discuss An offer and an interesting message.

[Primary Names]

I caught a domain name, a hybrid combination, say nioFresh.com at dropcatch about a month ago. Then I listed it for $18XX at dan.com. Few days ago it got an offer of $100. Now the offer-maker has sent this message.

I represent nioFresh, the original and first owner the domain. It expired and could not be renewed on time due to technical issues. We request you to kindly hand over the domain and accept the offer that well and duly takes care of the expenses at your end.

Personally I feel that I should let him know that being a first owner of a domain name does not give a right to own a domain forever. I mean we have annual domain renewals for a reason, right ?

Everyone knows, it is really hard to catch good names these days due to competition. I takes time, money and constant effort. If I keep giving away domains just because someone comes along and says hand it over because I registered it first, then all is wasted.

Whenever I put a backorder I hardly ever search for the history of a domain-name. TBH, there is hardly time to do so whilst chasing all the drops and expires. Also does not make sense to do the diligence all the names we backorder when we not sure will own it.

Few more points - I would be happy to let it go for high XXX to low XXXX. The offer maker is based in India and so am I.

I would like to know how you would handle this situation. Also I would like to know how trademarks work in India in relation to domains.

Please share your thoughts.

I am tagging a few individuals whose opinions I value. @wwwweb @AbdulBasit.com @karmaco @alcy @TERADOMAIN

 

[Silentptnr]

The history shows it having been on Sedo and Dan with no history of a website I can see. It was first registered in only 2019. They dropped it after one year. I think they are making up that story. I would ignore them, post a $X,XXX bin and forget about it.

I had a guy email me a really interesting story of how he had business cards and stationary and had plans for the domain. He said he could do like $300 I think. I told him how sorry I was but I couldn't afford to sell at such a loss from my expected price. Few months later, the domain sold via afternic fast transfer for 3k. I'm pretty sure it was him.

 

[gilescoley]

I call BS on this. I have had emails saying that they "accidentally" let is expire and could they have it back as it was their business domain. They are happy to pay a small fee to get it back too. Trying the pity angle

 

[TERADOMAIN]

Hi,

If previous owner has trademark on it then he may have upper hand.

But if no trademark then we have all the power to decide anything.

If previous owner behave nice then I worked with them at price which is not wholesale nor retail. If I find out their story is true and they act nicely then I work with them in friendly manner.

If previous owner behave odd then he has to pay the price we ask for. Few months ago I had such previous owner who hired broker to force me to hand over his asset. Their offer was Mid $XXXXX , but they acted very odd including broker. I was almost willing to accept their offer but they start playing drama then I said best of luck. I end up selling that asset for High $XXXXX to someone else after 6 months. Now I don't know if current buyer and previous owner have any relationship or not because distance between their offices are hardly less than 0.5 mile. It's long and funny story which I may share in future.

If no trademark you have all the power in your hand to decide.

Thanks

 

[karmaco]

I would leave a buy it now and cease communication. Next will be threats if you continue to engage. They want you on defense. If you reply further it should be to say your bin is not negotiable as its a very reasonable price and is your lowest and best offer.

I don’t believe it either. They didn’t know they dropped it for a month or two? Come on.

 

[equity78]

The first thing you have to figure out is what are the trademark rules in India. Secondly do they have rights under those Indian tm laws?

If yes you need to think long and hard how to play it, what would the costs be for them to get the name through other means? How valuable is the name?

If no, then set your price and let them know that you know your rights and are prepared to defend them.

 

[kite26]

I appreciate your offer, but our pricing policy is strict. However, you have the option to pay with installments (x is the max number of installments).

 

[AbdulBasit.com]

I caught a domain name, a hybrid combination, say nioFresh.com at dropcatch about a month ago. Then I listed it for $18XX at dan.com. Few days ago it got an offer of $100. Now the offer-maker has sent this message.


Personally I feel that I should let him know that being a first owner of a domain name does not give a right to own a domain forever. I mean we have annual domain renewals for a reason, right ?

Everyone knows, it is really hard to catch good names these days due to competition. I takes time, money and constant effort. If I keep giving away domains just because someone comes along and says hand it over because I registered it first, then all is wasted.

