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discuss A potential buyer finds out a domain cost way less than the current asking price. What do you say?

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I lost a $25K sale today because the potential buyer looked at a domain's archived history and found out the domain was offered on the landing page for way less a few years ago by the previous owner. Unfortunately, it's a lead via a marketplace so I can't communicate directly and make a good argument about why the price it once cost shouldn't matter.

You win some, you lose some so though it's definitely annoying- it's not the end of the world. But it got me thinking about this matter and I thought it would be interesting to hear some opinions and convincing arguments. So... what would you say to convince a potential buyer that the price a domain cost a few years ago shouldn't matter and that buying it for a much higher price is justified?
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
in this case, the buyer has no right to be offended by your current asking price, if he wants it for the price of 3 years ago, then he should have bought it 3 years ago.
 
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Buyer is stupid, don't worry about it, either they will return a few weeks/months later and buy the domain for 25k, or another buyer will show up eventually.
 
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Buyer is not stupid. Do we not research everything about the buyer( person making offer) as soon as we have the info?
Buyers are becoming more educated.
Unfortunate this happened. Learning experience, with few stupid opinions mixed in.
 
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Maybe stupid is not the best word, but it was definitely not a wise move from the buyer.
 
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@biggie The domain was priced for more than 25K. An inbound offer came in for 25K. I told the marketplace that they should counter (because it's always good to counter) but that I'm willing to accept 25K

Hi

so, according to statement above, you lost $25k offer, because.....
you believe "it's always good to counter".

had you accepted the $25k offer, on the spot....then what?

in words the of Flava-Flav
don't, don't, don't.... don't believe the hype

imo.....
 
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Thanks for sharing your story. It's painful to lose. The type of buyer who was inquiring is important too. If they are already established - rebranding will cost them dearly.
 
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@biggie This was going to be a sale using an installment plan. Also, I'm presuming the potential buyer would have found out anyway. We can play "what would have happened in a parallel universe" and say that he wouldn't have checked the history if I didn't counter and would have continued to pay for many months without knowing but that's just silly. It's easy to look in hindsight and tell someone: "you should have accepted immediately because it could have turned out differently". Countering has proven itself tons of times in the past for me and I made a lot of money as a result. Not countering is foolish, especially when the BIN price of the domain is quite higher (which was the case here) because you're making the potential buyer doubt the price you immediately accepted. That in itself can make a potential buyer change their mind. The fact that in this specific case the potential buyer decided to go back in time and look at historical archives- well... a lot of things can cause a transaction not to complete and this is one of them. There isn't a perfect formula that can cause all potential sales to materialize because you never know what happens on the buyer's end. I wouldn't change a thing and will continue to counter since in the majority of cases that's been beneficial to me. You're welcome to accept offers immediately if that works better for you.
 
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Hi

i'm just a reader of words
and this was your opening statement below:

I lost a $25K sale today because the potential buyer looked at a domain's archived history and found out the domain was offered on the landing page for way less a few years ago by the previous owner.

but after reading quote below, you actually countered on the $25k offer.
while also saying $25K is fine.

but that I'm willing to accept 25K so they should keep that in mind and if they can't extract more- 25K is fine.

now in quote below,
on one hand, you assume what the potential would have found out anyway if you didn't counter,
then say "what would have happened in parallel universe", is silly.

I'm presuming the potential buyer would have found out anyway. We can play "what would have happened in a parallel universe" and say that he wouldn't have checked the history if I didn't counter and would have continued to pay for many months without knowing but that's just silly.

now, i don't doubt how you respond works for you, but the doubt came from your own statements, in relation to opening line.

perhaps, if it was told in reverse, then readers could opinionate about accepting initial offer or countering...
because in the end, this was more about "what to do, when ball is in your court"

Good Luck on the next one!

imo...
 
