discuss Sold on Sedo for 300,000 EURO But Buyer Didn't Pay

[illumy]

I had a 300,000 EUR unpaid sale record on Sedo, which was cancelled 2 weeks ago on one of my premium .APP domains to US buyer, online Purchase and Sale Agreement seems like a joke on websites like GoDaddy or Sedo. Heard too many unpaid stories about how they failed to do anything concrete on unpaid buyers. Literally a waste of time and money in many occasion.

What do you guys think of this? Just move on?

 

[.X.]

forget it and let it all go, although the majority of my sales go really smooth at Sedo, There is always a clown sending me a ridiculous offer every once in a while. don't sweat it, no biggie.

 

[hohoho]

A Purchase and Sale Agreement should be enforceable (I don't need to talk to my friend to know that). But did they "sign" it, i.e. digitally?

Usually it's not worth it, but on a €300k sale I don't see why you wouldn't? Best case, you make 300k, worst case you don't (but that's where you're at now) and are out some expenses.

Agreements are generally enforceable in the western world. Thing is, most people don't bother because it's not worth the hassle -- especially internationally. It's a bit of a pain.

 

[Armageddon]

IMO , keep the domain & who knows maybe in 1-2 year's you get some money for this domain

 

[illumy]

IMO , keep the domain & who knows maybe in 1-2 year's you get some money for this domain

Pretty much

 

[hohoho]

I would try to figure out who the buyer was. If it's a sizeable company, go after them. If not, just keep it.

It's not a given you'll ever find someone again willing to pay €300k.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

Forget the moneyyy
You have the domainnn

Means, you now have the possibillity to sell it for moreee

 

[xynames]

It's not a given you'll ever find someone again willing to pay €300k.

He didn’t find anyone willing to pay €300K in the first place, let alone “again.”

 

[wizard]

did u get anywhere with this as had many sales on sedo with no payers just move on...

 

[hohoho]

He didn’t find anyone willing to pay €300K in the first place, let alone “again.”

He did find a person willing to (digitally) sign an agreement to hand over €300k for a domain name. Regardless of what people are saying, and even if they have changed their mind, these ARE enforceable. The only question is: do you want to enforce it?

Domains aside, for €300k (could be related to anything) I would, but looks like I'm in the minority here. I wouldn't let a person off the hook for free (i.e. seller and buyer could settle for 10% of the purchase price to cancel the purchase). To each their own approach.

Even if it's a nice domain, you currently have zero guarantees that anyone will ever offer that much again. Or even half that amount. I would have a different opinion if we were talking $2 or 20k, but I think this amount warrants enforcement of the agreement.

Since seller said he was dealing with an individual, that could be interesting. They would be personally liable.

 

[illumy]

He didn’t find anyone willing to pay €300K in the first place, let alone “again.”

Well, I have 3 buyers in price negotiation, one or two near offers, so we will see.

 

[illumy]

Well people need to learn from this.

Its like the story where one guy thinks he won a lottery and divorces his wife and started looking at expensive cars to buy.

Haha yea, pretty much, like I said it's nothing unusual and I'm cool with it, but at the same time not cool at how we are used to this and the platforms like Sedo seems like helper to encourage this act by doing nothing to stop this, haha.

 

[hohoho]

I agree that it's odd that they are not willing to give out details without a lawyer. Then again, the enforcement of agreements isn't on Sedo. It's on the seller, in this case.

Note that you likely can't enforce the cancellation fee if you've sold on the domain for the same or a higher amount. The thinking is that the fee should cover "lost opportunity". In addition you should honer the possibility for the buyer to acquire the domain for the agreed price.

As a first step I would contact a US IP lawyer (i.e. preferably a name that has experience and a track record with domains) and, after requesting and receiving the details from Sedo, request the buyer honers the agreement, or cancels the sale at a cost of 10% of the purchase value.

Not sure what the policies on the board are re name dropping, but a larger firm such as Winston & Strawn would likely be happy to assist.

 

[illumy]

I agree that it's odd that they are not willing to give out details without a lawyer. Then again, the enforcement of agreements isn't on Sedo. It's on the seller, in this case.

Note that you likely can't enforce the cancellation fee if you've sold on the domain for the same or a higher amount. The thinking is that the fee should cover "lost opportunity". In addition you should honer the possibility for the buyer to acquire the domain for the agreed price.

