Why domainers are so cheap?

[-EM-]

Hello,
I was really surprised about what happened to me recently. I had a domain which I got an lowball offer on flippa about 9 months ago.. It was a $30 from a domainer. I contacted him back and asked $100 (as a reseller price), but at the end we did not agree.
Yesterday, I was checking my domains expiration and noticed that domain was expired so I quickly renewed it. Within a few hours the same domainer made an offer on flippa again, but this time $20. IMO, it was clear, this domainer was waiting for the domain to expire and get it from the dynadot expired domain marketplace (the domain is registered at dynadot). This time I asked $200 just for fun as I'm sure it will not be sold.
Still, I don't understand, why wait 9 months to get the domain when the asking price was low, why domainers are so cheap?

 

[Casey L]

Domainers aren't cheap, they're just investors. I don't understand why people get offended by low ball offers. If you don't like the offer then just reject it, that's your right as the owner and seller. Or better yet, if it's on a listing site, set the minimum bid/offer to a number that you would actually consider selling for.

It seems like some sellers are just insecure about the true value of their domains and don't want to face it. And they try to hide it with "PM offers only" so other people don't see the low, and probably realistic, offers they get in the thread.

Can't have it both ways

 

[Shimmy]

Domainers aren't cheap at GoDaddy Auctions , that's for sure

 

[Sinh]

Some domainers always want to make a cheap offer at first time, perhaps they want to check seller's price in advance and then they will send a real offer to seller in case they really want to buy the domain.

I have a domain name that has been receiving a lot of offers from $150 to $20,000 via GD, Sedo, Flippa, WhoIs email...and the biggest one comes from Uniregistry.

What do you feel when you have received the high offer like that but you still have to receive offers at $150, $200...? IMO I think it is normal, buyers have a right to make any offer they want and we have to know how to manage them.

 

[pxl1]

Because of competition they are so cheap....

 

[Weber]

The love of rejection.

 

[Wass]

Yes, domainers are cheap. Just look at the auctions here... I think this is the wrong place to sell domains.
Why domainers are so cheap? maybe they have no money or maybe they do not really believe in the domain market...

 

[DnEbook]

Sooner or later a smart domainer realises quality over quantity ..... gotta spend some to get some !

 

[jone03]

So now, we're easy to have a domain name :D

 

[fatter]

I almost always word my offers to domainers with a fixed price, and a much lower price to start an auction,
Sometimes I got bit with this and sometimes it payed off big. But without a domainer starting an auction I wouldn't have sold half the domains I sold.
Joe T

 

[nomen]

It's easy to be cheap in domaining because of the abundance of opportunities. It would actually be somewhat ignorant not to be IMO.

 

[AuctionBio]

Hello,
I was really surprised about what happened to me recently. I had a domain which I got an lowball offer on flippa about 9 months ago.. It was a $30 from a domainer. I contacted him back and asked $100 (as a reseller price), but at the end we did not agree.
Yesterday, I was checking my domains expiration and noticed that domain was expired so I quickly renewed it. Within a few hours the same domainer made an offer on flippa again, but this time $20. IMO, it was clear, this domainer was waiting for the domain to expire and get it from the dynadot expired domain marketplace (the domain is registered at dynadot). This time I asked $200 just for fun as I'm sure it will not be sold.
Still, I don't understand, why wait 9 months to get the domain when the asking price was low, why domainers are so cheap?

Yes it happens, when you could not sell your domain in good price than you can play these tricks. He might also be playing tricks with you. and of course for domainers only one lowball domain does not have much value, that's why he doesn't seem to much interested imo.

 

[Kuffy]

Most domain name buyers seem to be "dominers". They hunt through the slag heaps of the dropped names looking for gold nuggets that they can obtain for reg fee. I must confess that I have an attraction to this. Once I find something, then I add the "a" and become a domainer. At this point the name becomes worth at least 20x purchase fee.

As an indication of my "addiction", I looked up dominer.com to see if it was free. It seems it's available for sale by EduPong - what sort of name is that for a domain investment company ( they seem to be based in Korea).

 

[maxtorz]

1.BUY LOW, SELL HIGH! That's why!
2.Do you see A. Rosner, Mike Mann, Rick Schwartz SELL domains on Namepros?? I don't think so...)
3.Most "domainers" lack self confidence, don't believe in the market and they have no plan to execute on their domain liabilities.
4.As a buyer and seller YOU have the right to decline low offers, and YOU should always politely reply one way or another!(you never know who's at the other end behind that crappy gmail address)

 

[Kuffy]

4.As a buyer and seller YOU have the right to decline low offers, and YOU should always politely reply one way or another!(you never know who's at the other end behind that crappy gmail address)

Isn't that the truth. I sold a Forex name that everybody said was rubbish. The email addy was one of those rubbish personal ones. It turns out that the buyer was a significant Swiss bank.

