My new domain just got $700 offer. What should I do?

[cathyani]

websolutionsprovider.us >> a recent addition to my domains (for my own online business) Just got 2 offers already. One is $500 and another is higher. Any advice? Should I let it go?

 

[BeautifulDomainNames]

This has been going on for many, many years. It's the appraisal scam. Run under numerous names with essentially the same approach.


BTW, OP. Any update as to the sale of this?


- Darlene

There is a guy who uses different names and makes offers for newly entered domains in auctions and insists on appraisals with a company he mentions himself.

He used Ray Gralinski and offered $15k for my domain - I wrote back and said I had already got a $17k offer and he upped the price to $20k provided I had it appraised with the company of his choice.

There is a forum on it already. He uses perfect English, but I traced his emails and they were sent from Moscow! :lol:

 

[domainstaff]

Here's the scam I got hit with just the other day.***

When I told him I'd go with an appraisal company of my choosing or he could take $50 off
the price so he could go with any company he paid for I never heard from him again.

---------------***---

Our client has a 200,000 usd budget for several names. Have you had your domain names evaluated by certified valuation experts in the past? Even if your domain has no web site it's possible to appraise it. Without a valuation certificate our client cannot be sure in the sale price. Moreover, our accountant and tax services always ask for valaution certificates. On the other side, it's very important for him in terms of reselling too. Of course, we must engage an independent valuation company with a real manual service. So I will only accept valuations from independent sources our client trust. We don't have certified experts in domain valuations and use independent reliable companies for appraisals.

To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies. Please check this blog with suggestions from other sellers and buyers:
http://www.thenamepros.com/Archive/935175246.htm

If, for example, the valuation comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly..

After you send us the valuation via email (usually it takes 1-2 days to obtain it) we'll continue the process. Do you sell domain with a web site or just the name? Domain without content is ok with me. Web site is not necessary.

What is your preferred payment method: Escrow.com, International wire transfer, PayPal.com or something else?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.
-----------------------

 

[BeautifulDomainNames]

We should have a sticky in the Legal Issues section were we post all obvious and even simply just suspicious such emails for regulars and visitors to familiarize themselves with this kind of situation.


- Darlene

 

[Rebels]

We should have a sticky in the Legal Issues section were we post all obvious and even simply just suspicious such emails for regulars and visitors to familiarize themselves with this kind of situation.


- Darlene

I completely agree! That's a wonderful idea

 

[Archangel]

We have the Warnings and Alerts section for these things:

http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/

As for the OP: Echoed here many times, take the offer and run. But make sure you don't do it via Paypal. That'd be a grave mistake...

We should have a sticky in the Legal Issues section were we post all obvious and even simply just suspicious such emails for regulars and visitors to familiarize themselves with this kind of situation.


- Darlene

I completely agree! That's a wonderful idea

 

[alien51]

But make sure you don't do it via Paypal. That'd be a grave mistake...

What payment options do you suggest, if cheques are impractical, say for $150 sales?

I haven't sold below $500 yet, so my experience is mostly thru escrow. I am predominantly a website developer, rather than a domain flipper so i can only think of Paypal option for low dollar sales.

Since the buyer is putting his trust in me that's why he's paying thru paypal, would it be ok if we agree on a holding period that will allow me to withdraw the payment out of paypal before i transfer the domain?

 

[Archangel]

I'll tell you this:

Paypal will NOT and will NEVER side with a domainer, without any exception in existence despite obvious evidence, if a buyer contacts them and reports that you never sent them the domain. It doesn't matter if you have receipts, polygraph results, or a urine test: Paypal will give the buyer his money back. Don't use paypal unless otherwise you trust the buyer or if the transaction is $20 or less. Escrow is the safest way to go for a seller. Moneybookers don't act so naive with payment-reversal attempts so you should explore that option, too. But Paypal should be a virtually nonexistent option to you.

What payment options do you suggest, if cheques are impractical, say for $150 sales?

I haven't sold below $500 yet, so my experience is mostly thru escrow. I am predominantly a website developer, rather than a domain flipper so i can only think of Paypal option for low dollar sales.

