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advice My $8.5k valued domain got sold for just $90

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Anees Ahmad

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Dear fellow domainers,

Today (Friday, 00:26 24/04/2020 - IST) I got an email that says one of my domains got sold from sedo marketplace. I was really surprised because I stopped using sedo long ago. I signed up there mainly for the parking service. To check how thing are there, I added some of my domains to the portfolio and parked them there. Overall it seemed a good website. But for some other reason, I found out it was not for me. I disabled the parking and nearly never went back there. But what I didn't know was I left some market place listing for ridiculously low price. In fact, I don't even remember listing them for sale. I thought I was only enabled the parking.

All those domains were either hand registered or bought at expired auction at low rate. Later at some point I sold most of them to buy more. But I saved some of my favorite for a bigger sale. One of them recently got listed at squadhelp for $8,499. I got some inbound offers for the same too. To my shock, when I checked the mail from sedo, it was the very same name got sold for less than $100. I may not be able to sell it for the squadhelp price. But the sale amount was definitely too low for a good 5L .com name like this one.

Since the buyer has already paid the amount, I know it was a breach of contract to not to transfer the name. But I didn't wanna loose that name. So I decided to not to answer any emails from them. Since I don't have any domains registered at sedo, and I don't have any amount due to receive or haven't even linked my payment details, at worst, all they can do is closing my account. I was already stopped using it anyway. There is no chance of any legal action for such a petty transaction too.

I searched online for similar incidents happened before. There were so many posts by buyers who got frustrated by waiting for a long time after payment. The support team would have been trying hard too. And it's not something happens only at sedo. I didn't want this to happen to anyone because of me. I immediately contacted sedo explaining my situation, within one and half hour of the purchase. I haven't received any confirmation yet, but I am confident that since I did reached out on time and assured this won't happen again, there won't be issue to do the refund for this time.

I shared my experience to remind you all the importance of cleaning up your old listing and posts. Just do a quick check now if your listings are up to date everywhere. And when you sell a name or changes the price in the future, always update it everywhere you've listed them. I really appreciate everyone to share their thoughts and suggestions. Also in case the buyer happens to read this, please contact me through DM.

Regards
Anees Ahmad
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
Sedo always do things like closing people's accounts without even informing them so while if you had it there and knew about it and now you are backing out is not good, I can also understand if the buyer saw the listing on Squad Help and then tried to get it on the cheap there. Many people do this, domainers or no domainers.
 
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Sedo always do things like closing people's accounts without even informing them so while if you had it there and knew about it and now you are backing out is not good, I can also understand if the buyer saw the listing on Squad Help and then tried to get it on the cheap there. Many people do this, domainers or no domainers.
Thank you @Abdullah Abdullah for the reply.
The listing was there but like I mentioned, I didn't know it was still there. In fact I don't even remember listing them for sale. I thought I was only enabled the parking which I disabled later when I decided to stop using sedo. But somehow I must have missed the listing. I was unaware that it was still there until it get sold. If I'd any clue I would have disable it.
 
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After reading this post, I realized I too might have some old listings elsewhere.

Just checked my Flippa account – yep, four domains were listed at 5K each while all of them are currently listed on other marketplaces for high four and low five figures. All deactivated :xf.wink:

It's "good" that Flippa is dead, and no end-users could see those listings.
 
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What you did was wrong, if you list a name at a price and it sells, you honor the sale. This was not the buyers fault, it was you who listed it at that price. What happened to being professional and doing business with integrity. Years ago I listed a name on Sedo for mid xxx (accidentally) and it sold. It was worth probably 5 or 10 times that. I took the hit and sold the name, a persons reputation is worth more than one domain sale.

Always honor deals in business, in any busines, not just domains. One day it will happen to you and you will remember this thread.

Sorry if its not what you wanted to hear, but we see similar scenarios like this on occassion and it leaves a bad mark on domainers and the industry in general.
 
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What you did was wrong, if you list a name at a price and it sells, you honor the sale. This was not the buyers fault, it was you who listed it at that price. What happened to being professional and doing business with integrity. Ive forgotten about a domain on Sedo Years ago I listed for mid xxx (accidentally) and it sold. I took the hit and sold the name, a persons reputation is worth more than one domain sale.

Always honor deals in business, in any busines, not just domains. One day it will happen to you and you will remember this thread.

Sorry if its not what you wanted to hear, but we see similar scenarios like this on occassion and it leaves a bad mark on domainers and the industry in general.

While I agree with you, I also believe that not everything is black and white in life. It depends on the circumstances.

Uniregistry makes mistakes, NetworkSolutions makes mistakes, so why can't ordinary people make mistakes too?

