Thanks, Joel, that's a good point.

It felt a little awkward/forced running through the details on the different scenarios. I think that would have been much more legible in a blog post or written form. :-(

That's interesting feedback, Ian. Funny, though - some say we charge WAY too much while others say we don't charge enough. Why do you think we're on the high end of the scale. (And, if that's the case, you'd definitely consider SELLING your sites with us, right?)

I've sold a website with them and I thought they actually priced it incredibly low.

I have my own review of their service coming up, but I think the quality you're gonna get from EF is infinitely higher than something you'd pick up off of flippa.

I haven't purchased a site through EF yet, but I've looked at many of their deals and compared to other marketplaces.

They're real businesses with real traffic, cashflow, etc. For as much as the startup world talks about starting a business from scratch, many would do well to pay for something that already has a foundation built for them.

their valuation tool is kind of absurd.

No. They mostly broker transactions of people whose businesses resemble "A website with X0k monthly uniques acquired through organic SEO which is presently monetized by reviews of various products on Amazon which get the Amazon affiliate program if someone buys that or any other product consequent to clicking their link; revenues for the last 6 months averaged $1,700 on expenses of $300, dominated by outsourced content writing." (That's a point along the spectrum, probably close to their modal listing in sophistication and possibly under their median; I don't follow closely enough to have a great sense of that.)

Some people have businesses like this which for whatever reason they want to sell; other people have money which for whatever reason they prefer less than having business like this [+]. Empire Flippers operates a brokerage which matches these people together, for a cut of the transactional price.

(I listen to their podcast, which is really good, even if one's business does not resemble the above.)

[+] One of the most interesting recurring themes on their podcast is a series of user avatars for who would be interested in this -- Porfolio Paul (wants to have 10+ businesses like this and operate them like someone operates a number of fast-food franchises) and Lifestyle Larry (wants to be the owner of a business which makes $X0k a year in preference to having a day job) are two who stick out for me.