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@biggie Thanks. I posted the first post in order to see what people would say to convince an end user that they should still pay a price that they previously offered even after they realize that a few years earlier the domain cost much less. I didn't post it in order to discuss whether I did the right thing by countering or not. Later in the thread people asked for more details so I provided them. For the purpose of my initial question, "what to do, when the ball is in your court" isn't relevant to what I wanted to discuss. An end user can discover at any point in the negotiation that a domain was offered for less in the past, whether the ball is in the seller's court or not. Your question has merit and people may have different strategies, but that's simply not what I wanted to discuss so what I wrote in the initial post reflects that. As for assuming something could have happened VS playing out a parallel universe scenario and kick myself for countering because not countering may have not caused the buyer to check the archive a day later... there's a big difference between the two. The bottom line is that you can't know what a potential buyer may do and everything you say or do during negotiations can end up in a sale, a bigger sale or end up with nothing. And sometimes it doesn't even depend on what you do because the potential buyer can do anything at any point regardless of a seller's response. So like I said in the initial post- you win some, you lose some. I don't care about hype. I care about results and since countering usually ends up well, that's what I do. Anyway... thanks again for the input.
 
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@biggie Thanks. I posted the first post in order to see what people would say to convince an end user that they should still pay a price that they previously offered even after they realize that a few years earlier the domain cost much less. I didn't post it in order to discuss whether I did the right thing by countering or not. Later in the thread people asked for more details so I provided them. For the purpose of my initial question, "what to do, when the ball is in your court" isn't relevant to what I wanted to discuss. An end user can discover at any point in the negotiation that a domain was offered for less in the past, whether the ball is in the seller's court or not. Your question has merit and people may have different strategies, but that's simply not what I wanted to discuss so what I wrote in the initial post reflects that. As for assuming something could have happened VS playing out a parallel universe scenario and kick myself for countering because not countering may have not caused the buyer to check the archive a day later... there's a big difference between the two. The bottom line is that you can't know what a potential buyer may do and everything you say or do during negotiations can end up in a sale, a bigger sale or end up with nothing. And sometimes it doesn't even depend on what you do because the potential buyer can do anything at any point regardless of a seller's response. So like I said in the initial post- you win some, you lose some. I don't care about hype. I care about results and since countering usually ends up well, that's what I do. Anyway... thanks again for the input.

Hi

i didn't want to excerpt anything you said.

the reason for this reply, is for those who like to read.

let's take this line:
Thanks. I posted the first post in order to see what people would say to convince an end user that they should still pay a price that they previously offered even after they realize that a few years earlier the domain cost much less.

Hi
the title may reflect what you say above, but your initial post, did not say that.
also, i'd like to ask.... how do you know that it was an "end-user"
is this an assumption or known fact?

I didn't post it in order to discuss whether I did the right thing by countering or not. Later in the thread people asked for more details so I provided them. For the purpose of my initial question, "what to do, when the ball is in your court" isn't relevant to what I wanted to discuss.

Hi

when you post for opinions and responders give theirs,
and you don't want to discuss anything that you feel isn't relevant, even if related, then is it really a discussion?

so, let's rephrase... who's court is the ball in now"?
is it in your court and you have leverage
or is it in potentials' court and you have none?

now, if you ponder that...then that would make "what to do when the ball is in your court" quite relevant.

it's also validated, by your question of "what people would say to convince an end user that they should still pay a price that they previously offered".
simply because, you realize that the ball is not in your court, so you seek answers to get back in that position.

is that logical or not?

i could delve deeper, but i didn't anyone reading, to proceed under the notion that my replies were irrelevant.

you mentioned quite a few assumptions and assumptions can always be questioned, for clarity, source, etc.
if, they can be dismissed, then different perspectives or even conclusions can be drawn.
(for instance, if the potential was a domainer and not an end-user, who many assume are not smart enough to check domain history.)
however, if they are overlooked and the assumption is adopted by the readers without question, then such patterns of thought will reflect in their decision making processes.

just saying......


imo...
 
