What would domain owner think?

[Name Trader]

I've been in contact with a domain owner about a domain. He's asking too much money (4-5 times estibot value). He seems adamant about the price. I don't think it's worth that much (of course).

All other tld's are unregistered. Would registering one or even two other tld's improve my chances of negotiating the .com down, or would they just see it as making it more valuable? (Negotiations have been left at the point where I cannot afford the domain).

 

[RWD]

Stub,

IMHO

Have you looked into who you are dealing with? How many domains does he/she have? Is he/she a developer? Or an investor? Pro? or Rookie?
The more you can find about who your dealing with, the better you can answer if adding other ext. would help or hurt.

Your the expert, I'm not by any means but that's how I'd approach it from your shoes.

RWD

 

[Name Trader]

He's a pro domainer/developer. He claims to have developed the domain in the past, but I see no evidence of that in archive.org. In fact archive.org only has it redirected to another of his domains, just like it is at present.

 

[south]

imho, if you were to register the other extensions, it would indicate more interest, and probably just confirm the sellers hard stance on the price. Of course on the other hand, if you don't register the others, you run the risk of someone else registering them before you do, assuming you were planning to get them after the .com was secured.

 

[Name Trader]

Well for sure I don't think I'd register any other tld's if I had the .com

 

[El Bandolero]

Well for sure I don't think I'd register any other tld's if I had the .com

Have you asked him to consider a trade?

 

[Kate]

I've been in contact with a domain owner about a domain. He's asking too much money (4-5 times estibot value). He seems adamant about the price. I don't think it's worth that much (of course).

estibot is definitely not the right way to assess the value of a domain name.
Of course you can tell the owner you'd prefer to buy the .com but your budget is limited and you are willing to settle for the next available extension. You have some leverage here but he may not budge. And if you don't actually proceed with plan B, it will confirm (to the owner) that you don't really have other options. Unless you find another domain name.

If he's a domainer, you can make it clear you're a domainer too and you're not looking to pay retail. If his expectations are unrealistic you might point to reported sales for comparable domains.

 

[Jawed]

I wouldn't register other extensions at all. Once I made this mistake and ended up paying $4,000 for a name no one here at NP would pay even $20 for it.

(If you are curious about the name, stub, pm me and I will disclose the name to you. I never developed the name because later I got a better name for the project and then let other extensions drop. The .come version is still with me. I will keep it for a while just as a reminder).

 

[Name Trader]

Thanks sdsinc. I know all the arguments for and against any kind of valuation. But to me, 5 times more than estibot valuation is usually retail pricing. OK, I know that if I'm the buyer, its retail pricing, but my bid was based upon two other very similar domains which I recently purchased in the last week. Which I bought for approx 5% & 7.5% of what the seller is asking for this domain (which I consider I paid retail for). OK. This domain might be worth as much as twice what I paid for those domains, but not up to 20 times more.

I can't reveal my other purchases to him, apart from in a general way, because it would reveal my strategy for wanting this domain. But I have maybe up to 2 weeks to make a final negotiation/decision.

Of course any domain is only worth what a buyer and seller agree too. Because of the unrealistic pricing on this domain, I think it's real value is yet to be determined

But we digress a tad. Would registering the .net or .org hinder or help in my negotiations.

 

[alien51]

This happened to me just recently also. The guy did not like my .COM asking price and he never contacted me again for any kind of further negotiations after just 2 emails.

But then 2 days later, i discovered that the .NET version of my domain was suddenly registered, with YEAR 0. My .COM is YEAR 9.

My domains are never parked. Being "lightly" developed, they all show up on Google. Because this specific .COM domain is a two-word generic keyword domain, when he regged the .NET it is a sign to me that he wants to go head-to-head with me on Search.

If he is a serious web developer, i don't know if it will help his cause that two identical domains will be showing up on Google and confuse his customers. So i'm not sure why he would reg the .NET in the first place.

The more you develop your .NET, the more i develop my .COM. If you are a legit business and eventually wins the SEO war, some of your traffic will end up in my turf and hopefully i can monetize them to pay-off the renewal costs forever.. plus profits. So my .COM will be like your .NET's evil twin brother.

That's the full-blown web development war scenario.

In terms of regging the .NET just for bluffing purposes during price negotiations. Well, if you think it is worth 8 bucks to see how he would react, you would have to tell him that it was you who regged the .NET. In any case, if i was the COM owner, i probably would also spend 8 bucks myself (or 1.99 Godaddy transfers) and wait another year just to see how far you would go with that .NET. If it's an empty threat, i am looking at your .NET to eventually drop-out or remain undeveloped. Otherwise, you would have to spend time and effort to develop it to earn legit status. And if that happens, the situation will just end up with the SEO War i mentioned above.

So in my opinion, you can pay the bluff and reg the .NET and see what happens. Or walk away, if you really don't want to pay the man what he wants.

Merry Christmas.

 

[Name Trader]

I can't afford the price he wants. So the most likely scenario is going to be that I walk away. But we probably have a couple more rounds of negotiations to go before I do that and reg the .net. I haven't had anyone really support the suggestion that I should reg the .net for pressure purposes.

