Need Sedo selling advice!!! Asap

If you need the money, you might as well just accept the offer. If you counter, you risk $10k to get another $2k (at most), so you should be very confident that the buyer will accept.

Of course there are more factors, like whether there are other buyers for the domain, whether the price is good or not, if the cash can help YOU NOW with other ventures etc.

I would say that yes, buyers usually get annoyed when they have to wait or when their offer is converted to an auction and when a buyer disappears, Sedo can reallistically do very little.

If i made an offer and someone pushed it to auction i would be very upset.
Why risk 10k for 2k
Greed?

The last two names I have received bids on through Sedo I have sent to auction and both times there was no one else who bid and both times the original bidders disappeared in the meantime, so I am not sure auction is a good strategy and personally I would either accept or make a counter offer.

"Bird in hand" situation. I would take the money and be on to the next one.

My first thought was take the 10k and run, but then my second thought was if some offered you 10k for the domain that is not the interested party max budget for the domain so I would counter with 15k.. Maybe you guys can meet somewhere in the middle...

Best of Luck

Buy it now is 14K, be dumb to counter at 15K........

I would take the 10K and move on.
It could be that 10K offer is the most he will pay as he saw the buy it now price.

If someone made you an opening bid of 10k, they know the game. They're not a newbie, they're either a domainer or a business that is serious about owning your domain. They made a strong opening bid and even so, they'll fully expect for there to be further negotiation. Even if they came in at their top price, they'll still know to expect more negotiation.

With strong opening bids, in my personal experience to use that bid to open an auction really sends a sour taste to the buyer. I don't mind sending weak/lowball bids to auction if it's a price I can live with as a reserve, but when someone brings me a respectable strong offer, it's respectful to deal only with them directly. To toss a strong offer to auction is like saying 'Hey thanks for the great offer, but I won't bother to deal with you any more because maybe now I can get a lot more from someone else once they see you're interested in it'.

You've got a healthy offer, and it's through Sedo so it's obviously someone who knows the game, not someone approaching you through your domain's website or parked page or whatever. They will not be surprised if you counter offer, but in my experience they may well be pissed if you now ignore them and send it to auction. Others here, and I, have lost sales at Sedo because we chose to send strong offers to auction instead of dealing directly with the initial offer.

Since they know the game, you have nothing to lose by making a counter offer. As I said, they probably expect it. Then one of two things may happen: if they did indeed come in with their best and final price first, they'll counter you back with their initial offer. Or if they were prepared to go a little higher, they'll up their offer after you counter. I can only speak from personal experience, but I've never lost a sale due to sending them a higher counter offer if their price was anywhere in my range. If they want the domain but are at their ceiling, they just counter back at their same price, last and final. Of course, if they're offering 200 bucks and you're countering 20k, that will generally cancel the deal. But we're talking about offers that are strong, and you generally don't lose strong offers just because you counter a little higher.

Of course, things can get messy... you can counter back and forth and nitpick and try squeeze every last ten bucks into the price; or you can cancel the negotiation if they don't come up in price, and maybe they'll think about it and come in with another higher offer a week or a month later. There are many ways this can get messy and the sale can be dragged out or lost;

But keep it simple. If this was a case of a weak offer and trying to get the buyer up into your price range, I'd be saying different things here. But the offer is ALREADY in your price range, so why start getting messy? Keeping it simple means: counter offer (expected, and respected), see what their response is, and then make your decision.

The messier it gets - including trying to start an auction with it, or a long counter-counter-counter-offer series of steps - the quicker the buyer walks away and decides they can just as well do with buying some other domain they like.

Good luck; let us know how it plays out

Wouldn't push to auction. You'd likely have the auction not get any other bidders and the buyer then thinks he might be overpaying for the domain at $10K.

The remaining question then - is it worth the risk losing a $10K sale in order to get $12K? Three possibilities:
- The buyer accepts, you get $12K
- The buyer counters at $11K, then you have to decide if that's enough
- The buyer walks away.

If there is no competition for the domain and you don't have others regularly contacting you about it, then take the $10k.

$10K is alot of money for most domain names, so yes, take it and run.

@iowadawg- you're very likely right.

Really solid advice and different angles. I'm reading through it right now.

Here's another little interesting tidbit I just discovered. I checked the availability of the .net and .org of this domain I'm selling. Looks like the .org version of it was registered... yesterday! So I think it's reasonable to conclude that the one who registered the .org is the one who placed the big on Sedo. At least I can work with this assumption.

Now this is a bit interesting, I think. Because he went ahead and registered the .org. I wonder if that means he may just be satisfied if he only ends up with the .org OR if he would still much rather have the .com. For this domain name the .org works, but of course, the .com is infinitely better.

I am still pondering a little bit more about it.

/\ Is the whois info on the dot org of any help? Since it was regged right at the time you received your offer, it's probably the same people/person. Even if there isn't a company name listed, google the person's name (in quotations ") and also google the registrant's email address, see if their name/addy come up on any websites. Especially look for their name/addy on any website's 'about' page, or employees page, etc. Helps to know who made the offer. If you want, welcome to PM me your domain and I'll see if I can scramble any info for you.

Bannen said:

/\ Is the whois info on the dot org of any help? Since it was regged right at the time you received your offer, it's probably the same people/person. Even if there isn't a company name listed, google the person's name (in quotations ") and also google the registrant's email address, see if their name/addy come up on any websites. Especially look for their name/addy on any website's 'about' page, or employees page, etc. Helps to know who made the offer. If you want, welcome to PM me your domain and I'll see if I can scramble any info for you.

