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advice Received my first inbound offer, counter offer rejected

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Jay Ha

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I was about to put my phone away and get some sleep at around 3 AM when I received an e-mail from Undeveloped saying that I got a 200 USD offer on one of my 5-letter names. Knowing that I had a 199 USD minimum offer I thought that this guy is after a bargain.

I looked up the guy's name knowing that he resides in a specific country (from my google analytics and Undeveloped also shows me their location). I found his LinkedIn profile and I'm 100% sure it is him. He works at a multi billion dollar chemicals company, in their commercial development program. That company's domain name is a 3-letter .com which is worth several millions. Their pockets are pretty deep, that's all I can say about them (please don't throw guesses on public).

Anyway, here's the whole convo with his name hidden for their own privacy:
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Now I know that I hit high on my counter offer. Several reasons include it was waaaay too late in my timezone, really didn't feel like selling a name for the amount he asked, and given that he works in a commercial program, I didn't really buy his story about the nickname thing.

Just wanted to share this experience since it was my first in ~5 months of domaining. Has any of you guys went through this situation before? How does it usually turn out? Any comments on how I handled this brief convo? Anyway, thanks for reading!
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Probably should have took that one, $8 (what you paid) to $400 is ok. $34,000 is dreaming. Not a name I would consider "well pronounceable" either.

You can Buy it Now at GD for $589, not too far from that $400 you could have gotten from him.
 
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If may ask, why in the world would you think a 6 month old domain, with no meaning, and only other extension is xyz, would be worth $34,000?!? :xf.eek:

This is the mentality of 'new domainer think', that all you have to do in this biz is get an inquiry, 'pick a nice high price' outta the sky, sell, rinse, repeat and the road to riches is as smooth sailing as the stories they've heard. ..good grief.
 
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This will be a learning experience for you. If you hand regged that name mid $xxx to low $xxxx is a feasible range to sell. 5 figures is a fantastical valuation, especially if they don't actually need the name.....
 
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Totally get what you guys are saying. Kinda didn't feel like selling it because I wasn't convinced with the guy's reason behind his inquiry especially when I already knew it is a -very highly ranked- Fortune500 company. Thus the high counter offer.

This is definitely a learning experience for me. Not mad I probably lost a sale though. I was eager for this kind of test to be honest.
 
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You took your chance don't regret. Wait for next offer.
 
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You can Buy it Now at GD for $589

It is probably the previous owner's listing, I'm only listing it on Sedo and Undeveloped for now.
 
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It is probably the previous owner's listing, I'm only listing it on Sedo and Undeveloped for now.

Could be why he offered around that price. You might want to reach out to GD customer service and have them pull that listing.
 
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Wow, $34k, I hope you were drinking or something. If you price your domains like this you might never sell one.

The guy said $400, you might have talked him up to $600, but you lost him with the $34k stuff.

You might need to rethink your whole pricing on your portfolio. Offers dont come often and sometimes there is only one person who may ever want a domain.
 
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Totally get what you guys are saying. Kinda didn't feel like selling it because I wasn't convinced with the guy's reason behind his inquiry especially when I already knew it is a -very highly ranked- Fortune500 company. Thus the high counter offer.

This is definitely a learning experience for me. Not mad I probably lost a sale though. I was eager for this kind of test to be honest.

It's a good lesson. I made similar mistakes a few times when I started domaining as well.

Think about it this way.

1. You invested $8 in hand registering the domain last year so it's not a previous long term hold.
2 There is no additional demand in the domain.
3.It is not related to any important trend or considered part of a valuable domain niche with a strong history of comparable domain sales.

So ROI is respectable at $400 or more because you'd be making 50X your initial investment. In the future little sales like this will be what keeps you moving and let's you buy more valuable names. These will compound and give you more cash flow to start buying investment class domains.
 
