Telepathy...really?

[Keith]

I'm sorry but not a chance I'll ever pay $19 in order to negotiate on a domain. This is a clear money grab. You get bombarded with emails? Set up an automated system to field offers and go from there. This is the kind of shit that gives the domain industry a black eye!

 

[BoothDomains]

Keith, I think you are completely missing the point here. It is not about the $19 fee. If you own tens of thousands of domains, maybe more do you want 1000+ emails coming in a day with most offering nothing? Of course not. Telepathy will only sell their names to end users and in this industry if an end user wants the name they will pay a measly $19 to get through to the relevant person. If you are serious about making a $10m offer and moaning about $19 I am shocked. If I owned a portfolio that size I wouldn't want all these Chinese spam emails and other people offering stupid prices for premium names. Its not about the $19 its about the principal of if you are serious or not. Simple.

 

[vivaldi]

Makes perfect sense. Good way to filter out low ballers.

 

[Keith]

Keith, I think you are completely missing the point here. It is not about the $19 fee. If you own tens of thousands of domains, maybe more do you want 1000+ emails coming in a day with most offering nothing? Of course not. Telepathy will only sell their names to end users and in this industry if an end user wants the name they will pay a measly $19 to get through to the relevant person. If you are serious about making a $10m offer and moaning about $19 I am shocked. If I owned a portfolio that size I wouldn't want all these Chinese spam emails and other people offering stupid prices for premium names. Its not about the $19 its about the principal of if you are serious or not. Simple.

They could set up an automated system for people to submit offers and it could reject lowball bids. I'll never pay to use their inquiry service and in all seriousness I was prepared to offer 5 figures on a domain. That's money I'll spend elsewhere now.

Godaddy, Sedo, Flippa...they handle millions of domains and somehow manage to let customers submit offers for free. If telepathy is such a giant then they could do the same, without ripping people at every turn.

 

[Recons.Com]

What if you offer fair price, pay $19 and they counter with $1M for a name that should be more like $10K. Do they refund you for not serious price?

 

[Wannabean]

I get a fair amount of annoying low ball spammy offers and only have a tiny portfolio in comparison.

I get why they do it but I think it will cost them legit business from people who walk away on principle.

 

[cocaseco]

I'd be happy to post my opinion, but to weed out all the requests, please send me $10 first.

 

[James Iles]

Nat from Telepathy has a portfolio of around 10,000 names. Within that, he has many two and three letter .COMs, and hundreds of valuable one word .COMs.

He'll get hundreds, if not thousands of enquiry emails per week, and I believe he's only interested in dealing with those who will pay the six or seven figure fees necessary to buy a domain from him.

When you're talking about that kind of money, $19 pales into insignificance

 

[wormfood]

What if you offer fair price, pay $19 and they counter with $1M for a name that should be more like $10K. Do they refund you for not serious price?

They'd get a bad name in the industry. Unless anyone has proof that they've done something like that, there's not much reason to be bashing them.

 

[Recons.Com]

It does not have to be that extreme, but just shows that it can go both ways. If they wanted really to weed off the spammers and lowballers, even $1-$5 would have done the trick. No need to price your 10 seconds of considering an offer at $19.

 

[tha-she]

Nat from Telepathy has a portfolio of around 10,000 names. Within that, he has many two and three letter .COMs, and hundreds of valuable one word .COMs.

He'll get hundreds, if not thousands of enquiry emails per week, and I believe he's only interested in dealing with those who will pay the six or seven figure fees necessary to buy a domain from him.

When you're talking about that kind of money, $19 pales into insignificance

I see people complaining all day about lowball offers, if the above is the case, charging to take a look at the offer is a fair way out, and in all seriousness if you NEED/WANT a domain and you are serious about it, whats $19, you say its not the $19 its the principal, i dont see anything wrong with the principal.

This person would stack in probably 24 hours a day and couldnt make it to reply/look at all the offers he would get daily, this is a fair way out, that allows you to get in contact with him and start a negotiation and does not waste hes time incase you are just interested in making a low-ball offer.

 

[Argentum]

Telepathy has best portfolio in domain industry. Only LLL.com's they own more than 1k! And they have funds to keep their portfolio for end users only and quotes starts from $100k, and that works! But with end users. So they are not interested in reseller/low ball offers and $19 is perfect filter for such kind of offers.

