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discuss So what do you do when previous owner contacts you to get name back?

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alcy

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just curious what you reply if anything.. when previous owner writes you couple days after you just regged freshly expired name... saying he forgot to renew it.... due to illness..

if its decent name you see good potential for in future, do you stick to your price on it even if you believe his story... or do you offer him special discount... or do you plain not believe the story?

its not a tm or anything like that..

thought I'd hear some other views as this is first for me... plus people may learn from thread.

cheers
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
With Autorenew or prepay in advance for 10 years, no excuse. The nag reminder emails too. To me any responsible business owner, should take advantage of protecting it and is no excuse. That “I was sick”, “my mother died”, or whatever is a “The dog ate my homework” excuse. Especially I recall prepaying for my business to Netsol $500 for a number years back when ~$75 a year. Domains were not a paltry $8-10. Now $100 for 10 years. Peanuts.
 
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yeah... I agree with you...

he basically started me with $50...

on undeveloped...

then I said $900... which is kinda my quick sale price based on me believing his story.. not my regular wanted price on it for someone else... without a story.. cause I meant this name as a few years hold domain.. cause I think its nice with potential... so no big rush and I'd have no problem starting with 2-3k on it to other people... but I said 900 to him.

so then he said 300.... +100 cash (whatever that means lol.. cause the 300 is already basically cash lol) ... plus offered me 3 .com domains... which aren't very nice.
 
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Be professional and understanding. When it comes to discounting the domain, it's entirely your call. You may sell the domain today, you could potentially sit on it for years without another prospective buyer. You currently have a potential buyer, treat it accordingly.
 
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just curious what you reply if anything.. when previous owner writes you couple days after you just regged freshly expired name... saying he forgot to renew it.... due to illness..

if its decent name you see good potential for in future, do you stick to your price on it even if you believe his story... or do you offer him special discount... or do you plain not believe the story?

its not a tm or anything like that..

thought I'd hear some other views as this is first for me... plus people may learn from thread.

cheers

Instead of special discount, I would do the opposite, more. Or just treat them like everybody else. I don't like it when people try the sympathy angle to get a domain or try to butter you up. Most people at the core are decent, people will try to take advantage of that.
 
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Considering that most domains go through 30 days held after expire, 30+ days in redemption and then about a week to pending delete, I find it hard to believe their sob stories.

I just went through this with a .TV. The guy wouldnt even pay $250, he wanted to pay reg fee. I told him the $250 offer is good for one week, after that its going back up to $1288. He went silent.

Last year same thing with a .org, offered it to him for $325, he wouldnt pay anything over $100. I told him to go away and stopped responding to him.
 
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Instead of special discount, I would do the opposite, more. Or just treat them like everybody else. I don't like it when people try the sympathy angle to get a domain or try to butter you up.

The Sympathy card like the Victim card it is b.s.
 
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so then he said 300.... +100 cash (whatever that means lol.. cause the 300 is already basically cash lol) ... plus offered me 3 .com domains... which aren't very nice.
Sounds like a domainer trying to pull a fast one.
 
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Sounds like a domainer trying to pull a fast one.

yeah lol
that could be true.. with all those extra domains and stuff

but then that would mean he's domainer like us... and yet us here we do not pull fast ones on other people.. am I right or am I right? :)
 
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yeah... I agree with you...

he basically started me with $50...

on undeveloped...

then I said $900... which is kinda my quick sale price based on me believing his story.. not my regular wanted price on it for someone else... without a story.. cause I meant this name as a few years hold domain.. cause I think its nice with potential... so no big rush and I'd have no problem starting with 2-3k on it to other people... but I said 900 to him.

so then he said 300.... +100 cash (whatever that means lol.. cause the 300 is already basically cash lol) ... plus offered me 3 .com domains... which aren't very nice.

Stick with $900. If he owns a good business, that too is peanuts.
 
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Well, it is tough when I get one of these because I was on the 'sick' side of the equation once upon a time and lost many names.

This was well before social media and the easy ability to check stories...so, having said that, ask him for his name (if he hasn't given it already) and spent a couple mins to check his story. Then discount the name as you may see inclined to do.

If I were interacting with him I would be blunt...I would tell him if I can verify his 'story' the name will be x dollars for x amount of time (never less than 500 in my case) and if he will not comply with your info request and/or take the name within the period specified, let him know it will be full retail henceforth.
 
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yes it is true.
we all can fall sick now and then.. but then if its a name we really want and need.. for our business or what not.. then as others said, should he not have renewed it either ahead of time a bit... or just for few years ahead.. hmmm

plus those 3 names he offered... it kinda did feel like I was dealing with domainer and offered 3 names out of his maybe very extensive catalog.

I guess this is the weird side of domain flipping a bit.
 
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You snooze you lose. Happens every day with how many expiring domains? I would be polite but would treat him like any other party who shows interest. He would get the same price as anyone else who inquired about a name.
 
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plus those 3 names he offered... it kinda did feel like I was dealing with domainer

Yep, you probably are. I didnt read that part.
 