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@biggie This domain isn't worth 25K (or anything remotely close to that) to an investor and this was at a marketplace that's end user oriented. This exchange between us is kind of pointless, tbh. A potential buyer can check an archived history at any point regardless of a counter. So this statement that you wrote- "in the end, this was more about "what to do, when ball is in your court"" simply isn't correct because you're basing it on a what if scenario that theorizes that an immediate acceptanace of the initial offer would have prevented the checking of the archives and made this payment plan sale go through. That's just one possible scenario that may or may not have happened and nothing more. If you want to continue to derail this thread into discussing counters instead of the question it was created for, parse every sentence I write in order to try to prove that I'm contradicting myself and delve into philosophical discussions about assumptions, go for it. I'll stop responding because I have better things to do.
 
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Although there is no evidence, I am inclined to believe that negotiation failure is the marketplace's fault, they sell domains in the low XXXX mostly and don't have the qualification to deal with sales in the higher price range, as well as they probably have no confidence for such sales (which further reinforces the first point). Also its not impossible that they offered some other domain instead of yours to the buyer.
 
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I guess this happens sometimes. For $2k, $15k or $25k, whatever, the buyer makes an offer, and then he backs down. In this case, with the excuse that the domain was cheaper few years ago.
Well, then he should have bought it few years ago, because now the domain price is $25k. He just backed down from his offer, just that.
If he would be really interested, whatever appears at an archived page of few years ago, he would have bought it.
 
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I wouldn't even worry if you have faith in the name, I would have said something along the lines of "The past is the past. You can pay the current price or look for something else."
 
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Unfortunately, it's a lead via a marketplace so I can't communicate directly and make a good argument about why the price it once cost shouldn't matter.

If the domain is at a marketplace and they do not allow you access to the buyer to negotiate directly, it seems like it's the marketplace's responsibility to make the argument on your behalf. This is how they earn their commission.

I'd be curious to know how the marketplace negotiated this situation and how things fell apart.
 
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@DomainBanana Thanks. I don't exactly know what happened beyond what I shared in the first post and subsequent posts. When you use an in between marketplace or broker you need to trust them to do everything in their power to make the sale happen because they have an incentive to get a sizable commission. It's definitely a big downside not being able to communicate directly with a buyer, have more information about him and be able to track his behavior. I'm not the kind of seller who will obssess about this lost sale. Shit happens. It's not the first time a big sale doesn't pan out and even earlier this year a 13K sale didn't pan out for me and in that instance I was communicating with the potential buyer directly. Can't win them all and in the instance of marketplace/broker negotiations- I accept the fact that I can't control the communication and have all the info. Some deals will happen. Some won't. That's just the way it is.
 
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There really isn't anything different you could have done. Speaking only to you, I think you miscalculated. There have been many discussions about countering on a good offer. In the future, if you have a domain that you know only holds that level of value to an end user, and you know end users don't come along every day, you should accept the offer and not take a chance on countering.

In this case, sounds like the buyer just got cold feet. As Rick Schwartz has said, "The price isn't too big, the buyers idea was too small."

I can tell you from personal experience, people don't like negotiating. I have over 1000 domains listed with minimum offer and a bin price. I never get offers. People just buy via bin. I've had names sell for thousands where the minimum offer is always just a couple hundred bucks. Makes no sense to me, but I love it.

Anyway, it was an experience you won't forget. Know that when you counter a good offer, it's a risk. Know ahead that you won't be able to contact them. Always be several moves ahead.

Lastly, it's probably not over. Could be, but probably not. I would keep it up for sale with a bin price and just wait. I had one recently that the buyer took over a year to come back and buy at my bin price.

Remember SWSWSWN.....some will, some won't, so what....next!
 
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Everything goes up in price including domain names. Not a serious buyer. Or it is a domainer that is trying to devalue the name. It's like saying my friend saw a beach front property listed for sale on the MLS for 500k but now it is 1.2 million because it is an old listing.
 
