Tag: flippa

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Dirt.com owner releases website teaser

Five months after purchasing the domain name dirt.com for $100,000 at Go Daddy auctions in Sept. 2010, the buyer who goes by the handle yessman on Flippa, has released a teaser trailer for the website. 

Although the owner had put the domain name up for auction on Flippa with a $3,000,0000 reserve price so that as he says could “travel and focus on Foundation and Charity Work”, a website was unveiled days later that hinted at a celebrity gossip site.

The domain name is still up for sale at Flippa and yet, construction of the website is still underway. 

I’ve received a number of tips from readers about Dirt.com.  One rumor was that NewsCorp might purchase or partner with Dirt.com.  Another reader tipped me off that Dirt.com had staff at Sundance trying to get access badges.  

Whatever the case, it’s clear that Dirt.com is using a variety of channels for marketing and has big plans for their celebrity gossip website.

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Octopus.com, one of the oldest registered .com domains, goes up for sale on Flippa for just $20,000

Octopus.com

Octopus.com, #46 in the top 100 list of oldest registered .com domains, has just been listed for sale at Flippa. 

According to The Next Web’s list of the hundred oldest domain names, Octopus.com was registered on November 17, 1986, the same day as Adobe.com, Amd.com, Das.com, Data-io.com, Portal.com, and Teltone.com.

The auction, which has an oddly low reserve price of only $20,000, ends March 5, 2011.

Flippa has placed a minor warning on the listing because the seller has provided estimates for the claimed financials.  Flippa says, “Estimates can hide many issues, such as fluctuating revenues and inconsistent profitability”.

According to Whois records, the registration is privacy marked.

Registrar: DOTSTER
Domain Name: OCTOPUS.COM
Created on: 17-NOV-86
Expires on: 15-OCT-11
Last Updated on: 30-JAN-11

Why is the owner selling?

According the description on Flippa, “We have purchased this site not so long ago for the value of its domain name alone to start major project. We haven’t been able to proceed with our project and so have recently decided to sell this site. The revenue was never of any concern to us since we bought this site for the value of the domain name. We haven’t actually changed anything since we bought it and we think that the previous owners have also not optimized it for revenue at all. However, it does make some little money in Adsense worth $1200 for the last 12 months”.

Readers, does the reserve price seem low to you?

Updated:  Octopus.com isn’t the only notable domain to go up for sale this week.  As one reader who goes by “Gnanes” pointed out in the comments, Registrar.com has also been put up for auction, with a reserve price of $3MM or buy-it-now of $14MM.

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Two-letter .com domain AY.com receives $100,000 bid on Flippa in no-reserve auction

AY.com

A couple weeks ago, domain blogger Mike Berkens over at The Domains wrote about the auction of the two-letter .com domain AY.com at Flippa, after the owner issued a press release announcing the sale. 

The auction followed the buzz created by news of Facebook purchasing the domain FB.com for $8.5 million. 

Today, the seller of AY.com has issued another slightly different press release, in which he notes that the domain has received 1 bid, for $100,000 in the no-reserve auction which ends 17 days from now, that is, unless the domain sells for the buy-it-now price of $2 million.

Here’s a look at the new press release.

(US NEWS SOURCE) January 31, 2011 – This month, an extremely rare LL.com domain name is up for auction on Flippa.com. The domain name, “AY.com” has a current bid of $100,000, and many domain appraisers feels it’s worth a lot more.

“It could be worth over $1 million if the right entities became interested,” said one domain name appraiser in an email reply. “The value on a domain name as rare as AY.com is based solely on what someone is willing to pay for it.”

So far, one bid has been placed on the LL.com (Letter – Letter .com) internet property for $100,000. The current owner, who purchased AY.com over 2 years ago has set no reserve on the auction.

The auction which can be seen at: https://flippa.com/auctions/120091/AY-com—Rare-Premium-2-Letter-Pronounceable-LL-com-Domain-Name is set to end on the night of February 17th, and will sell to the highest bidder, no matter what the price may be.

There are only 676 possible LL.com possible combinations on the internet for domain names, so this makes 2-letter domains like AY.com extremely rare. So far, according to the current owner, the auction has received over 2,400 views and has been added to 13 different users’ watch lists.

How much will the final sale price be?

“I have no idea,” said Eddie Krassenstein, the current owner. “I feel it is extremely valuable, so we will let the market decide.”

The owner of AY.com is heavily marketing the domain name, taking out a number of press releases and even changing the homepage of AY.com to plug the auction over at Flippa.

When AY.com sells at Flippa, it could be the company’s biggest sale in 2011.  And it could be the site’s all-time top sale to date.  While 2010 had a number of six-figure sales for the marketplace, S9.com at $400,000 was the biggest reported sale, confirmed by Flippa.

