Flippa : Get ready for some auction rule changes, says Kevin Fink

Flippa has received a lot of feedback since revamping its domain, website and app auction marketplace.

The Australian company maintains a close relationship with its users, and even its loudest critics.

It was one of these criticizing threads over at NamePros that sent fumes about certain rules that aren’t working for many domain sellers or buyers.

Aptly titled, “Fu*k Flippa for accepting bids after auction ends…” the discussion focused on how Flippa auctions were keeping pending bids alive, not expiring them after the end of the auction.

Currently, within 72 hours after the end of an auction, any pending bids must be accepted or rejected. This methodology, however, raised concerns about the validity of bids.

Other issues mentioned, included the current paradoxical ability for sellers to reject BIN bids, thus overriding the very essence of a “Buy it now” domain auction.

Kevin Fink, director at Flippa, stepped in and delivered his personal and corporate thoughts, promising that Flippa listens and that there are changes coming.

Fink’s approach covered pending issues, delivering the following points. Note: Some of Kevin Fink’s statements were rewritten here for reasons of legibility but the context was retained.

• Domain auctions : Should default to auto-accept all bidders. If a seller wishes to manually accept, they can toggle this in their listing settings. Website and app auctions will remain defaulted to manually accept bidders.
• Pending bids:  Bids decided post-auction will be a thing of the past. This change will kill the instance of a bid being accepted *after* the end of an auction.
• Extension time : The 60 minute extension time for an auction is being reviewed. A 5 minute extension time seems more logical to have.
• BIN auctions : When you click “Buy it Now,” it means “BUY IT NOW” ! The rule of a seller being able to *reject* a BIN offer rides off into the sunset. A reject on a BIN basically means…it’s not a BIN.
• User Verification & Bidder Aliases : The former will be completely redone, in order to improve how new users are accepted and verified. A publicly visible “score” or marker of sorts, that shows the transacting party just how “verified” they are is under consideration. Having a bidding alias is one such step a buyer or seller can complete to become further “verified.”
• Employee Involvement Clarifications: It’s a feature arriving very soon.

Overall, it’s refreshing seeing how Flippa actively interacts with its user base; if only other domain auction places did the same to that extent!

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