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discuss Minimum offer time wasting

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Why do some people have minimum offers and then counter at something far far higher? Usually to ridiculous amounts as well.

I understand we can all ask whatever we want for a domain but why do this.

Take for example a name I recently tried to acquire. Nothing amazing, a nice two word .com. It's on a marketplace with a minimum offer of $500. I think fair enough and offer a reasonable $1000.

They come back with way into the 6 figures! Over $200,000.

Trust me this particular name is not worth that.

Why waste people's time like this?

Set your minimum offers much higher and closer to what you hope to sell for. Stop wasting everyone's time.

Cheers
 
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More weird is that I found a domain with make offer on Sedo & asking price was set to $1999 I sent an offer of $1500 which is close to the asking price, the seller just ignored my offer! no rejection or even counter offer!

now try to find logical explanation for that

They no longer owned the domain and therefore never received your offer. Did you check it was still registered? Did you type the domain in your browser? Where did it go? To Sedo?
 
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They no longer owned the domain and therefore never received your offer. Did you check it was still registered? Did you type the domain in your browser? Where did it go? To Sedo?

the domain redirects to coming soon website but different url, no for sale landing.
I guess the domain was sold and owner forgot to remove it from Sedo.
 
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Why do some people have minimum offers and then counter at something far far higher?

How do they react when you increase your offer?
 
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@Ostrados - That sounds like a logical explanation. Probably not that uncommon.
 
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Had one sale till now, it was a $199 make offer listing and I got a $200 as 1st offer. This bugged me tbh because it made the name look cheap. For this reason I am going to set $20 make offer for all my domains. In my logic setting a $20 min offer for all my domains is better than $199 because $20 means I have not actually set -or thought of- a minimum while a $199 will rarely bring a sale in the X,XXX's.
 
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Why do some people have minimum offers and then counter at something far far higher?
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Because they do not know for sure who is bidding, it could be a m... or even a b... ...illionairrr

Never get impressed by receiving a super high counter offer, this should never hinder you to continue ma
king bids.
If you really want to get the domain name, you will anyway simply continue making bids - even if it is only 1,00 USD more than your previous bid.
If you really want to get the domain name, you won't see this as time wasting.


Always keep in mind, that you are anyway probably the only person who wants the domain name (at least at this time) - in other words, the owner will go down with the price if you will continue making bids.

It's all a ridiculous psy game, called negotiation (sure, it is indeed negotiation of course) - everyone is trying to get as much as possible out of their domain name and everyone is trying to pay as less as possible for their desired domain name.
The side, that has the stronger will to buy / sell it, will winnn
But actually, whenever an agreement (purchase / sale) will happen, it is anyway win / win, otherwise there would not have been an agreement.

Just make your bids in
low increment if you want the domain name, in most cases the owner is waiting to sell it.

I am sure it makes more sense to JUST MAKE BIDS instead of complaining about the height of counter - offers we got from those who own what we want - no matter how low the minimum price is.
 
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So you are saying it's a burden to have too many domains. Not a privilege

I forgot that we have more than 1 marketplace to list our domains for sale :)

Buyers must look at all major marketplaces and must not forget to visit the domain. Some domains have landing pages that show lower prices than the prices shown at marketplaces. If there is no custom landing page that shows a fixed price I try to contact the seller directly. I can buy any domain cheaper if the seller is willing to give me the domain directly, by bypassing marketplaces. The difference can be as high as 50% depending on negotiation skills that the buyer has. As here is a domainer forum most users focus on only selling skills and usually overlook buying skills or selling domain to an expert buyer. I noticed most sellers wrongly assume all buyers or all end users are novice and have tiny budgets while most domain buyers wrongly assume all sellers are expert or are dwelling on domains worth millions of $$. The mistake here is not to act on wrong or correct assumptions. The mistake is to act based on the seller or buyer, not based on the domain itself. Characteristics of buyer and seller of a particular domain will change quickly but the characteristics of that domain will always been more stable compared to its former and current owners.

A domain at "marketplace X" may be listed as "make offer" and at "marketplace Y" with a fixed price. Because one domain can be sold for only once. You can't buy a "make offer" listing without manual approval of the seller. "BIN" is final. So before making an offer, buyer must find where the domain is listed at a fixed price.
The domain in the original post might have 200k price tag shown at its own homepage or in a different marketplace.

It's almost a certainty that no more than 10% of your domains you would need go back in to adjust the minimum price.

Correct. Most domains don't receive any offer. But minimum offer has no impact on this unless it's too high. Main problem is "make offer", not minimum offer.


You might be able to even set your entire portfolio at one price, and the 10% at another price, in only 2 tranches, instead of 5000 tranches :)

Not exactly. More than 95% of my domains don't accept any offer, are waiting to be sold at a fixed price.

