advice Previous owner wants his domain back. What's the standard practice?

[Darkniight]

A few days back, I won a domain in Sav auction. The domain was registered in Nov-2019 and expires in Nov-2023.

I listed the domain in several marketplaces. Today I received the following message through the domain lander:

I haven't responded to the message yet. According to the Way Back Machine, the domain seems to be used as an Amazon Affiliated Website. The matching Twitter and Facebook page doesn't seem to be active after Feb-2021.

Seeking your expert views about this. What's the standard practice in such a situation?

Feel free to share your similar experiences.

Thank you.

 

[lovely4ever]

Ask him you are supporting Putin or Zelensky ?
Based on the answer if it match your opinion or not ,Then decide to feel sorry for him or not . lol


.

 

[DomainNature]

Tell him to go grow potatoes.

 

[nivadriver]

The question that arises for me is, is this person telling lies? If he gives you reason to believe so (implausible name, internal inconsistencies), give him nothing but perhaps a rebuke. To agree to be manipulated by a lie makes you an accessory to that lie. It habituates you to being a party to further lies, and emboldens him to deceive more people in the future. Ultimately it is to strengthen the rule of evil in the world. If I received the email that you did, helping that fellow would be the last thing on my mind.

 

[Darkniight]

The standard practice is: You want it, you pay up.

Sorry. Next time don't let your names expire.

He didn't let the name expire rather put it in an auction. Allegedly by mistake, forgot to put a reserve, got nothing in return.

Well, the point remains same. Next time don't put your names in auction.

 

[Leopard]

1) Check internet archives if there was a live site on the domain - https://web.archive.org
2) Ask him proof of previous domain ownership
3) If genuine then u may offer it at a discounted price. Quick flip and some good karma.

 

[twiki]

He didn't let the name expire rather put it in an auction. Allegedly by mistake, forgot to put a reserve, got nothing in return.

Well, the point remains same. Next time don't put your names in auction.

Sellers remorse?

Pay up, I say.

 

[winst]

Too bad for the "original owner". If the "owner" really wanted it back, he or she could have participated in the auction to buy it. I don't buy it.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Ask him you are supporting Putin or Zelensky ?
Based on the answer if it match your opinion or not ,Then decide to feel sorry for him or not . lol


.

Just no

 

[ravidesai]

In my view, He/she can go with the same keyword with another extension, as Domaining is a Game of timing and Skill, Who knows about Crypto before 2010 or earlier? If someone sold Bitcoin.com or .net at $100 in 2005, that was really fair value at that time, But now time is changed. Similarly happened with META keywords domains. Likewise, he/she put that domain for sale, and not wanted to hold or build a website on it, and the domain name was sold at any price, [obiously low in their view] but, it's sold. A man Eats a Pizza for 10000 Bitcoins, can he request even a Single bitcoin for his mistake?

Still, It totally depends on you. You may go and help them to give him/her domain back.

 

[Hypersot]

In my view, He/she can go with the same keyword with another extension, as Domaining is a Game of timing and Skill, Who knows about Crypto before 2010 or earlier? If someone sold Bitcoin.com or .net at $100 in 2005, that was really fair value at that time, But now time is changed. Similarly happened with META keywords domains. Likewise, he/she put that domain for sale, and not wanted to hold or build a website on it, and the domain name was sold at any price, [obiously low in their view] but, it's sold. A man Eats a Pizza for 10000 Bitcoins, can he request even a Single bitcoin for his mistake?

Still, It totally depends on you. You may go and help them to give him/her domain back.

You forget all the effort and money that might have been invested on that specific keyword with that specific extension.
Previous owners are not domainers, they are -most of the time- business owners that have worked on their websites until some useless registrar messed with their renewals.

I'm not saying the owner is not a domainer as well but it seems that they have put work on that affiliate website and we shouldn't forget that SAV has a history with accidental things happening. I wouldn't be surprised if the owner tells the truth.

 

[elevator]

"Finally I lost it without getting anything? "

I am very curious about this matter. How could a domain sold on auction and the Owner did not get any proceeds.

It seems he is a beginner domainer

 

[Darkniight]

"Finally I lost it without getting anything? "

I am very curious about this matter. How could a domain sold on auction and the Owner did not get any proceeds.

It seems he is a beginner domainer

He must have got the proceeds. But, the final auction price was very negligible. That's probably what he meant.

 

[J.R.]

I've sold domains back to former registrants before, and never did they try to manipulate me to transfer it to them for free. In fact, they were often the most enthusiastic to make a quick deal before I changed my mind.

I'd send them back an asking price.
If they accept perfect, if not move on.

 

[silentg]

Seller remorse.

