domains Would you like to charge a domain inquiry fee?

Keith said:

It does not work if you sell directly on your own, which I do for example.

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Would it not be possible to make the form processing require that the offer field have a minimum offer, and have that field filled in (or else pre-fill it with the minimum amount)?
Bob

Silentptnr said:

I dont like letting leads get away. Period.

I'll even try to offer alternative names that are similar but priced lower. Sometimes that can get them to take the one they want and pay up.

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Good point. I’ve had $200 initial offers turn into $20,000 sales on multiple occasions. Sometimes a low offer is just an attempt to establish contact.

biggie said:

if you had the type of domains that are getting frequent offers/inquiries

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do you have the type of domains as described above?

if, yes, then you'd understand
if, no, then....

i knows that reads bluntly, and not trying to be critical of you or your ability to understand,
but you have to be in those shoes, to feel what i'm saying.

and, regardless to if they set a minimum here or there, that doesn't stop lowball offers from being submitted via email inquiries, pm's, dm's or phone calls, etc,

just saying...

imo...

Keith said:

Good point. I’ve had $200 initial offers turn into $20,000 sales on multiple occasions. Sometimes a low offer is just an attempt to establish contact.

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Damn dude. I havent had that yet.

I think I read your piece about that one.

Silentptnr said:

I dont like letting leads get away. Period.

I'll even try to offer alternative names that are similar but priced lower. Sometimes that can get them to take the one they want and pay up.

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Agree!

Some end users doesn't even know how the pricing of domain works. Some of them based it on registration fees but once you interact with them they eventually understand.

biggie said:

do you have the type of domains as described above?

if, yes, then you'd understand
if, no, then....

i knows that reads bluntly, and not trying to be critical of you or your ability to understand,
but you have to be in those shoes, to feel what i'm saying.

and, regardless to if they set a minimum here or there, that doesn't stop lowball offers from being submitted via email inquiries, pm's, dm's or phone calls, etc,

just saying...

imo...

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I dunno Biggie. I guess everyone has their style. Its partly psychological too.

There have been debates about which way is more effective.

Bob Hawkes said:

Would it not be possible to make the form processing require that the offer field have a minimum offer, and have that field filled in (or else pre-fill it with the minimum amount)?
Bob

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You could certainly set up a customized page to field offers and set minimum amounts. Thats really the best angle to take if you own several high value domains.

There are several ways to target serious buyers, without charging a fee, if that’s what you’re after.

I can't argue with @biggie 's point because I haven't got "that" kind of domain :D

I think if you're Mr Nissan, you'd get tired. Or if you own a personal domain with absolutely no intention of selling, then unsolicited offers might get annoying. But me, I'm in a business that is all about offer/counter offer.

Keith said:

You’re making the assumption that all sellers use listing sites like Sedo to field offers. In that case, yes, setting a minimum price works. It does not work if you sell directly on your own, which I do for example.

That said, the idea of charging to receive offers or paying to make an offer is appalling to me. It takes seconds to review an offer via email and delete if need be.

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Why can't you have min offer feature with your own?

Just out of interest I went to the specific name referenced in the article. It goes to a general contact page for the domain investor company rather than a specific lander page. I suspect that if had a lander saying something like "Minimum offers of XXXXX (or whatever) being considered" many of the lowball offers would not happen."

I tried to put myself in the position of an end user. Even if I knew about NameBio there are only two sales ever involving this word in the record (none exact, and the two sales are just mid $$$).

If the end user knew how to use Dofo, would see the word is taken in 53 TLDs and that the .org is for sale low/mid $$$$, so that probably would signal that the .com is not going to go for less than 5x that. But is it reasonable to expect an end user to know all of this when there is no lander at all, it seems, when it would be like a few minutes work to have a lander with a minimum offer?

Now it was not obvious to me from the tweet, which I also saw, whether the reference was specifically regarding offers from domain investors. If so, I agree that unreasonable offers from experienced domain investors could be objected to, although even then the possible range in price in most domain names is large.

