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Shady or Legit Reseller on Flippa?
Offshore_Solutions
Member
There is a hosting provider I'm trying to track down selling what appear to be ready-to-go hosting businesses on Flippa.com. What the unsuspecting Buyer receives is a domain and the word of the Hosting Provider that the Buyer will be paid for providing customers to the Seller.
This is basically an expensive affiliate program where the Buyer may work hard at providing customers to the Seller with the risk of not receiving a commission. And if the customer renews, does the Buyer receive any commission? (probably not) The Seller does admit these are SaaS sites if the Buyer is savey enough to understand that they don't actually receive a website.
Here's one they are selling for $625!
https://flippa.com/10728733-complete-web-hosting-business-0-maintenance-running-on-autopilot
Here's another they are selling for $425:
https://flippa.com/10766925-complete-web-hosting-business-0-maintenance-running-on-autopilot
This seems like a great deal for the Seller and not a good deal for the Buyer who's really only getting a crappy domain and a questionable promise. What's your thoughts?
Comments
You can get far better domains for $7 at LET.
You can probably hand-reg better domains than those
I'd suggest that you take the entire business model of Flippa with a grain of salt.
After all, if the business is nice and profitable, why don't you pursue and improve it yourself, instead of trying to sell it off to others?
I investigated a bit and would suggest avoiding the scheme entirely (and anything on Flippa, for that matter).
Looking at the websites
hostzend.comandhostlean.comwe find the first red flag, namely a @gmail.com address being used for support:Checking the whois records for the domain, I see that these are registered in 2020, but the copyright in the footer claim that they've been in business since 2004.
Apart from the whois records, the "liquidnet" name is found elsewhere as well. For example, on the registration form of the two websites:
Given the above and the whois records also suggesting the fact that "liquidnet" is the registrar, it is safe to say that liquidnet is somehow involved in the scheme. Taking a look at
liquidnetlimited.com, they seem to operate some kind of free reseller program and these domains are part of that reseller hosting program which then leads us to "resellerspanel.com".I found lots of negative reviews here https://www.whtop.com/review/resellerspanel.com, but if it's something you're after, just go ahead and use resellerspanel directly instead of buying it from someone.
Incredibly good detective work there @stevewatson301 !
Very negative reviews indeed for this UK company Resellerspanel.com
I do respect their work ethic of getting their sites on Flippa and if they've been able to sell some of these crappy domains for as much as $625. Their packaging looks good to the unsuspecting but they didn't put any effort into finding the domains.
erm sorry wat @stevewatson301 ?
In no way is the seller nor Flippa anywhere stating anything other than the facts. You would get de-listed very quickly otherwise. Flippa, as like any auction/classifieds place, has some bad-apples but its quite safe and they offer a lot of tools to ensure buyers are protected.
Not saying though I would buy this though, its obviously high-priced cra**
(my opinion)
@ddvu
To clarify, I'm not saying that you will be scammed outright -- in most cases, you would be sold a thing that does work (and it might be even profitable). But, given the fact that the business owner could choose to run it themselves if it's a "good" business, you are more likely to become a bagholder should you choose to buy a business from there.
Looking around a bit, I found people trying to sell everything from websites that aren't even configured with the proper DNS records, to simple Shopify stores and click farms. Suffice to say, it's anything but a good sign and it only verifies what I've said before.
The designs is not unique. They are free themes.
https://hostingresellertheme.com/themes/pro-hosting-free-wordpress-theme/
https://hostingresellertheme.com/themes/cloud-servers-free-wordpress-hosting-theme/
The reseller program is https://www.resellerspanel.com/
You can create the same setup for free. :-)
I find it funny the first thing which I thought of was... I'm sure I've seen that logo before... But they took the idea from MochaHost's old logo:
They also don't get the best of reviews either... They are a ICANN accredited member though.
I see "PHP 4" as a red flag.
Nobody should be advertising PHP 4 in this year.
Maybe it's a typo, from PHP 7.4.
It's not a typo.
From https://hostlean.com:
PHP4/PHP5/PHP7 Support
That is impressive that they are an ICNN accredited member. How much would you guess it costs to receive that accreditation?
0$ if you are usual scammer.
Just an FYI pakcloudhost.com which was banned in Feb had a post here:
https://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/169646/pakcloudhost-cpanel-hosting-with-free-ssl-cloudlinux-litespeed-imunify360
And they used the same theme as one of those sites. So obviously buyer beware and not even worth $7
Flippa isn't always bad. Somewhere around 2007 - 2008, my partner and I sold Ablehosting.com with clients on Flippa. We got somewhere around 8K for it which was great for that period of time considering it was only shared hosting clients. Sadly, my partner later raked me over but that's a long story.
The new owner is still going strong today.
What were your reasons for the exit?
Our partnership wasn't working out which has happened to me 2X in this business. When this happens, you have few options but to sell. He even raked me over when it came time to split the sale price.
Lesson learned, have employees, not a partner.
Hey I have a question. Are you associated with https://offshoresolutions.co.nz/
You do have their logo for your profile picture, but they don't specialize in hosting, etc...
Nope, borrowed it for a week as a temporary while Eric is designing us a permanent logo. He's the best logo guy in the business.
Once Eric finishes, we'll be up at OffshoreSolutions.com (empty now).
At least add a coming soon page, it's not that hard to make one, and its free to host.
Honesly I'm looking forward to ya new logo, as right now you are infringing on copyright.
And will you hosting be DMCA ignored?
What plans are you looking to provide, shared hosting, VPS, dedi?
Where will your servers be located at?
Guy sounds fishy to be honest.
Guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
uh oh - the good ol' switcheroo - how the turn tables...
I'm not certain you're correct but happy to check with a Trademark Attorney.
Thousands here on this forum are using other's art on their Avatars not intended for commercial purposes. Same here, not using it for commercial purposes, we're selling nothing now and our own logo will be used when our business page is ready.
This is a temporary forum avatar only, not a logo for our business and I think the Attorney will likely say it's a grey area but let's see.
(New Zealand company is in totally different business, makes marine/ocean products).
Oki, and can u answer the rest of questions?
At work now but can reply again late tonight. We use Hetzner Servers as well as several others.
Trademark law is stricter than copyright law and unless authorized by the owner, you're generally only allowed to refer it when criticizing the company (think reviews etc.)
That argument might have worked if you weren't a business owner trying to represent your own business of the same name as another one, but given the present circumstances I'd say good luck trying to convince the opposing counsel.
So your name Doesn't make any sense now