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Totally get what you guys are saying. Kinda didn't feel like selling it because I wasn't convinced with the guy's reason behind his inquiry especially when I already knew it is a -very highly ranked- Fortune500 company. Thus the high counter offer.
Does the guy own the company or just work for it ? I've worked for billion dollar Wall Street companies, but it dont mean I got money.
 
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I would have countered with $2400 with monthly payment of $400 up to 6 months. And would have stayed firm.

You can send reply like this if you are still willing to sell.

"Hello, I have thought on your offer it's too low from my expectation. Last price I can do for you is $2400 only because you are buying the domain to gift your wife. You can pay this in 6 installments of $400 each. Let me know.
Best Wishes"
 
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I kinda was. :whistle:
LOL, its cool. If he ever comes back, tell him you are willing to lower it for his wife. Whatever it takes to make the sale. :-P
 
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It's a good lesson. I made similar mistakes a few times when I started domaining as well.

Think about it this way.

1. You invested $8 in hand registering the domain last year so it's not a previous long term hold.
2 There is no additional demand in the domain.
3.It is not related to any important trend or considered part of a valuable domain niche with a strong history of comparable domain sales.

So ROI is respectable at $400 or more because you'd be making 50X your initial investment. In the future little sales like this will be what keeps you moving and let's you buy more valuable names. These will compound and give you more cash flow to start buying investment class domains.

Would have probably accepted the offer if it was on NP, not from a Fortune500 company. Put yourself in my shoes: someone from commercial development program of a Fortune500 company asked for a name of yours. Would you sell for mid xxx on the 2nd offer?
 
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Does the guy own the company or just work for it ? I've worked for billion dollar Wall Street companies, but it dont mean I got money.

Well if his job position was absolutely obvious that he's buying it for the company, would you accept mid xxx on the 2nd offer?
 
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I would have countered with $2400 with monthly payment of $400 up to 6 months. And would have stayed firm.

You can send reply like this if you are still willing to sell.

"Hello, I have thought on your offer it's too low from my expectation. Last price I can do for you is $2400 only because you are buying the domain to gift your wife. You can pay this in 6 installments of $400 each. Let me know.
Best Wishes"

I think that I still got some ground in this negotiation. Did I tell you that I have balls of steel having worked in a forex company (watched millions of dollars won or lost overnight, for around 6 yrs) and might probably forget the whole thing happened later this night? Might probably use the installments once he finally accepts the fact he isn't getting this name for mid xxx. Thanks for giving me ideas!
 
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LOL, its cool. If he ever comes back, tell him you are willing to lower it for his wife. Whatever it takes to make the sale. :-P

Will see how this goes. No renewals coming up, no commitments, no rush!
 
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I thinking, you wanna rich over night.
If i received same offer i counter $1000.
And buyer come at $700-800.
 
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I thinking, you wanna rich over night.
If i received same offer i counter $1000.
And buyer come at $700-800.


We all want to become rich overnight but the thing is that this sale if it happened would have covered a year's worth of rent.. I would need around 100 of such sales to become 'rich'. Lol. I'm here to have fun and learn.

Question: Would you accept a mid xxx 2nd offer from a well known Fortune500 company?
 
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Well here's an update: Did some research on the name, IP, and location. It seems this is an IT engineer. Will fix my counter offer to suit his financial ability.
 
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Perfect Conversation learn something but your counteroffer was 2 high you should offer him in the mid 4 digits ballpark.
 
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Well here's an update: Did some research on the name, IP, and location. It seems this is an IT engineer. Will fix my counter offer to suit his financial ability.

I don't think he even pays $1k if I read correctly he somewhere said in chat "sell it to business you can make more money"
 
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Well looks like you lost that one counter offer was ridiculous it doesn’t matter who he works for doesn’t mean they will spend that amount anyway best of luck
 
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I hope you learned your lesson here.

You can't wait that someone would pay 34k for that name since there are 100x times better names in the market in that price. With that 400$ you would have made couple of nice catches example at expiring auctions if you have time to check out the names and make research.

Unfortunately, these mistakes happens usually if you haven't negotiated often.
 
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