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

By: Thomas

Thomas — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:15:34 +0000

Thanks for sharing!
I’ve done a bunch of transactions like this before, but on a smaller scale and I do it pretty much the same way, even if its only a hundred dollars.

By: Giles Dawe

Giles Dawe — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 16:02:27 +0000

I don’t think you should apologise for asking his contact details, I think it’s a British way of going about things…but this is business!

I’d gone with Escrow, let him send you the files first and then pay money in full to get the domain sent over after.

Normally he’d pay the fees too, since his preference is Paypal…I could of been the middleman on this and saved you a pretty penny!

By: MyOrbit

MyOrbit — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:15:49 +0000

Hi Ian, I am very glad that your transaction completed safe and sound, but $10k was not worth that risk. Because I have seen cases where the transaction did not complete.
To be fair, there are also many good sellers who will do the extra steps to make things fine. Still, I would really urge you and everyone to use Escrow next time when its more than what you can afford to lose. cheers/Shankar

By: FlipMy.com

FlipMy.com — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:05:25 +0000

Anything over 5k I will run through escrow. Fortunately you weren’t burned this time around.

By: yumthis

yumthis — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 06:52:33 +0000

If you are willing to buy some other sites, I have several personal projects I am forced to sell fast. Let’s talk, maybe you’d like some of them. I realize this is an odd message, so I can add “no payment until everything is transferred”.

By: Vlad

Vlad — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:48:00 +0000

Great everything turned out well Ian. I am pretty sure we will do business again.

Sincerely,
Vlad

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 11:01:17 +0000

I will buy more sites and my experience here has probably altered the way that I would do it.

I’ll take a look at the contract from sitepoint, thanks Paul.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:55:15 +0000

I know that Sitepoint sell a contract aimed specifically at website sales, if you’re looking for one. Are you planning on buying/selling more sites? Nosey aren’t I!

By: Ian

Ian — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:49:41 +0000

Paul, No I didn’t use a contract, although next time I’d like to have one in place.

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:44:14 +0000

Wow Ian! I think you took a risk there. Consider:

You send $5K – buyer disappears
You send $5K – you get files – you send remaining $5K – buyer disappears and retains domain

Risky! I’m assuming you didn’t use contracts?

But I’m glad it all worked out for you. I think this is a really interesting post, by the way, and I look forward to more like this. It’s good to see how other people operate.

Paul