yoshiwara said:
it is quite possible that a $100 offer is a good offer for a domain and should be accepted.
any counter offer value should have some regard to the perceived value of the domain before a counter is made and how long the name has been on the slab. both jay and linker have provided good examples of considered negotiations, subject of course, to me not knowing the names.
exactly, you need to have a value placed on each of your domain names which may contain your own personal opinion as to what the domain name is worth to you or recent industry sales to compare it up against as well, I do agree that yes the best money could be made in holding out for the top dollar offer, but there are no guarantees that rejecting an offer or countering at 5x the offer will complete the sale or ever bring another offer or it may take years to find that top dollar offer, obviously if it is a premium domain no problem offers will continue to roll in and sit on it till your happy, but when you have a portfolio of hundreds or thousands of domain names you pick your premiums to sit on and the rest could fall under the following questions...
1)how much did you pay for it?
2)how long have you had it?
3)how many offers have I received on it?
4)what value do you place on it?
5)do you have any possible developement ideas for it?
6)do I consider this offer reasonable?
7)if I wake up after this sale and find out a major company has built their site on this domain will I be mad at myself for accepting this offer?
8)does this name make me any money in parking revenue?
9)could I use the money from this sale to renew some of my more premium domains and reinvest into some new domains.
10)have I used all of my resources to try to sell this domain name, sedo, afternic, end user emails, end user forums, etc...
11)how many end users have a use for this domain name?
In the end it is all the domainers choice on how they operate, some are happy with selling bulk domains with small profit on each, where others sell less domains but wait on the top end offers, no clear cut answer for every situation, depends on domainers portfolio, business plan, budget and that gut feeling you get as well. I do think that almost all offer's should be countered, to what degree is the domainer's decision and depends on the initial offer that was made. If you are wealthy you can afford to sit on them all, if not group your premiums and ask some of the questions above on your less premium domain names.