Getting a domain whose owner has passed away

[NetworkPearl]

Hi,

I'm interested in a domain name who's owner has passed away in a few months. The registrar is GodDadd y and the owner is still the registrant and admin whereas the technical contact is a web design company.

I tried to call the owner, number is not active anymore and neither are the emails.

So I got in touch with the technical contact and told them about this. They stated that they don't have a contact with the owner for years now.

What can be done? Expiry date is quite far.

 

[DU]

everyday we go to domain name auctions that should not be placed on auction but instead be released to the public. we are all contributing to this unethical *and illegal* behavior of registrars. many domains were even snatched from passed away persons who had wives and kids that could inherit the domains. but registrars took them and then wait for some years to sell them at profit to all of us, honest persons.

You're talking about passive vs active ethics. There's no moral equivalence, for example, between letting someone die and killing someone.

 

[urlurl]

better to have some (even if very little) money going to the family and heirs - then nothing and having it expire, where the registers and drop catchers make money.

 

[Sam Roy]

I don't think it is wrong to contact the relatives of dead person. If @Insha010 or someone does not contact eventually the domain will be dropped and will be up for backordering. The family of deceased won't get a penny. At least now they are getting something. Further, I find Insha's offer to deceased family member is fair.

 

[NetworkPearl]

Taking advantage of people who lost a loved one is really a lot of fun. I have to admit that I like threads like this as it demonstrates why people that think domainers are scumbags (despite the positive stance of some).

I've had this discussion before and got the "business is business" line and I think it's disappointing.

It's the same when you watch antique shows and someone says "I bought this mobile from a garage sale for $10 because I knew it was Calder". It's not theft but it's something.... I always hope for the reverse.. I spent $100 because I thought it was a Calder but it ended up just being a bent coathanger...


Often it doesn't and that's what makes it so easy for people to do.

I'm not Lowballing but paying reseller prices or even more.

 

[Serengeti]

Yea better some proceed goes to the family then the name drop and they wont get anything because either they didnt know the deceased had some domains or they knew he had some domains but didn't know about the validity/expiry of names, and/or the value and/or how to sale the given names. Then its a conscious call how much of a fair value to buy. Insh.. you could even go further.. buy it a fair value... keep in touch with the family..and when you sale at a good price give then another fair % of the sale profit and maybe teach them to come on namepros and learn some' about this business. Bottom line its you and your conscious...you and the guy in the mirror.

 

[DU]

I'm not Lowballing but paying reseller prices or even more.

"Reseller pricing" is a concept made up to justify low-balling on a high quality name or avoid paying too much on a low quality name.

This domain is probably worth around $30k I'd start the offer with a $2k offer.

That's not reseller pricing, that's being an asshole.

 

[urlurl]

so its better to have $30k go to go daddy or another drop catcher than to have $2k go to the estate?

 

[DU]

so its better to have $30k go to go daddy or another drop catcher than to have $2k go to the estate?

If you want to talk in terms of disconnected hypothetical arguments -

Is it better for $2K to go to the estate or $30K?
Is it better for a low-balling domainer to get it for $2K and overprice it or a productive small business?
Maybe it's better for $500 to go to the estate?

Whatever gets you through the day.

 

[BrandChimp]

Again.

You know the name worths $30k . And you know the legit owner has been passed away.

Then you're going to offer to unaware relatives $2k for that name.

Unfortunately, Who makes money are the ones who buy low and sell high.

 

[urlurl]

if you ever have pick up expiring/expired names from the auction there is a good chance some of those were dropped due to the owner dying.

And...

If you bought a name from someone for $100 and sold it a while later for $10,000 - wouldn't it be ethical to go back to the original seller and give him half?

 

[matrigaldo]

You're talking about passive vs active ethics. There's no moral equivalence, for example, between letting someone die and killing someone.

I think he hit the right point.

If someone consciously put a $30k domain for sale at $2k , there is no ethics involved, he just didn't do enough research and/or he doesn't have some kind of foresight, or maybe he just want to do a very quick sale for any reasons.

If someone dies, nobody claims / uses his domain portfolio, and the domains go into backorders / drop auctions, there is no ethics involved, the buyer wouldn't even know why the domain hasn't been renewed or if the previous owner has died or just left domaining, or got arrested, or got sick or whatelse.

This is not any of these cases.

In this case, a domainer is trying to actively get the domain from the family of a died owner, probably unaware of the entire domaining world, for a small fraction of what he thinks to be the real value of that domain.

He's using the dead owner family's ignorance (about domaining) for getting a bargain and make a (presumed) 1500% ROI.

It's not illegal, it's legit, but it's totally unethical, you're symbolically stealing a valuable property from a dead person.

But, hey, if you feel good about this, you're free to proceed and do whatever you want, even offer $500 and sell it for $100k tomorrow.

Just don't complain if you come here, tell us this story and most of us feel sick about that.

 

[bluebox]

everyday we go to domain name auctions that should not be placed on auction but instead be released to the public. we are all contributing to this unethical *and illegal* behavior of registrars.

Yeah, everyone is talking about ethics and even "stealing" from current owners but at the same time they have no problem buying a $69 names an Namejet and then slapping $xxxx or higher price tag on them the second after.

The whole idea of domaining is unethical - we don't even own "our" names, we merely rent it. We basically sell the right to decide what to put in DNS. That's it. We are nothing more than digital "scalpers".