As a first step I would contact a US IP lawyer (i.e. preferably a name that has experience and a track record with domains) and, after requesting and receiving the details from Sedo, request the buyer honers the agreement, or cancels the sale at a cost of 10% of the purchase value.

Not sure what the policies on the board are re name dropping, but a larger firm such as Winston & Strawn would likely be happy to assist.

Thanks man! Appreciate it.

 

[momentum]

I had a 300,000 EUR unpaid sale record on Sedo, which was cancelled 2 weeks ago ...

Sorry to hear about that. It seems that nothing is a sure deal until it shows up in your bank account.

 

[onlinetv]

Sedo has always been a shotgun business. Try and throw as much in the wind as they can and live off the few that hit a target.

They blew a 100k deal for NYCTV.com basically the same way. Just let him pass on by.
To their credit they try with their tos and such, but really they can do nothing to make a completion except demand their vig on the sale. They will give a name and address so YOU can continue with the headache and they sit back waiting for more idiots to pass them sales.

I had another one they blew for OnlineTV.com in the mid six figures but they handed me a contract which was some kind of boiler plate gumba. I went over it with my lawyer and we could not sign unless one line was removed. The line merely said I hand over all copyrights in and of OnlineTV.com. This was not for a website, just domain name. Also I have over 6000 concerts I own under original contract to OnlineTV, so I am not selling those copyrights. The error of their boiler plate was trying to make one shoe fit everyone. The only place where just the sale of a domain was at the beginning with a check box for that or website and domain. So their contract was very expansive including website. That would entail the copyrights to that, working patents if any, logos, etc. Which would also be included in the sale if it was a website sale. This has nothing to do in a contract for a domain and the confusion in what copyrights are being turned over made us remove that one sentence in a 4 page contract.

So while they say here is a contract, look it over, they do not mean you can change anything AND when you ask to talk to their legal department, THEY HAVE NONE! They had some dumb shm*Ck write one, long ago, and that's that.

Which is another reason they dont go after the fraud of sales that are not completed.

 

[illumy]

There have been no verified sales above low five figures. Talking about “inner circle” supposed sales is just that - talk. Checking namebio as of today the highest sale is 15,000
https://namebio.com/?s==YjNwIzMzAjM
In fact some of the five figure claimed .app sales were bogus so maybe even that 15k sale never happened:
https://onlinedomain.com/2018/07/16...-domain-name-sales-on-namebio-never-happened/

Right here on NP we have another failed low four figure “sale” for a dot app
https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...00-but-buyer-doesnt-pay.1116067/#post-7078725

This domain will not sell for €300K. In order for that to happen we’d first need to see current sales of multi million dollar three letter dot coms and even then it still wouldn’t happen.

This offer was more likely someone playing around with no intention to pay from the getgo.

OP’s going around disliking posts from those of us here who are infusing reality into this topic just makes anything the OP posts less credible. Does he want input or not?

This was not an auction so there were not any bids just below the €300K. Rather, it was just some jokester who clicked the BIN, or was it even someone offering a massive amount out of the blue? Maybe it was a deliberate attempt to poke fun at the BIN price (if there was a BIN posted), or to poke fun at the domain itself, who knows.

I think the OP now recognizes the invalidity of the €300K offer and that’s a mature sensible attitude.

Well, you are entitled to say what you want, but since this is my thread, I can dislike when I dislike. For one, simply because you don't know or it's not on NameBios or DNJournal does not mean the sales did not happen, actually there's probably more privately undisclosed sales then publicly announced sales all around the world if you really know what you are talking about.

For two, you sounded like those ignorant non-domainers that commented on value they don't appreciate, then think it is not worth it to everyone around the continent, simple self-centred mindset which I also dislike, oh you are selling this.com for 1,000,000 USD? Sorry I think it's only worth 100 bucks, have fun selling them in your dream. Simply because you don't think they are value for what "you" think does not matter, people negotiating with us before and still are see the value is all that matters.

And last, I can price and sell what I want whether it's 3 Millions, 300K or 30K, that was bid to buy and went under couple rounds of negotiation to settled at that price, you're being self-centric ignorant again thinking it was simply a toss of BIN. And my BIN is above this now, yet I still got buyers negotiating with me at the moment, you are probably gonna say something like oh because I don't know or I can't see evidence it's probably in your head or bluffing. Think what you like to think, but I can dislike whatever I want whenever I feel you are talking non-sense. Or you can leave this thread clean by not commenting, I feel I have more to talk to with most other people in this thread.

