advice Received my first inbound offer, counter offer rejected

[Jay Ha]

I was about to put my phone away and get some sleep at around 3 AM when I received an e-mail from Undeveloped saying that I got a 200 USD offer on one of my 5-letter names. Knowing that I had a 199 USD minimum offer I thought that this guy is after a bargain.

I looked up the guy's name knowing that he resides in a specific country (from my google analytics and Undeveloped also shows me their location). I found his LinkedIn profile and I'm 100% sure it is him. He works at a multi billion dollar chemicals company, in their commercial development program. That company's domain name is a 3-letter .com which is worth several millions. Their pockets are pretty deep, that's all I can say about them (please don't throw guesses on public).

Anyway, here's the whole convo with his name hidden for their own privacy:

Now I know that I hit high on my counter offer. Several reasons include it was waaaay too late in my timezone, really didn't feel like selling a name for the amount he asked, and given that he works in a commercial program, I didn't really buy his story about the nickname thing.

Just wanted to share this experience since it was my first in ~5 months of domaining. Has any of you guys went through this situation before? How does it usually turn out? Any comments on how I handled this brief convo? Anyway, thanks for reading!

 

[Jurgen Wolf]

I prefer the direct email negotiations VS anonymous bidding at various marketplaces...
And counteroffers in this direct mode are not mandatory at all... you may raise up the buyer without them (just verbally).

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Congrats @Jay Ha and thanks for taking us through the process with you. I feel there was a risk the 5 figure counter might have ended the discussion, but glad it worked out. I think the final price is a reasonable one for both buyer and seller. Hope this will be the first of many sales for you.

 

[Jay Ha]

To those saying I valued the name for mid five digits (for real) as if I thought I had hit the jackpot with every name I have:

Oldest message is when I bought it off a NP auction. The rest are just me trying to quick flip it but no one took it. I know the value of the name as shown in the earlier examples but I have to price according to the type of buyer in order to get the maximum out of my names. Eventually, for this name, it can be valued at:
8 USD bargain price
70 USD reseller price
500 USD end user price incl. commission

 

[domains21]

This was fun to read. It had suspense, shock and a (hopeful) happy ending. Congrats on the sale!

 

[J Sokol]

Congrats @Jay Ha! I love it when we newbies get some sales under our belt. Hope this will be the first of many.

 

[frank-germany]

the domain name value has nothing to do with the capabilities of the buyer

nobody ever buys a domain for a fortune 500 company
everybody wants it for the school project of the little daughter

asking 34K was a little high but the right idea

 

[JudgeMind]

I agree that you shouldn't buy his story about it being his wifes name but I think your valuation is out to lunch, no hard feelings just my opinion. I have had similar cases where the buyer gives me some story that they are a student or its their wife or childs name, I never buy it. I think you could have gotten mid $x,xxx or perhaps higher and that's kind of pushing it for a not well pronounced name that has little seo value and is only 6 months old. The thing you need to think about is this might be the only inquiry or interest you get in the name for the next year or more. I guess you can ask whatever you want but if you want to be a seller and not just a buyer you need to price your names appropriately.

 

[WatchDogue]

Overall an interesting post regarding handling " offers/ counteroffers " from both the OP's perspective as well as the perspectives of many experienced NPs!

IMO a " make offer " minimum should be in reasonable approximation to the owner's final acceptable price range, regardless of type of item for sale.

Very pleased for you the discrepancies between offers and counter-offers ultimately worked out well for you.

 

[BaileyUK]

You mentioned only one other obscure extension was registered

Well there's an easy check to see if it is indeed a fortune 500 company in 20 seconds after transfer and save waiting weeks. No fortune 500 or big business proposition is going to leave the .NET. ORG .INFO and possibly one or two other extensions sitting there to hand register If they are still available then trust me - It's his wifes nick name

 

[Jay Ha]

You mentioned only one other obscure extension was registered

Well there's an easy check to see if it is indeed a fortune 500 company in 20 seconds after transfer and save waiting weeks. No fortune 500 or big business proposition is going to leave the .NET. ORG .INFO and possibly one or two other extensions sitting there to hand register If they are still available then trust me - It's his wifes nick name

Yeah I'm pretty sure now he's an IT guy who doesn't even live in the city where that Fortune 500 company is located.