But the solution proposed as trial balloon of a fee to make an offer, would apply supposedly mainly to end users and would in my opinion be highly negative (while it would drastically reduce low and all offers). And people would still work around it anyway.

Bob

Bob Hawkes said:

You make good points @biggie and I agree that unreasonably low offers from domainers is a different situation (and one I had not thought of when I was making my remarks). And I also agree with you about not biting their heads off, even if domainers do make low offers, though !

But re the following....

I still don't understand, if the seller does not want to consider anything less than say $10,000, why not set that as the minimum to submit an offer. When the minimum is set to $100 (or even less) then don't complain if people submit bids of $$$ to $$$$ level.

Even if an offer is well off, it really is trivial to respond with a short message like. "Thank you for your offer, but it is well outside the range of what I can consider for this domain name."

Bob

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People like Nat Cohen and Web Magic Bob are not able to do this on Sedo obviously they are doing it when people contact them directly going to their websites, which are not marketplaces.

biggie said:

Hi

if you had the type of domains that are getting frequent offers/inquiries on, then you might be more sympathetic, to their complaints.

I can see someone not involved in domaining, submitting a low offer.. even if just to get the ball rolling

but there are many low ball offers submitted by domainers, who know or have good idea of value for the domain, that they making the lowball offer for.

some will say "sorry, wasn't trying to lowball you" but most won't say or even make a counter offer.

and these are some of the same folks who boast of 4 and 5 figures sales, so if that's true, then they must have the cash.

but I don't bite their heads off, I just say "no thanks or thanks for your inquiry".

imo...

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Spot on.

Last thing I'll add is this...

Personally having over 25 years in business, an Inc. 500 recipient, and a corporate turnaround consultant, I have always been successful through education and positive energy and culture.

I can tell you that the term "lowballer" is very unproductive and insulting. In all circumstances but particularly in a business dealing.

I would refer to those as "uneducated". I will take time to educate a prospective buyer if an opportunity exists.

Perhaps that education involves explaining domain values. It might involve explaining that I am an educated, fair investor that is somewhat firm on the price.

Point is, in my book, there are only educated and yet to be educated buyers.

I'll want all offers!

equity78 said:

obviously they are doing it when people contact them directly going to their websites, which are not marketplaces.

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Your article starts off with the following question. Which seems to apply to more than a few individuals who, for whatever reason, shun landers. So my answer to that question remains, no .

equity78 said:

Would you like people to pay to make an offer on your name?

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Let's consider the real estate analogy here. So you have the funds and financing in place to purchase something. Would you deal with a real estate company that refused to give you any indication of the price of any of their listings? If you, despite that, make an offer, they complain that it is too low not to you but to others. Real estate agents I have dealt with over the years don't operate that way.

Many brokers and investors with valuable portfolios provide some indication like "offers above xxxxx being accepted". Even though some choose not to operate a marketplace, or use one, it does not seem to me that they are precluded from making a lander that indicates the range of offers being accepted, and how they are to be made. Yes, that might box them in, and is why some don't do it, but if they make that choice, imho they should not complain about unreasonable offers.

Back to your original question, would you deal with a car salesman or real estate professional that asked you to pay a non-refundable fee just to make an offer for something with no indication at all of the price ranges being considered?

I perhaps, in a few cases, can see the approach @Silentptnr made of some sort of minimum refundable deposit to make an offer.

Bob

So...you are at Namescon...you see two booths selling domains.

One has a sign that says "No Lowballers" and one has a sign that says "All Offers Welcome"...lol

Silentptnr said:

I dunno Biggie. I guess everyone has their style. Its partly psychological too.

There have been debates about which way is more effective.

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Hi

well, if you put style in the equation, then yes... that is a different discussion.

but basically:
those who solicit may be happy just to get a reply
while those who don't, may not be happy with the offers they get.

imo….

Silentptnr said:

Last thing I'll add is this...

Personally having over 25 years in business, an Inc. 500 recipient, and a corporate turnaround consultant, I have always been successful through education and positive energy and culture.

