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]

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

 

[dntaps]

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.

 

[NickB]

Was the company Sony?

https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/design/stories/toio

Nice play on words possibly? Or defensive buy?

A Toio

 

[farouk20]

Was the company Sony?

https://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/design/stories/toio

Nice play on words possibly? Or defensive buy?

A Toio

Lol .. op will just collapse

 

[wwwweb]

Lol .. op will just collapse

Given their brand is called Toio doesn’t really add infinite value to atoio.

Unless the wife’s nick name is Anotonio, the story kind of sounded a bit BS.

Not sure how the $500 deal happend after counter., but without knowing all variables, and the wife story, of this was a real end user who had an immediate use, the seller probably have been better to sit on his hands for a bit.

 

[BaileyUK]

Apologies, I didn't mean to sound biting in my previous post. I just think if you explore every eventuality and possibility with a sale, 90% just wouldn't happen.

A father approached me once for a domain ***4 com, wanted for his sons year 4 project. About a year later he explained on another domain board how he felt so stupid after this truthful approach.... And him a fellow domainer. Genuine but, obviously no sale.

I note everything and his dog ATOIO is still available, So reads genuine up to now

 

[efizi]

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.


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.

Okay, now i understand.....though I still believe there was "more juice" you could have squeezed out of the sale of this name.