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!

 

[NickB]

Was the company Sony?

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

Nice play on words possibly? Or defensive buy?

A Toio

 

[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.

 

[Hitesh Wadhwa]

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.

Congratulations on your first inbound sale.

 

[MurphCo]

Congrats on your sale dude!

 

[Ostrados]

I didn't read the full thread, so you sold it for $500
congrats

 

[Jay Ha]

WHOA! Look at them fellow NPers go! Never thought I'd be lynched for initially assuming it was a Fortune500 company going after the name. The moment I was 100% sure it was for a personal website, I priced it accordingly. What's wrong with this approach?

I thought domaining was about getting the most out of your names.. I will always be bracing myself for a multi X domain sale, whatever the name is and whenever the name was regged. Now keep on selling your names for pennies and come renewals you are in the minus. I'm sorry but I'm gonna have to turn down your invitation to..

 

[Jay Ha]

You can Buy it Now at GD for $589

It is probably the previous owner's listing, I'm only listing it on Sedo and Undeveloped for now.

 

[Jay Ha]

It's a good lesson. I made similar mistakes a few times when I started domaining as well.

Think about it this way.

1. You invested $8 in hand registering the domain last year so it's not a previous long term hold.
2 There is no additional demand in the domain.
3.It is not related to any important trend or considered part of a valuable domain niche with a strong history of comparable domain sales.

So ROI is respectable at $400 or more because you'd be making 50X your initial investment. In the future little sales like this will be what keeps you moving and let's you buy more valuable names. These will compound and give you more cash flow to start buying investment class domains.

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?

 

[Jay Ha]

Does the guy own the company or just work for it ? I've worked for billion dollar Wall Street companies, but it dont mean I got money.

Well if his job position was absolutely obvious that he's buying it for the company, would you accept mid xxx on the 2nd offer?

 

[Jay Ha]

I would have countered with $2400 with monthly payment of $400 up to 6 months. And would have stayed firm.

You can send reply like this if you are still willing to sell.

"Hello, I have thought on your offer it's too low from my expectation. Last price I can do for you is $2400 only because you are buying the domain to gift your wife. You can pay this in 6 installments of $400 each. Let me know.
Best Wishes"

I think that I still got some ground in this negotiation. Did I tell you that I have balls of steel having worked in a forex company (watched millions of dollars won or lost overnight, for around 6 yrs) and might probably forget the whole thing happened later this night? Might probably use the installments once he finally accepts the fact he isn't getting this name for mid xxx. Thanks for giving me ideas!

 

[Jay Ha]

LOL, its cool. If he ever comes back, tell him you are willing to lower it for his wife. Whatever it takes to make the sale.

Will see how this goes. No renewals coming up, no commitments, no rush!

 

[Jay Ha]

Well here's an update: Did some research on the name, IP, and location. It seems this is an IT engineer. Will fix my counter offer to suit his financial ability.

 

[Jay Ha]

And after a week we will see the new domain under the fortune 500 new project

That's what is going to keep me awake the next couple of weeks, or maybe more.

 

[rh2000]

And after a week we will see the new domain under the fortune 500 new project

Of course.

 

[maya-zir]

34k? you kidding?
well.. continue renewal it the rest of your life because now you know if you let it go, this guy will get it for handreg fee..

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[farouk20]

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.

You will never know all the variables . Am i to believe, if you where in the sellers shoe you wont sell?

 

[Ostrados]

So you made a counter offer of $34k because the guy works for a multi-million company? Really?!!!

He could be just a normal employee with $1000/mo salary, and also he said he wants it because it is his wife's name not his business name!

Next time be realistic and price your domain name fairly, $600-$800 was a fair price that the buyer would have accepted.

 

[EbookLover]

You think that just because he works for a multi billion dollar chemicals company, in their commercial development program, that his intent was to use the domain for the company, commercially?

What makes you think that? Is your domain very close to the name of the company or a new project they are undertaking? If so, I would say this is justified to a degree. But the real question is, how many other companies would be seeking out this name? In other words, what is the demand?

And if I understand correctly, if he is sincere that it is for personal use, you still want him to pay out-of-market prices because you think he makes a lot of money?

The most likely scenario here is you are going to let the domain expire and he will get it for less than $100.

Edited to add...

Well here's an update: Did some research on the name, IP, and location. It seems this is an IT engineer. Will fix my counter offer to suit his financial ability.

OK, so I see now. You price your domains according to the prospects earnings potential.

Good luck with that strategy.

 

[ValleyRock]

I am still in contact with the buyer, he said that around 400 is his limit. I countered with 500 which should include the 9% undeveloped commission. He should accept now I guess..

Ohh look who's back from la la land.

 

[ben pedri]

It is probably the previous owner's listing, I'm only listing it on Sedo and Undeveloped for now.

He probably was the old owner,I can find names like that in 5 seconds ,they may be possible brandables but until someone grows a brand its worth squat, Get the guy back and tell him he can use the domain for nothing for 3 months if he has a short term project,that will open the doors for more talk ,then tell him you found a better one you like for 1k and you need to get that to pay for it. Then sell it and buy 10 more crappy names just like it