What if u want money for something else, quick and easy, and you have no more time to manage/maintain the website? Or if you have too many websites/too much work to do? Could be one of the reasons.

Pretty much everything is for sale if the price is right, certainly all websites are unless the owners are fools. Of course 'right' is how the owner defines it.

I wonder the same thing. I've seen buyers post that they wouldn't spend more than a site's six months' to a years' earning potential when buying a site. But who would sell for that, when you can just keep your own site for a year, two years, many years.. and keep earning the money for yourself?

I could see it happening if the site has a lot of potential that the current owner doesn't realize or can't develop, and the buyer offers two to five times what the site is making currently per year. In other words it makes $2,000 per year, the buyer buys it for $10,000, and develops it into a site that makes $10,000 or $20,000 per year.

I wouldn't think that's very common, though (I could be wrong). The ethics could also be questionable, unless the seller is aware of the buyer's motivations.

why oh! why would youtube sell to google?

Web business as about buying and selling and that includes the business just like any other market?

But who would sell for that, when you can just keep your own site for a year, two years, many years.. and keep earning the money for yourself?

Why would a person stop working and retire when he/she can keep working for many more years and continue to make an income?

Here are just a few reasons why someone might want to sell a site:
1) The person wants to retire and stop working altogether.
2) The person finally got burned out from doing all the work and needs a long break.
3) The person wants to go in a new direction on a different project or even try a new career.
4) The person has been doing a lot of risky/black hat things and figures it is just a matter of time before he's finally caught and the money dries up.
5) The person got doing something illegal and will be going to prison for several years.
6) The person has been diagnosed with cancer and been given 6 months to live.
7) Someone gave him an offer he couldn't refuse.

the buyer buys it for $10,000, and develops it into a site that makes $10,000 or $20,000 per year.

This is no different from the offline world where people by ailing companies and turn them around. There are a number of businesses (and sites) that are not living up to their potential revenue. In many cases, the current owner doesn't have the experience to run the business (or site) as well as it could be run. So it makes sense to sell to someone who can do it better.

Remember that the buyer is taking a risk (that the business may not be able to be turned around), so it's certainly logical that the purchase price should be based on current earnings, not potential earnings.

[edited by: LifeinAsia at 10:45 pm (utc) on Nov. 13, 2006]

I don't understand your question. To me, every market is based on selling and buying, and I can't see a fundamental difference in markets on- and offline. One could similarly ask why a shopkeeper would sell his business - and just like with websites, there are hundreds of reasons for an individual to do that (right price, retirement, merging with other business, etc.)

I'm agree with wolfadeus
It's a free market.you can buy cheap and sell it.