discuss "Please Sell It Back To Me" - Domain Name Inquiries And Offers

[Silentptnr]

I received an direct inbound offer and found it interesting so I thought I would share.

This morning I opened my email to find an offer for one of my domains, a four letter dot org. The inquiry came through the efty landing page.

What I found interesting was that the prospective buyer turns out to be a successful phd and easily found on google. What sort of bothered me was her approach. Here's what she said:

"I have had this domain name for almost 17 years but by mistake let it lapse a couple of months ago. Please sell it back to me!"

Problem is, I've owned it for years. She lied. So here was my reply...

"Thanks for your interest in G***.org. I have owned this domain for years. The domain was previously owned by Roger Raffee and Jim Hall, based in La Jolla, California for their company Global Electronic Music Marketplace. They still own the g***.com domain and wouldn't sell it even though they no longer operate.

I would consider selling the domain to you, but not for much less than $3900. If you are interested or would like to buy the domain or would like to offer a higher amount I would consider it."

I was nice about it but it irked me that she would just straight out lie. The world we live in I guess.

Have you had any?

(Please don't type the domain name in the thread.)

 

[xynames]

that's not to say that Lowering the price based on the buyer is acceptable policy. In fact, I was tricked once by a buyer who got a discount by claiming that he was purchasing the domain to donate to his church, then later I saw a fully for profit site on the URL, although it was technically associated with the Church it turned out not to be nonprofit. I wrote to the Church itself complaining, and the research I did showed that this particular buyer had already been investigated in my city for channelling supposed non profit funds into his own pocket. When I found out all this I was going to sue the guy to get the domain back, mostly on principle because I didn't like the fact that a person would use religion falsely to get a discount, but in the end, he got away with it because too little money was at stake and I never did anything about it other than smear his name in the mud a little with his church.

Recently received a legitimate offer from a legitimate charity for a domain of mine. But sadly the previous experience with the charlatan taints my viewpoint.

 

[Skyvisum]

Recently received a legitimate offer from a legitimate charity for a domain of mine. But sadly the previous experience with the charlatan taints my viewpoint.

Also been negotiating with one who claim same non-profit but affiliated with 3M and some top banks in France who started from offering me 30 euros and my response was No.Then he keeps saying he is rallying around family members and offer 900 and my response was still No.And then he keeps lying and asking me if he can raise up to $mid 4 figs if that would get the name.
I simply told him,stop with your lies,you are on linkedin with a large group and you claim to be ethical in your organization and you telling me all these lies about raising from family members every week and you keep increasing offers every week.

I told him,keep your stories and bargain and to get an alternative.

He is even using my domain like he already bought it but doesnt include all the url..

 

[MapleDots]

I simply told him,stop with your lies,you are on linkedin with a large group and you claim to be ethical in your organization and you telling me all these lies about raising from family members every week and you keep increasing offers every week.

Try not to alienate the potential client, in the end it does not matter if they lie or not. Just turn down the offer and tell him to come back when he has more money.

Ego is a big thing and if you insult him you may just be talking yourself out of a sale. If his feelings gets hurt he won't buy and in the end you lose out too.

So be polite, stick to your guns and try not to respond personally to his emails. Just state the market value of the domain and tell him to come back when he has funds in place.

 

[Skyvisum]

Try not to alienate the potential client, in the end it does not matter if they lie or not. Just turn down the offer and tell him to come back when he has more money.

Ego is a big thing and if you insult him you may just be talking yourself out of a sale. If his feelings gets hurt he won't buy and in the end you lose out too.

So be polite, stick to your guns and try not to respond personally to his emails. Just state the market value of the domain and tell him to come back when he has funds in place.

Not about Ego.I was polite and told him the value and offered installment.I dont place my hope on one enduser when i buy some kind of names also.He is the head of their digital and also worked for 3 start ups and not novice .When he started with his 30 to 40 euros.I replied him and offered to help.All end users dont approach same way.They have egos and some feel entitled to own the name and tell you what its worth.I dont waste my time.Before him i have received offers on the name.I told him straight to be upfront not tell me stories.And then he started getting serious and went up to highest 4 figs when I told him to stop the stories.I dont see that as an insult.I wasnt overpricing my names as well.

I told him exactly that,come back when he has raised the price I stated.Mid 4 figures is cheap to them that i know.

 

[MapleDots]

I was talking about hurting the clients ego, there is nothing to be gained by that.

Sorry if you thought I was implying that about you.

 

[Michael Ehrhardt]

fair price

 

[Skyvisum]

I was talking about hurting the clients ego, there is nothing to be gained by that.

Sorry if you thought I was implying that about you.

I wasnt hurting his ego.Just like clients being straight.If he wants the name he would negotiate honestly not tell me about raising money from family members which i know is false.I already did my research before responding.He goes and come back every week and increases his offer. Its just fun when he does that.I use my time well on other things.Correspondence is fine between us and no ill feelings or anger.Thanks for the advise.

 

[BradWilson]

Okay, this reminds me of how I snagged the dot com of my business.

I had owned the dot net for many years but couldn't get the dot com so I forgot about it until...

I received an email asking if I wanted to buy the dot com - well by chance, I checked and it was available so I snagged it in a heartbeat. Wow score!

But this story isn't over just yet. Sometime later, I was contacted by the previous owner of the dot com and he wanted his domain back because it was his blah, blah, blah.

Sorry dude, it's mine now and I'm using it and it's not for sale at any price.

I'm guessing the person who sent the email and the previous owner weren't the same person - duh.

The previous owner got over it or at least lost interest.

But now I'm thinking of rebranding my business and I'm finally willing to sell it.

Turns out the previous owner isn't doing business any more at least as far as I can tell. Luckily a different VC firm exists that's using the exact long version of my business name. They settled for a strangely abbreviated domain. I'm planning to contact the owner on LinkedIn to see if he'd be interested in an upgrade.