If I choose "make offer" to sell, my initial minimum offer is zero. If a domain receives too many lowball offers I raise its minimum offer value gradually to slow down lowball offers. If I wanted 200k for a domain, my first minimum offer value would be zero. That minimum offer would likely take couple of months to become 20k from zero. I would stop raising the min. offer at 20k. I would counter all offers above 20k with 250k, would decline all offers below 20k, even while the minimum offer was 500. So, if I were the seller in the original post, I would decline the offer of original poster without countering him with 200k and then would rise the minimum offer to 1k from 500. Revealing the final price to a lowball offer owner ends up losing a watcher. Seller will need that lowball watcher in case of he must start auction using one of lowball offers. Lowballers would not only watch my auction till the end but they would also promote my domain or auction for free. So lowball watcher should not be wasted for an unproportional counter offer like 400x. A seller must realize someone who makes an offer of 500, will not only decline a counter of 400x but will also never look back. Countering with 400x is ridiculus. I would decline and would keep +2 eyes on my sale.

But it is a reality, that if you set a low min offer, and then you come back with a $200K asking price, in most cases, you have no f* idea what the domain is worth.

Correct. When I have an idea on the price I usually list it at a fixed price with no possibility of making an offer. Make offer listings must be chosen only if you don't have an idea on the price, or if your min-max price expectation is big. There must be good reasons to negotiate when you sell and buy. Always ask yourself that why am I unable to sell/buy at a fixed price and list the reasons clearly in your mind.

When I have an idea on the price, I usually take +- 25% of it as its min-max values. Anyone who took statisctics courses would know what it means.

If I estimate a domain is worth $200k, I sell it for something between 150k and 250k. Now I have the first good reason: it may be worth to negotiate to receive a possible extra $50k while not taking the risk of "no sale" for setting a fixed price of $250k. "No sale" risk has opportunity costs like interest, low tunover, missed purchase opportunities.

On the other hand there is 100k difference or 50% between 150k and 250k, at the mean value of $200k. So I would be willing to accept 150k while trying to make an extra 50k. If my opportunity cost was too high, I would accept the first 150k offer (if I have waited since years or if I have just found a great opportunity that needs 150k cash: My second good reason to go for "make offer")

Ideally the estimated prices above $40k would benefit most from make offer listings. "make offer" becomes the only way for the prices above 100k. Neither buyer nor seller can correctly estimate a domain value above 100k at a statistically 95% confidence interval: Third good reason for "make offer". In fact I can't estimate domain prices at 95% accuracy (I would be very rich if I could) But it matters mostly when my estimated price is high enough. There is a quite low risk on leaving big money on the table and you can't eliminate that risk by collecting offers if you have an incorrect idea on the price.
 
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recently tried to acquire. Nothing amazing, a nice two word .com. It's on a marketplace with a minimum offer of $500. I think fair enough and offer a reasonable $1000. They come back with way into the 6 figures! Over $200,000.

From what I hear from domainers they have some sort of science behind it, that maximizes the profit of selling the domain.

From XXX to XXX,XXX, that's not science, that's just stupid. There's nothing scientific about stupid.

I would have counter-offered at XXX+1
 
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Thanks to everyone for their replies and input. When I get the chance I'll try to reply to more posts later.

How do they react when you increase your offer?

I don't usually as most of the time these are deluded registrants living in fantasy land, in my opinion. Fantasy land created from anomalous sales in the market.

Any counter offer from me will likely not warrant much of a price drop in my experience so I'd rather not waste my time or theirs further.
 
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They look at your IP and they see a big company, although it is only your ISP.... You can continue negotiating until it starts to make no sense anymore... If you show a reasoanble minimum acceptable price, you can't get enough feedback which may come from offers. Maybe 100 people are willling to offer in 200-499 range, which you can use to start an auction, but because min price is 500 you don't see any of them.
 
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When you own a lot of domains, it's hard to put a different minimum on each domain. I save time and just put min $500 on each domain. When someone is really interested, i give them the price I'm willing to sell for. The $500 help weed out the super newbie buyers..
 
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The $500 help weed out the super newbie buyers..

Interesting thought. Would there be different scenarios for $500, $1000, $1500, $2000, $2500 lowest offer strategies? Personally. I think $500 is too low a minimum offer, if you are asking for $220k in response. I understand that $500 is the most generic pricing. But is there a price where $500 would be too low a minimum offer. Again personally. I think $500 is too low for anything over $10k in response. I would have thought at min offer of $2500 would have been more appropriate for responses over $10k, IMHO. We need to find some kind of meeting of minds between seller and buyer.

This is a general question. Not directed @LarryDomain specifically.
 
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Ofcourse it's better to have the proper minimum for each domain, I am just saying for lazy people like me who doesn't have the time to set a minimum for each domain, the fast $500 min works.. I already know i wouldn't sell any of them for under $500 but there are a quite a few I wouldn't mind just selling so I don't have to pay registration for years on end!
 
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I know. I always bid the minimum offer. Why would I play my hand before the seller has even given their upper limit (first response).
 
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In theory you make up your mind what the max you are willing to pay is, then offer way less and work your way up with further bids towards that figure, hoping to get it for less, and try not to let your emotions get in the way. If you can't get it for your max, you walk away. But either party can be irrational...