To toss you a few mentionable ones since you are not in the circle, then again you probably gonna say oh it's not on Namebio or been verified, it's fake, whatever, I know those people so think what you like.

2.app for 390K RMB end of Dec.
5.app for 420K RMB end of May,
Caipiao.app (lotto in Chinese pinyin) sold over 1M RMB on 26th of July
Gay.app sold to Blued.com at 1M USD at end of May
123.app at 60K RMB 13th of Dec
928.app 915.app 850.app for 110K RMB
Host.app 100K RMB
Sichuan.APP 56K RMB
333.app 60K RMB
777.app 60K RMB
555.app 60K RMB
AV.app 6 figures RMB
19.app mid 6 figures RMB sold early Jan

FYI, most domainers in the Chinese market as well as other none-English speaking countries I know do not put their sales on Namebio/DNJournal, does not mean they don't exist, simply means you are not in the circle of information, too bad. .APP domains sold numerously on daily basis in all sorts of domainer groups, privately. So are other extensions, you will be pretty silly to think Namebio/DNJournal/Namepros are all that is to them.

 

[poweredbyme]

"Make offer" causes negotiations. Purchase decision can change quickly, quicker than most of you think.
Main reason of non-payment is absence of an instant purchase option.

We can see the same pattern in other human relations. I can give 2 examples at the moment:
1 -Finding a job:
They will hire someone else, if they told you that "we will call you"

2 - Romantic relation
He/she will like someone else, if he/she told you that "I am busy tonight for hanging out. But I will call you as soon as I have free time,"

Someone will be called later for sure but he/she will not be you.
The person who made offer and didn't pay will purchase a domain for sure but it will not be yours.

 

[gilescoley]

More has been sold already for .APP domains. Too bad you are not in the circle.

This is not the case, 15k is the highest publicly reported sale.

Talking about legal action is crazy, its just some kid playing around, you can do that these days online and not be accountable for anything.

My advice is to forget about .app for now and focus on strong extensions, especially being new to the industry. If the extension does pick up in a few years, by all means get involved again and try and make some sales, but at the moment, its really not worth it, not with around 13 reported sales. Yes there may be unreported sales, but that will only be a small handful.

 

[Keukatodd]

Don't feel bad. I just had an offer of $55,552,250 on Afternic and it never closed...

Not joking though. The offer above is really what they made.

 

[topdom]

Here are possibilities.
1. Buyer was serious but changed his mind after making the bid.
2. Made the wrong offer, maybe tried to offer 3000,00 or made offer on the wrong domain.
3. Unserious person just making fun.

What to do:

1. is unlikely but if you think this might be the case, you can just wait, and let Sedo do its job to collect the money, as much as they can.

2. most likely scenario. There is nothing to do. That person would prefer going to prison to paying 300K.

3. Nothing to do.

 

[hohoho]

2. most likely scenario. There is nothing to do. That person would prefer going to prison to paying 300K.

You don't go to prison for not honoring commitments you make. With a court order, everything you own might be sold off in a public auction and you might have to declare personal bankruptcy if that is insufficient to satisfy the creditor, but you won't go to prison.

At most, you'll be a penniless idiot.

 

[scanner2005]

I had also several unpaid offers at Afternic... i had 2 unpaid offers for the same domain in 4 months...

 

[illumy]

The only thing they can do is close the account of the person who made the offer

Thought so too, but that's lame, really. Not like new or barely-used account holder cares for anything.

 

[illumy]

Escrow is the same, i use efty with escrow pay and i've had it happen numerous times where they click buy now and agree to the agreement but then never pay. After 30 days it just gets cancelled.

That's lame, 30 days wow what a waste of good time. They shall shorten it to 3 days only don't you think? None of us appreciate good waste of time, if they fail to pay in 3 days it means they probably ain't gonna pay in another 3 months don't you think?

 

[illumy]

Hah get used to it I had a $250k offer .....I knew it was bs ,forget about it and move on and the fact it’s an .app should of been a red flag anyways imo .....how many .app sales in 6 figures ?

I know 2 happened for sure, imo.