Whenever I put a backorder I hardly ever search for the history of a domain-name. TBH, there is hardly time to do so whilst chasing all the drops and expires. Also does not make sense to do the diligence all the names we backorder when we not sure will own it.

Few more points - I would be happy to let it go for high XXX to low XXXX. The offer maker is based in India and so am I.

I would like to know how you would handle this situation. Also I would like to know how trademarks work in India in relation to domains.

Please share your thoughts.

I am tagging a few individuals whose opinions I value. @wwwweb @AbdulBasit.com @karmaco @alcy @TERADOMAIN

I agree with most of them and would suggest you to follow the same. They've explained it very well and I don't think I've much to add in it.

Good luck and let us know how it goes for you.

 

[Ategy]

I was going to write almost exactly what @Mister Funsky wrote.

IF you feel the claim they previously and recently owned it is legit (and they were polite and didn't hint at threats), and it has only been a couple of months that you have the domain, then I'd lower the price by about half (in this case $999 seems appropriate) and then give them a few days or even as much as a week. Then don't respond to anything else or just copy/paste your $999 email each time and only truly respond if they say they need a few more days to get the money. Make it clear that anyone else could potentially click the BIN as well (if they respond with the only issue being they need more time to get the money, only then would I take it off the market and give them the time they need to pay).

I've had this happen to me a few times. My reaction each time is very different depending on the uniqueness of the domain, the situation and even the behaviour of the potential previous owner. I've gone down to 25% of my asking price in one situation, while another situation I only offered the typical small discount I would have offered any other buyer reaching out.

 

[1Darko]

@Primary Names
If the buyer was indeed the previous owner and is holding a trademark and he let the domain expire that is not a thing for you to fix afterwards.
A trademark owner has not not only rights but he has also obligations to maintain the trademark. In this case the trademark owner obviously has not maintaned the domain and let it expire. To third parties it shows that this domain is not relevant for his business. If you're not infringing the trademark he should have a hard way to prove that this domain is essential for him - after all why did he let it expire.
If there where technical issues than he has to turn to whoever is responsible for this technical issues and reclaim the costs of the domain from them. If it is an employee he has to resolve this internally in his company. If it is himself - the owner - who let the domain expire than he has to talk to his spouse to approve the cost to buy it back .

What I want to say is that in no way he can blame you for his mismanagement!

I would explain this to him in clear words!

I wish you good luck with this one!

 

[Mister Funsky]

I did not read all the replies above and there may be relevant information but...

I would be happy to let it go for high XXX

What you say here is the key. I would set the price at 850 (high xxx) and let the person know that this price will stay in place for 48 hours. After that time you will take it back to your original asking price. I would not interact at all as far as who/when/where the name belonged to prior to you acquiring it.

 

[Name Trader]

Can't add much from what everyone else has said. But I would do an archive.org lookup to see what was on the domain before matches what this guy is telling you. If there is a website, you can see how long it has been operational, if it was a dropcatch, you can see if the drop catch date approx matches the dates the website was up, there might also be a contact form or other information, which might help you decide whether if they are telling you the truth.

Personally. I probably would not let anything influence my decision how to proceed. If it dropped. It's they're own fault, even if they have a good excuse. Usually most websites would renew before the expiry date, or they would lose business. So they would have had a time, probably at least 1 month before expiry until the domain was removed from their account by the registrar, say another 30 days. So they have had probably about 2 months to fix any payment problems, email problems, registrar problems.

I think probably, it's all bull, from what they have told you so far. It's time for you to lay out your final position on this domain.

I would tell them the price (was it $1899) stands but you would be prepared to let it go to them (for $850) because of their circumstances. price is fixed for 2 weeks. After which the price is fixed for $1899. If neither offer is acceptable to them, tell them they should look for another domain.

rgds
stu

 

[Kuffy]

Back in 2003 (if my memory doesn't fail me ) I picked up the name gipsygirl.com from the expired domains drop list. Just after I registered it, I received a nice email from a hosting company explaining that the name was used by one of his clients for his girl friend, and he offered £25 for the name. He implied that his client would lose his night entertainment rights if he lost the name. I thought the mail was entertaining, and I agreed to sell the name. The next day I received a vitriolic note from the previous owner accusing me of all sorts of things. My reply was to tell him to eff off, and I hoped his wedding tackle fell off as a result of disuse. I still own the name, but have never used it.