Any counter offer from me will likely not warrant much of a price drop in my experience so I'd rather not waste my time or theirs further.

It's interesting you're reporting experience there - it seems there are people wildly overvaluing domains. Whatever should be true, people act on their perceptions. But I have sometimes been the one making an absurdly high response to an absurdly low opening offer, thinking they will then get serious and make a serious offer and we can try and meet in the middle, no, I mean well into my half of the middle. Then they disappear - amazes me someone would only make one offer, sometimes wonder if it is a bot or competitor checking prices. Maybe I've made wrong assumptions about buyer psychology or maybe I have pissed off a bot.
 
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My min offers tend to vary at any given time, but mostly I tend to put $250 as the minimum offer for any of my domains:

1) It gives me a sense of the pulse of the portfolio. It shows which names garner most interest.

2) It does save some time

3) It's sometimes hard to figure out the exact value of domains especially for brandables, therefore the minimum offer has a lot of chances to be too high or too low.
"Well, just set realistic pricing", easier said than done for brandables for example or less liquid domains.

4) It could be that since you put the minimum offer, the domain gained in value that you only really figured it out after researching more when the offer came in. So your counter comes in at a much higher pricepoint relative to the min offer.

5) In some cases, when there's several domains to renew or bills to pay, you might accept 2-3 sales of $750 each for names you typically would sell for 2.5-3k. Re-adjusting the minimum offer often based on your changing financial reality or cyclical sales patterns is a pain.

6) If you fall on a buyer who has money but truly has no Idea of domain values, that $1000 or $2000 minimum offer that you would've perhaps set would be a non-starter, but if they start at $250 and you counter 5k for example, they would say how come you want 5k.... then after some back and forth you can reach an agreement. The low min offer can start a dialog.

7) Sometimes you can also fall on someone who had a few decent sales and just wanted to try a Hail Mary and didn't care if they didn't sell and hold on to the name.

**** I agree going from around 1k to 200k is a fairly ludicrous. But many buyers even find it ludicrous when you counter a $250 min offer with a 5k selling price.

**** If there was a way to put no min offer (to not set expectation), but at the same time automatically ignore lowball offers, I think that would be great.

**** As much as possible for names I value at over 25k or so, I try to put a higher min offer , but in order to do that, you have to spend hours trying to put at least a bin estimation for each domain (with excel), to then sort it low to high and then put the min offers.
With several thousand domains, it's brutal!
 
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the domain redirects to coming soon website but different url, no for sale landing.
I guess the domain was sold and owner forgot to remove it from Sedo.
I think so too. Domain has been sold.
 
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Why do some people have minimum offers and then counter at something far far higher? Usually to ridiculous amounts as well.

I understand we can all ask whatever we want for a domain but why do this.

Take for example a name I recently tried to acquire. Nothing amazing, a nice two word .com. It's on a marketplace with a minimum offer of $500. I think fair enough and offer a reasonable $1000.

They come back with way into the 6 figures! Over $200,000.

Trust me this particular name is not worth that.

Why waste people's time like this?

Set your minimum offers much higher and closer to what you hope to sell for. Stop wasting everyone's time.

Cheers

As most of you know by now... I always like to go a little bit against the grain :xf.grin:

From a sales point, let me explain it to you....

- I want 10k for my domain and I list it at a marketplace like sedo etc.
- I set minimum starting bid at $250

So why do you ask?

It's quite simple, the $250 removes 50% of all the deadbeat under $100 offers and the minimum $250 allows me to at least communicate and open dialogue with the client. I can use the comment field to communicate with the client back and forth.

All the client has to do is increase the bid by $1 and he can communicate with me.

Why is that important?

I purchased a domain on Sedo which had a $100 opening bid and the seller asked me for $1,800.

I communicated with him for quite a while, he would answer, I said no too much, he did not contact back, I increased the bid by $1 to communicate again and we eventually settled on $750.

So why did I not enter $750 in the first place? Because I would never have gotten it for that, it was only by me staying in contact over a period of time and letting the seller find out more about me that he settled for the $750.

I use the minimum opening bid as a tool to sell and as a tool to buy with.

Trust me.... in the right circumstances it can be a great way to negotiate and on Sedo it has helped me attain domains and sell domains.
 
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Why do some people have minimum offers and then counter at something far far higher? Usually to ridiculous amounts as well.

I understand we can all ask whatever we want for a domain but why do this.

Take for example a name I recently tried to acquire. Nothing amazing, a nice two word .com. It's on a marketplace with a minimum offer of $500. I think fair enough and offer a reasonable $1000.

They come back with way into the 6 figures! Over $200,000.

Trust me this particular name is not worth that.

Why waste people's time like this?

Set your minimum offers much higher and closer to what you hope to sell for. Stop wasting everyone's time.

Cheers
Is this case of domain seller counter offering ridiculously relative to the min offer set an outlier situation or there's a established pattern? My gut tells me this is an outlier/minority situation..
 
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