Finding listings on eBay

[Casey101]

Does anyone here have any any experience buying sites from sellers on eBay?

From what I can tell, and I am certainly no expert, it seems to be a venue for folks who have under-monetized sites.
The reason I say this because that, IMHO, eBay is a terrible option for selling a site. There is no sorting option for 'drilling down' on sites and there are so many crap-listings that it can be super frustrating sorting through literally thousands of listings, only to find one of 3 or 4 sites with content.

I think that most webmasters who have any clue about monetizing a site know about sites like Flippa, DP, and whatnot and know that that is where the majority of the action is, at least for lower level sites.

eBay, however, is very popular with families, housewives, and enthusiasts. It seems (from what I have found) that many people start sites simply for the love of the topic and for whatever reason are not able to keep the site anymore, and sell on eBay. What this does is create a really great opportunity for people like us as sites that are created out of enthusiasm often have great, engaging, content relating to a specific niche. The perfect formula for success.

In addition to having great content, they are often under monetized, if they are monetized at all.

Another plus, it seems to me, is the fact that with eBay, the feedback score actually means something as opposed to getting a 30% boost in your score for simply linking a Facebook or LinkedIn account. Sellers here aren't nearly as likely to lie about traffic or income for fear of damaging an often perfect feedback score.

I have recently purchased a site there that was a PR2, had 3,500 UV's per month, and was generating about $120 in revenue per month. The seller had a 150+ feedback that was 100% positive, yet I was the only bidder and picked it up for the starting bid of about a 4 month multiple.

The listing described how great the site would be for a fellow enthusiast, and how they simply could not keep the site up anymore as they were retiring, and planned on travelling.
It took several messages back and forth but I finally got all, or most, of the information I needed to make an informed decision. In the end, I had to talk about how much I enjoyed the subject (OK, so I fibbed a little) before they would open up to me and give me a little more information about earnings and visitors.

I finally realized that I was forgetting the emotional attachment they had to the site. I felt a little bad because, essentially, I had just started an adoption interview with "So, I'm planning on adopting your child but, before I do, I need to get a little more information on how much your little guy can make in a month, working full time, while taking no breaks or holidays."

It was fortunate that is was an eBay listing and they were obliged to sell at that point because if it had been a private sale, I believe they may have disqualified me immediately after I started the conversation with earnings questions. It is something to keep in mind for the future.

Has anyone else had an experience with eBay?

Are there any caveats relating especially to eBay that I may have missed, making it a 'not so great' option for us?

[Clinton]

Your thread title suggested this was about finding listings on ebay/sorting through the junk. If anyone has any methods they've developed for doing that, I'd certainly be interested. Apart from the usual search tools it's difficult finding the right stuff in ebay. I was looking at one the other day that kept claiming it was a "long established business" despite the look and feel being template. I spent about 5-10 minutes reading the description and decided that whatever the seller said, the site was really a turnkey turkey. I was tempted to take it at BIN and give him negative feedback for lying. One or two of those negative feedback saying "He lies about the site being established" could help a future buyer or two.

On the other matter of dealing with the non-webmaster, non-business, enthusiast types who've grown bored of their site or need to move on .... I feel your pain. Dealing with them is tricky. Each case is unique. One or two cases have taken me years of on-off dialogue!

[benitez17]

It sounds like you made a nice purchase.

I have found a couple quality sites on eBay, but they are few and far between, almost to the point that sifting through all of the junk template sites isn't worth the effort. I have had little success with anything other than manually sorting the sites myself.

[Casey101]

Your thread title suggested this was about finding listings on ebay/sorting through the junk.

You're right, Clinton. I didn't realize that. Is there a way to edit that now?

If anyone has any methods they've developed for doing that, I'd certainly be interested.

Yes and, like Benitez said, it's so frustrating because the jerks with the templates use descriptions with the same keywords as the 'real' sites.

All in all though, I suppose the point of this thread is to say that: Though frustrating, eBay is certainly a venue worth watching. Man, I just realized that I made that much more of a production that it needed to be...