The name is not the most popular spelling, and probably isn't worth anything like the renewal fees I have paid. I did plan to put a hedgerow cooking site on the name, but haven't got round to doing this, as I keep eating the products. I guess the moral here is that one should take a quick profit if one doesn't have plans for a name.

 

[lock]

As new owner i would like offer closer to asking price thanks for your interest.

 

[nivadriver]

Tell them to get lost

 

[tonyk2000]

This enduser at least has/had an intention to "take care of the expenses at your end". I've seen cases where the previous owners asked to simply "give it back", explaining how bad the domain is for any other purpose. No offers, no price requests. Just "give it back to me" ;-()

 

[Pairadice]

I try as hard as possible to make it so these plebs can't send me direct messages. I'm sure they will come up with all kinds of stories of why they need the domain back. I had one dude harass me at least one time pulling on all the heartstrings and I ended up giving him a basically worthless domain for free just to get rid of him. He offered my reg fees back but I blocked him instead. Ever since then I do BIN or nothing... but I am thinking about opening listings up to offers if other people think that increases sell thru rate.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Perhaps a source for India based companies.

India based companies are included in OpenCorporates.

 

[Primary Names]

India based companies are included in OpenCorporates.

I selected India as a parameter and made a search. But the term did not return any result as expected. I have been trying several other websites like these but their reliability has been questionable and I have decided that further headaches are not worth it. Its not like I am sitting on a 5 figure domain, although a similar logic may apply. This episode might teach me a thing or two which might be useful in future. Thank you Bob.

 

[CraigD]

Is there any proof that email came from original domain owner - this could simply be yet another scam trying to dupe you out of a good catch.

Check prior WHOIS domain contact details for match.

 

[blogspotter]

SHit happens all the time. I have also let domain expire due to personal reasons, and a domain that was doing XXXX revenues a month. I didn't pursue because when I got back to normalcy he had already spammed my domain for some porn shit because it had thousands of visitors a day, and didn't want to deal with recovering it. But I couldn't renew the site due to personal reasons. I mean shit happens in life.


If it was me, I would give him back for the cost price of the backorder.

It is not about rights, but I feel it is right. This is not the first and last domain you will ever sell. Sometime doing good feels good.

I mean you can give yourself a thousand reasons to convince yourself to refuse him if you won't to, but if he was the rightful owner of a website who couldn't renew due to some reason, I would have gifted it back if I was me.
But it is just me.

Now I am not going to entertain those bullshit mails lowballing becasue they are working on a project, but it takes a lot of effort to build up a website and I think it is good karma to listen to the otherside if it is a genuine case.

But of course, it is in your hands. Finder keeper and all that. And you can do whatever you want.
You asked, so I wanted to give my alternate opinion

 

[johsun123]

I had opposite experience. Picked up a dropped name.

An year or so later, owner contacted me to buy it back. Apparently, he had to fold his business due to some issues and dropped the name. He had a TM also if I remember right. I verified online archives for records.

He bounced back and wanted to buy the name. But no threat. He explained his situation and requested to sell him the domain. No threats. I understood the struggle of a entrepreneur as I am one myself.

I gave him the domain for reg fee. He was so happy.

S**t happens in life. We have to help each other.

 

[Primary Names]

As new owner i would like offer closer to asking price thanks for your interest.

Forgot to mention this in the original-post. Now I cant edit the post. But I countered the original offer of $100 with counter of $1500 which is what you suggested, and the message was in reponse to my counter-offer.

 

[Primary Names]

Tell them to get lost

Ya. I want to but not gonna do that. Will prefer to keep a backdoor for negotiations.

 

[MapleDots]

I would guess the domain is biofresh or similar which makes it a really good domain.

If that is similar to your domain then you are under selling already. Guy should kiss your feet and take your deal, he would not get similar from me.