Domain flipping and selling websites is all the rage at the moment, or so it seems.
Many would have you believe that it the present craze is the new Internet gold rush!
As always though, it is a case of buyer beware, especially on Ebay.
An experience that I had in the past few days confirmed this to me.
I wanted to build a coffee website for some time, and thought that I had found the ideal name on ebay.
When I checked the name being offered, I found that it was three years old, and so put the name on my watch list!
It was a logical fit for my idea, as I had the content to put on the site, and a passion for coffee.
My goal was to build the site, build traffic to it, and write an ebook to go with the site.
What happened next though was a complete surprise!
I won the auction, but not the name!
As strange as that may sound, although I made the winning bid, I won nothing!
Just after the auction I went back and checked the whois record of the domain, and found that the name on the record did not match the name of the person I had bought the domain off!
It turned out that the person had listed the name of a domain that they didn’t own!
To say that I was angry would be an understatement.
But I was as upset with myself as much as the seller, because it was something that I should have researched more closely before the auction.
I contacted the seller, pasting in the whois record of the domain.
They contacted me back, and explained that they had mad a typo, and offered me a refund, and the chance to bid on the auction for the “real domain”.
Although I accepted the refund, I won’t bother bidding on the other domain.
For one, it is too similar to the one I was after, and it wouldn’t be fair to the owner of that domain.
Number two, and more importantly, I have trouble seeing how the seller made the same mistake over 5 times on the one listing.
And the third reason was that the seller had a bit of a whine about losing money on Ebay because the auctions weren’t fetching enough!
He wasn’t covering his costs, or so he claimed, and it is a hobby business.
Well, running any businesse like that can send you broke!
Which brings me to the reason for this post: trading domains on Ebay.
There are places to sell domains, and places to buy, and as far as I am concerned, Ebuy is great!
When buying a domain though, do your research before hand, not just into the name, but the seller as well.
Check out their feed back record. I had done some research on this seller, and had noticed some negative feedback, but ignored it, because on the whole, the record wasn’t too bad!
Check the whois record for the domain, who owns it, when does it expire and so on.
Ask questions before the sale, not after!
Check the age of the item. You can do this by going to a site like Domain Tools!
Determine how much you can afford, or are prepared to pay, and don’t go over that amount.
Check exactly what you are buying – a lot of auctions there are very confusing, and have terms hidden in the text saying something like “installation $25 extra” or “must host with us for x amount of time at $x!”
Steer clear of them!
Have a clear plan about where you want to go with the domain. Are you going to flip it? Build a site and keep it?
Remember too, if you don’t flip it, or build it into an operation that at least pays for registration and hosting fees, you’re going to have to cough up more money next year to replace it!
Build a portfolio of sites that you’re hanging on to, and you are looking at an even higher cost!
Selling domain names on Ebay:
Don’t be afraid to put a reserve on your auction to cover the registration cost.
Get some different opinions on what your auction is worth. And don’t exaggerate!
If you claim that estibot appraised your domain at $880.00 when it only appraises for $50.00 for prospective buyers, it puts you in a bad light!
Check out similar auctions on the site. If there are a lot of domains going dirt cheap, don’t list, wait until demand picks up!
OK, research is the name of the game, whether you are buing or selling.
And for heavens sake, don’t make the same stupid mistakes that I did!
My consolation is that 2) It was mainly my pride that was hurt and b) maybe my story can help you, or someone else!
About The Author
Allan Cockerill is a Business Consultant based in Bathurst, NSW Australia.
He has been buying and selling domains since 1999.
