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discuss Doing the right thing - How I could have made $35,000 but decided to move on.

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Arfy

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I just wanted to take a few minutes to write about a major crossroads that I was faced with today. To the left was $35,000 in profit and to the right, doing the right thing and $0. Let me explain from the beginning.

I recently acquired a few domain names as part of a cash+domains deal for one of my premium names. After a few weeks, I decided to add these to Uniregistry for sale. Uniregistry displayed an error after adding my domains to the account but some were added. One of the names wasn't showing and I wasn't sure if I would get an inquiry if one was to come through. To make sure, I decided to log a test inquiry from a different email address with a random 100k offer to see if it comes through to me.

After logging the inquiry, I carried on working on some other tasks and forgot all about it. A short while later, I received a message on Skype from the previous owner asking if I want to sell back a domain name he previously sold to me. I said, I'm looking for what would be a 50k profit for the name, thinking he would say too high (seeing as he sold it to me). He replied back with a 30k offer which shocked me, we quickly settled on what would be a 35k profit for me. A few minutes later he sent an Escrow agreement which I accepted. Wow, that was a nice surprise!

After a while I checked my emails and saw that a Uniregistry broker had sent me an email to my secondary email address. He mentioned that he would be discussing the 100k offer I had made as a test inquiry with the seller and get back to me ASAP. I checked my primary email address expected a message from him and saw nothing ... then it clicked. The domain was still under the previous owner's name and the broker had contacted him not me! That was the reason he was buying the name back from me and why he was so quick to do it. I felt a bit angry that he didn't let them know he doesn't own it nor did he tell me about the inquiry but rather tried to buy it back from me at a much lower price... if it was a genuine offer I would have paid him commission if he had brought me a lead.

I was now at a crossroads, do I take a $35,000 profit on the name? After all, I never told him to buy it back from me, he is doing it to make a quick buck (and he is very well off already). Or do I tell him that the offer he is basing this on is not real and do the right thing. After all, if I was willing to sell it to him he wasn't really ripping me off. Maybe he was just good a business. Does that mean I should also be good at business and just sell him the name and make the profit? What do I do?

After a few minutes I told myself that it would be against my morals and beliefs as a Muslim to profit from something that was not entirely right. It just feels wrong to proceed and I'm not that kind of person. I messaged him and explained what had happened. He cancelled the deal after hearing it. I also contacted the broker to let him know that inquiries need to come to me.

The morale of the story is: Money isn't everything, do what's right.

What would you have done in this situation?

thanks,

Arfy
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
He did the right thing. He saved his own a$$.
 
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He probably wouldn’t have funded escrow until he had payment from your side confirmed.

Sometimes people list so many places, and change services, and forget if they listed at 3, or 4th type venue they no longer use.

You kind of started this fake chain of events with a fake offer, self inflicted, if that $100K offer was $1, this would have been squashed with a simple delete. All you had to to do was remind seller, to delete at Uni, or contact their support with new info of chnage in ownership.

Don’t take a bow just yet, it’s just really a game of words. No real money moved, just agreements in place to leverage one transfer, against the guarantee of another. You entered into a fake contract knowing you already own this domain. You were never going to profit, because deal was never going to be funded by you.

It’s an imaginary scenario, and a fairytale a best started by your actions, and imaginary offer. Seller would probably never do business with you again, for playing with him like this, as you took it to this level.

imaginary scenario? I had agreement in place and payment was coming through. He said he would pay immediately because a broker called him to say there was a strong offer ready to go (I didn't tell anybody to say that nor spoke to anyone about it). The offer of 100k was just a random number. Yes I could have put $1 but it would probably have been stuck in limbo with none picking it up. If I was trying to make a gain I would have seen this through to the end.
 
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guess you don't get it:

you sell him the name for $30K
next, he wants to sell it to you for $100K
now:
will you honor the deal?

you have done nothing
to brag about

The price quote was never supposed to hit him so there is no deal to honour. He never owned the domain name when the quote came through to him. That can easily be proven. I am not bragging lol.
 
