I'm Considering Selling Moped.com

[moped]

I've been negotiating for almost a year with a start-up who want to buy moped.com, we've arrived at 35K, I'm a little ambivalent but in this market I think its probably realistic, I had a human appraisal at afternic and that came back at 30K, 35K represents an 8% yeild on its current parking revenue (which has been in delcine for the past 5 years), can I get some feedback from domainers on this price, any comments would be most welcome.

 

[SpareDomains]

I think it's worth more but if you need the money do your thing. This is the kind of domain where an auction format could work better with a 35k initial bid over a private sale with no publicity as it's strong enough to possibly interest multiple buyers.

 

[Archangel]

It's a risk though. There are no guarantees that others would want it for $35k+ and an auction might turn off the initial interested party.

I think it's worth more but if you need the money do your thing. This is the kind of domain where an auction format could work better with a 35k initial bid over a private sale with no publicity as it's strong enough to possibly interest multiple buyers.

 

[MattheP]

I wonder, would sedo accept it for great domain auction with reserve of 35k.

 

[JB Lions]

It's a risk though. There are no guarantees that others would want it for $35k+ and an auction might turn off the initial interested party.

Worst case scenario, you still have a domain where you at least got a $35,000 offer and looks like everybody in this thread thinks it's worth at least that much. So if this completely fell apart, it's still a domain that will sell, sometime. There's only one moped.com, so if that initial party really wants it, they would take it, even if it didn't get any more bids.

Best case scenario, bidding war, and it goes for who knows how much.

There are times where I wonder, when getting an offer at Sedo or GoDaddy, should I take it, counter it, push it to auction. One I had a nice offer, pushed it to auction, no other bids, person who make the initial offer, never followed thru. Lost sale but I look at it as, it's a future sale waiting to happen and I'm patient.

 

[SpareDomains]

It's a risk though. There are no guarantees that others would want it for $35k+ and an auction might turn off the initial interested party.

Life in general is a risk that's what makes it exciting. Domaining isn't just about having good domains it's about realizing the value of your assets and not leaving money on the table when selling them. If he is stating they have been negotiating for over a year I would think they are very interested and wouldn't scare off. Negotiating on thegreatestmopedonplanetearth.junk is a risk, moped(.com) is an asset so the possibility of blowing a deal isn't as great as finding another buyer wouldn't be as difficult.

I get your point though but if it's mine I would contact some end users in the field through email, phone, postal beforehand and gauge interest and if he can find at least 1 more interested party an auction with a 35k reserve might do better, keyword="might" but I think this is strong enough to put in the effort and see what the response is. With the "exact" monthly searches for the term and cost per click this domain would be a long term money saver for a manufacturer or distributor.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Moped_manufacturers

Try to get multiple bidders interested on your own then fire up a Sedo etc... auction with a 35k reserve, if ya strike out on finding another interested party at that price point then sell it for 35k. If they have been negotiating for a year another week or two for him to make a few companies aware of the sale shouldn't kill it off as the year in negotiations tells you how interested they are. I very rarely contact end users but when dealing with 1 word .com domains definitely worth the effort before selling just to make sure there isn't a greater demand.

 

[eeedc]

Since the buyer wants it for SEO, and I would guess that he could do two, three, maybe four or five times better than your current page at best, it looks to me like he can't pay much more than $35K and earn a good return on his time and investment. He can always keep working on lessor domain names.

It's not like you are dealing with Honda who can pay millions.

And non-keyword dictionary words, such as my Shrewd (dot) com, are not selling fast these days even at under $20K prices.

You could always look into doing, contracting, the SEO yourself, but wading through the SEO BS is even harder than wading through the domain name BS where fake half-million dollar sales abound.

---------- Post added at 11:23 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:12 PM ----------

and if he just wants it for SEO, it's just another keyword domain to him. He could work is SEO magic on bike.com, hats.com or any other keyword domain so he could walk away

 

[equity78]

As the owner of Moped and Mopeds.tv. Thanks for sharing. .tv nowhere in the same league with the .com but its nice to know where pricing and negotiations are with the .com.

