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!

 

[Dealtor]

$34k
That's an exaggerated price

 

[d-e-x]

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.

Congrats

 

[karmaco]

I don’t think refusing the offer was wrong, I think countering at over 4 figures was the mistake. This name is not likely worth the quoted amount no matter who the buyer.

 

[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

 

[Hardheolar]

What a nice read and experience gained

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[Jay Ha]

I dont see why domainers always wanna take everything they can get and leave nothing on the table... when they miss tons of prpfitable deals like this it becomes an unprofitable practice...

Neither should the price be determined by who you are dealing with except if you are lowering it for someone.. or maybe differantiate between domainer and end user (of course).. but i just dont think a start up should be asked to pay 5k and a billion dollar company should be asked to pay 50k.. should be the same 5k or 50k from the get go for every inquiry.

I beg to differ. Brokers aim for big pockets and slap 'em with big fat prices. You can see that daily on namebio. Big companies jack up their prices in relation to their manufacturing costs just because their brands are written on them. Big companies need to pay up while startups and individuals should get their domains for reasonable prices. I will always price my domains according to who the buyer is. Gonna switch to Efty landers once I have time or even use a custom made form just like the one @MapleDots has on his marketplace.

 

[Nick]

That was literally your one and only buyer for this domain.

 

[Jay Ha]

There are times when I’ve received anonymous price requests for domains that would, in a vacuum, perhaps be worth 2000-3000, and then upon doing my research reasoned that the inquirer must be a specific buyer, such as a large corporation. In such cases I’ve gone ahead and tripled the asking price.

But there’s more to my rationale for upping the price than that the domain “must” be intended for a certain company. In order to justify in my mind the higher asking price I’ve also had to determine that probably no other domain would work for this buyer.

In one such situation I even increased the price all the way to low to mid five figures; more than tripled what the domain might be worth.

I’ve now done this more than several times and in all but one instance (on a mid four figure price I quoted) it has worked out well for me.

So my increasing the price is not entirely based on the buyer but on additionally determining that the domain name must be intended for a specific use by the buyer - a specific need that might not be able to be filled as well by any other domain. My research in each of these cases has unearthed that specific need.

Otherwise - you’re just following the inane logic of trying to charge the guy who is wearing a Rolex more than the other guy. Even if your buyer was wealthy why would you think he’d pay more than market unless he really needed the domain and no other would suit his purpose? You were missing the key part to the puzzle here - fitness for a particular purpose - i.e. - need. You had no idea what for or if this buyer (and by buyer I mean - the corporation you thought was the buyer) needed your domain.

This is the kind of answer I was looking for. I didn't find a specific use for this name, mainly because it is a made up word that has no meaning and nothing can be assumed for its use. That's the problem with made up brandables.. Although this was my first sale, I am gonna have to stay away from this kind of names because I don't know how to price them.

 

[Jay Ha]

I thinking, you wanna rich over night.
If i received same offer i counter $1000.
And buyer come at $700-800.

We all want to become rich overnight but the thing is that this sale if it happened would have covered a year's worth of rent.. I would need around 100 of such sales to become 'rich'. Lol. I'm here to have fun and learn.

Question: Would you accept a mid xxx 2nd offer from a well known Fortune500 company?

 

[ak4586]

Perfect Conversation learn something but your counteroffer was 2 high you should offer him in the mid 4 digits ballpark.

 

[Jay Ha]

Guys when was the last time you've countered with 100x the initial offer and it actually worked? It is clear I was acting as if this is the guy from that Fortune500 company. Shouldn't we all try our best to get the best possible price for our names? Anyway, now that I'm sure that he's not, I'm gonna be real this time and negotiate a deal that should be best for both of us. (yes, spoke with wifey and she made me send him our regards to his wife)

Will let you know how it goes.

 

[ak4586]

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.

That's Awesome Congrats

 

[Shamiul]

Thank you, next.

 

[Truespin Domains]

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.

Congrats

 

[NYJimbo]

Would have probably accepted the offer if it was on NP, not from a Fortune500 company. Put yourself in my shoes: someone from commercial development program of a Fortune500 company asked for a name of yours. Would you sell for mid xxx on the 2nd offer?

This does not mean the guy is loaded. Anyway, nice on the $500.

 

[briguy]

Congrats on your sale!

Maybe just maybe, you get into the habit of only during serious business when the mind is clear and the belly is full...

 

[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).

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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

 

[Furquan]

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

Otherwise just move on.

Congo @Jay Ha

 

[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!!

 

[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.