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guess you don't get it:

you sell him the name for $30K
next, he wants to sell it to you for $100K
now:
will you honor the deal?

you have done nothing
to brag about
I am not familiar with Uni but are the offers there, like, eternal? I doubt this, probably they are valid for a certain period and then expire like everywhere else. So Arfy most likely would have nothing to "honor" by the time another person received their domain back.
 
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I am not familiar with Uni but are the offers there, like, eternal? I doubt this, probably they are valid for a certain period and then expire like everywhere else. So Arfy most likely would have nothing to "honor" by the time another person received their domain back.
Exactly. In fact I previously have asked Uniregistry if they can forward me old leads and they said they cannot legally do that even though a previous owner said it is ok to do so.
 
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The two were playing, not just the OP. One for making a 100k offer knowing he owns the domain, and the other, for playing when he wanted to sell a domain he doesn't own. In my opinion.
As you said, it was a fake chain of events, supported by the two.

In fact, recently happened to me something similar. I found a domain listed for sale presumably by the previous owner. But my response was not to make an offer on the previous listing, but to contact the Marketplace to remove the previous listing.

This should have been the proper way to go, and not starting a fake chain of events.

You're right that is the way to go. But I had already asked him to remove it from the marketplace when I bought it and he confirmed he had done it.
 
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Agreed, but OP didn’t have to put $100K offer, could have put $1 offer, and person would have deleted it, and this would be a non event.

So most likely escrow would have 2 contracts for the same domain in play, and it would have got flagged.

That also doesn't make sense. He is a seasoned domainer and knows how Escrow works. You're the one inventing imaginary scenarios here
 
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The price quote was never supposed to hit him so there is no deal to honour. He never owned the domain name when the quote came through to him. That can easily be proven. I am not bragging lol.

that is really XX
-let's call it nonsense-

you made an offer on a name at a 3rd party platform
now you at least owe that platform the commission
 
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He probably wouldn’t have funded escrow until he had payment from your side confirmed.

Sometimes people list so many places, and change services, and forget if they listed at 3, or 4th type venue they no longer use.

You kind of started this fake chain of events with a fake offer, self inflicted, if that $100K offer was $1, this would have been squashed with a simple delete. All you had to to do was remind seller, to delete at Uni, or contact their support with new info of chnage in ownership.

Don’t take a bow just yet, it’s just really a game of words. No real money moved, just agreements in place to leverage one transfer, against the guarantee of another. You entered into a fake contract knowing you already own this domain. You were never going to profit, because deal was never going to be funded by you.

It’s an imaginary scenario, and a fairytale a best started by your actions, and imaginary offer. Seller would probably never do business with you again, for playing with him like this, as you took it to this level.

Spot on
 
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How did Uniregistry feel about someone making an offer on their own name? I am sure they were not happy about that even if it was a test. Most places don't let you test that way with live offers they perceive as real.
 
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How did Uniregistry feel about someone making an offer on their own name? I am sure they were not happy about that even if it was a test. Most places don't let you test that way with live offers they perceive as real.
Why is it frowned upon to test a system to make sure it works? And who cares what the registrar thinks, it’s not their asset that’s involved here.

I personally wouldn’t make an offer for my own domain but in this case it’s a good thing the OP did. Otherwise, all his offers would go to the wrong person.

Running tests isn’t a bad thing, especially when serious money is at play.
 
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Why is it frowned upon to test a system to make sure it works? And who cares what the registrar thinks, it’s not their asset that’s involved here.

I personally wouldn’t make an offer for my own domain but in this case it’s a good thing the OP did. Otherwise, all his offers would go to the wrong person.

Running tests isn’t a bad thing, especially when serious money is at play.
I have figured out if you are Random User and you make an inquiry on a domain at Uni, and if it is a self directed account, it will route directly to the owner. Now say you make that purchase with the owner, the next time you make an inquiry, the system recognizes the same email, as a previous buyer, and routes you to a broker probably for the reason you are more likely to make another sale, and to provide you with more personalized service among other things. So anytime I make an inquiry now, I get routed to the same broker, I don't really like it because I don't want to do the dance, and want to get down to it with the owner, as you know brokers have to try, and extract the max price, and sometimes crazy ask of the owners.
 
