Do you sell VPS services on eBay?

What?

Yes, it’s true that on one of the world’s biggest marketplaces, you can buy VPS services along with Beanie Babies, sports cards, and DDR2 RAM. If you search eBay for “VPS” or “Linux VPS” you’ll find pagefulls of listings.

Interestingly, there aren’t as many as you’d think, and most of them are not at particularly competitive prices. Here are some examples of the better offers I saw (considering only price and not any kind of provider reputation):

• Get a Linux VPS (running Ubuntu 18) with 2GB of RAM, 80GB of disk, unlimited bandwidth and DDoS protection in Canada fro $4.99/mo. I’d guess this and many of these offers are OVH-based.
• Or a Linux VM with 1GB of RAM, 25GB of storage, and 1TB of transfer for $5/mo in Chicago.
• Here’s a 2GB RAM Windows or Linux VM with 80GB of disk, 2 cores, and unlimited bandwidth in France for $6.40/mo.

I’d say that for at least half if not more of these postings, it’s difficult to identify the host. Some of them are a bit smarter, putting their logo in the auction photograph (which shows on the listing page) and prominently displaying it in the listing details. Only a few go the whole route, linking to their TOS, including testimonials, including some ad copy to differentiate themselves, etc.

Some have truly strange terms, which is probably the result of trying to shoehorn their service into the auction format.  For example, some say “30 days, nonrenewable” – why would any provider ever want to sell on that basis?  Smarter listings offer a small discount if you renew for 3, 6, or 12 months.

If I was a provider looking for new ways to advertise myself, I think I’d post some ads on eBay. What do you have to lose? You’d need to make sure your listing price covers the eBay auction fees (as well as the usual payment processing). Beyond that consideration, it’s free advertising, and you may get some sales from people who otherwise may never hear of you. If people are successfully selling services at 2-3x LowEnd prices there, you might just be the next eBay VPS market leader.

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raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

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