discuss How do you respond to highball offers?

[garptrader]

We have discussed responses to lowball offers - some ignore, others try to negotiate with low expectations and sometimes get surprised.

But what happens when you have a domain listed for say $750 at Godaddy or SEDO and you receive an inbound inquiry on your EFTY page for $5000? Do you counter for $7500, accept immediately or question if the offer is legit?

Because I have a number of Spanish domains I often receive offers from individuals in Spanish-speaking countries who may not understand the English text on the landing page (perhaps I should change the text but would prefer a bulk tool to do so - just not across all domains because I have English and Portuguese domains as well). Sometimes I receive offers which are far above what my Godaddy list price is presumably because the potential buyer is thinking in their local currency.

Well, today for a two-word .COM English domain I received an offer six times the Godaddy list price which is $XXXX. Since the offer came from a foreign country, I suspect the buyer does not read the English text which states offers must be in US dollars. So my response was to confirm that their offer is in USD (expecting their intention was to offer in their local currency).

 

[johnn]

Tell them that they made a mistake as the actual price is only $750.

 

[Jim Holleran]

When you accept, they might come back with a lower offer, seen that before, they think there offer was too high. Therefore, I suggest say the following: "We appreciate your 10K offer, but we were looking for offers in the 15-20K range, so please let me know what your best and final offer is and I will discuss with my partner?

Make sure you ask a ? to get a response. The partner thing, could be anybody, your dog, your wife, or nobody but it works lol.

If he comes back and says 10K final offer, say you and your partner agree if the deal is done this week. Good luck!

 

[Bannen]

Gotta go with your own instincts and ethics with this. Remember that early Frank Schilling story... he was selling a batch of 10 domains to a company back in his beginning domain days, and they agreed upon $10K. When the company sent him a check for $100K, he called to say something was wrong. They told him No they're not going to re-negotiate because that was the agreed-upon price, $10K per name. He right then chose not tell them that he thought the agreed upon price was ***$10K for ALL TEN DOMAINS TOGETHER *** ha ha ha.

Guess some people would would clear that up, and some wouldn't. That's slightly different than your question, of course, about inbound offers.

If someone highballed an offer to me, I'd accept. I constantly change around my prices anyways, some that sit for awhile at x,xxx I lower to xxx, some at xxx I think about and realize I might get a lot more, so I raise to x,xxx or higher. Pricing is fluid with most of us and we shift things around. If the price they offer is the price that domain is worth to them, I'll take that highball offer and they'll be plumb pleased that I accepted their initial offer and didn't try to counter them up higher. And that price will still be a fraction of the price MM would have asked, so they're getting a deal with me

All this is moot, however, since I've never had a highball offer from an incoming who didn't already see my domain/s for sale somewhere.

 

[donnied79]

I have a dot tv domain that gets a LOT (more than 100 in the last 3 years) of offers from Indonesia (don't ask me why) and most of them are of amount that in USD would let me retire and give all my domains away for 1$.
I simply reply with my expecting price in USD.. and I never got any reply.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Gotta go with your own instincts and ethics with this. Remember that early Frank Schilling story... he was selling a batch of 10 domains to a company back in his beginning domain days, and they agreed upon $10K. When the company sent him a check for $100K, he called to say something was wrong. They told him No they're not going to re-negotiate because that was the agreed-upon price, $10K per name. He right then chose not tell them that he thought the agreed upon price was ***$10K for ALL TEN DOMAINS TOGETHER *** ha ha ha.

Guess some people would would clear that up, and some wouldn't. That's slightly different than your question, of course, about inbound offers.

If someone highballed an offer to me, I'd accept. I constantly change around my prices anyways, some that sit for awhile at x,xxx I lower to xxx, some at xxx I think about and realize I might get a lot more, so I raise to x,xxx or higher. Pricing is fluid with most of us and we shift things around. If the price they offer is the price that domain is worth to them, I'll take that highball offer and they'll be plumb pleased that I accepted their initial offer and didn't try to counter them up higher. And that price will still be a fraction of the price MM would have asked, so they're getting a deal with me

All this is moot, however, since I've never had a highball offer from an incoming who didn't already see my domain/s for sale somewhere.

how the hell do people get that lucky? is that just a "urban legend"?

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Tell them that they made a mistake as the actual price is only $750.

 

[deez007]

lol...this is a welcome problem which I have not yet been fortunate to have

The only time I get highball offers is when the offer is followed by "My client would require an independant appraisal and blah blah blah blah....."

 

[Bannen]

is that just a "urban legend"?

It's in a FS interview I read; might have been DNjournal, I forget where. Someone here might remember. He initially called the company to figure out the mistake; the person he talked to misunderstood and thought he was complaining about the price and that he wanted to renegotiate it HIGHER, so they said the $10K per domain was final. When FS realized that meant an extra $90K due to the strange mix-up, he shut up and took the money. Which most people would, I guess

Lot of dynamics in there to figure out. Kind of the same dynamics as when someone makes an offer higher than your asking price... there's some misunderstanding in there, but they're happy with the price otherwise they wouldn't have offered/agreed to it... so waddaya do? About Frank's, case, I would need a few beer to fuzz up my head enough to make a clear decision. Ha.

 

[Kate]

In some countries the comma is used for decimals and the dot is for grouping thousands.
Which is the opposite of the US.