 

[Keith]

Telepathy has best portfolio in domain industry. Only LLL.com's they own more than 1k! And they have funds to keep their portfolio for end users only and quotes starts from $100k, and that works! But with end users. So they are not interested in reseller/low ball offers and $19 is perfect filter for such kind of offers.

If they have tons of valuable domains, just build an offer page that rejects anything under $100k. These exact pages are used by other companies in the business. Problem solved.

Charging any amount is ridiculous.

 

[Michael R.]

If they have tons of valuable domains, just build an offer page that rejects anything under $100k. These exact pages are used by other companies in the business. Problem solved.

Charging any amount is ridiculous.

Yes, but anyone can always make an offer greater that $100k. Very easy. And Telepathy will lose one week in negotiations before understanding the buyer is not serious...

And what if it was $0.019 just to avoid spam, non serious offers, etc...? Would you pay?
Then, I imagine that $19 for serious buyers of Telepathy's names is like $0.019 for me... Nothing.

 

[Keith]

Yes, but anyone can always make an offer greater that $100k. Very easy. And Telepathy will lose one week in negotiations before understanding the buyer is not serious...

And what if it was $0.019 just to avoid spam, non serious offers, etc...? Would you pay?
Then, I imagine that $19 for serious buyers of Telepathy's names is like $0.019 for me... Nothing.

$19 isn't going to change most lives. Anyone can pay the fee and waste time negotiating just as easy as if there wasn't a fee. But at the end of the day, serious or not, telepathy profits simply from an inquiry. They could easily put a free system in place if they want...

 

[Michael R.]

$19 isn't going to change most lives. Anyone can pay the fee and waste time negotiating just as easy as if there wasn't a fee. But at the end of the day, serious or not, telepathy profits simply from an inquiry. They could easily put a free system in place if they want...

No, I don't think so. Some people just like making offers they can't afford, in order to dream, or... I don't know. With a free system, they will always be there. The goal here is to face a real potential and motivated buyer only. And exclude curious people.

 

[Keith]

No, I don't think so. Some people just like making offers they can't afford, in order to dream, or... I don't know. With a free system, they will always be there. The goal here is to face a real potential and motivated buyer only. And exclude curious people.

I've never been presented with an offer where the potential buyer ran away upon my reply, unless my counter was absurd. In most cases buyers offer less than they're willing to pay and find a happy medium with the seller.

It's understandable that telepathy doesn't want to field $100 offers for domains worth $100k. There are easy, free solutions to solve the problem. They choose instead to charge for the privilege of email communication. Poor business practice IMO.

 

[Michael R.]

I've never been presented with an offer where the potential buyer ran away upon my reply, unless my counter was absurd. In most cases buyers offer less than they're willing to pay and find a happy medium with the seller.

It's understandable that telepathy doesn't want to field $100 offers for domains worth $100k. There are easy, free solutions to solve the problem. They choose instead to charge for the privilege of email communication. Poor business practice IMO.

Just look at some offers here on LLL.com: some people are offering low xxxx... That's just an example of what I'm explaining above. They are dreaming, are out of the market, are stupid... etc...

But what type of free solutions to you have to avoid these non-serious buyers?

 

[Keith]

But what type of free solutions to you have to avoid these non-serious buyers?

Inquiry pages like several entities already use. You enter the desired domain and it gives you a minimum requirement in order for a successful submission. Simple and free!

 

[james haw]

Telepathy...really?

I knew you were going to say that...

 

[james haw]

There is nothing forcing you to buy a domain from them.

100% agree. I don't see any problem as the service is niche and entirely voluntary (ie it's not like griping over mandatory taxes or gas bills etc).

If they have tons of valuable domains, just build an offer page that rejects anything under $100k.

But they don't need to. And who would they be trying to accommodate?

Besides, that doesn't stop people sending an offer for 100K and then once discussions are underway stating "Oh actually my offer is $5000". $19 upfront means anyone who pays is likely serious, it at leasts weeds out the spam as spammers don't very often pay to spam.

Charging any amount is ridiculous.

They only charge if you use their services, as per the rest of the world. $0 is about the going rate for obtaining no products or services