Murphy’s Law Caught Us With Our Pants Down
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We were wondering when the inevitable would happen, and it seems this weekend was the time. Murphy’s Law caught us with our pants down. As you all know, we had decided to sell the blog a few days ago, and this is where it all started. First we received a BIN of $50,000 on sitepoint, only to find out after a little googling that the bidder was a joker who has done it before - bidding BIN, getting the auction closed and never show up again. We rejected the offer and reported this to sitepoint staff (who are still to get back to us about it after three days.)
So with the auction re-opened, we went to the pub on Friday night, as you do here in Ireland, and halfway through the night we got a message on our blackberry that another $50,000 BIN was made (yay). Once we got home, we had a look at the buyer, who seemed legit, and after some talks on the phone, and messaging, it seemed the deal was done. He was satisfied with all the details and we accepted the BIN offer this time, thinking this wasn’t a joker like the first guy. Guess what, turned out he merely tried a bait and switch tactic. Once we accepted the $50,000 offer he made, we sent out an escrow payment request, only to receive a message on sitepoint that he now had some concerns about traffic and revenue and that he was only willing to pay $35,000. In the end offering $15,000 less then what he agreed to pay for at first. Probably hoping we couldn’t be bothered with relisting and sell the site to him. We’ve provided him with proof that show that his so called concerns about traffic and revenue were nonsense, and that we were/are infact doing even better than we had listed in the auction. Now three days later, we’re still to hear back from him.
Ah well, guess that’s just human nature. Moving on. Just before the weekend we figured we should upgrade WordPress to version 2.5 and of course on of our plugins started acting up as soon as we did. Unfortunately we had to disable the runPHP plugin because it was breaking the advertising engine plugin, OIOPublisher. So it took us not-so-technical cows a goof few hours to work around the problem, but in the end we’ve seemed to have fixed most of the issues.
But wait, there’s more! It seems someone wasn’t too happy to see us go, or make a good deal for the blog, so they decided to hack our server. Unfortunately they were quite smart in how they went about, it took a while before we even found out something was wrong. A lot of people asked us why the blog was down on their end, while we didn’t notice any problems other then connections dropping from our dashboard every now and then. We thought it was our own DSL connection, which has been acting a bit flakey lately, but as it turns out, the blog has been unreachable for a lot of people in the past few days, but we’re on top of it now. (well, the top hosting center support team that is)
Anyhoo, that leaves us with having to re-list the blog again, as it’s obvious the bidder isn’t coming through for us, even though he’s bound legally to his bid according to sitepoint. What a weekend, glad we stayed in bed and watched season one and two of Battlestar Galactica, we love starbuck!
*Update* We just got off the phone with Matt (co-founder of Sitepoint) because we wanted to complain about the way things were going with the fake BIN bidders, and he instantly refunded our $65 we needed to pay for the re-listing, no questions asked. Matt, you rock!
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That sucks. The things strange people do in life huh. Makes you wanna slap’em silly! Hope you get a good genuine offer on the blog (even though I wished you wouldn’t sell it).
Jarel’s last blog post..The Value of Caring vs Making Money
Unfortunately, this is something SitePoint need to work on. They need to make it a safer place to operate and they need to rid the site of timewasters.
Kevin’s last blog post..Twit vs Twat
Hey Cow,
Don’t you think this is fates way of telling you NOT to sell the site
But yeah, that sucks man. All this to sell this big ol’ blog, huh? Well, if you never get a buyer, you should donate this site to the “Jay fund” which is a pretty good charity option, if you ask me! Lol!
Good luck with it though!
Jay
Jay’s last blog post..Your Blog Just Isn’t the Same as it Once Was!
Who knows… maybe the website is sold and this is just the new owners way of maintaining the user base? Conspiracy theory anyone!?
Jim’s last blog post..Top Ten Ways How Internet Marketers Will Scam You
Only time will tell Id say, but this makes for interesting times.!
Big Ben Patton’s last blog post..Review: TNX.net Contextual And Text Link Advertising… Realized Or Pipedream?
I commented earlier about how the site was sold as it appears on site point, I am relieved to say the least that its not sold. Not that I don’t want you to do well cow and make a pretty penny, I just think for all the love and work this blog has had put into it that you would never consider selling. If I had the dough I would buy it in a heart beat. But as we well know not many people have a spare 50k laying around.
Shannon Lilly’s last blog post..Blog Promotion - Shirts, Drive Competitors Crazy!
This is fate cow, you’re not supposed to leave.