Since the buyer is putting his trust in me that's why he's paying thru paypal, would it be ok if we agree on a holding period that will allow me to withdraw the payment out of paypal before i transfer the domain?

 

[Gradius]

I'll tell you this:

Paypal will NOT and will NEVER side with a domainer, without any exception in existence despite obvious evidence, if a buyer contacts them and reports that you never sent them the domain. It doesn't matter if you have receipts, polygraph results, or a urine test: Paypal will give the buyer his money back. Don't use paypal unless otherwise you trust the buyer or if the transaction is $20 or less. Escrow is the safest way to go for a seller. Moneybookers don't act so naive with payment-reversal attempts so you should explore that option, too. But Paypal should be a virtually nonexistent option to you.

This is good advice - I'd second this and add (if it isn't clear already) that a holding period wouldn't make any difference. Even if you agreed to wait until you had transferred the money out, what would happen if the buyer was unscrupulous is upon logging into PayPal (or through an email alert), you would discover a NEGATIVE balance of the amount he had paid you. I believe, this would eventually be deducted from the bank account you have connected to PayPal, and in the meantime related services such as eBay might be shut down to you. Basically, transferring the money out doesn't make you safer, it only makes it worse. Trust me - I've lost hundreds of dollars in the past being defrauded from selling virtual goods using PayPal, despite evidence, so I know from experience this is a terrible route to take.

 

[alien51]

Trust me - I've lost hundreds of dollars in the past being defrauded from selling virtual goods using PayPal, despite evidence, so I know from experience this is a terrible route to take.

So do you go through escrow on everything you sell online now?

If all online payments have the inherent threat of reversals, how can you conduct e-commerce now?

 

[Gradius]

So do you go through escrow on everything you sell online now?

If all online payments have the inherent threat of reversals, how can you conduct e-commerce now?

At the end of the day it is up to the seller to determine how much money means "a lot" to him, and let that be the threshold for escrow, on a case by case basis. Personally, as much as I hate to admit it, I still use PayPal, although I wouldn't without an extra (albeit flawed) filter to screen buyers - that filter being eBay (damn their double edged eBay/PayPal sword!).

The trick is to set up relatively strict buyer requirements, and to be watchful of who is bidding (if selling on eBay - again, that is the only time I'd use PayPal, and only for low value sales). I am never shy about blocking bidders & canceling bids of people I think may pose a risk. Blocking countries is also an option, although I've been able to avoid that so far (although you'd be surprised how many terrible buyers & con-artists there are in domaining from Singapore and Malaysia). I've been tempted many times to block those countries, but at the end of the day my (perhaps flawed) sense of trust and human decency wins out. I also block people who have worrying negative feedback, and people who have been flagged in the past as problematic. I may have other buyer requirements set up I'm forgetting about right now. If it happened that someone snuck in at the end of an auction on a great name, with a high bid, and had 0 feedback, I'd have to make a judgment call on whether or not to follow through with the sale - I may not if it seemed too suspicious.

For me, if a sale is over $500 on eBay, I use escrow.com. I've thought about lowering this to $300, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If I negotiate a sale off eBay, even if it on the lower end and around $150-200, I'll usually send them to Sedo & pay the commission there. I would never use PayPal off eBay, I'd either send them to Escrow.com or Sedo.com.

I haven't had to deal with the problem of low value sales (say, less than $150) negotiated off eBay, since it doesn't fit into my personal sales strategy. For that, I don't know of any good options - possibly MoneyBookers as per Archangels suggestion, but I've never used them and can't vouch.

 

[Archangel]

Even selling on eBay is dangerous. As I said: If a payment reversal is made on a non-physical item, you are -- to be perfectly blunt -- screwed.

Should you EVER use PayPal? For large sales, no. However (someone correct me if I'm wrong), PP charges a $20 fee to mess around with such disputes. Let's say you sold an item for $500 and the buyer, upon receiving the domain, filed a dispute. The dispute would cost $20 and thus, he'd get $480 back. With that in mind: If the above happened with the price being $30, then the buyer would only get $10 back. Chances that he'd do this are extremely slim unless the buyer simply wanted to cause havoc and unrest.