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I have figured out if you are Random User and you make an inquiry on a domain at Uni, and if it is a self directed account, it will route directly to the owner. Now say you make that purchase with the owner, the next time you make an inquiry, the system recognizes the same email, as a previous buyer, and routes you to a broker probably for the reason you are more likely to make another sale, and to provide you with more personalized service among other things. So anytime I make an inquiry now, I get routed to the same broker, I don't really like it because I don't want to do the dance, and want to get down to it with the owner, as you know brokers have to try, and extract the max price, and sometimes crazy ask of the owners.
You brought up a good point which nobody has touched upon. The OP didn’t ask for broker assistance and they should stay out of it.

What makes a broker think they can sell better than me? In almost all cases the owner has the upper hand because they can negotiate directly, on the fly.
 
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From headline it seemed you did some kind of charity and there will be some genuine upright story but this is not anything special and it is fully hypothetical.

This whole situation was created by you. Instead of asking uni to remove it, You not only made fake offer on your name to start with but ALSO surprisingly happen to forget about it. then you didn't even realized when you got impromptu inquiry of past owner but you yourself understood situation much later after everything happened? And even after the whole scenario there was no guarantee of you receiving those funds.

I don't believe overall you did anything wrong or intentionally created this situation, it was your way of testing it - fair enough but i also don't find this to be some morale upright story as headline suggests.
 
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You brought up a good point which nobody has touched upon. The OP didn’t ask for broker assistance and they should stay out of it.

What makes a broker think they can sell better than me? In almost all cases the owner has the upper hand because they can negotiate directly, on the fly.
It’s a catch in the system made to route previous buyers to brokers giving the house a better chance to retain a commission. Little tweaks that came after to try, and get more revenue I guess.
 
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There's no greater irony than a bullet, aimed at an innocent bystander, ricocheting and hitting the shooter. Perhaps, the shooter deserved the bullet.
 
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From the ethical point of view the "old owner" should have forwarded your own offer to you.
Instead of doing so, he tried making 65k behind your back.
I would have let him trying and get the 35k ;)
 
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I salute your honesty and integrity bro, you did the right thing although it was not easy thing to do, I tell you that many would have taken the 35k without thinking.

Respect
 
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I would have sold the domain and not thought that much about it if the offer came my way. But well done to you for being honest with yourself in this situation.
 
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You did the right thing bro and I'm happy for that
 
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This has to do with the morals. Right thing to do irrespective of religion.

What morals does the previous owner have if he didn't remove the domain from all marketplaces, when asked. And then hides the offer he received, from the new owner. But instead tries to buy the domain back. That smacks of being immoral to me.

That might urk me so much to actually go thru with the offer. It's up to him to sort out and deal with his own created kharma. But in the end, I'd probably reveal all to the old owner. However his actions bug me a lot. He doesn't deserve the heads up. IMHO.
 
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What morals does the previous owner have if he didn't remove it from all marketplaces, when asked. And then hides the offer he received, from the new owner. But instead tries to buy the domain back. That smacks of being immoral to me.

Previous owner was a dick. Trying to make a quick buck.

I am speaking about OP.
 
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Previous owner was a dick. Trying to make a quick buck.

I am speaking about OP.

Yeah. As I said. There are two sides to every story. Actions of the previous owner were outrageous. Trying to make a killing by not doing as requested, trying to buy the domain back without informing the current owner of an offer he received by NOT COMPLYING with the new owners request to remove the domain from all marketplaces. He actually DESERVES to be stitched up. IMHO.
 
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After a few minutes I told myself that it would be against my morals and beliefs as a Muslim to profit from something that was not entirely right.
Thank you for being a good ambassador and God will bless you!
 
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