Sedo counter offer and sending a domain to auction. Warning

[DotWeekly]

I made a costly mistake today and learned the hard way. The reason for this posting is to prevent it from happening to you.

The Basics:

I got a $250 offer on a domain at Sedo and intended to send it to auction if the price was at $500.

I counter offered at $500 to the buyer, with the intent to send it to auction if the buyer agreed to the $500.

The buyer accepted my $500 counter offer and I had no chance to send the domain to public auction at Sedo. The domain became instantly sold with the buyer agreeing to my $500 counter.

The only way I could have sent the domain to public auction, is if the buyer counter offered me and the price was lower than my counter.

Moral of the story

You can NOT send a domain name to public auction at Sedo as a seller on a counter offer and the buyer agrees to the price you send them.

Added info
My situation was a little bit different, because I had made a posting on my blog with several domains for sale and the domain mentioned above, had a $500 minimum to send it to auction. Normally, I would counter offer at my expected price, which in this case $x,xxx)and not at what I would have liked to send it to public auction at.

 

[ssamriga]

Well it clearly says that you agree to sell at the price you're counter-offering. Sad of course, but no fault at Sedo's side...

 

[malcarada]

So what were you meant to do? Send the domain to auction straight away with a minimum price??

 

[DotWeekly]

I agree, no fault at Sedo! It was my fault.

I was thinking that if the buyer accepted my counter offer, I would still have the option to send the domain to auction.

My mistake, but I just didn't want somebody else to make it.

 

[wot]

I made a costly mistake today and learned the hard way. The reason for this posting is to prevent it from happening to you.

The Basics:

I got a $250 offer on a domain at Sedo and intended to send it to auction if the price was at $500.

I counter offered at $500 to the buyer, with the intent to send it to auction if the buyer agreed to the $500.

The buyer accepted my $500 counter offer and I had no chance to send the domain to public auction at Sedo. The domain became instantly sold with the buyer agreeing to my $500 counter.

The only way I could have sent the domain to public auction, is if the buyer counter offered me and the price was lower than my counter.

Moral of the story

You can NOT send a domain name to public auction at Sedo as a seller on a counter offer and the buyer agrees to the price you send them.

Added info
My situation was a little bit different, because I had made a posting on my blog with several domains for sale and the domain mentioned above, had a $500 minimum to send it to auction. Normally, I would counter offer at my expected price, which in this case $x,xxx)and not at what I would have liked to send it to public auction at.

With your experience I am surprised you did not know this. The buyer must have thought it was Xmas again.

We all continue to learn!

 

[Keith]

Next time counter for 10k and drop a message to the buyer. That way they can't/won't accept your counter and they are made aware of your intentions.

 

[domainbartender]

I just read someone's advice in a thread that you should counter offer and then send to auction. If I hadn't read your thread after that, I would have made exactly the same mistake. Thanks so much for watching out for others!

 

[cache]

Yofie, you are an old timer, there is no excuse for this kind of mistake. However I think you had little choice, if you had countered $5000 and the buyer stopped responding to you, what would you do then?

 

[ibidu]

Curious to know the domain's name to see if you really had a bad deal?

lol

 

[raceway]

That sucks, at least you made a sale. Hopefully it was not an lll.com. lol

you will know how to play the game next time.

 

[htmlindex]

I was thinking that if the buyer accepted my counter offer, I would still have the option to send the domain to auction.

My mistake, but I just didn't want somebody else to make it.

I'm also quite surprised you made this mistake being here for quite a while.

It would be like saying I'll sell you this for this agreed price, but once you agree to it I want to auction it off for a higher price to the highest bidder

 

[DotWeekly]

I'm also quite surprised you made this mistake being here for quite a while.

It was a unique situation.. as I posted the domain on my blog that I would send the domain to auction on Sedo at $500. So I know the buyer likely read my post.

"Normally" I would have simply countered higher and then I would have had the option to send the domain to auction if the interested party counter offered or accept.

BTW, yes I have been around awhile but I do not use Sedo every day either and as I said.. all times in the past, I have simply countered higher but my blog post is what threw me off and the $500 was stuck in my head that I would send it to auction at that price.

 

[DN_Hunter]

Next time counter for 10k and drop a message to the buyer. That way they can't/won't accept your counter and they are made aware of your intentions.

@OP: thanks for the heads up -- I made that exact same mistake about a year ago, and have since been careful about my counter offers.

But there's a couple of things that rub me the wrong way with regard to Sedo's setup regarding counter offers:

1) I think the idea to counter higher with a message that you would send it to auction for a certain offer is good, but it bugs me that if you send that message on a Friday after hours, you have to wait until sometime Monday morning before someone at Sedo reviews the comment to let the buyer see it (so the buyer has no idea what you have said, but only sees the higher counter offer and might be scared away).

2) I also can't stand the 7-days that your counter offer is "binding" - sometimes I think there are those that use my counter offer, and then start shopping around the domain name. If they find a buyer willing to pay more than my counter offer, they go ahead and accept it. But too many times I get NO response, and the 7-days just passes by. I wish Sedo would force the potential buyer to at least acknowledge if they are no longer interested and cancel the thread after 2 or 3 days. If they are still interested, they can just hit a "Still Contemplating" button to at least let us sellers know they are still thinking about it...

 

[dragtastic]

um - isnt this a no brainer?

If you COUNTER a price that means you want to sell the item for that price

nothing hidden there - thats how any counter offer works

You cant counter an offer and then say "hey - I want to sell if for XXX more"

 

[vitalir]

I did exactly same mistake in the past. The buyer was quite confident judging by his/her bidding steps. In my estimate the mistake cost me around 1k EUR. I even managed to reach a sedo representative in Germany, trying to stop the deal, but she vehemently rejected so I sold it fingers crossed..

 

[Erdy]

There is nothing to warn others about. The buyer made you an offer for $250 and you said, "No, I will sell for $500". However, your mind was occupied with something else at the time and you didn't realise what you were saying.

 

[Dotmainer]

^ :bingo:

Agree with Erdinc.