I can tell you that the term "lowballer" is very unproductive and insulting. In all circumstances but particularly in a business dealing.

I would refer to those as "uneducated". I will take time to educate if an opportunity exists. Perhaps that education involves explaining domain values. It might involve explaining that I am an educated, fair investor that is somewhat firm on the price.

Point is, in my book, there are only educated and yet to be educated buyers.

I'll want all offers!

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I appreciate your positivity. But there is category of lowballers. Some domain investors do that and you cannot call them uneducated.

Some business people do that too. I am offering a fantastic deal for under 15k to the owner of 100 million startup for exact match dot com of his startup and he is interested but is trying to lowball it still. And I am close to just setting bin at 50k and pulling my offer off the table. There are 100+ other businesses that could benefit from it. And I have spent hours educating him.

Recons.Com said:

I appreciate your positivity. But there is category of lowballers. Some domain investors do that and you cannot call them uneducated.

Some business people do that too. I am offering a fantastic deal for under 15k to the owner of 100 million startup for exact match dot com of his startup and he is interested but is trying to lowball it still. And I am close to just setting bin at 50k and pulling my offer off the table. There are 100+ other businesses that could benefit from it. And I have spent hours educating him.

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We would have to agree to disagree. Someone who is savvy and is trying to get a steal, just needs to know I'm ready to sell if they change their mind.

Bob Hawkes said:

Your article starts off with the following question. Which seems to apply to more than a few individuals who, for whatever reason, shun landers. So my answer to that question remains, no .


Let's consider the real estate analogy here. So you have the funds and financing in place to purchase something. Would you deal with a real estate company that refused to give you any indication of the price of any of their listings? If you, despite that, make an offer, they complain that it is too low not to you but to others. Real estate agents I have dealt with over the years don't operate that way.

Many brokers and investors with valuable portfolios provide some indication like "offers above xxxxx being accepted". Even though people like you indicate choose not to operate a marketplace, or use one, it does not seem to me that they are precluded from making a lander that indicates the range of offers. Yes, that might box them in, and is why they don't do it, but if they make that choice, imho they should not complain about unreasonable offers.

Back to your original question, would you deal with a car salesman or real estate professional that asked you to pay a non-refundable fee just to make an offer for something with no indication at all of the price ranges being considered. I perhaps, in a few cases, can see the approach @Silentptnr made of some sort of minimum refundable deposit to make an offer.

Bob

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The article starts off with:

Would you like people to pay to make an offer on your name? Would you like to pay to make an offer on someone else’s domain name?

I read a tweet from George Kirikos about low ballers (someone offered him $500 for Orderly.com)

I think not everyone shares the opinion to compare domain names, truly one of a kind to cars or houses. First off I don't think Nat Cohen or Web Magic cares what any of us here think, I thought it was interesting George wondered why Epik did not offer this ability and tagged Michael Cyger an investor and not Doron who I tagged on Twitter.

For some people it's not about low ballers, some people don't want to be contacted unless it's to buy something, they don't want to educate, they don't want snide remarks. There are some who use the Linda Evangelista line of I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

Now to what @Silentptnr mentioned I think many have wanted places like Sedo and Afternic to get a deposit when making an offer, that is non refundable if they back out of an agreed upon deal.

Like some have mentioned you really need to own names like Web Magic and Nat does for this to even be plausible, of course anyone can do that, Domain Agents will provide this ability if you open an account with them and you could only own madeup pronounceables.

The beauty of domaining is anyone can ask for whatever terms they like in order for someone to buy their domain names. The flipside is buyers have a lot of choices.

Recons.Com said:

I appreciate your positivity. But there is category of lowballers. Some domain investors do that and you cannot call them uneducated.

Some business people do that too. I am offering a fantastic deal for under 15k to the owner of 100 million startup for exact match dot com of his startup and he is interested but is trying to lowball it still. And I am close to just setting bin at 50k and pulling my offer off the table. There are 100+ other businesses that could benefit from it. And I have spent hours educating him.