There are eight domains I want for a particular strategy I have in mind. I now own six of them. So I think I have a pretty good idea of the valuations. One other domain I walked away and registered the net, when the seller terminated the conversation without ever even giving me a price (so that's #7). So I've done it once before. I never thought it was going to be easy to buy all eight, but I'm a tad surprised they are holding out for so much.

The strategy isn't going to be a huge moneymaker. More a neat and tidy way to organize everything.

Merry Christmas to you too.

---------- Post added at 04:12 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:20 PM ----------

OK. I managed to register the hyphenated version for regfee. So I think I'm in good shape for any further negotiations.

 

[zoomactive.com]

I believe the seller would not negotiate on price if you registered another extension. Registering other domains increases the value of the .com imo.

Why?
So, you develop a domain that is a .net extension, getting lots of traffic. How much traffic are you not getting because people simply remember your name and go to domainname.com instead of domainname.net

You will want to buy the .com to ensure your brand is safe from fowl play, capture those customers going to the .com instead of .net.

The .com domain owner will know this. Either try and reach an agreement or move onto another domain.

I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Name Trader]

This was the conclusion I came to too. Which is why I didn't register the .net. I registered the hyphenated .com instead. It's my feeling that I will never come to an agreement on buying the .com because they are unreasonable in their price expectation. Of course, whatever alternative tld I use, I can never do anything about somebody connecting to their domain with a direct type-in. That's a given. Although I would prefer to use the direct type-in domain, it's not essential for my strategy. I'm going to be cross-linking my 8 domains together. this won't require that I need the direct type-in domain. I will continue the negotiations, but I think they are doomed to failure. Ce la vie!

 

[Kate]

We have all been there. Either as a buyer or a seller.
Put your best offer on the table, take it or leave it.
Perhaps the hyphenated version you just grabbed is viable enough for your plans.

Also, be sure to monitor the domain, because it may drop one day - you never know. Even domain names that got offers are allowed to drop.
Whenever I'm interested in a domain name, I add it to my monitoring list. Then one, two, three years later... it often becomes available. I believe that I caught roughly 30% of my list just by waiting < 5 years. The shelf life of a domain name is typically short, that is a few years.
To put things in perspective, we've been NP members for 5+ years.

 

[Name Trader]

I've experienced this too, although maybe not at the level of 30%. But I don't think this is going to happen in this case where the owner has been religiously renewing for 10 years, hoping for an unrealistic payday

The counter argument is that one day, they might come to their senses

 

[Aggro]

Pull the other one

None of you are real developers beyond a basic mini site

And if it's a real site it's based on domains...BORING...zzz

Just hoarders who monitor the drops every day of your lives 'til you drop dead..
It's a condition...like those obsessive hoarders with OCD

Just look at all the sh1t already backordered by idiots as seen on Namejet daily lists ..
10 times removed from the root term that no-one will ever want..
Think how much Namejet are making PER DAY @ $69 each

"8 linked domains" sounds like some already failed strategy like them schmucks in the early 2000's who registered 10,000s of cross linked domains.
Ended up bankrupt...

ROFLMAO

 

[Keith]

I've been in contact with a domain owner about a domain. He's asking too much money (4-5 times estibot value). He seems adamant about the price.

This is the beauty of domaining. It could be a domain that would only fetch $20 here but if someone wants it bad enough, sky is the limit.

When there is only one in the world, the seller always has the advantage. The only time the cards change is when the seller is shopping the domain around. Bottom line in your situation...the seller has the upper hand. If you must have the name then you have to pay the ransom!

 

[Name Trader]

@Keith - There are always alternatives with two word domains. The seller only has the upper hand if you only want the domain he owns. It would be very nice at the correct price. Happily there are cheaper regfee alternatives Not as good maybe but still acceptable.

@Aggro - Thanks for your thoughts. As I've already said in this thread, these 8 domains are to make things neat and tidy rather than a super moneymaking plan. But I guess some people just can't read. I mentioned I already owned 6 of the 8 domains, merely to point out that I have some idea of the value of similar domains, I'm not valuing this domain without any knowledge of it's market worth. As for your thought's about hoarders and NameJet, I happen to agree with you, but fail to see the relevance to this thread. But there are valuable domains to be caught on both NameJet and SnapNames every day (along with all the rubbish). But I'm not somebody that hangs out in those places unless I'm looking for a specific domain.

 

[Keith]

@Keith - There are always alternatives with two word domains. The seller only has the upper hand if you only want the domain he owns.

Of course there are alternatives but that isn't relevant to your OP. You questioned the asking price of a specific domain which you felt was priced too high. In your case, you did in fact contact the owner of the domain which gives the seller the advantage.

Last week I made a high $xxx offer on a domain which has only been registered for a year. The owner stood firm at mid $xxxx and of course I questioned the counter offer. Unfortunately I have to meet the sellers expectations or look elsewhere. In my case I'm not prepared to shell out thousands on a newly registered domain but someone else might. In the end it's all what a buyer will pay and a seller will accept which determines the true value.

 

[Name Trader]

Well if the seller has the advantage if you contact them, well yes. But that doesn't mean they've got you by the b*lls. You can always take, leave it, or counter offer.

Which is what I said above (in post #9) relating to your last sentence.