Point: If it's a low selling price ($50 or lower), PP is a decent option but if you have a major sale ($100 or more), be wary of using Paypal.

At the end of the day it is up to the seller to determine how much money means "a lot" to him, and let that be the threshold for escrow, on a case by case basis. Personally, as much as I hate to admit it, I still use PayPal, although I wouldn't without an extra (albeit flawed) filter to screen buyers - that filter being eBay (damn their double edged eBay/PayPal sword!).

The trick is to set up relatively strict buyer requirements, and to be watchful of who is bidding (if selling on eBay - again, that is the only time I'd use PayPal, and only for low value sales). I am never shy about blocking bidders & canceling bids of people I think may pose a risk. Blocking countries is also an option, although I've been able to avoid that so far (although you'd be surprised how many terrible buyers & con-artists there are in domaining from Singapore and Malaysia). I've been tempted many times to block those countries, but at the end of the day my (perhaps flawed) sense of trust and human decency wins out. I also block people who have worrying negative feedback, and people who have been flagged in the past as problematic. I may have other buyer requirements set up I'm forgetting about right now. If it happened that someone snuck in at the end of an auction on a great name, with a high bid, and had 0 feedback, I'd have to make a judgment call on whether or not to follow through with the sale - I may not if it seemed too suspicious.

For me, if a sale is over $500 on eBay, I use escrow.com. I've thought about lowering this to $300, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. If I negotiate a sale off eBay, even if it on the lower end and around $150-200, I'll usually send them to Sedo & pay the commission there. I would never use PayPal off eBay, I'd either send them to Escrow.com or Sedo.com.

I haven't had to deal with the problem of low value sales (say, less than $150) negotiated off eBay, since it doesn't fit into my personal sales strategy. For that, I don't know of any good options - possibly MoneyBookers as per Archangels suggestion, but I've never used them and can't vouch.

 

[Gradius]

Even selling on eBay is dangerous. As I said: If a payment reversal is made on a non-physical item, you are -- to be perfectly blunt -- screwed.

I agree - eBay is dangerous. I still do it because of the lack of better options available. Bido is *alright* but they don't fill the gap well enough to replace eBay entirely for domainers. They are better than they used to be - thankfully they instituted my proposed change and limited auctions to 10 per day, which helps their platform. Still the market is ripe for someone bold enough and with the right funding & strategy to snatch the domain market share right out from under eBay, although they would still have to deal with this payment issue. If a company were to offer auctions for domains, and include a reputable escrow service for all sales over a certain threshold, I'd say they'd have a running chance. Anyone? Bueller?

 

[Erdy]

I wouldn't use escrow.com if you suspect the buyer could be a scammer. escrow.com gives all your details to the other party. They could use that information for identity theft.

 

[Domainace]

Just to add to the Ebay/Paypal cautions here, I once sold a name on Ebay for $350, and the buyer paid the same day through paypal. I started to transfer the name, but decided to wait a bit since a few bad smells were coming through (buyer didn't make an offer but accepted BIN right away, email addresses didn't match, name of buyer was something very Anglo, like John Hudson - but buyer's English was broken). Turns out it was a hijacked Ebay account, and hijacked Paypal account.

I tried to contact Paypal with my suspicions, but was unable to speak to a soul. Within a day or so, Paypal reversed the payment and removed the money from my account. Fine. But, there was not a word from Ebay, and in fact the buyer was still a member with the hijacked account, and able to bid on other names - and I kept getting pestered to leave good feedback for the "buyer." Ebay knew the guy was a thief and that it was a stolen account, and yet didn't lift a finger to warn me. A very dodgy company. I doubt anyone with Ebay experience in California voted for their former CEO for governor.

 

[RevolutionaryDomains]

Sad thing is, not only does eBay own Paypal, but they are such a massive entity they can pretty much do what they want, when they want, and get away with it.

 

[afako]

Take it and Run away.

 

[mrfike]

If the option is or ever was there to take the $$ and run, do it. No appraisals of course. No paypal, I'd avoid AlertPay too, they are turning into paypal with restrictions and reversals lately. Use escrow.com, or old fashioned WU or money order (lots of services).