With like, a million millionaires in the US, there should be someone out there who can take the hit for a little fun and lots of profit. You just need to advertise in the right places.
Fake $50k bids, what tripe. Sounds entirely possible that you had an encounter with the stupidest person in the world… there’s only one in 6 billion who can hold that title — what an honor!
Luke’s last blog post..Last Chance at Revolution Money Exchange
Crikey Bob. Sounds like a nightmare.
Matt’s last blog post..Papaya offers world’s first fruit-name filesharing program
Ahhh, no wonder I haven’t been able to see your blog
Maybe this means something Cow…don’t sell
-Mike
Mike Huang’s last blog post..Retiring Early With A Bang
I think just give the cow to Sunduvan. Sunduvan love to milk the cow. haha. Good luck in selling your cow. How many cows are there?
Sunduvan’s last blog post..Fishing Safety Gears. Personal Floatation Devices (PFD).
I hate fakers like that. Why do they insist on wasting people’s time and money? All I can say is what comes around goes around. Good luck on the sale man-cow.
That’s an interesting theory Jim! I don’t think it is however as Bob / Cow’s writing is quite recognizable here.
But that’s a great idea, the new owner should do that!
Nick Sullivan’s last blog post..YouTube Celebrities and Business Opportunities
If I had that amount of money I’d BIN it all the way. I’ve already said what I think of the work you’ve done Cow.
All the best with the sale,
Allen
Allen.H’s last blog post..JohnCow.com is Up For Sale
Kinda late for a April fool’s in faking the BIN’s huh? I was happy for ya and telling people your story, it’s not quite back to the drawing board, but you’ll pull through so chin up, and keep it moovin’.
cooliojones’s last blog post..Hustler Validates: $25 in Free Money
hmm, blog down 4 a few days and sold on sitepoint…server transfer anyone?
Abdalla’s last blog post..Control Your Mac With an Email
such is life. clearly some ppl dont want you to go,
Sorry to hear that you couldn’t get any legit buyers John. That is a lot of money to pay for a blog though.
Rob’s last blog post..Contest Time!
I have to admit I am not a regular reader of your site, but it is a great story how you could make this site such a success.
I also read you are going to Australia. If you have any questions, please take a look at australiaforum.com
All the best with the sale and the move!
I think he did sell the blog and the new owner are scared to let anyone know because of the hefty sell price and the thought of lossing the traffic i know i would ask to do the same With my reputation the blog would go to hell right away and my 50 thousand with it
thegeekboys.com’s last blog post..johncow.com Sold! for $50,000 WoW
Jokers and scammers can ruin a good sale. There may have been someone wanting to place a bid cow. So instead of eating steak tonight with the finest cheese and wine. You are just eating burgers, chips and fine Irish brew.
Cheers from across the pond.
This is exactly the sort of crap that has kept me away from selling through Sitepoint. I don’t know what is worse, selling through Sitepoint or eBay, they both seem to have a high majority of piss takers “buying”.
Making The Money’s last blog post..Adsense Privacy Policy, Don’t Get Banned
I have sold a few good sites on SP however, the value of JohnCow.com will only be within a few peoples reach…after all, who has that sort of money lying around !
Anyway, I think the site will sell in the end BUT it may be a long battle trying to get the price you want….good luck cow
SEOBloggers.NET’s last blog post..Search Engine Optimization Tips for Google
Hahaha, sorry to burst your bubble, conspiracy theory lovers, but its still the same old us here, no new owners.
cow is not moving, the new owner is australian! When firestat shows new country i.e. Australia its the new Australian owners!
Abdalla’s last blog post..7 Types of People To Avoid Whilst Playing Halo 3
Why don’t you just get rid of the BIN option? If someone believes the blog is worth 50k it will reach that price naturally.
(I’m not saying I think it isn’t… just throwing it out there)
Chris Guthrie’s last blog post..TNX Review
Just thought I would have my say on the sale…. check out link below
SEOBloggers.NET’s last blog post..JohnCow up for Sale (Again) !
Those fake bidders are annoying. They dimish your hope of making money. Bu Cow, don’t go, people like me still enjoy your blog.
layman’s last blog post..Win an Apple iPhone
I think people like that suck!! They get you all worked up, you start thinking how your going to spend your money, and then they changed thier minds. Or should I say, they never intended to buy in the first place… Tire kickers.
Somehow I am not as satisfied with WordPress 2.5 as I should be. It seem to break my blog somewhere though I haven’t figure out where. Even the auto upgrading of plugin don’t seem to be working for me.
Francis Sim’s last blog post..Look Where You Are Going