Flippa's Overlooked Tools

**Clinton** · January 9th, 2012, 2:09 PM

Flippa blogs today about the tools they have which are often overlooked by sellers (and buyers)

If you are an infrequent user of Flippa I can see this post being of use to you if you are planning on listing a site.

**benitez17** · January 10th, 2012, 6:53 AM

I appreciate the improvements they have made in their search capabilities, and use the advanced search to check for quality sites often. If only they improved the results along with it...

I don't know what I think about allowing the seller to lower the reserve at the last minute, especially when many of them do disclose their reserve via PM. I could see unscrupulous sellers abusing that feature.

**Clinton** · January 10th, 2012, 7:08 AM

I did see that bit and wondered about it. But it also struck me as a way of catching out bidders who are bidding in the expectation that they'll be below reserve. They do this to keep the seller thinking they are interested and so he'll continue to provide data and stats when the reality is that they have no intention of buying.

Could you explain what form of abuse you see that taking?

**benitez17** · January 10th, 2012, 6:35 PM

Originally Posted by Clinton

I did see that bit and wondered about it. But it also struck me as a way of catching out bidders who are bidding in the expectation that they'll be below reserve. They do this to keep the seller thinking they are interested and so he'll continue to provide data and stats when the reality is that they have no intention of buying.

Could you explain what form of abuse you see that taking?

You tell bidders that the reserve is $10,000, and when someone bids $8,000 thinking that it will give them the preferential negotiating position after the auction but still give them the ability to drop out if things don't look right, and then they are stuck with the listing when you drop the reserve.

I put in bids that I know are below the reserve when I am interested but the seller hasn't provided enough information, or for other similar reasons.

**grynge** · January 10th, 2012, 7:55 PM

Originally Posted by benitez17

You tell bidders that the reserve is $10,000, and when someone bids $8,000 thinking that it will give them the preferential negotiating position after the auction but still give them the ability to drop out if things don't look right, and then they are stuck with the listing when you drop the reserve.

I put in bids that I know are below the reserve when I am interested but the seller hasn't provided enough information, or for other similar reasons.

Actually that sucks now I will have to rethink my bids on sites I only want the stats from.