advice Did I almost get hustled or am I paranoid?

[Futurewizard]

So, this last weekend, I received a bid on a regional domain I had up on Flippa. 100% honesty, this was my first inquiry/lead/potential sale/bid. I'm new.

So, I messaged the bidder as the auction was ending in a few hours. I let him know that I would let it go for the reserve price. As far as etiquette, I'm not sure where this falls, but I wanted to be honest and I didn't want to go any lower. So he responds with a copy/paste of the whois to point out that the domain is locked and negotiation could not go any further.

Of course it is, I wouldn't unlock until everything was securely in escrow. So, I toggled it off, told him to refresh (maybe this was dumb, maybe this is common practice). He upped his bid to 5$ under the reserved, and I accepted.

This was my first sale! I was happy and was excited for this milestone. It was profit! Since then, I've received no response. Escrow.com says that the buyer needs to log in and accept the terms. This was 3 days ago. Flippa support suggested I dispute it, so I've started that process in the hope of getting the buyer's attention.

Re: the Flippa direct message about the domain being locked. Is it common practice to have the seller unlock the domain for proof? It seemed strange and I promptly locked it back up because I'm paranoid. The buyer has no stats and recently joined. No response on Flippa or Escrow. Was this an attempt to get me to transfer early (sans escrow), or am I just really impatient and overthinking this?

 

[mr-x]

So, this last weekend, I received a bid on a regional domain I had up on Flippa. 100% honesty, this was my first inquiry/lead/potential sale/bid. I'm new.

So, I messaged the bidder as the auction was ending in a few hours. I let him know that I would let it go for the reserve price. As far as etiquette, I'm not sure where this falls, but I wanted to be honest and I didn't want to go any lower. So he responds with a copy/paste of the whois to point out that the domain is locked and negotiation could not go any further.

Of course it is, I wouldn't unlock until everything was securely in escrow. So, I toggled it off, told him to refresh (maybe this was dumb, maybe this is common practice). He upped his bid to 5$ under the reserved, and I accepted.

This was my first sale! I was happy and was excited for this milestone. It was profit! Since then, I've received no response. Escrow.com says that the buyer needs to log in and accept the terms. This was 3 days ago. Flippa support suggested I dispute it, so I've started that process in the hope of getting the buyer's attention.

Re: the Flippa direct message about the domain being locked. Is it common practice to have the seller unlock the domain for proof? It seemed strange and I promptly locked it back up because I'm paranoid. The buyer has no stats and recently joined. No response on Flippa or Escrow. Was this an attempt to get me to transfer early (sans escrow), or am I just really impatient and overthinking this?

There is little risk in unlocking the domain. When a transfer starts, a email is sent to the registered owner to notify them they have five days to cancel the transfer.

You can also check the domain status using whois. Look for the "status" line and it will tell you the state of the domain, locked, OK ( unlocked ), transfer in progress etc.

Transfer should not start until the money is in escrow.

 

[noneisnone]

overthinking

 

[Futurewizard]

Thanks, y'all. I've just seen so many scams out there, I get worried. The other two people who have contacted me on Flippa were scammers. Thanks for the quick reply to both of you @noneisnone and @mr-x

 

[DanSanchez]

Deadbeat buyer, happens a lot when they have nothing to lose. Up your price and don't respond to his offers. This is how they demoralize sellers in order to get a better deal.

 

[Clover]

Does he mean that it is on a 60 day icann lock? Because then they kinda have a reason to go a different direction, if they were planning to transfer it.

They should have responded. Hope you find a new buyer.

 

[Futurewizard]

Deadbeat buyer, happens a lot when they have nothing to lose. Up your price and don't respond to his offers. This is how they demoralize sellers in order to get a better deal.

Thanks, I appreciate that - and @Clover I've disputed it and I'm waiting on the next steps. At least I learned this lesson early!