I think if you are comfortable sell, you said the key line "I need the money" You have owned the .com for a long time so this makes sense to sell imo, you have Mopeds.com as the back up plan.

 

[equity78]

Looks like OP sold, on Tech Crunch today.

Moped is a private messaging platform that lets you send IM-like messages, but still with the useful hashtags and @s you find on Twitter. Users login via Twitter and message each other by @-ing recipient(s). It’s simpler than using an app like GroupMe for privately sharing in groups. It’s also integrated with Dropbox, so unlike other messaging or private sharing apps, users can share big files within their messages. A Chrome extension lets users to start conversations from a browser window.


http://techcrunch.com/2012/07/26/no...oped-could-be-the-hot-new-messaging-platform/

 

[Archangel]

What a waste of a good domain.

 

[infmoney]

What a waste of a good domain.

I would've liked to see Honda or Yamaha buy this great domain. Would've pulled in a lot more $.

 

[Archangel]

Its current use doesn't do it justice. Sure, monster.com did well but it was kind of an originator in its niche. The moped.com site is just a knock-off of a bigger & better service. It was a waste of money utilizing the domain as it is.

I would've liked to see Honda or Yamaha buy this great domain. Would've pulled in a lot more $.

 

[TestCase]

Its current use doesn't do it justice. Sure, monster.com did well but it was kind of an originator in its niche. The moped.com site is just a knock-off of a bigger & better service. It was a waste of money utilizing the domain as it is.

Well, at least if the company goes belly up there will be one asset left with some value...

 

[DU]

What a waste of a good domain.

So you logged in and use their site?

 

[Archangel]

If nothing else, there is a silver-lining, after all.

Well, at least if the company goes belly up there will be one asset left with some value...

---------- Post added at 08:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:56 PM ----------

I don't see how that would matter either way.

So you logged in and use their site?

 

[DnEbook]

seems they consider the term 'moped' quite brandable and have decided to use it that way .... half their luck.

Seller is probably happy

 

[DU]

I don't see how that would matter either way.

One would think that before stating "waste of a good domain" one might actually have seen how it was being used? No?

 

[Blake]

I also would have liked to have seen it developed the ecommerce route as well but alas the owner does as he/she wishes. I think in the end at least the name is developed! There are so many great names that will never even get to this point. Development is still the best way to monetize your online properties.

Just my $0.02

Blake

 

[JustMeDude]

This thread was an interesting read and if anything the seller should be very happy with this turn out.
Not only did he get the cash he wanted (I assume it sold for the wanted amount), he now has mopeds.com left which can be developed as an actual moped site, with less competition from moped.com.

 

[Archangel]

No need. I read the article about how it's being used. That negates any point of needing to visit the site. (You didn't ask if I've visited, anyway. You asked if I "logged in & used" their site.)

One would think that before stating "waste of a good domain" one might actually have seen how it was being used? No?

---------- Post added at 04:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:17 AM ----------

You're right. So even if the use of the domain isn't great, it's not moped-related & thus makes the mopeds.com variant more attractive.

This thread was an interesting read and if anything the seller should be very happy with this turn out.
Not only did he get the cash he wanted (I assume it sold for the wanted amount), he now has mopeds.com left which can be developed as an actual moped site, with less competition from moped.com.

 

[WeBuyThe.Com]

For those that felt the 35K was too low keep in mind there was no commission paid to a broker on this deal.That's like selling for 45K and paying a 20% broker fee. Not a bad deal at all.

 

[zoomactive.com]

Keep the domain name and build a business on it. Highly valuable IMO.

 

[Sabre]

Keep the domain name and build a business on it. Highly valuable IMO.

The domain has already been sold - if you read the rest of the thread you'll see the full conversation