My Experience Buying a $10,000 Website on Sitepoint (Part 1)

I recently purchased Status2k on a sitepoint auction. It's the first time I've ever bought a site and it's definately a learning experience. After my winning bid was excepted the sale proceeded very rapidly (a lot quicker than I was expecting) over msn chat.

Getting some reassurance

Before sending $10,000 to someone I'd never met I wanted to get a feel for who the seller was and that they were genuine. This explains the first part of the interaction.

Ian: Hi.
Vlad: Hello Ian
Ian: So how do you think we should do this ?
Vlad: Well i did a lot of similar deals and it's pretty easy
Vlad: You pay us 50% we transfer the files
Vlad: Pay the other 50% and we transfer the domain
Vlad: So this way you are protected and we are too
Ian: OK, that seems fair...
Vlad: Great
...
Ian: I would also like to get contact details so that I know where
my money is
going i.e. a telephone no.
Vlad: You will pay via paypal right ?
Ian: If I can, I don't know what there upper limit is.
Vlad: Doesn't have for me , but depends from account to account yeah
Ian: I'll take a look, can you provide contact details ?
Vlad: what kind of details you need ?
Ian: I'll need your address and a phone number, if that's ok ?
Vlad: I'm not sure i d enjoy giving out the personal stuff online
Ian: I can't send that kind of money without knowing exactly
who it's going too.
Vlad: I understand
Vlad: But take it like this
Vlad: How could you verify
Vlad: If i wanted to scam you, I'd get a prepaid card, invent an address and
how could you verify if it's legit or not
...
Ian: Let me have a think about it, not feeling comfortable sending the money.
...
Vlad: Would you like to see my trader profile
...
Ian: It would be good to see trader profiles, yes. Sorry Vlad
but I just need to be sure.
Vlad: I perfectly understand you Ian .
...
Vlad: here hxxp://
Vlad: one of them
Ian: I'm feeling a bit better about this now, a good profile.
Vlad: Thank you
Vlad: I'm a member of hxxp:// too
Vlad: You can type in my email to lookup for my profile
Vlad: Or at
...
Vlad: Feeling more comfortable now Ian ?
Ian: Definately, shall I make paypal payment to <removed>

Sending the first half of the payment and receiving the files

As a buyer this is a difficult part as you're just receiving a bunch of files without really knowing if they're going to work when you get them. However Vlad offers to keep the site hosted whilst I get set up, so the sale proceeds.

Vlad: No
Vlad: My paypal is <removed>
Vlad: Yeah only thing is we have to pay fees
Vlad: Usually buyer pays fees
Vlad: but we can do 50/50 i guess
...
Ian: OK, I'll pay fees this time you next ?
Vlad: Yeah
Vlad: Let me know when you paid i'll transfer you the files and
then the domain
Ian: It'll take me a while to get the site up and running is that ok ?
Vlad: Well i'll give you everything, you can take your time
we'll still host it
Ian: payment has been sent.
...
Vlad: Great
Vlad: Okay
Vlad: You have a server with cPanel ?
Ian: I use webmin, put I'm pretty techy so getting it
setup shouldn't be a problem.
Vlad: Okay
Vlad: So if i provide cPanel logins and ftp you can handle ?
Ian: I think so yes.
Ian: What's the url for cpanel ?
...
Ian: OK, how do domains get sent ?
Vlad: Create an domainsite account
Ian: creating it now.
Ian: OK, account is created.
...
Vlad: Uploading now the archieve
Ian: Thanks.
Vlad: Meanwhile get your Account Code from your domainsite account
Ian: <domain site account code removed>
Vlad: Sweet
Ian: How's it going ?
Vlad: it's done
...
Ian: OK, I'll send the money now.
Vlad: Nice
Ian: Sent.
Vlad: Received
Vlad: Domain has been sent
Ian: Cool, will it just appear, let me check.
Vlad: Yah
Ian: Will it still point to the same ip ?
...
Ian: Right.
Ian: Lot's for me to do.
Vlad: Yep
Ian: I hope not to bother you too much in the next couple of days.
Vlad: It's okay
Vlad: I don't mind helping
...

And the good news

In part 2 I'll write up more of my experiences of transferring the site to another server, email problems, dns problems and a few other suprises I wasn't expecting. However the screenshot below shows the sales coming in, a huge sigh of relief.

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 11, 2008