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Flippa releases its 2010 Year in Review

flippa

Some are skeptical about the sales numbers and auctions over at Flippa, but even the most doubtful have to be impressed with the site’s success in 2010.  Despite a number of failed auctions reported as “Won” like Fiverr clone Zeerk.com, Flippa has some pretty good stats to show for the past 12 months.

Flippa, which launched in June 2009, released its year in review Tuesday and the site is growing fast.

How did things look in 2010?

Over 150,000 bids placed.  $21MM worth of websites and domain names sold.  2 million unique visitors.  1.6 million logins.  

Philip Ferreira the President of WebCorp, was one of the site’s biggest users selling off a number of online properties including Debate.org which sold to Juggle.com. 

And the company is trying to battle shill bidding and other problems that regularly plague online auction sites.

“…the team suspended or banned over 2,300 user accounts in 2010, primarily for registering duplicate accounts, shill bidding or not following through on a won auction transaction – the types of users the rest of the Flippa community won’t miss.”, writes Andrew Knibbe on the Flippa blog.

Six-figure sales, a bright spot for Flippa

But not all was bad for one of the top marketplaces for buying and selling websites and domains.  The company was involved in a number of high profile six-figure sales, including the sales of: s9.com, retweet.com, list-of-companies.org, debate.org, and blogtopsites.com.  The company issued a press release after selling Retweet.com for $250,000 – but it was the sale of s9.com that set a new sales record at Flippa, selling for $400K.

Other high points in 2010 include the sales of Audioo.com, Qwitter.com, Song.ly, and Facemash.com for $30,201.

As Andrew points out, “The precedent set by these terrific websites in 2010 is already looking to continue through 2011 with exciting listings of the likes of Links.com, ay.com, songbright,  dirt.com and twaud.io.” 

The listing of Dirt.com, could turn out to be a news maker if a deal is struck with NewsCorp, but according to a number of tips I’ve received by readers, the listing of Dirt.com for $3 million is nothing more than a publicity stunt for the website’s eventual launch which is rumored to have people at Sundance 2011.

Read Flippa’s recap of 2010.

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No luck for Zeerk: Fiverr clone just won’t sell for much on Flippa after owner paid $52,000 in 2010

Zeerk Fiverr Clone

Fiverr.com, the internet site that lets people sell gigs for $5, has led to a number of clones in its short time online.  Several scripts have also been created for webmasters to clone the popular business model.  But as far as the clone sites that have been springing up on line in recent months, Fiverr.com still remains the model to beat in the micro-gig space, much like GroupOn has become the 800 pound gorilla in the group buying space.

One clone site in particular, Zeerk.com, has been plagued with bad luck since its original owner successfully sold the site on Flippa for $52,500 back in early November.

Since transferring to its new owner in November, Zeerk.com has been listed twice more on Flippa, both ending in failed auctions.  The most recent auction ended just over a week ago on January 13 after the listing failed to meet its reserve price.  The highest bid came in at $19,000, far below its original purchase price of $52K.

A week before that, Flippa reported the site had sold for $74,999, in what was already known to be another failed auction at Flippa, after a disgruntled Flippa user made a bid for $1 less than buy-it-now price.

These failed auctions are good examples of what high dollar sales reported at Flippa, don’t actually pan out.  Even the alleged sale of Free-counter.com for $61,000 reported by domain blogger Morgan Linton, left his readers skeptical, given that the Flippa seller claims to make $8,000 a month in profit. 

Zeerk.com: Why won’t it sell?

I’m no expert on this issue, but a quick glance at the comment threads on past listings reveals what Flippa users think about the auctions.

Why pay $50,000 or more for a website, when you can pay a couple hundred bucks (or less) for a clone script and get your own Fiverr-like site up in no time? 

Agriya, a web development company that produces a variety of clone scripts, appears to have developed one of the more popular Fiverr clone scripts that is used by several sites – including GigBucks.com which apparently sold on Flippa back in August for $5,500.

Gigbucks

Others on Flippa, seem suspicious as to why the Zeerk.com owner is selling the site so fast, as the seller (who goes by TheGreatFX on Flippa) claims to have no time and to be leaving the country in which they live.

“Why are you selling the website within 2 months that sounds very fishy. Coming to USA does not make a big reason for selling it in 2 months timeframe”, writes Flippa user Negotiator. 

While some suspect the site is plagued with problems and more question the site’s revenue and traffic claims.

Whatever happens with Zeerk.com on Flippa, I’m going to watch to see whether it goes up for sale again.  Despite Zeerk running into a string of problems, the micro-gig space looks to have a lot of potential.