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You dont need to explain just offer a reasonable discount and move on.
 
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What nobody is taking into consideration is @SuperBrander mentioned the buy it now price is much higher than the offer was. If he had accepted, they might have thought they were getting a good deal but I would wager they were looking for a reason to NOT justify the offer, second guessing aka not a serious buyer.

Many names on said market are bought by other domainers and front running likely occurs rather routinely. Ultimately as long as you are ok with the price and get paid who cares what the next guy does with it.

This could have been a scenario of kicking the tires in hopes to flip, front running or just a change of heart on said offer. I seriously doubt it was acquisition price years back unless it was a domainer.
 
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I lost a $25K sale today because the potential buyer looked at a domain's archived history and found out the domain was offered on the landing page for way less a few years ago by the previous owner. Unfortunately, it's a lead via a marketplace so I can't communicate directly and make a good argument about why the price it once cost shouldn't matter.

You win some, you lose some so though it's definitely annoying- it's not the end of the world. But it got me thinking about this matter and I thought it would be interesting to hear some opinions and convincing arguments. So... what would you say to convince a potential buyer that the price a domain cost a few years ago shouldn't matter and that buying it for a much higher price is justified?


This could be a negotiation tactic by the 'potential buyer', so stick to your same price for another 18 months no matter who comes around and what offers you get. Maybe even list the domain with a public buy now price that shows visitor stats on the landing page, like sedo.

If they were really serious about the sale/needed the domain, the sale will happen. No one window-shops/seriously considers a $25K name without there being some type of predetermination.
 
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I've been thinking about this more and part of me wonders if certain offers are not actually ever going to result in a sale no matter which avenue one takes. Lets say someone is looking for a domain and sees your BIN price, then they make an offer that is less than that, without really thinking. in their mind maybe they are just wondering if you would go that low and basically expecting you to either ignore it, add it to your list of offers for that domain, or say that it's too low. Instead, they get an immediate response of either an accept or a counter-offer.. now suddenly their little gambit of just kicking the tires turns in to a reality.. and of course they will want to do more due diligence before funding it. Additional due diligence in the domain world will almost always find similar domains selling in the 3 or 4 figures, so that would make your domain look expensive in comparison, giving them a reason to cancel the deal. In the end, it turns out that there was maybe no correct approach to ever get them to fund the deal, because they were just messing around in the first place. This is a new form of stress that only domainers have to deal with.. the stress of *almost*, but not quite, having something awesome happen to you.

How to maximize the possibility of having them fund the offer: no clue. One idea that is counter-intuitive and takes a lot of courage is to sort of wait a couple days before responding. I've never managed to make it more than a couple of hours on a big offer. The stress gets too overwhelming. especially when the brokers are constantly telling you that you need to respond immediately and all their data shows you need to respond immediately, etc. but in theory maybe it would work better to just sort of chill out a bit.

I can say with my limited experience on the buyer side that if I am truly interested in a domain, then my interest doesn't just go away if I don't get a response in a day or a week, in fact, if anything, it increases.
 
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Inform them of the brand value, including the fact that the domain name will be theirs forever.In addition, make it clear to buyers that the price of a domain name will rise if the brand that matches it grows in size.
 
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Inform them of the brand value, including the fact that the domain name will be theirs forever.In addition, make it clear to buyers that the price of a domain name will rise if the brand that matches it grows in size.
  • The domain name is the only one
  • If registered, it can only be purchased:xf.smile:
 
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You don't list a $25K domain name at a marketplace. A marketplace is where people go to buy stuff for cheap. If it's a marketplace, your price will seem to high relative to the others. You need your own lander for that domain name so you can directly communicate with the potential buyer and tell them your rationale for pricing it at $25K. You don't need a broker if you can broker your own deal. As a courtesy, you can always offer to help the buyer find a corresponding name in an alternate extension like .bzh, .cat, or .uno with a price tag that fits their budget.
 
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