My Thoughts

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This seller is being very optimistic when they specify a minimum bid of $15,000! I wonder how they arrived at that number... Why not $20,000?

The site went live on September 4th 2008 and immediately started getting 6,000 unique visitors a month. Suspicious? Nah. Well maybe it would be less suspicious if the seller had bothered to include some useful traffic statistics like where the traffic was actually coming from. The site is too young (2 months old) to be getting this much organic search engine traffic. Where the traffic comes from has a big influence on your buying decision. It could be that the seller is using PPC and incurring a cost. Maybe they have bought advertising on other sites. More cost. Maybe they're using auto stumble! This information matters, but is missing from the auction details. Why don't sellers take a little time to prepare comprehensive (and I don't mean unwieldy) information for prospective buyers?

And what about those 6,000 unique visitors a month? That's 12,000 so far and not one cent in revenue is claimed by the seller. So the lucky buyer would have to spend a whopping $15,000 (at least) to receive a site that makes no money. Hell, I can sell you a site that does that for $100! Drop me a line and I'll give you the URL.

But the site does have potential:

Huge potential...check out sites like usedboats.com, iboats.com and boattrader.com for an idea of how far you can take this.

What this means is that the buyer will have to supply their skill, effort and money to take this site that far. Yet the seller wants > $15,000 as if the site was already there, even though it's the buyer who will have to put the work in.

The buyer would also have to supply their own expertise for this too:

The current design is pretty basic but if you know some css you can really make this a great looking site

You know, if I had a site that I thought was worth $15,000 I would hire someone to redesign it for me so that it was a great looking site before I decided to sell it. Not investing in minimal costs like these don't lend credibility to the claim that the site really is worth so much.

When will sellers learn that buyers want to buy sites that have are actually making a profit? Not that have the potential to make a profit. Potential is usually worthless.

Auction Details

Link to sitepoint auction

BoatClassifieds.com for Sale

Great Domain Name, Great Script, Great Target Market

• URL: http://www.boatclassifieds.com/
• Established: Thu Sep 04 2008
• Uniques/Month: 6,000
• Page views/month: 26,000
• Monthly Revenue (USD): 0
• Listed: Yesterday 15:21

Description:

I've just launched the site but don't have the time to put into it.  The current design is pretty basic but if you know some css you can really make this a great looking site.  Huge potential...check out sites like usedboats.com, iboats.com and boattrader.com for an idea of how far you can take this.  This site targets boaters who are a loyal market and have a relatively high discretionary income.

Awesome script in place which runs like Craigslist.  Users can post an ad with or without registering an account.  Basic ads are free with paid featured ads on Home page.  Paypal payment integrated.  Two sources of revenue: featured ads and Adsense.  Plus if you wanted there is plenty room for more banner ads and such.

I also have a message board in place.  This would be a great place to add boating articles and tips and draw more traffic.

Great domain name!  Compare to autoclassifieds.com which sold this past year for $110,000 (see dnjournal.com annual sales chart).

Revenue Details:

Adsense and featured ads.

Traffic Details:

Just launched the site Sept. 5, 2008.  Currently I have it set up for the U.S. and Canada but you can add whatever countries you want.