advice GoDaddy offer. Complicated. Asking advice.

[JustaGringo]

Need advice please. This is a bit complicated.

Received an offer for 15k from GoDaddy broker for a domain I already had listed at Sedo with a 25k buy it now.

The GoDaddy representative knows I had a listing on Sedo for 25k. I forgot I had auctions at sedo. I since removed them.

I turned down the initial offer. I did not counter offer. I promptly received a reply from the broker stating we just have to come to a price. I've not done anything since and am trying to figure out my next move, if any.

It's a 4 letter .com for which there are many companies with the same 4 letter abbreviations. I think the GoDaddy client is a large overseas client who in 2016 trademarked the four letters in the US as one of their product brand names. Luckily, I owned the dot com long before then, and it's super generic. If it's who I think it is, their product has exploded in popularity in the past 24 months.

So the GoDaddy offer right out of the gate was 15k. That is kind of telling to me that the end client is serious and has funds. The last time I worked with a GoDaddy domain broker the initial offer (for a brandable two word domain) was 1/7th the final agreed upon price. In other words, I sold it for 7x their first offer.

Why the actual customer/buyer didn't just do the buy it now over at Sedo when they had the chance I don't know. My guess is that the end customer is unaware of the various marketplaces for domains and went straight to GoDaddy. Or maybe they really wanted to get it for less than 25k, but higher than 15k? That makes no sense. Or they want to keep the acquisition off the books? I dunno.

So you think the the buyers budget is far greater than the 15k original offer? I kind of do.

I won't part with it for anything less than 25k. I don't care if the sale falls through. The broker is going to want to close a deal so they get a commission, even if that means it goes over the 25k I had listed on Sedo I would think.

So I am thinking of either not countering at all or asking 6x their initial, say 90k.

Thoughts? Nuts right? Wish I knew how GoDaddy brokers are compensation. They must have a reverse-payout grid or something. Where they get a larger commission if the price is kept lower.

Thanks
Don

 

[jideofor]

Getting more than 25k might be hard. I feel like had you been negotiating directly with the buyer, you might have been able to say something like "oh my! I just looked at my Sedo account and it looks like I uploaded an pricing spreadsheet from 2021 by mistake. The price should actually be $30k. Since you brought this to my attention and I have been able to revise my other 500 names as well, I'll honor that 25k price to you for the next 7 days."

I have never used a domain broker though and from what I have read here, it doesn't seem like they relay those things (they didn't relay UDRP threats according to someone else at NP).

Some others have said that ignoring the offer is bad. I think trying to gouge is worse than silence. If you either decline without a counter or ignore, after some time they might just use the BIN option at SEDO and no big deal on losing the 69.99 from GoDaddy.

If buyers pay the broker fee, then I think I would probably just decline the offer from the broker. Maybe mention something like, "As you've pointed out, the BIN price is 25k" Then see if they will up their offer and go from there.

There might be several companies using these 4Ls but only so many that can and would buy the domain. So if you miss this 25k you might not have another offer on it.

Also, since there is a company with the US trademark, I would make sure your landing page is free of any ads for their brand or any competing brand in that industry. As that could put you in danger of losing the domain even if it's SEDO's fault for choosing what to advertise and even if the domain was registered before the trademark.

He does not want to sell for $25k. He feels he can sell for more than $25k and that was why he removed it from SEDO, even though he was hoping to sell it for $25k prior to that offer.

 

[Maggie Mae]

How about doing something creative?

Do you have any data on the number of hits the domain gets each month? If so, and if they are impressive ...

Contact the company you think may have the interest in buying the domain, the one with the exploding success. Negotiate a partnership and here you have options to consider to receive a lump sum initially, but retain domain ownership, also possibly a royalty for each product sold. They may not go for that exact proposal, but this is where you could be creative with ideas. Shared success b/c you both have something to contribute to customer access/traffic by working together.

Peter Askew is one who has partnered with a business, and has a blog post about how he did this with his domain, Vidalia Onions.

If not particularly business savvy, you might work with a lawyer that sells businesses and understands domains. You will want to remind them upfront that there are XXX of companies that use these letters, so it's not a TM issue with you owning the domain, but you can be an asset by helping them gain online traffic (vs. their popularity sending traffic to another company that chooses to partner with you).

If you just want to sell the domain, you can pitch directly to the companies that could be interested.

Good luck!

 

[scithe]

He does not want to sell for $25k. He feels he can sell for more than $25k and that was why he removed it from SEDO, even though he was hoping to sell it for $25k prior to that offer.

I understood that. I think the probability of that is unlikely and offered sobering advice.

 

[jideofor]

I understood that. I think the probability of that is unlikely and offered sobering advice.

exactly my thoughts but that is left for him to find out.

 

[Mister Funsky]

How about an update @JustaGringo?