Selling to Previous Owners

[NameBuyer.com]

Selling to Previous Owners Who Contact You

What has been your experience in selling to previous owners? Do you sell cheap ($100 or less) or go for midrange pricing at $200-$1000? What percentage of domains do you sell at these prices to the previous owner?

In the past, I would usually sell for $100 or less as long as the domain was not extremely valuable and I didn't have any special attachment to the domain. I would ask for proof of previous ownership before selling at this price in questionable cases. I've sold almost 100% of them when asking between $60-$100.

Recently, some of my friends and family have suggested treating it solely as a business scenario and sell to the previous owner for $500-1000, if the domain would normally be priced at $1,500-$2,000.

 

[Jeff]

How are you coming about these domains ... having had previous owners (and their contact information)? I'm assuming they're End users. :gl:

Thanks for the assist.
-Jeff

 

[NameBuyer.com]

Sorry, I should have been more specific....This is where the old owner of the domain is contacting me either because they "forgot" to renew the domain, or had a problem such as their web designer registered the name and he let it expire. In about 1-2 out of every 100 expired domains that I purchase, the previous owner contacts me to buy the domain.

 

[Jeff]

Sorry, I should have been more specific....This is where the old owner of the domain is contacting me either because they "forgot" to renew the domain, or had a problem such as their web designer registered the name and he let it expire. In about 1-2 out of every 100 expired domains that I purchase, the previous owner contacts me to buy the domain.

That's a pretty high perecentage for developed, money-making websites ... but I can see 1 - 2 / 100 undeveloped and previously registered/"reserved" domain names dropping, IMHO. If they - the old owners - can prove to you that they need the domain name for their business plan / purposes, that the drop was an accident (for instance, the web designed messed up) and you can easily establish prior ownership and their need for it, etc. ... you should work with them to get them their domain back for a modest sum, IMHO. :music:
Just my two sense.
-Jeff

 

[TheBulldog]

I would only slightly disagree with Jeff with a caveat.

If you have definite plans for the domain, and it is generic, then ask what you like. If it isn't generic, I would tend to give it back +25-$50 for trouble.

Example: theweddingpalace.com vs bobsweddingpalace.com

If I picked up theweddingpalace.com, I would have definite plans to develop it. If I picked up bobsweddingpalace.com, and my name wasn't Bob, then chances are I was either squatting or just picking up the name hoping to sell to the end-user.

 

[Jeff]

^ Good points, Mr. Bulldog. :music: :imho:

-Jeff

 

[NameBuyer.com]

Thanks for your advice. In both of the recent inquiries from previous domain owners, the domain was a pretty generic 2-3 word combination for the related industry. In both of these recent situations, I've offered the domain to the previous owner for $500+ and understandably the original owner had no interest in buying the domain at that price. The small business was a one man business that said they would just change their business name rather than pay $500, even though if he would have countered at $200 I would have taken it. The other name belonged to a decent size small business that just invested $85,000-$100,000 in their brick and mortar business and was having a web designer build a new website for them. Yet instead of paying $1000 to recover their name they just registered the .net version, even though they have several links coming into the .com for yellow page ads, etc... They didn't even counter at $500, which I would have taken.

Before the 2 recent situations above, I was contacted a total of 6 times and I've always just offered the old owner the domain for $70-100 and all of the 6 previous owners agreed to that amount without any counter offer.

So my main question is not so much regarding my situation, but in general: Is it the norm for other domainers to just sell the name back to the original owner for a nominal fee (up to $100) or do any domainers hold out for a higher price and if so, what has been your end result?

I know when my friend forgot to update the contact email address for his account, 5-10 of his domains expired. He contacted the new owners and none of them sold the domain back to him and buydomains had one of his domains(mailreminders.com), listed for $2,200. They posted this price for him, with obviously no discount, after he told them that he was the previous owner.

 

[Kate]

...
So my main question is not so much regarding my situation, but in general: Is it the norm for other domainers to just sell the name back to the original owner for a nominal fee (up to $100) or do any domainers hold out for a higher price and if so, what has been your end result?