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Absolutely correct, some take pride in making lowball offers and they are highly educated. Like someone told me a long time ago, "I just need one desperate sucker for it to be worth it" Portfolios were built by educated domainers making lowball offers pretending to be broke students.

Recons.Com said:

I am offering a fantastic deal for under 15k to the owner of 100 million startup for exact match dot com of his startup and he is interested but is trying to lowball it still.

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Just for curiosity. It's an inbound or outbound?

equity78 said:

The article starts off with:

Would you like people to pay to make an offer on your name? Would you like to pay to make an offer on someone else’s domain name?

I read a tweet from George Kirikos about low ballers (someone offered him $500 for Orderly.com)

I think not everyone shares the opinion to compare domain names, truly one of a kind to cars or houses. First off I don't think Nat Cohen or Web Magic cares what any of us here think, I thought it was interesting George wondered why Epik did not offer this ability and tagged Michael Cyger an investor and not Doron who I tagged on Twitter.

For some people it's not about low ballers, some people don't want to be contacted unless it's to buy something, they don't want to educate, they don't want snide remarks. There are some who use the Linda Evangelista line of I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

Not to what @Silentptnr mentioned I think many have wanted places like Sedo and Afternic to get a deposit when making an offer, that is non refundable if they back out of an agreed upon deal.

Like some have mentioned you really need to own names like Web Magic and Nat does for this to even be plausible, of course anyone can do that, Domain Agents will provide this ability if you open an account with them and you could only own madeup pronounceables.

The beauty of domaining is anyone can ask for whatever terms they like in order for someone to buy their domain names. The flipside is buyers have a lot of choices.

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Ultra premium names are usually brokered. Brokers have connections to the high end buyers. Brokers dont charge their prospective buyers just to make offers. If anything, at that level, I would imagine the players aren't just surfing the web making $xxx,xxx offers.

Were talking about mid range names, maybe xx,xxx. Bottom offers probably xxx. I get it.

More barriers for prospective buyers equals less business.

That's why ebay doesnt do that.

Silentptnr said:

Ultra premium names are usually brokered. Brokers have connections to the high end buyers. Brokers dont charge their prospective buyers just to make offers. If anything, at that level, I would imagine the players aren't just surfing the web making $xxx,xxx offers.

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I don't believe but not 100% Web Magic deals with brokers. Of course a broker wouldn't charge you can easily go around them, you can't go around the person that owns the domain.

equity78 said:

The article starts off with:

Would you like people to pay to make an offer on your name? Would you like to pay to make an offer on someone else’s domain name?

I read a tweet from George Kirikos about low ballers (someone offered him $500 for Orderly.com)

I think not everyone shares the opinion to compare domain names, truly one of a kind to cars or houses. First off I don't think Nat Cohen or Web Magic cares what any of us here think, I thought it was interesting George wondered why Epik did not offer this ability and tagged Michael Cyger an investor and not Doron who I tagged on Twitter.

For some people it's not about low ballers, some people don't want to be contacted unless it's to buy something, they don't want to educate, they don't want snide remarks. There are some who use the Linda Evangelista line of I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day.

Not to what @Silentptnr mentioned I think many have wanted places like Sedo and Afternic to get a deposit when making an offer, that is non refundable if they back out of an agreed upon deal.

Like some have mentioned you really need to own names like Web Magic and Nat does for this to even be plausible, of course anyone can do that, Domain Agents will provide this ability if you open an account with them and you could only own madeup pronounceables.

The beauty of domaining is anyone can ask for whatever terms they like in order for someone to buy their domain names. The flipside is buyers have a lot of choices.

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I think the question you are posing relates to a handful of people in the industry and really shouldn’t even be asked. You’re talking to a crowd of people, of which maybe 1 has domains that warrant upfront payments to receive offers.

Personally, I wouldn’t pay money upfront to make an offer on anything. It comes off as arrogant and starts negotiations off on a bad note imo.