I have had sellers refused to transfer the domains after they told it to me at SAV auction. They didn't like the final price so they refused to transfer it. The domains i won was at another registrar. Now i don't bid on customer domains auction that are not registered with SAV.

I would ask the seller to make an offer on the domain. Since they see value and want it back. They gotta pay up.

 

[newbie191]

Tell them it is your dream domain. You have been eyeing it for long time. But now as the old owner has contacted so your heart has melted since you are a very sensitive person. You sure want to give it back to him but there is a small tiny problem. You hired a broker to buy this domain and paid. xxx$ amount in fees. If the old owner wants the domain back he must pay the broker fees or you'll be at a loss. :D

 

[NameBuyer.com]

If I can verify they owned it and they aren't threatening, I'll sell it near my cost.

I'll usually go to archive.org and lookup what the site looked like 2 months ago.

Out of maybe 10-15 requests for a domain from a prior owner out of 8,000+ purchases, I've had about 3-4 follow through.

I'll usually ask them for proof that they've owned it before (expecting either an old receipt or something like that). Just from this one question, most do not even answer back. I think the psychology behind it is a lot of people probably didn't want the domain, until they see someone else wanted it and bought it and then they feel like they are missing out or lost something.

In my experience, if you offer it back at $250 or so and you bought the domain for $20, you'll get some negative replies (I tried this early on in my domain investing and got some interesting emails). If you offer it back at $49-99, most won't reply. The low cost ones I started selling back at about $15 over my cost and even a lot of those never complete.

One domain I bought a couple years ago was a pretty nice brandable 8 character domain made up of 2 common four letter words and I really thought it was a great purchase. The prior owner was a guy who had a knife company and was urgently contacting me after he realized he no longer owned the domain. It was obvious in this case the guy owned the domain for 20 years and had run a part time business so I sold it back to him at $200, which was the domain auction cost. These are the types of prior owners I would sell back to over and over. Helping someone out that made a genuine mistake. The person was also contacting me via a GoDaddy broker to try to buy it back for $600+ before sending me an email.

If the name is a pretty high quality domain, the only way I'd sell it back is if they were polite and I can trace the name back to them using it for an actual business with a high degree of certainty. I'm not into selling domains back to domain investors just so they can put the domain up for sale again.

 

[lock]

When you try it after you screw up get ready to make a decent offer.

 

[Darkniight]

I think the whole discussion sums up in 3 points:

i) Be empathetic to the previous owner and hand the domain back at acquisition cost.
or,
ii) Quick flip to the previous owner at a discounted price for making some quick cash.
or,
iii) Treat the previous owner as a random buyer and point him to the landing page.

But, before even considering point i and ii, the alleged previous owner's claim needs to be validated by checking legal documents and internet archives to make sure that he genuinely owned the domain before.

 

[Darkniight]

Some update to the original post:

Sent a message to the alleged previous owner for some legal proof of previous domain ownership. Its been 2 days, haven't heard back from him yet.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Some update to the original post:

Sent a message to the alleged previous owner for some legal proof of previous domain ownership. Its been 2 days, haven't heard back from him yet.

The plot thickens......
Good job following up on this, and acting with integrity.

 

[Astro]

First, check if what he is saying is true or not, if it's true offer him the domain for a discount price

 

[MadAboutDomains]

It was obvious in this case the guy owned the domain for 20 years and had run a part time business so I sold it back to him at $200, which was the domain auction cost. These are the types of prior owners I would sell back to over and over. Helping someone out that made a genuine mistake

I would do the same too as long as they are thoughtful in their correspondence and not belligerent.

As domainers I'd say we provide this as quite a valuable service to other internet users. If it wasn't for us picking them up, they'd probably end up with some unscrupulous person.

 

[karmaco]

Don’t fall for it. Everyone and their daddy has a sob story on hand. I don’t believe one single word other than he regrets it sold.

 

[LoveCatchyDomains]

Don’t fall for it. Everyone and their daddy has a sob story on hand. I don’t believe one single word other than he regrets it sold.

OK, kindly cynic and possibly the ultimate realist here...at least let the fellow weigh in on whether there is any truth to the story. And, let's face it--even if evidence is presented to him from the alleged former owner, he has the wisdom of many super-smart folks on Namepros, to help him sort out truth from fiction!

 

[karmaco]

OK, kindly cynic and possibly the ultimate realist here...at least let the fellow weigh in on whether there is any truth to the story. And, let's face it--even if evidence is presented to him from the alleged former owner, he has the wisdom of many super-smart folks on Namepros, to help him sort out truth from fiction!

Its not cynism its realism. Domainers need to be less gullible. You do this long enough you hear alot of these kind of stories.