 

[jaydub]

Agree completely. Nobody is going to get you to sell by force.

I don't understand why people get offended by low ball offers. If you don't like the offer then just reject it, that's your right as the owner and seller.

I often do this as I found over the years that people would start making offers like it was an auction and I didn't want that so I usually just do a "PM offers...not in thread" and it keeps me happy in my old age.
Or I put them in the Fixed Price section and consider PM offers.

It seems like some sellers are just insecure about the true value of their domains and don't want to face it. And they try to hide it with "PM offers only" so other people don't see the low, and probably realistic, offers they get in the thread.

Agree with that. I remember starting out I would get all insulted and do the "lowball rant" but I have mellowed over the years.
To me a lowball might just be a starting point in a negotiation. I often end a negotiation with "Not working this time but hopefully we can do something in the future" and have done return business with both domainers and end-users.

4.As a buyer and seller YOU have the right to decline low offers, and YOU should always politely reply one way or another!(you never know who's at the other end behind that crappy gmail address)

 

[Chris Wright]

Most domainers (including big shots) sell about 1-3% of their inventory per year.

If you:
1. Own 500 domains,
2. Sell 10 per year, and
3. Renew 490 names / year at $13 each, then...

You need to sell those 10 for $637 each to break even with reg fees. Hopefully your taxes will be written off.

If you sell your names for $2000 each, you get a profit of $13,630 before taxes and other expenses.

That's enough to live in a homeless shelter where I live.

To live in a basic apartment here, you need to sell your (hand-reg?) names for at least $5-6k each.

That's why domainers are "cheap."

 

[cipcip]

It is a basic question in my opinion and is simple. To make more money. If they buy cheap, they re-sell expensive, so the gain is bigger.

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

It has something to do with how much time the seller has / take and how much money the buyer has / give.

And, the opposite of the question 'Why domainers (buyers) are so cheap?'
would be 'Why domainers (sellers) are so expensive?'.

 

[Steven McEvoy]

Because domainers think their domains are worth $100 when really its worth reg fee.

 

[obocar]

Hello,
I was really surprised about what happened to me recently. I had a domain which I got an lowball offer on flippa about 9 months ago.. It was a $30 from a domainer. I contacted him back and asked $100 (as a reseller price), but at the end we did not agree.
Yesterday, I was checking my domains expiration and noticed that domain was expired so I quickly renewed it. Within a few hours the same domainer made an offer on flippa again, but this time $20. IMO, it was clear, this domainer was waiting for the domain to expire and get it from the dynadot expired domain marketplace (the domain is registered at dynadot). This time I asked $200 just for fun as I'm sure it will not be sold.
Still, I don't understand, why wait 9 months to get the domain when the asking price was low, why domainers are so cheap?

Maybe he's not a domainer.
He mighr be an end user. Some endusers are cheaper than domainers.

 

[obocar]

It has something to do with how much time the seller has / take and how much money the buyer has / give.

And, the opposite of the question 'Why domainers (buyers) are so cheap?'
would be 'Why domainers (sellers) are so expensive?'.

Nice one.

 

[obocar]

The difference between $30 and $100 isn't big. If the name is good enough, I just pull the trigger and I don't look back.

Domainers lack confidence in their own trade. You can see that when they are reluctant to buy a name for their portfolio website, even for $$$. But they want to sell names for $,$$$ to end users.
They also do not account for the their time like they should. Time is money and it is in short supply.
I think they are greedy too. They think that they are not having a good deal until they have screwed you, and that leaving money on the table for the other party signals weakness. I am old-fashioned, but I prefer win-win business, especially with fellow domainers because a good deal paves the way for more transactions in the future.

I think I have a word to depict those characters but it's not an English word.

Partly the buyer want it cheap is because he disn't think the domain is that good. If your domain is that hot, and he thinks he can sell fast with a high price after buying frim you, he won't wait for it to drop.

I agree, Kate. If the domain is good, $100 would be nothing to pay for. You made a point.

 

[Sam Roy]

This is precisely because selling is difficult but buying is easy. Exception applies to the guys who are into domaining early and possess some gems.

 

[-EM-]

If I'd want a name and I'm ready to invest $30 but the asking price is $100 I'd think about these possibilities :
- Move on
- invest $100, which is not that far from the asking price
- wait till I'm ready to invest
Also, I even asked $60 while negotiation.
That buyer waited for the domain to expire and after a few hours I renewed the domain, made an offer even lower than the first time.

 

[jaydub]

Letting names expire can be risky but I sometimes play the "last minute" renewal game(25 days after expiry...depending on the registrar) but I have had several times when I get offers/enquiries within a few days of renewing.
It seems they are watching for the drop/release hoping to get the name for reg fee or drop.

.