Summary

• In an auction buyers place bids to purchase the asset or business listed for sale
• In a classified sale buyers make offers to purchase the asset or business listed for sale

How private sale offers work (classified sales)

In a private sale, the offers are kept private. Only the seller knows the value of the offers that have been made.

To make an offer, the buyer enters the offer into the box and clicks on the Place Offer button.
Any offer may be accepted or rejected by the seller. The seller only accepts one offer, though - that's the winning offer.
By accepting an offer, the seller ends the private sale and commits to selling the property to that buyer. 
To access Flippa's offer management tools, logged-in sellers select My Account, click on My Listings, and then on Pending Offers.

Rejecting offers

Sellers may reject any offer they choose. Only an accepted offer is legally binding for the buyer and seller.

Automatic rejection

If the seller doesn't accept or reject an offer within 72 hours of receiving it, Flippa will automatically reject that offer.

Accepting an offer

In a private sale, the seller accepts only one offer - the winning offer. By accepting an offer, the seller ends the sale. 

How public sale bidding works (auction sales)

In a public auction, the current value of the bidding is displayed on the listing page. We use Automatic Bidding (also known as Proxy Bidding) to place bids.

If you’ve decided to bid on a listing, enter the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for the website or domain in the bid field.
The seller will need to approve you as a bidder before your bid is valid. Once you’ve been approved, each additional bid will automatically be placed, up to your maximum.
Our automatic bidding system will increase your bid by regular increments each time you are outbid, up to your maximum bid. This gives you the best chance to win the auction, while still controlling how much you’re willing to pay.

If your bid is under the seller’s reserve, we will bid on your behalf up to your maximum, and notify you that your maximum bid is under the reserve.
If your maximum bid is over the seller’s reserve, we will bid on your behalf up to the reserve. You will then be in the lead to win this auction.

Who can see the maximum bid amounts?

Your maximum amount won’t be shown to other bidders, or to the seller, but you can see your own maximum bid on the listing’s page, and increase it if you’d like.

As a seller, can I remove a bid that I've accepted?

No, remember that you have not accepted a bid, but a bidder, into your action (which we call a bid preference). That said, once you have accepted a bid preference, the bid(s) that have already been made cannot be removed. You can remove a user's bid preference, but once again this will not remove the bids already made - it will only remove the user's ability to bid further.

What if two bidders place identical maximum bids?

If two buyers place the same maximum bid, the one whose bid was placed first will prevail. Even if the seller approves pending bidders in a different order, the first bid placed will be the winner and the second bidder notified they’ve been outbid. This will be reflected in the bid history — if multiple maximum bids for the same amount were accepted, the first bid placed (the current winner) will be at the top of the list.