If the domain was listed everywhere at a high price and only at Sedo for a fraction of that, plus the seller hasn't logged in at his Sedo account for ages, I think it's safe to assume the mistake was genuine (for the record, I'm not sure this was the case here). The seller could also contact Sedo, explain the situation, and offer a solution that would suit all parties involved.
 
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Thank you @gilescoley for the reply.

Always honor deals in business, in any busines, not just domains. One day it will happen to you and you will remember this thread.
I always try to be honest and straight forward as much as I possibly can. I didn't think twice to transfer two of my names at my last auction for $1 each regardless I spent $26 (not the exact number) for each and I never expected the auction will end that low. But this is a different situation. The listing was something I consider as by mistake and I didn't know it was active for all these days.

This was not the buyers fault
I never said that. This was no ones fault. They will get a refund.

Sorry if its not what you wanted to hear
No problem. I really appreciate you for being honest.
 
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Thank you @uzver

While I agree with you, I also believe that not everything is black and white in life. It depends on the circumstances.
Exactly.
 
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Hi

sedo stopped sending "you have an offer" or "your domain has sold" type of email notifications some time ago, to prevent phishing.

at least this is how it has been working, since I got that notification
where you have to login, to see if any sales activity has occurred.

so, OP, if you did get such email recently and others are too, then maybe it's just me
but if others aren't and you did, then check the properties/header of it.

imo….
 
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Uniregistry makes mistakes, NetworkSolutions makes mistakes, so why can't ordinary people make mistakes too?

Yeah, big companies make mistakes too and they should honor their deals if the do, just like anyone should. Its the same thing, just on a bigger scale but its all relevant.

I really dont care whether you are Apple, Microsoft or a Uni student living on 2 minutes noodles, if you make a deal, you stick to it, a man is only as good as his word. You mess up, you man up and take it on the chin, thats how you learn from your mistakes. You back out of a deal and dont take the loss, you wont learn anything.

If the domain was listed everywhere at a high price and only at Sedo for a fraction of that, plus the seller hasn't logged in at his Sedo account for ages, I think it's safe to assume the mistake was genuine

The domain was only listed at Sedo according to the OP, so this was just a case of he forgot about a name he had listed and then when it sold, he backed out the deal., its plain and simple.

I'm not so sure that if I were to receive such an email from Flippa (and I really could care less about Flippa and my profile there), where my last log in was years back, my decision might be different.

Each to their own I guess. I just wouldnt even consider it, a persons reputation is eveything and I certainly wouldnt want anyone doing that to me. Just remember what it feels like when you buy a name you really want one day, and you pay and ask the owner to transfer the domain and they just ignore you until you go away.

When comes to honoring a deal, it is all pretty black and white

The listing was something I consider as by mistake and I didn't know it was active for all these days.

It makes no difference if it was a mistake, you honor the deal regardless. Imagine eveyone that back out of a deal on Sedo, Godaddy, Afternic or here just said "Sprry, it was mistake" or "I forgot to add those two "00" to the price". If you could get away with that, every 2nd person would be trying it.

I never said that. This was no ones fault. They will get a refund.

If you really believe that nobody is at fault here, then thats a problem in itself and no amount of discussion with change your view on that. JUst remrber the feeling ig you e

Good luck
 
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yeah.. long live makeoffer only listings :)
things can get VERY hard to manage in terms of bin prices across various markets, especially for few 100 or few 1000 folio holders.

as for op, well, you can do what you want, tons of sellers do not sell their names, and tons of buyers x 100 never pay for domains they buy. however, ejecting yourself from markets, if you intend to remain domainer and sell names, is just shoot yourself in the foot... i mean its okay to get banned from bido, domainagents or some other things like this that rarely sell. but sedo, gd auctions, afternic... well........just don't... else you hurt no one but you.
 
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Thanks @biggie
so, OP, if you did get such email recently and others are too, then maybe it's just me
but if others aren't and you did, then check the properties/header of it.
The mail I received was genuine. I can see the sale at my account dashboard.
 
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Hi

sedo stopped sending "you have an offer" or "your domain has sold" type of email notifications some time ago, to prevent phishing.

at least this is how it has been working, since I got that notification
where you have to login, to see if any sales activity has occurred.

so, OP, if you did get such email recently and others are too, then maybe it's just me
but if others aren't and you did, then check the properties/header of it.

imo….

