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Is there anything i should look out for when buying premade website from ebay?

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Dani AI

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Buying a premade site from an auction site can work, but treat it like buying a small business rather than a pretty template. As reminded — research matters — and contributors such as , and have already flagged common issues (inflated metrics, WHOIS inconsistencies, relisted turnkey templates). The following checklist focuses on practical verification, clean transfers, and payment protections that many replies hinted at but did not detail.

Verify traffic and revenue before committing. Request temporary, read-only access to analytics and Google Search Console (or raw server logs) so sessions, geography, and referral sources can be inspected. Ask for live merchant statements or temporary access to payment dashboards rather than static screenshots. Require a simple ownership proof (seller uploads a token file or meta tag you provide) so the domain and content control are demonstrable.

Confirm legal and technical ownership/transfer logistics. Get registrar details and the EPP/auth code; confirm the domain is not locked or under dispute. Run a Wayback/duplicate-content check to spot relisted templates and reverse-image searches for copied assets. Verify licenses for themes, images and third-party scripts. Scan for hidden links or malware once a backup is taken. Request a list of third-party accounts (hosting, CDN, affiliate/ad networks) and how each will be transferred.

Transaction protections and handover. Require a reputable escrow service and a signed bill of sale listing included assets, accounts and a 30-day handover/support window. Insist on a complete backup prior to any DNS/ownership changes and immediate credential/API-key rotation after transfer. A seller unwilling to provide verifiable access, escrow or a clear transfer plan is a strong red flag.

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Member Avatar for Dani

Do you have any experience using eBay? As long as you're careful and take all of the necessary precautions you'd do when purchasing anything from an eBay auction, you should be fine. (ie reputation of seller, etc) I don't think it's any different than buying any existing (turnkey) site ... be it from an eBay auction or from a webmaster forum, etc.

Member Avatar for JeffHeaton

I would check out the usual google stuff. Like what is its PR? How many inbound links? Also check Alexa to see what its ranking there is. All of which will tell you how much traffic the domain itself is generating.

Member Avatar for etechsupport

I would say eBay is good for selling site but for buying you should prefer it to buy from forum members, if you visit relevant section of sitepoint forum you'll find many good sites are there for sell on very affordable price.

Member Avatar for Avalon

I found when I looked on eBay people would say that the site has so many links and when I checked the betterwhois website things didn't match up. Be sure to do your research before you bid because most of these websites are turn key templates that are relisted right after you buy them. The sad thing is you will find very few people who would sell a site doing well. There just simply aren't many people who would sell a site if it was doing well. It just wouldn't make sense.

Member Avatar for soapbath

I found when I looked on eBay people would say that the site has so many links and when I checked the betterwhois website things didn't match up. Be sure to do your research before you bid because most of these websites are turn key templates that are relisted right after you buy them. The sad thing is you will find very few people who would sell a site doing well. There just simply aren't many people who would sell a site if it was doing well. It just wouldn't make sense.

I sell sites on ebay, and most make money at the time of selling (Be it only £50 a month), turnkey sites are very dumb and I hate the makers of them. Every site I sell is unique and if not almost one of the kind on the net

Member Avatar for Dani

See, I think that whether it's an auction or not an auction - always do your research.

Member Avatar for etechsupport

cscgal, Right. Before buying it is important to research well about their past history and the profit making ability of particular site you are going to buy.

Member Avatar for ht05

After all the scams I have heard about from ebay, I don't think I would even consider buying a website from there unless there was genuine website with someone who appeared to be a genuine seller, and the website was a low price.

Member Avatar for Dani

I don't think it's any less secure to buy from eBay than to buy from someone you approached / who approached you via email or a post in a forum.

Member Avatar for mddv

I would not personally buy a website from ebay since there are alot of websites that state that they are established but are not also there are heaps of turnkey websites that are sold. So why will you want to have a website that looks similar to 1 million other sites.

There are alot of useful places to buy a quality website. here are some good forums that sell some good sites:

namepros.com
dnforum.com
digitalpoint.com

also this forum daniweb.com

there are many others out there so do your shopping and do your research ask for proof of traffic, revenue and what ever is also needed. And do the usual stuff such as how many backlinks, PageRank and so on.

Good Luck

Marty

Member Avatar for Dani

/me quietly steps in to remind mddv that no site specific talk is permitted here.

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