Sedo bid: Go to auction or not?

[randomo]

Hi guys,

I just got an offer through Sedo. Now I need to decide whether to:

a) accept the offer;

b) make a counter-offer; or

c) start a Sedo auction.

That's the fifth time I've gotten an offer at Sedo. Out of the other four times, I made counter-offers three times; once the buyer went up slightly, once he stuck to his original price, and the other time he dropped out altogether. The fourth time, I started an auction, and nobody else bid, so the offerer got it for the originally offered price.

In general, it seems sensible to go the auction route. Are there any reasons not to do so?

The only ones I can think of:

1. A counter-offer could raise the price, but an auction won't raise it if nobody else bids.

2. I have to wait a bit longer for my money.

3. The buyer could lose interest during the week and not want to pay when the auction ends. (I know Sedo has rules against deadbeats, but I also know they're not enforced.)

4. The buyer could be annoyed by the delay (and the chance he'll be outbid), so maybe he stops making offers on domains at Sedo.

We're only talking about a $100 offer, and the price isn't likely to go a lot higher than that in any case. Still, I'm curious to hear what other people would do, and why.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[VisualArtistFrankBonilla]

?

I think only you know how reasonable it would be to go the auction route. Is this a domain name that has had a lot of traffic? Have you had offers elsewhere on it, or bids at Sedo? Do you really think you will get a lot of offers on the auction?
Or, is this a name you really know are are lucky to get what they already offered, and are only wishing you would get more? I did the same thing, went the auction route. Never got another bid. Then I realized I was was lucky to get what was originally offered. In this case, I would counteroffer with a slightly higher amount.

Only you know.

Frank

 

[SpareDomains]

I sen't a domain to auction on a $100 bid in the hopes that the bid would go higher and it ended up selling for $100, I was taking a gamble in a way to test out sedo's new auctions, I have also talked to quite a few others that have sen't domains to auction with $60 bids and ended up at $70-$80 final price tags, so my advice would be to make sure you get your desired reserve price offered before sending anything to auction, if not counter offer and try to get your desired price, I don't feel the auctions are at full potential yet as they are still kinda new, hard to give advice without knowing the domain but I personally wouldn't send anything to auction without your required reserve on the table, if you can live with $100 send it away and see what happens if not counter offer.

 

[Archangel]

I've sent three to SEDO auction:

Domain A started at $60, ended at $70
Domain B started at $60, ended at $100
Domain C started at $60, currently at $60 (1+ days to go)

I think unless your domain is extremely valuable, negotiate a good price. Auctions aren't a good way to go.

 

[Name Trader]

I put a domain to auction and the original bidder won but never paid. Sedo just washed their hands and said the bidder never responded.

 

[seeker]

unless the domain is really something that is going to catch the eyes of others, it is not worth going to auction.
you are better off with direct negotiotations through counter offers.

 

[domainsusi]

I believe going to auction only benefits the buyer. He is locked in at the original offering price and if someone else does bid, he can bail out. Chances are he will be relieved - buyers remorse usually sets in if there is enough time to brood over it.

On the other hand - if he is legitimate, he surely expected a substantial counter-offer. So, again - if you let it go to auction, it is to his benefit unless you have a really exceptional domain that will draw a lot of interest.

Look at the Sedo domains on auction - how many show more than 1 bid?

 

[DomainLobe]

Settle and Sell.
Better Business Building.

 

[deleted984054565403]

unless the domain is really something that is going to catch the eyes of others, it is not worth going to auction.
you are better off with direct negotiotations through counter offers.

Agreed. It's easy to lose the prospective buyer by making the transaction take longer and risk (for the buyer) the price of the domain going higher. Plus, if that buyer wants the sale to be relatively "quiet", that won't necessarily happen in an auction.

i say go to auction

Great! :tu: Any reasons why?

 

[randomo]

Thanks for all your opinions!