I sold a name a couple of days ago. Got the email as usual. Maybe i'm just lucky :)
 
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Dear fellow domainers,

Today (Friday, 00:26 24/04/2020 - IST) I got an email that says one of my domains got sold from sedo marketplace. I was really surprised because I stopped using sedo long ago. I signed up there mainly for the parking service. To check how thing are there, I added some of my domains to the portfolio and parked them there. Overall it seemed a good website. But for some other reason, I found out it was not for me. I disabled the parking and nearly never went back there. But what I didn't know was I left some market place listing for ridiculously low price. In fact, I don't even remember listing them for sale. I thought I was only enabled the parking.

All those domains were either hand registered or bought at expired auction at low rate. Later at some point I sold most of them to buy more. But I saved some of my favorite for a bigger sale. One of them recently got listed at squadhelp for $8,499. I got some inbound offers for the same too. To my shock, when I checked the mail from sedo, it was the very same name got sold for less than $100. I may not be able to sell it for the squadhelp price. But the sale amount was definitely too low for a good 5L .com name like this one.

Since the buyer has already paid the amount, I know it was a breach of contract to not to transfer the name. But I didn't wanna loose that name. So I decided to not to answer any emails from them. Since I don't have any domains registered at sedo, and I don't have any amount due to receive or haven't even linked my payment details, at worst, all they can do is closing my account. I was already stopped using it anyway. There is no chance of any legal action for such a petty transaction too.

I searched online for similar incidents happened before. There were so many posts by buyers who got frustrated by waiting for a long time after payment. The support team would have been trying hard too. And it's not something happens only at sedo. I didn't want this to happen to anyone because of me. I immediately contacted sedo explaining my situation, within one and half hour of the purchase. I haven't received any confirmation yet, but I am confident that since I did reached out on time and assured this won't happen again, there won't be issue to do the refund for this time.

I shared my experience to remind you all the importance of cleaning up your old listing and posts. Just do a quick check now if your listings are up to date everywhere. And when you sell a name or changes the price in the future, always update it everywhere you've listed them. I really appreciate everyone to share their thoughts and suggestions. Also in case the buyer happens to read this, please contact me through DM.

Regards
Anees Ahmad


if you don't honor the deal

this will happen:

[ ]

( nothing )
 
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sedo stopped sending "you have an offer" or "your domain has sold" type of email notifications some time ago, to prevent phishing.

I'm not sure about that, I had that email from Sedo last month (sale went through OK 'Buy Now' at just shy of 2k) Though it did say to log-on for details. The email did state the domain but no pricing or link to the account.
I can't see how Sedo could work without emails - most don't log on to their accounts every week, My last time of logging on there was probably three months ago as Dan seem to doing most of my sales.

I think what you probably meant to say - the emails are sparse (rightly so) on details or links.

Correction 2 sales and two emails, the other at $650 through Sedo, I mention this one also because surprisingly he's a member here for 12 years but has never posted. He did try to DM me here but i'd been away from NP for sometime
 
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And to get back to the thread starters question - Well your problems will be over for the future - Sedo will delete your account anyway if you don't close the sale.

Hopefully for you he is not an active domainer, otherwise expect some Public bitterness as well. I personally wouldn't be ignoring the attempts to contact you. I'd make at least an attempt to explain (thankfully I've never had to do that) - honoring the sale is always my priority, even cock-ups
 
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Yeah, big companies make mistakes too and they should honor their deals if the do, just like anyone should. Its the same thing, just on a bigger scale but its all relevant.

I really dont care whether you are Apple, Microsoft or a Uni student living on 2 minutes noodles, if you make a deal, you stick to it, a man is only as good as his word. You mess up, you man up and take it on the chin, thats how you learn from your mistakes. You back out of a deal and dont take the loss, you wont learn anything.

Yes, they should. And yet, they not always do.

And how many people stopped buying domains from Uniregistry due to the issue I mentioned (linked) above? I doubt that many.

NetSol is a different story. Their reputation is bad (amongst domainers) due to a myriad of other reasons.

The domain was only listed at Sedo according to the OP, so this was just a case of he forgot about a name he had listed and then when it sold, he backed out the deal., its plain and simple.

OK, let's forget about domains for a moment, so that we remove the aspect of "Just remember what it feels like when you buy a name you really want one day", as I find it irrelevant to this discussion.

People sell assets (goods, cars, realty) and list them on various platforms for exposure, e.g. classifieds ads websites, niche websites, forums. They not always update their listing and may not even remember where they have listed them. It happens that I reach out to the buyer just to find out the item has been sold, or its price/description has changed.

Admittedly, I'm irritated when this happens, but it would be ridiculous to scream at the seller "You should honour the deal". The deal implies two parties agree onto something. There was no deal. It's the seller's prerogative to change his mind.

It's not the same if the seller represents a business. Of course, when you visit some e-commerce store, you should expect the item you see is available for the price you see. But I don't have the same demands for a private person.

