold for $2500. We expected more, however after browsing other recent Flippa sales, besides 'StockPhoto.com', we noticed a trend; extremely low sales for domains in general. Unless the domain at auction was a 1 word extremely premium keyword with a 9+ year registered domain age, most domains were selling for $500 and less, IF THEY WERE LUCKY. Many premium domains went unsold, which means the sellers were $250 dollars in the hole. Yes, it costs $250 to have your domain promoted as "Premium" on Flippa. ALSO, if you are lucky enough to have sold a domain for over $1000 you get an email from Flippa sales telling you that they will make your domain VIP featured on their page for one low price of $750, in addition to your $250 you just paid. and yes... I have seen domains in that position go unsold. I believe that they are just fleecing customers left and right, and do not do their due diligence to warn their customers that there is a high likelyhood that their 'Premium Listed' domain will not sell. We listed AmerigoVespucci.com, 70,000+ MONTHLY Google exact searches, historical figure, (copyright free) that could be used as an educational resource drawing in tweens and college visitors that are required to do their papers on this man ... our best Flippa offer... $10. In summary, unless you have a 1 premium word .COM domain and you are willing to sell at 15% of what it's worth; avoid Flippa. I hope this helps you on your domain selling adventure and saves you some money. Cheers!
I've never used flippa, but I have thought about it. I'm just worried about wasting money. I put my domains on afternic a couple of months ago, and I missed out on the one interested buyer I had. I guess I responded too late or something. I appreciate this thread, but do you have any suggestions on the best place to sell a domain name?
Don't waste your time with Flippa. This week I personally did $6000 in sales of two domains, that most people wouldn't have paid $500 for. How? By reaching out to end users myself. No fees, no commissions, no costs. $6k straight profit. You HAVE TO find buyers on your own. Most domainers are too lazy to do this, but once your crack the code it works well. Do your research. Sometimes buyers will approach you and that's always an easy sell, but when you need to make sales happen hunt down interested parties. Make sure you have contact information up on the domains you are selling, let people know it's for sale. Think about it; what's the process someone will go through to see if they can get the domain they want; - They try to register it and see that it is unavailable. - They then go to the domain / site to see what is currently there If they are savvy enough they will do a WhoIs search and find your contact information and will contact you. However most domain or site owners don't know much about the technical side of domains and how to get that information. So you just missed a selling opportunity by not having your 'For Sale' contact information on there. And finally, don't use any parking. Parking is a joke. Best of luck to you!