I had been leaning toward an auction, but after reading your thoughts, I made him a counteroffer instead. Will let you know what happens.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[DotWeekly]

I sent CoreCulture.com to auction at $150 on Sedo. 7 days went by, and it ended at $150. $15 sedo fee, $135 I get......... NOT

Buyer never paid. Sedo gave them well over a MONTH to pay and had the domain locked in my account the whole time. Not Happy!!! I didn't know if I could sell it else where or what. I sent several emails to Sedo, that the buyer never paid (like they didn't know that) and I wanted the domain unlocked and I wanted to be able to sell it to somebody else. Over 1 month, later, they sent me an email stating the buyer had failed to pay. DA!!! So I got nothing out of the deal.

 

[HcDomains]

It is a risk of seding Domains for uction withoutreserveunless you are satisfied with the offer already.

Month ago I send my Domain Cssinobuilder.com to Sedo Auction without reserver (By Sedo brokage), the result is I only get one bid at $70 ofr that nice Domain.. But I have no choice but sale it...

I am negotiate with Sedo broker again for some of my Domains for Auction WITH Reserver. Don't get news back yet. But don't want to take ridk for nice domains any more

 

[Archangel]

I sent YERX.com there starting at $60 -- it ended at $70. And so many LLLL.com's have sold on SEDO & Afternic for at least mid $xxx. I'm not happy with SEDO's auction.

 

[tomcatdss]

Sedo seems to be causing a lot of problems. What's the next best option to send your website to auction ?

 

[wow!]

Unless you think this name is worth much more,
$100 worth an auction.
After all it is only $100.
If you cant wait a week to get your $100 , dont get to this domain business...
IMHO

 

[randomo]

Unless you think this name is worth much more,
$100 worth an auction.
After all it is only $100.
If you cant wait a week to get your $100 , dont get to this domain business...
IMHO

Thanks for sharing your opinion.

It's not that I can't wait a week to get $100 ... the problem is that the buyer may drop out if I make him wait a week. (Some other posts in this thread make that sound possible, even likely.)

This is an OK domain but not great; if he accepts my counteroffer, or comes back with an offer that meets me halfway, I'll probably do better than I would have done at an auction anyway.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[randomo]

Today is off to a bad start in many ways. Here is one of them, a message from Sedo:

"Unfortunately the party interested in your domain,
*********.***, has cancelled their offer and ended the bid thread."

That's what I get for trying to negotiate. (I met the initial $100 offer with a $150 counteroffer.)

Next time, unless it's a domain that could draw a lot of interest, I'll probably just accept the first offer.

 

[AdoptableDomains]

My recent strategy:

1. If the bid is in the upper areas of what I think is reasonable, I take the offer and get the sale running.

2. If the offer is at the bottom of my acceptable amount, I may send to auction just to see if any more bids come in (so far they rarely have).

3. If the bid is way below my bottom line acceptable price, I may counter or wait it out. Sometimes just waiting without response will make them up their offer if they are impatient to get it.

4. If slightly below my acceptable price I'll give this message with a counter offer.
"This is my last offer for a 'buy now' price. However, if you make an offer of at least $XXX I will accept it as starting bid in a reserve met auction. It will guarantee to sell, but you take the chance of bidding competition and the selling price going higher than the buy now price. Offers below this will not be accepted"

I also generally make the $xxx price above about 25% lower than the buy now. My theory here is if they really want it, they may pay the buy now price for a quick close. If they don't buy now, they may not have followed through anyway.

 

[randomo]

Mark - Your advice sounds very sensible! Thanks for offering it.

By sheer coincidence, I just got an offer on another domain at Sedo. The offer was only $65, which was at what you call "the bottom of my acceptable amount." So I am taking your advice, and sending it to auction!

Follow the auction of MySpeechwriter.com by clicking here.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[randomo]

Just FYI ... the auction of MySpeechwriter.com finished today, and nobody else bid, so it finished at the original $65 offer price.

Now I'll see whether the buyer actually pays!