The way I see it... most drops are not by accident. The domains have been abandoned, the owner passed away or closed business. Of course sometimes people make the mistake of 'registering' domains through a webdesigner or so...
Also when a name expires the name servers usually change and associated services like E-mail or website will stop functioning. If the owner doesn't realize by then it means they have not been using the domain actively...

Once or twice I've been contacted by somebody posing as previous owner, and their story was far from convincing. So be careful. Some people will gladly abuse the good faith of domainers.

IMO each case is different. Ponder how badly do you need the domain, what it's reasonably worth and whether you think the former owner deserves a favor.
I don't mind doing a favor but rewarding negligence should not be an automatic gesture

 

[domainsusi]

I don't have any luck quoting a price - no matter how small.

Any inquiries I receive now, I tell them to make an offer. Ususally I never hear from them again.

Guess they all think they will get it for free.

 

[Pommy - The DN Doc]

I would only slightly disagree with Jeff with a caveat.

If you have definite plans for the domain, and it is generic, then ask what you like. If it isn't generic, I would tend to give it back +25-$50 for trouble.

Example: theweddingpalace.com vs bobsweddingpalace.com

If I picked up theweddingpalace.com, I would have definite plans to develop it. If I picked up bobsweddingpalace.com, and my name wasn't Bob, then chances are I was either squatting or just picking up the name hoping to sell to the end-user.

Why would you want a non-generic domain name. Help me out, because I thought that there was little value in these and they were more prone to legal issues such as previous owners, TMs etc.


Edit:

Hmmm. I wonder if my question was answered in the original post. If it was, apologies for taking valuable space up!

 

[DavesDomains]

I purchased a domain from TDNAM just for the traffic and then the previous owner contacted me that he forgot to renew the domain. I paid around $130 for the name and asked $500 and sold it back to him for $300! It was not a generic name and it was a .org ! If you offer to sell them it back for $50 or so every time then you have NO chance of making that $500 or $1000 sale. If you miss the $50 sale then you dont lose much but if they would have given you $1000 then look how much you just lost! It is NOT personal it is just BUSINESS!

 

[NameBuyer.com]

Why would you want a non-generic domain name. Help me out, because I thought that there was little value in these and they were more prone to legal issues such as previous owners, TMs etc.

98% of my domains are generic to the industry, but occasionally I'll purchase a domain just for the traffic. I purchased an expired .us domain for $10 in December that is probably worth about $50 at the most, but it has been making $20+ per month from parking with over 1,000 visitors a month. This is only because it has several of links from other high traffic sites.

On the other hand, I bought heathersbridal.com last year for the traffic and most of the traffic turned out to be junk. But the domain at least pays for the registration fee every year. Both domains were abandoned by the previous owners.

If you offer to sell them it back for $50 or so every time then you have NO chance of making that $500 or $1000 sale. If you miss the $50 sale then you dont lose much but if they would have given you $1000 then look how much you just lost! It is NOT personal it is just BUSINESS!

I agree with you, and with sdsinc. I think you can start high and work your way down depending on the name and the usefullness to the end user. Both of these businesses use their website as a "brochure website" for their brick and mortar business or local service business. Although a website is valuable for marketing purposes, they don't see their website as a source of income so either one is willing to abandon the domain. One of the sites gets over 200 visitors a month so it is astonishing to me that they don't even care about recovering it enough to even make a counter offer, while at the same time they are paying a web designer $1000+ for the new web site layout.

yeah i figured you would be unreasonable about it. thats ok I can file a DBA in my state for less then that or just bankrupt the corp and start a new one and get better tax breaks lol good luck squatting on that site ill make sure that there wont be any traffic heading there for all eternity. Good luck selling a dead domain

LOL! The only thing i'm pondering now is whether to sell to the old domain owner after he wrote back with the response above. I don't think a starting price of $550 is unreasonable, definitely not so high that you can't just counter and say "all I can afford is $150...", which I probably would have gladly accepted. Now I don't feel like selling it at all after the rambling unprofessional email I received.

 

[sashas]

$1000, flat rate

 

[Charley]

$1000, flat rate

What's that ?