 

[Dealtor]

Nice turnaround sale.

The guy just messaged me that he asked his wife and she said 500 USD are OK. So the deal is done. Will report it in the Completed Sales thread once the money hits my account.

It was a great learning experience for me and I hope it was for other NPers too.

 

[Hardheolar]

What a nice read and experience gained

 

[Name Trader]

I've only just seen this post and looking at the first page of replies. If you do a google search for "atoio" you will find on the first page, that you bought this domain for $8 in late Nov 2018 here on NP's with no other bidders. You would also notice that "Atoio" is in fact a first name. I'm sure the buyer did such a search. And now in early Feb 2018, approx 2 month's later you are asking for $34,000. This is totally ridiculous. Before giving them a price, you should have researched the company to find out if they have a product, or pending product, or if they intended to use the name in their business in some other way.

Congrats on the sale for $500. I'm surprised he asked his wife to spend the $500 on her name, when he had already offered $400 and wasn't going to tell his wife. It's only $100 more. I wouldn't have asked to spent only another $100. Doesn't sound logical to me. Let's see what happens with this domain.

 

[BaileyUK]

Wasn't OIO a recent big dot com sale,(or some sort of company takeover) which may explain things.

I only picked-up the recent memory of something being published because I sold 0I0 dot com many years ago (Zero I Zero), so it struck a chord. If it is related to OIO com it could be just a covering want rather than a need... ie @OIO

 

[Name Trader]

My comments above, explains why sellers should ALWAYS totally sanitize their sales threads, and why I am a stickler, insisting that they do.

 

[Furquan]

That's a realistic counter if he interested than he seal the deal.

Otherwise just move on.

Congo @Jay Ha

 

[wwwweb]

You wound yourself up for disappointment.

I've only just seen this post and looking at the first page of replies. If you do a google search for "atoio" you will find on the first page, that you bought this domain for $8 in late Nov 2018 here on NP's with no other bidders. You would also notice that "Atoio" is in fact a first name. I'm sure the buyer did such a search. And now in early Feb 2018, approx 2 month's later you are asking for $34,000. This is totally ridiculous. Before giving them a price, you should have researched the company to find out if they have a product, or pending product, or if they intended to use the name in their business in some other way.

Congrats on the sale for $500. I'm surprised he asked his wife to spend the $500 on her name, when he had already offered $400 and wasn't going to tell his wife. It's only $100 more. I wouldn't have asked to spent only another $100. Doesn't sound logical to me. Let's see what happens with this domain.

Agreed, as soon as he said he asked his wife to up the budget from $400 to $500, that is pretty much surface level bs you try to feed to a simpleton when your story has run out of legs.

Either way if your happy with it, all the best, I think it had at least $1,500 in value, but you kind of gave him a price where a valid counter wasn’t possible.

 

[Jay Ha]

You wound yourself up for disappointment.

Agreed, as soon as he said he asked his wife to up the budget from $400 to $500, that is pretty much surface level bs you try to feed to a simpleton when your story has run out of legs.

Either way if your happy with it, all the best, I think it had at least $1,500 in value, but you kind of gave him a price where a valid counter wasn’t possible.

I am happy with this 500 USD sale. I simply had this name for 2 months and already offered it for 70 USD on NP for a quick flip. 500 USD is good.

Congrats on the sale.
With such a five figure asking price, why settle for a three figure. I suppose the buyer should be able to afford at least mid four figures since he already saw an asking price of 34k.

Just my reasoning...

I had this name at make offer with a starting price of 199 USD. When he offered 200 USD, I countered with the 5 figure.

 

[BaileyUK]

I am happy with this 500 USD sale. I simply had this name for 2 months and already offered it for 70 USD on NP for a quick flip. 500 USD is good.
.

A nice revisit to the reality of this sale Jay Ha.

It's amazing how many domainers will tell you how a domain is worth $x,xxx + after a sale, yet those same domainers will tell you, You asked too much had the sale gone cold at a $x,xxx.