 

[Joshua Harding]

Gotta go with your own instincts and ethics with this. Remember that early Frank Schilling story... he was selling a batch of 10 domains to a company back in his beginning domain days, and they agreed upon $10K. When the company sent him a check for $100K, he called to say something was wrong. They told him No they're not going to re-negotiate because that was the agreed-upon price, $10K per name. He right then chose not tell them that he thought the agreed upon price was ***$10K for ALL TEN DOMAINS TOGETHER *** ha ha ha.

Guess some people would would clear that up, and some wouldn't. That's slightly different than your question, of course, about inbound offers.

If someone highballed an offer to me, I'd accept. I constantly change around my prices anyways, some that sit for awhile at x,xxx I lower to xxx, some at xxx I think about and realize I might get a lot more, so I raise to x,xxx or higher. Pricing is fluid with most of us and we shift things around. If the price they offer is the price that domain is worth to them, I'll take that highball offer and they'll be plumb pleased that I accepted their initial offer and didn't try to counter them up higher. And that price will still be a fraction of the price MM would have asked, so they're getting a deal with me

All this is moot, however, since I've never had a highball offer from an incoming who didn't already see my domain/s for sale somewhere.

Now this is a mistake that I can get behind! If true, good on him for attempting to remedy the situation, however.

 

[wormfood]

Now this is a mistake that I can get behind! If true, good on him for attempting to remedy the situation, however.

He didn't try to
"...He right then chose not tell them..."

 

[Joshua Harding]

He didn't try to
"...He right then chose not tell them..."

He chose not to double down - but had initially attempted to remedy the misunderstanding. As I understand the story told by Bannen - perhaps it is I who has misunderstood

 

[wormfood]

He chose not to double down - but had initially attempted to remedy the misunderstanding. As I understand the story told by Bannen - perhaps it is I who has misunderstood

Right, I skimmed and misread it.. Hm..that's an odd situation though.
Not sure what I would have done

 

[Haykay2005]

Quickly adjust your prices and play along

 

[creataweb]

I wonder how long he had those domains for? sounds like a deal from long ago so he must not have had those domains for long since it was probably in the infancy of the internet maybe? I'm just guessing here. lol

cool story though.

Happened in early 2000s I believe.

 

[E-Promote]

The partner thing, could be anybody, your dog, your wife, or nobody but it works lol.

Not with seasoned sellers I know your talking about inexperienced buyers but this will work against you with a seasoned seller.

 

[lock]

Change the godaddy ad to 30% above what they just offered and then direct them to it.

 

[imadoer]

Tell them thats the previous owners listing.

 

[deez007]

It's in a FS interview I read; might have been DNjournal, I forget where. Someone here might remember. He initially called the company to figure out the mistake; the person he talked to misunderstood and thought he was complaining about the price and that he wanted to renegotiate it HIGHER, so they said the $10K per domain was final. When FS realized that meant an extra $90K due to the strange mix-up, he shut up and took the money. Which most people would, I guess

Lot of dynamics in there to figure out. Kind of the same dynamics as when someone makes an offer higher than your asking price... there's some misunderstanding in there, but they're happy with the price otherwise they wouldn't have offered/agreed to it... so waddaya do? About Frank's, case, I would need a few beer to fuzz up my head enough to make a clear decision. Ha.

Lol...I would happily take the money because thats what the buyer was happy to pay. Then I would take at least 25% of my unexpected windfall and pay it forward (random and annonymus acts of kindness)

 

[MR Harrist]

if I were you I will tel him, no its not $7500, its $750! because who knows maybe in the end transaction he'll realize the price that he pay are to much, evantually he will leave and never comeback! but I don't know its just me, but I prefer straight to the point, because lying mean we have to make more lies! after all its just one domain! and who know, if he happy with your honesty, maybe he will comeback or tell a freinds, that you are honest seller! :D who knows right ?

 

[dande]

if I were you I will tel him, no its not $7500, its $750! because who knows maybe in the end transaction he'll realize the price that he pay are to much, evantually he will leave and never comeback! but I don't know its just me, but I prefer straight to the point, because lying mean we have to make more lies! after all its just one domain! and who know, if he happy with your honesty, maybe he will comeback or tell a friends, that you are honest seller! :D who knows right ?

Domain is not grocery items you direct friends to shop where you buy. It is a one time commodity. Once a domain is sold, that particular domain is gone forever. What you have next may not be suitable to his friends.

Adjusting your price upward to suit someones high offer is not dishonesty in anyway. Domain is a speculative business similar to FOREX and stock market, you don't adjust your share prices lower or remain low when the market price is going high. Demands and market trends is what determines the price at a given time.

 

[Tank]

There seems to be a lot of people who do not understand that a domain has NO set value. If someone offers you 6x's your valuation it only means the domain is worth that to them and or may even just be a more accurate valuation than yours. Regardless, It must be worth it to them so they get what they want and for the price they believe is good for them. As for raising the initial offer, sure, why not ask for a tad more, it may get you another dollar plus it may even help them feel better about the sale.. I like what was said above.. asking for their best price and you will discuss it with your partner. This gives the buyer a reason to get back to you and gives you a way to be able to accept the initial offer if need be. Without looking like a blood sucker.

 

[CJ6]

how the hell do people get that lucky? is that just a "urban legend"?

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Joshua Harding]

Right, I skimmed and misread it.. Hm..that's an odd situation though.
Not sure what I would have done

Perhaps you'll be so lucky as to deal with this exact situation in your near future!