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It looks like whois privacy was not used on the .org. The person's name and e-mail address is visible. I did just that and Googled their name as well as their e-mail address to see what I could find. There's not a whole lot. I also use pipl.com for looking up people by name or e-mail.

I might be wrong.. but I do not think he is looking for the domain name on behalf of a company. Well, unless he is starting the company. This is a generic name for a current up and coming field. Although I used the name for a brand a few years ago, which is why I mentioned that I have rights to the name. For the domain name though I never developed it. Frankly, I think I would rather have the money than the domain name. Though this sale is a bit tricky because this is one of those domains that was earmarked for eventual "personal / business" use.

Anyways, back on topic, so the person who registered the .org appears to be an individual. Perhaps he's going to use the .com for a start-up. It's hard to tell. He could just be a hobbiest and perhaps he wants a reputable name for his blog to write about it. Wish I could surmise more details about the potential buyer from the Google / Pipl results.

it all comes down to whether you're willing to give the buyer the option to walk, or not.

once you counter offer, then they are off the hook

however, if you feel the name is worthy of the extra duckies and.... there are other potentials who could utilize the domain, then stick it to em'

still, the need for dough, if any, should help with making a decision.

Good Luck!

imo....

It's all about whether to let the domain go for that price. When it's just business, these kinds of decisions are easy. When a domain was set aside for my own use, it always becomes a harder decision

There's no right or wrong answer here. 14k would be my 'perfect' price to sell. 12k would be my 'ideal' price to sell. Though to avoid losing the sale, I probably will just sell it for 10k. Though in my option, the domain might also be worth up to $30,000. It's a hot brandable AND generic term (kind of slang right now, but might become used more widespread in the next few years) for one of the hottest new growing industries.

I don't really like the Sedo format though nor obviously their 15% commission (what a rip off 3 - 8% would be more reasonable).

brandnow said:

I don't really like the Sedo format though nor obviously their 15% commission (what a rip off 3 - 8% would be more reasonable).

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Then don't use them for sales.

If the domain is worth as much as you think it is, reject the offer, delete the domain from sedo, then park it at voodoo. All you'll need to do is wait for a better offer.

Use voodoo's contact form to field inquiries and handle negotiations yourself. Then you get everything instead of 85%.

If the buyer requires escrow then use sedo for escrow and then figure out who is going to pay the 3% escrow fees.

I've sold a lot of domains. I haven't personally used Sedo for sales since 2003. I knew in advance their fee rate (though I thought it was 10%, and was surprised by the 15%). If you see my posts around NP, you'll notice I'm not a fan of Sedo at all. Though sometimes you get an enticing offer and it requires some additional thought and input. Thanks for your input too! This is a learning experience for me.

Accept 10K and move on..!! Probably that 10k will give away for future business prospects..!!

I have asked once from sedos CS, they told me if you made a counter offer, but the buyer rejects it, you can still sell it for the offer they made.
The question is:
Offer: $10k
Counter: $12k
Answer: NO
You accept the $10k. but will they pay it after your counter offer?

their offer is only binding for a certain number of days

Sell it for 10k
Good luck.

Personally speaking I wouldn't counter for +20% of the original offer without knowing more information about the buyer. If you can ascertain if they have deep pockets, then I'd be more comfortable doing it. I assume you tried looking on facebook and Linkedin? You might get some more information. If you can't find anything, take the money and run.

Rob84 said:

I have asked once from sedos CS, they told me if you made a counter offer, but the buyer rejects it, you can still sell it for the offer they made.

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You can still sell it for that, but I don't think the buyer is obligated to buy at their original offer price once you reject it with a counter offer.

I have to agree, research the buyer if you can before you decide to take any risks. You said you're happy with the $10k so accepting the offer is the safest option.

In terms of where or not you’ll have the rights to the name if you sell the domain it’s probably best to speak with a lawyer regarding that situation (taking legal advice from people on the web isn’t a really good idea).

Now, with your domain and whether to push it to auction I would say it’s best to not do this as it would probably piss the buyer off. You have to think of it from THEIR perspective. Say you were interested in the domain and the owner told you 10K for it and then he pushes the domain to auction – even if your very interested in the domain it WILL piss you off as you now have to wait 5 days and also compete with anyone that could potentially bid on the domain.

As for whether or not you should counter with a 12K offer I would say this is entirely dependent on how badly you feel the buyer wants it.

What I’ve realized in sales is if a person wants something you can often increase the price of the product and still get a sale. However, the buyer MUST really want the product – if they don’t want it chances are you’re going to blow the sale.

So how do you tell if the buyer badly wants your domain?

This can be very hard to gauge but there are a few things I look for. Firstly, if they contacted you first chances are they are mildly interested in the domain – no one would message someone on sedo about a domain unless they are at least somewhat interested. Secondly, how quickly are they responding back to your messages? If they are responding back fast then chances are they are very interested but if they are taking their sweet time getting back to you chances are they aren’t too interested and it would probably be better to take the 10K offer instead of pushing for 12K. And the last thing I would do is if you’re not too sure if they really want the domain badly try and get them to jump through a hoop by asking them to call you. I’ve don’t this before and if they do call you then it means they are VERY interested and that’ll let you know if you can push for 12K or take the 10K offer.

Hope that helps.