Offer to Buy Domain if owner gets appraisal

[Paralegal]

Warning !!

I received the following email. While the other two appraisal services are known, with accuratedomains.com getting lots of complaints, the domain tropicalnames.com appears to have been created 10 days ago.

The email stated:

I am interested to buy your domain name [Domain was listed here] and offer to buy it from you for 55% of the appraised market value.

As of now I accept appraisals from either one of the following leading appraisal companies:

sedo.com
tropicalnames.com
accuratedomains.com

If you already have an appraisal please forward it to me.

As soon as I have received your appraisal I will send you my payment (I use Paypal for amounts less than $2,000 and escrow.com for amounts above $2,000) as well as further instructions on how to complete the transfer of the domain name.

I appreciate your business,

Thank you,
K. Brown

 

[neilebb]

My Take on this -

I have looked at the prices for all appraisals on these sites.

Being the pesimist that I am - I suspect that what you have here - is the owner of either TropicalNames or AccurateDomains - or possibly both - simply trying to sucker you into going onto one of his/her sites and paying them for an appraisal. At which point you will never hear from them again.

Sedo is 29 Euro - About $39 US
AccurateDomains is about $27 US
and TropicalNames is only $22

I would bet that this person owns the lowest costing site.

If they are so interested in purchasing your domain - they should be willing to pay the $30 or so dollars for the appraisal - and then make you an offer.

----------------------------
This is - again - my opinion -

You could email him/her back and ask if they have a preference for which site to get the appraisal from - and if they reply back with anything other than Sedo - I would forget about it. Clearly - Sedo is the Best of the three - and the other two look to be poorly developed. That is what I would do - just for kicks and giggles.

Very Vest Regards, and good luck.

Neil

 

[Paralegal]

Neil,

That's what I thought it might be but then they're not very bright and have a lot of nerve offering to pay 55% of an appraisal, especially one from Sedo whose appraisals are usually pretty accurate.

 

[neilebb]

Yes

Well - they - I am sure - are betting that you will go to the cheapest site for your appraisal.

I bet this person makes some pretty good money - on this scam.

Not a bad scam actually - but definitely WRONG!!

I personally wouldnt touch it.

Additionally - if they do own one or two of the sites - and they Do want to buy the domain - they cam manipulate the domain and get the price they want.

Bad deal either way.

I would try to feel them out with an email though - as I stated prior.

 

[namebug]

Scam ! Stay away !