Listed at namepros for what $8 and you the only taker, relisted by you at $70 and No takers, Sold at $500 and now obviously worth at least $1,000+ in 'those hindsight eyes'

The buyer didn't have to give you any story in his approach to buy, however he chose to. Now some want to read into it a missed opportunity. not the cracking 2 month profit

For me, I love seeing my sales on Sedo or wherever. discuss the names on here - Never

 

[tldboss]

I think it's more about not leaving money on the table (effective negotiation) considering it could be the only inquiry, they are saying with good negotiation skills one can get x,xxx.

Congrats @Jay Ha , 8 to 500 is not bad, well done!!

 

[BaileyUK]

I think it's more about not leaving money on the table (effective negotiation) considering it could be the only inquiry, they are saying with good negotiation skills one can get x,xxx.

Congrats @Jay Ha , 8 to 500 is not bad, well done!!

I accept, that, this is a guys first inbound sale and he will learn how 'Offers and Counters' play their part in the psychology of arriving at a final figure. But, that can be done by concentrating on that aspect as further advice. I just don't think the "I would have done better" highlights that aspect

 

[Jay Ha]

I accept, that, this is a guys first inbound sale and he will learn how 'Offers and Counters' play their part in the physiology of a final figure. But, that can be done by concentrating on that aspect.

True. A long way to go in learning how to pick names, not to mention learning how to negotiate their prices. I would have countered 2,500 USD to be honest if I didn't have the initial idea that it was a person that works for a Fortune 500 company and acting on behalf of it. So my counter was based on a 2 minutes google search. It was only when I thoroughly researched the person in contact and that big company the next morning, that I realized it is the same name but a different person. So I bought the wife's nickname story and just wanted to get it over with.

 

[Name Trader]

You wound yourself up for disappointment.

Agreed, as soon as he said he asked his wife to up the budget from $400 to $500, that is pretty much surface level bs you try to feed to a simpleton when your story has run out of legs.

Either way if your happy with it, all the best, I think it had at least $1,500 in value, but you kind of gave him a price where a valid counter wasn’t possible.

Hey. This wasn't my sale or thread. The congrats was a tad tongue-in-cheek. My habit of trying to be humorous but keeping a straight face. But at least he got his first sale under his belt. That at least is worth some congrats. I wasn't making any reference to the agreed price with my congrats.

My theory is the buyer did exactly, the google search I mentioned. So he knew the seller bought the domain for $8 two months prior. Saw that this was a first name, said it was his wife's name, mentioned $400 this was without asking the approval from his wife. And then continued the story by getting his wife's approval for $500. Which I found suspicious. I don't buy it. But it fitted his narrative. But at the same time, it could even be true. Which is why I ended my post with "Lets see what happens with this domain"

All of that was supposed to be implied and inferred from my earlier post. My apologies.

All of which should be a lesson for asking sellers to clean-up their sales threads. Which I do religiously.

 

[Name Trader]

On average, I spend as more time discussing the cleaning up of the sales thread than actually doing the transaction. The old members here, get it. But the new members, it can take three bites of the cherry, before they cleanup their sales thread satisfactorily. Even after I have given very clear specific instructions on what needs to be done. At worst, it can get very frustrating.

 

[wwwweb]

Hey. This wasn't my sale or thread. The congrats was a tad tongue-in-cheek. My habit of trying to be humorous but keeping a straight face. But at least he got his first sale under his belt. That at least is worth some congrats. I wasn't making any reference to the agreed price with my congrats.

My theory is the buyer did exactly, the google search I mentioned. So he knew the seller bought the domain for $8 two months prior. Saw that this was a first name, said it was his wife's name, mentioned $400 this was without asking the approval from his wife. And then continued the story by getting his wife's approval for $500. Which I found suspicious. I don't buy it. But it fitted his narrative. But at the same time, it could even be true. Which is why I ended my post with "Lets see what happens with this domain"

All of that was supposed to be implied and inferred from my earlier post. My apologies.

All of which should be a lesson for asking sellers to clean-up their sales threads. Which I do religiously.

No, I was replying to the wife part, and how you were right in your feeling that the name wasn’t really for her, the rest of it I just kinda babbled on for the seller.