Now back to domains.

Sedo makes it clear that the inventory on their website doesn't belong to them. The domains are owned by sellers and sellers can change their minds for whatever reason and whenever they like. Sedo will ban them for this. So the seller can choose.

Each to their own I guess. I just wouldnt even consider it, a persons reputation is eveything and I certainly wouldnt want anyone doing that to me. Just remember what it feels like when you buy a name you really want one day, and you pay and ask the owner to transfer the domain and they just ignore you until you go away.

When comes to honoring a deal, it is all pretty black and white

I don't endorse what OP did. I certainly wouldn't want this to happen to me either. And I don't plan on doing this to anyone. :xf.smile: But it's not black and white to me.
 
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Oh, it's pretty black and white. The only gray area, is where we're not "keeping house". Keep your house clean, and everything else falls into place.

Otherwise, there's just no accountability and excuses like "I forgot to remove my listing" or "a private person is not the same as a business" will become your MO, and then your MO is as dirty as your unkept house. Just sayin', be responsible. People might be depending on it.
 
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I shared my experience to remind you all the importance of cleaning up your old listing and posts. Just do a quick check now if your listings are up to date everywhere. And when you sell a name or changes the price in the future, always update it everywhere you've listed them. I really appreciate everyone to share their thoughts and suggestions. Also in case the buyer happens to read this, please contact me through DM.

It's good that you learned a lot and are positive and alert about this atleast now.

Yes it is a Breach of Contract for sure but atleast you learned from it and I even like how Honest you are by saying that if buyer is in NP then to Contact you.I see Honesty here.

Be Alert from now on and All the best for your Domain Sales.
 
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I thought everyone will appreciate me for what I did. But I am getting roasted instead. I think most of you didn't read the entire post.

i. I didn't get his money.
ii. He will receive a refund.
iii. I contacted sedo within hours explaining my situation.
iv. Of course it should be avoided if possible. And I would have accept it if it was a small difference in amount. But it will be a big loss for me if I proceed.
v. The buyer may have seen the other listings. He might be trying to get it for a cheap amount.(Just a possibility. I may be wrong)

Isn't this ALMOST similar to declining an offer? I wish if every fixed pricing listing had an option to expire after a certain amount of time.
 
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Oh, it's pretty black and white. The only gray area, is where we're not "keeping house". Keep your house clean, and everything else falls into place.

Otherwise, there's just no accountability and excuses like "I forgot to remove my listing" or "a private person is not the same as a business" will become your MO, and then your MO is as dirty as your unkept house. Just sayin', be responsible. People might be depending on it.

A private person can treat what he does as business too. I do this.

Now I have a question to you @HotKey and @gilescoley:

Let’s imagine few months ago you wanted to upgrade your car and you listed in on a classifieds ads website (like Craig’s list or similar) as well as on some more websites. But then your circumstances changed, and you removed the listing from all platforms but one. You simply forgot.

Today you get an email that your car has sold. Your actions? Honor the deal?
 
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The domain was only listed at Sedo according to the OP, so this was just a case of he forgot about a name he had listed and then when it sold, he backed out the deal., its plain and simple.
I should have mentioned that I’m not depending OP in any way. I’m raising concerns about “honour the deal no matter what” in a more general sense.
 
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Well I'm not sure if you can put up a car with a "bin" on a classified ad, usually there is some sort of communications back and forth first. But you do what you can given the circumstances. My answer is, don't give yourself the future option of "simply forgot". Have a mindset of housekeeping your domain listings, whether they be in the hundreds or thousands, and apply it in real-time.

I mean, yep poop happens and it happens to us all, but circumstances that change should be that which is out of our control, not that which is our business to maintain.
 
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Well I'm not sure if you can put up a car with a "bin" on a classified ad, usually there is some sort of communications back and forth first. But you do what you can given the circumstances. My answer is, don't give yourself the future option of "simply forgot". Have a mindset of housekeeping your domain listings, whether they be in the hundreds or thousands, and apply it in real-time.

I mean, yep poop happens and it happens to us all, but circumstances that change should be that which is out of our control, not that which is our business to maintain.
Your reply suggests it’s not that black and white after all :-D

Of course, we should do housekeeping and all that. And we should always respect the deal.

My arguments are against “no matter what” part. I believe there can be edge case scenarios when the circumstances should be considered. We can’t paint all with one brush.

I would go as far as saying I disagree when people tell me there is only one correct way of doing something. I’m sure there are always more than one way of doing anything.

OP’s case is not an edge case if you ask me, but I’m not the one to judge him.
 
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