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Some time ago a guy contacted me and wanted to pay me $200 for a .org which he had used for a personal blog, but forgotten to renew. As soon as I confirmed it to be true, I made a counter-offer of $350 (the listed price was about $800) which he accepted.

However, I would never go this low, if I couldn’t get any proof of that he actually had used it for his nonprofit blog.
 
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I was on the other side of the equation. I was the guy trying to buy my domain back. I sold a domain to a NamePros member for $200. Soon after, I received an offer for $1000 for that domain, because the other domainer here did not change the contact information, so it showed my email.

I contacted the domainer via PM and asked if he could sell the domain back to me for $300. He said, "No, thanks". I thought everything was lost and gave up. However, a few days later he contacted me and sold me the domain for $300. I then answered the $1000 offer and asked the end-user for $5K. We negotiated a bit and agreed on $4K. So, I ended up selling the name for $4K.
 
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In such cases, I usually discount 10 - 20%. And that's it. Since most of my BIN prices are usually set at xxxx, I find it strange going from that to xx or low xxx just because of a sob story (no matter how genuine). Going way below your BIN makes it seem as if you aren't sure about your pricing.

Of course, it's a different ball game all together if you aren't too keen on the name and you are looking to dump the name without renewing. In that case, discount away
 
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I'm actually in the middle of an incoming negotiations via GoDaddy's Buy Service (wow are they ever ridiculously slow when it comes to communications).

It was the GD agent who told me the guy is the former owner. I felt a little bad, but the (mid $xxx) opening offer was just too low for me to even consider. I told the agent that I'm flexible in my price a bit, but that $xxx simply wasn't going to move it.

Another way of looking at any potential "discount" for the old owner is that you can also simply look at is as a discount for a guaranteed quick flip. Sure you could get a lot more for it .. but it could take 10 years.

In my case I hadn't even gotten around to pricing it yet before I got the incoming contact .. the agent's last message a couple of days ago said the buyer upped his offer a bit .. but didn't specify and the agent was unreachable today and didn't return my calls .. really curious to know if it was a tangible offer or not? lol


These situations suck because in most of these cases they likely can't afford our usual markups. But at the same time we can't be expected to alter our business model for domains we acquired fairly.

(Just realised it's a 2001 domain .. so he likely bought it in the aftermarket himself)
 
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I was on the other side of the equation. I was the guy trying to buy my domain back. I sold a domain to a NamePros member for $200. Soon after, I received an offer for $1000 for that domain, because the other domainer here did not change the contact information, so it showed my email.

I contacted the domainer via PM and asked if he could sell the domain back to me for $300. He said, "No, thanks". I thought everything was lost and gave up. However, a few days later he contacted me and sold me the domain for $300. I then answered the $1000 offer and asked the end-user for $5K. We negotiated a bit and agreed on $4K. So, I ended up selling the name for $4K.
And what if that buyer wouldn't buy, or changed his mind, or was a fake, or it could be a front running scam. Imagine your buyer sending you this offer from a fake name. Was discussed here a number of times. And you would just loose $100.

I never do like this. First, i don't feel it would be somehow ethically right. Now the domain is owned by my buyer, it was my conscious decision to sell the domain and thus to waive my rights to it. I had such a situation a few times, and every time i'm contacting my buyer and asking him whether he would be interested in a lead, and if yes i'm sending him the lead and if they get a deal he would send me some finder fee at his discretion. And it worked out two times, but more times they couldn't agree or the deal didn't happen for whatever reason.
 
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I do not see any reason why you should let them have it back without getting your full asking price.

Be it a domainer or whatever.

Now if you are a rich individual, don't need any more money in life, sure give it back for free.

That's not the case though.
 
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This is what I get.
Domain registered and website in use since 1997.
But this new young Engineer owner not even ready to pay $500 .. He was stick to $50.
I sold it later to other domainer for low XXX


Untitled.png
 
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I gave a big discount a few times but only because I could verify the story.

If people are polite and honest I'm always willing to talk. Gave a .org back for free once actually as I sympathized with the cause.

Running a business isn't always about the money.
 
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plus those 3 names he offered... it kinda did feel like I was dealing with domainer

I will admit I did not give that part alot of thought...my sympathies would be less for a domainer than someone not understanding how the name world works.

When it happened to me, I was ready to eliminate the first person that said 'well, if the name means so much to you, you will have to pay' but I soon came to grips with the fact it was ultimately my fault I lost the names regardless of my situation.

Please let us know what you end up doing...its a good teaching/learning moment.
 
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I just had my first instance of this the other day.

I'm not in the business of buying names to sell back to the original owners for a profit. That feels wrong to me. But it is bound to happen. I bought the name because of its value as a generic, which is a much better use of the name than what he was doing with it (in my opinion)

This guy was just negligent, no sob story. All the renewal emails went to spam yadda yadda yadda. He contacted once telling me it used to be his. I ignored it and he hasn't contacted me again. Maybe he doesn't want it that bad?
 
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Sympathy and business don't mix.

I can't afford Tom Bradys house, but I want to move in because I am looking for an upgrade for my family.

It's your domain, not theirs; conduct business accordingly.
 
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