If the domain is over 500 always counter offer. You will lose almost every sale if you don't. This is true in all industries not just domaining. You must counteroffer every time even if it's just a small amount higher.
This is how almost all people behave.
They like your name, they decide to offer you 5000, if you accept, they cannot help themselves and think that they could've offered 3000, they have regrets. If they are doing this together with someone else, husband, wife etc. they will be harassed 24/7 and told they could've gotten it for less, in fact, there is a good chance that other party wanted them to offer less. If they tell friends that they just offered 5000 for a domain and the guy accepted, even if the domain is car.com, their friends will tell them he could've offered more and the guy would've taken it.
NEVER accept an offer without countering it. If you are not a small time domainer and have made a lot of sales, you already tried that and you cant figure out why after you accepted the offer the person vanished.
When you make a counter offer, even if its just 5% of the offer, you forced them to stop thinking they could've gotten it for less. Now they think you wanted a lot more and are trying to just squeeze out some extra money. They might give in and accept and pay fast hoping you don't have a change of heart or they might offer their original or meet you half way, regardless, in their head they are now very proud of themselves for being great powerful negotiators and they can brag about it forever and hopefully help others buy domains using their "skills".
I have years of experience selling digital and non digital assets. If you want to stop feeling like a magician that makes people vanish, start countering all offers. If you fear they will be turned off, make a small counter.
But what if you have no morals and you want to do whatever it takes to increase your chances even more? Well, you lie. I don't suggest this but some argue that buyers lie too.
With your counter you can include a sob story and the reason you are ok taking such a small price.
"You happen to be contacting me as I am going through a divorce so I am in a difficult spot and would accept 5500, it's a far cry for the 65k I wanted for this name especially given the rise of prices in premium domains in the past few months. I had big plans for it but because of my personal situation if you close this deal today I will be ok with the 5500."
In real estate if a agent is desperate they usually say that they think the couple selling the house is going through a divorce. It's an old trick. People like to feel they got lucky, they like to believe they got a big steal and sob stories people love to share and consume.
I do not suggest these games, but hypothetically if someone here if not honest or you are on the buy side, you should know about this.
Why do you guys think expired names go for so much while if the same name would've just naturally dropped most of them would go unregistered? Because a lot of people view expired names as someone's misfortune, someone that forgot to renew, poor soul, his loss my win. In real estate, dishonest agents can claim the home is pretty much sold the buyer is just trying to secure a mortgage. This gets some people fired up and claim they can close right away and even pay more than the asking. Yes, the world is not as pretty as some people think it is.
If I had no morals I would setup landers that would convert almost every person that had the money to buy the name. People are lucky that most people in this business are honest. Domains with hyphens and numbers would be going for a million bucks if the mindset in this business would be the mindset of the average shitcoin operator or boiler room manager.
If enough people are curious how that lander would look like, I will share the ideas.T