So much hypocrisy and holier than thou attitude

 

[NetworkPearl]

"Reseller pricing" is a concept made up to justify low-balling on a high quality name or avoid paying too much on a low quality name.



That's not reseller pricing, that's being an a*hole.

30k is the most it can get. It has a resell value of $5k and I contacted the IT company with a max offer of $8k. Read properly before judging.

 

[fitkhan]

Well there is nothing wrong in approaching owners/heirs and offer them a good price for their domains.
Now selling is a different story. You will price your domain 30k-40K but you won't get even a $1000 offer in years. Sometimes a good name won't sell for a long time. There is a lot of risk involved because most of us have got a lot of domains and have to pay thousands of dollars in renewals every year... That's why domainers try to buy low and sell high. If you have 100 domains you might sell 2-3 domains in a year (still no guarantee).

If buying low is unethical then Selling high is also unethical? I have seen regfee domains sold in 5 and 6 figures.....

Anyone who got an offer of 5K for a domain they got on $100 few months ago?
I would love to meet that domainer who rejected an offer of lets say 5K and counter with a 1K sale price because the profit was too much and it was very unethical to sell that high? anyone?

 

[NetworkPearl]

Well there is nothing wrong in approaching owners/heirs and offer them a good price for their domains.
Now selling is a different story. You will price your domain 30k-40K but you won't get even a $1000 offer in years. Sometimes a good name won't sell for a long time. There is a lot of risk involved because most of us have got a lot of domains and have to pay thousands of dollars in renewals every year... That's why domainers try to buy low and sell high. If you have 100 domains you might sell 2-3 domains in a year (still no guarantee).

If buying low is unethical then Selling high is also unethical? I have seen regfee domains sold in 5 and 6 figures.....

Anyone who got an offer of 5K for a domain they got on $100 few months ago?
I would love to meet that domainer who rejected an offer of lets say 5K and counter with a 1K sale price because the profit was too much and it was very unethical to sell that high? anyone?

Exactly

 

[matrigaldo]

Well there is nothing wrong in approaching owners/heirs and offer them a good price for their domains.
Now selling is a different story. You will price your domain 30k-40K but you won't get even a $1000 offer in years. Sometimes a good name won't sell for a long time. There is a lot of risk involved because most of us have got a lot of domains and have to pay thousands of dollars in renewals every year... That's why domainers try to buy low and sell high. If you have 100 domains you might sell 2-3 domains in a year (still no guarantee).

If buying low is unethical then Selling high is also unethical? I have seen regfee domains sold in 5 and 6 figures.....

Anyone who got an offer of 5K for a domain they got on $100 few months ago?
I would love to meet that domainer who rejected an offer of lets say 5K and counter with a 1K sale price because the profit was too much and it was very unethical to sell that high? anyone?

Dude, i'm afraid you didn't read anything in this thread.

We're not talking about high ROIs , we are always happy to reg a domain and sell it at $5000.

We're talking about someone trying to symbolically "steal" a domain from an unaware family offering a lowball amount.

 

[Potential.Domains]

No wonder you have "Messages: 2,462" and "Likes Received: 7,272" ... a 1:3 ratio!!

You don't want to be one of those posting or commenting for "Likes" across the web. Just be yourself, post something meaningful and leave the rest to God. #justsaying

 

[NetworkPearl]

Dude, i'm afraid you didn't read anything in this thread.

We're not talking about high ROIs , we are always happy to reg a domain and sell it at $5000.

We're talking about someone trying to symbolically "steal" a domain from an unaware family offering a lowball amount.

$8K is lowball? You're the one not reading this thread properly.

Go drink a cup of Coffee.

 

[Potential.Domains]

I have sold a name before for $15k which I bought for just $2.5k. The enduser (who sold it to me initially) himself stated this price to me.

It's not how much I'm paying but actually how much the seller wants. Plus this name sold for around $5k in an auction 2 years ago and there's a whole lot of difference between retailer pricing and reselling.

Ofcourse I won't lowball.

@matrigaldo I think many on here are just being hypocritical for nothing; they tell you one thing but in fact do the other.

Domain Investors are capitalists by nature; many who have made (and continue to make) lowball offers at some point so as to maximize their ROI.

Yet, same people will sit here advising others not to make lowball offers on potential acquisitions. When we all know it all boils down to what a seller is willing to accept. Even BIG companies interested in our domain assets often start with low ball offers to see if seller would bite.

Certain problems or issues should not be brought here to the public for anyhow opinions. Rather, you do so privately with a select few you know give honest unbiased opinion, advice or suggestions.

 

[matrigaldo]

I just wrote this behaviour is unethical. It's not illegal, anyone is free to do almost anything.

However i just pointed out it would be unethical, because the relatives might not be aware about the value of the domain or even their old man used to have domain names, and it wouldn't be fair to "steal" the domain from them at such low price.

30k is the most it can get. It has a resell value of $5k and I contacted the IT company with a max offer of $8k. Read properly before judging.

You came here with this story:

Hi,

I'm interested in a domain name who's owner has passed away in a few months. The registrar is GodDadd y and the owner is still the registrant and admin whereas the technical contact is a web design company.

I tried to call the owner, number is not active anymore and neither are the emails.

So I got in touch with the technical contact and told them about this. They stated that they don't have a contact with the owner for years now.

What can be done? Expiry date is quite far.

Which IT company are you referring? The technical contact that doesn't have any rights to the domain?