Advice on Premium .com Sale Negotiations Sought

[akcampbell]

Somebody bid me for a premium .com I own yesterday via an enquiry on a parked page. The amount bid was low $XX,XXX. I emailed back and said I held all the other extensions and variations of the .com and wanted to sell the domains as a package. The potential buyer then emailed back with a doubled offer for the whole package of domains. They wrote -

"Thank you very much for your response and for the detailed email. The fact that you already own all of the extensions and variations makes the potential purchase even more attractive to me. While I agree with all of your thoughts and ideas, practically speaking, the only url's with actual value are the .com extentions. The others are great to have in order to prevent competition and confusion like you mentioned, but it's a bit difficult to put a value on them.

With that said, we'd probably be willing to offer you $XX,XXX for all of the url's. I still need to discuss that offer with my other partners on Monday but I'm fairly certain that they'd agree to it if I explained the situation and showed them your email. However, that would almost certainly be the most we'd be able to pay due to our available budget.

Just to let you know, unfortunately we're not a highly funded group and we would most likely be using the url for a project that we're working on to teach college students about **Keyword**. It's not projected to be a highly profitable venture, but one that we feel will be truly helpful to the students and community. Therefore, we are somewhat limited by our available budget.

I'm trying to avoid a lot of back and forth negotiations and offers which I always hate. I'd prefer to place our best offer on the table and hope a deal can be made. With that said, please consider the $XX,XXX offer and let me know if it's acceptable to you. If it is, I'll meet with the other partners first thing Monday morning and see if they're agreeable." END

- my reaction to the email was whoever is behind the offer really wants the domains and might be a corporate. I find the teaching the keyword to college students bit difficult to believe because you wouldn't spend low-mid $XX,XXX on a premium .com to do that. My question is do you agree with my reading of this and how would you respond if you were in a similar position. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

 

[Spade]

Well, the real issue becomes one of is the offer "right". Is this the right offer at the right price. I think if this has been a corporation and were attempting to hide their identity, they may have tried to simply ask how much for the domain names. I will almost never make an offer to avoid offering more than the seller is willing to part with it for.

This strategy of offering top dollar is quick, but sometimes costly.

So, is the XX,XXX offer on part with what you believe the domain would sell for? If so. Take the deal. If not, dont sell to them simply because they may be "scholastic". What they use the domain name for is non of your concern. Your concern is selling the domain name for the most you possibly can. If you feel there low xx,xxx offer is not on part with market, pass.

I think theyve outlined they have no intention of negotiating. So, respect there wishes and make a decision based on that offer.

Justin

 

[akcampbell]

Thank you for the advice Spade. Much appreciated. Any other thoughts, views or angles would be gratefully received.

 

[verbster]

Hey...the inquiry to you sounds very similar to one I received a few months back. They agreed to buy pay $9000 for a domain, but after the weekend they backed out.

I'm not trying to say your offer isn't legit...just giving you a heads-up...be cautious.

I'll see if I can find the e-mail I got. If so, I'll PM you.

Hope it's just a coincidence, and all is well.

Edit: Found the e-mail, but it's not as similar as I thought; however, some things are a bit alike, and it was from an edu extension. Will PM you the details just in case.

 

[-REECE-]

I'd take Spade's advice. I made a very reasonable offer on a .com in February and the owner responded with a price 10 times as high. He lost the sale. I don't have time to play such "price games" and if one is going to waste days/weeks of my time with such, I'll just find a different name to develop with. There are domainers out there who'll take your offer of X and always ask 2X, 3X,... 10X, X+500, etc for their name. IMO this isn't a good business practice unless you're living in the Caymans and can afford to lose 10k+ sales. If someone offers you more than you expected to get for it, I wouldn't play the "I wonder if it's a corporation" game, I'd take the money and reinvest it in another solid name.

 

[akcampbell]

Thanks again for the advice everybody. Reece, you're dead right, there is a risk that you overplay your hand and lose a sale. I've been on the receiving end of 25x counters for market price offers. Then there was a seller who wanted $10,000 for a .us domain and I only paid $2,000 for the .com from a reseller. Also had the Cayman companies who won't reply to .net offers for virtually keywords if they are less than $20,000 because they can't be bothered. On the flipside, I'm developing a .com that I paid $1,000 for via a Network Solutions Certified Offer but would have paid up to $10,000 had the seller countered.

 

[Domagon]

Have you have had other inquiries that were say mid $x,xxx or more for that same domain / package?

If no, consider taking the deal with minimal dickering. Negotiations is far more challenging when there's only one prospective decent budget buyer seeking it out.

But if more than one decent size offer in the recent past, then negotiations may be worthwhile.

Regardless of whether they are the only interested buyer or not ... some things to consider...

Do reasonable alternatives exist? ... if yes, then tread very carefully and perhaps only counter with an offer slightly higher at most.

However, if no reasonable alternatives seem to exist for the buyer, then much higher pricing could be realistic based on their initial offers.

What is their intended use of the domains? ... without knowing the keyword, I can only speculate ... but if the keyword is not education specific, then their story may or may not be true - a cover story so to speak ... but even if it's not, education all around is a very profitable business...

If it was me, I'd likely go high 5-figures or even $100K or so.

Of course, that could result in a no sale ... on an aside, I held out for a bit too much for a domain recently (see my sig) and thus got no sale, though the top offer was getting close to what I willing was to let it go for ... but then that's the nature of the business... with that said, if it's a quality, generic domain like yours, someone will buy it eventually without a doubt regardless of what happens now.

Hope this helps

Ron

 

[akcampbell]

Thanks Ron. Much appreciated.