If i am a BUYER, there are 3 things that will influence me:
1. Industry-standard Pricing
How much do similar products sell out there? If the standard pay for a gardener is $200 an hour, you are definitely overpricing me if you start asking me to pay you $500 an hour. You definitely have to come up with a convincing alibi why you deserve to be paid more. It's the same with domains.
Usually, we are betting that End Users have no idea how much domains cost out there in the market. If you gamble on the assumption that End Users are dumb, then probably you can get away with overpricing. But for big companies, they probably have some wise guy in their IT Department to get some idea how much domains cost in the aftermarket. If you give them a hint that you are trying to pull a fast one on them, they'll probably dump your email on the Trash bin or click the spam button.
What i do is, i try to be truthful and place my asking price within reasonable "industry-wide" pricing range. So even if the potential buyer is ignorant about domains and complain that i am asking too much (which always happens), i can simply show him a truthful data telling him this is the "normal" price range of sales for domains of this kind.
2. Competition - The Hot Property Domain
Everywhere in the Capitalist world, the law of Supply & Demand dictates the pricing. You are lucky if you own a domain that many people want to pry out of your claws. In such case, people CALL YOU. You don't call them.
The fact that you are calling someone out of the blue, this gives me a hint that you either have no suitors for that domain, or you are trying to fish me out and see whether i will pay more than your other guy who is interested with your merchandise.
One thing i can tell you, if you are the one bothering me asking me to buy your stuff, NEVER ask me how much i want to pay you. YOU tell me your price. It's not the other way around, unless you want me to add your email address in the spammers database.
3. How Obsessed Am I With Your Domain?
A buyer who reveals his cards, is destined to be abused. That's how Capitalism works. Morality is just a second thought. If i wanted your domain very badly, i am not going to show it. Obsession is expensive.
If you are the one contacting me, then obviously obsession is none existent. So you cannot threaten me that you will walk away. I control the pricing. Not you. Your goal is to limit my pricing control by negotiating in a way that will always make it "appear" that the buyer is getting the upper-hand of the deal. Remember, you called me. I didn't call you. So don't engage in a pricing war with an intention that your price will prevail.
You also have to understand, that when a businessman is already well rooted and recognized using his current domain, it will alienate his legions of customers if he will shift to your "better" domain. That is not going to happen, unless he knows what he is doing (redirection and all that stuff).
In such a case, you should contemplate to balance your pricing and argue as to why the cost of your domain will be compensated by an increase in his income. You would want to give an intelligent pricing, not just an arbitrary pricing like a shot on the moon.
