I'm in Japan and I look at things a little bit differently after being in the US. In the US; while I was there in WA State (don't know if this has changed everywhere or even in my home state), the price states $2.00 for Widget A.
Everyone from Washington knows the policy on sales tax, so Widget A may be a consumable good which isn't taxed (besides cigarettes, alcohol, beer, etc.) or has sales tax on it.
However, in Japan we have two prices which are clear: the price of the product and what you will pay for it at the counter.
If the domain name isn't a considerable amount and the person is trusted, I will pay through PayPal. I will send the amount plus cover the fees. Let's say for instance it costs $100, I will send $102 (don't have a PayPal calculator handy and figured they're not accurate to the penny anyway). The person on the receiving end will get $100 and I will put down the cost of the domain being $102, but track it with 3* entries: total cost of ownership ($102, or more if I renewed it on a transfer*), listing price ($100) and fees paid ($2 + transfer/renewal*). This gives me a clear and concise way of measuring exactly how much I paid for a domain, whether I used PayPal or Escrow for the transaction (as Escrow could be no fees, full fees or split fees).
Sometimes it works in my favor (I get it right on or a penny above for the seller) or below (a penny to dollars under, which I will then make for up in a gift if there is anything to settle).
I do this as a polite gesture though and as
@iowadawg stated, it's up to the seller to pay the fees for the domain. I could very well send $100 as it was listed for $100 and them receive $97.50.
In addition to that, it is in the rules of this forum, you are supposed to send money as paying for goods or services (
auctions, seller rule #4). Which in this case, if an auction ended at $100, you pay $100 and the seller will receive $97.50. If there are any disputes on why they didn't get $100 and fail to push the name and/or refuse to refund the money,
report them immediately.
Nobody;
and I repeat nobody, is required to follow the same practices that I do (send more for goods and services to cover fees). I solely do this for the purpose of others as I was once a beginner and that extra $2.50 or so could have helped me out buy another 2 domains, getting ahead a lot quicker (possibly). The way I see it is, it's all about
paying it forward.
There's also Escrow.com but they charge a bit. Normally people selling really high priced domains use Escow.
