Would you like to charge a domain inquiry fee?

Would you like people to pay to make an offer on your name? Would you like to pay to make an offer on someone else's domain name? I read a tweet from George Kirikos about low ballers (someone offered him $500 for Orderly.com) George wrote: What sucks is the time wasters trying to buy domains at 1% of the floor price, spamming their lowball offers. I think Webmagic has it right, charging … [Read more...]

 

If they don't want low ballers, then they should set a minimum or make it a fixed price. Otherwise, it's a cost of doing business. Even real estate doesn't charge you for submitting offers. Though I imagine your agent would refuse to write up and submit an offer if they found it too low.

On the flip side, do I get a refund or will you pay me if your counter offer is a waste of time? I submit a $15k offer on a 'normal' 3 letter .com domain name. Nothing special about it. You counter with $10 million.

 

Sure, and anytime I inquire about a name that's maybe worth $1-2k, and the seller tells me they want $150k for it, I can charge a fee too

 

You make a decent point but I think they look at it as you are contacting me, I did not contact you, you want what I have. Shops like Web Magic and Telepathy and I would imagine George K who made the tweet, have been tremendously successful and are not worried if those opposed to their inquiry fee, pass them by. If nothing else the inquiry fee keeps those that they don't wish to communicate with away.

 

But the question was, WOULD YOU LIKE THE ABILITY TO DO IT? Integrated into Efty, DAN, EPIK, etc...

 

No. I would never use it, and I think it would give domaining a bad name. Yes, they're coming to you. But they're expecting people to pay for the privilege of reading their mind about what they want for it. That's why humans invented prices and minimum offers.

 

Inquiry fee will not help.

Tracking lowball offers (IPs, emails, names etc.) since Q3 2018. They are group/s of people organized for a particular purpose. I can't tell exactly yet but seem to me the telemarketers are behind. Hitting you with the lowball offers, getting fixed price, calling companies/people and offering (very aggressive) to you similar or EMD domains (or your own DN - happened to me 17x), +more tricks s.a. someone is claiming your TM dot Net or Org etc. Tracked down a couple of companies and spotted pattern; they're moving to different locations or gassing out one company and popping out w another name. (Monitoring in progress) Regards

 

I mainly use just plain contact form at ParkingCrew...
It doesn't have the Offer field... so I don't receive any lowball offers there.

 

I totally agree with the above quote. If you don't want a low baller, just set a minimum price or a fixed price.

When you go shopping, does Wallmart or any other shop, charge you just for entering to the shop, see the clothes, check the prices, talk to the salesperson, waste his time and go out without buying nothing? I guess no.

Well, I see this the same case.

 

But iz not so gud because u kno chargebacks via paypal and credit card chargebacks too that actually make YOU pay out of pocket.

It also dissuades resellers from trying to send you an offer. Becuz no one on NP is paying over $0.01 to make an offer on your domain for resell even if it's like a 1L. That's just our nature, I guess.

but if you're only looking for a serious end user and don't want resellers, then the $10 - $50 fee is fine.

 

This is the way it works at DomainAgents although what the potential buyers pay is creditable towards an actual purchase.

 

Yes, I was about to say that. I sold a domain through them earlier this year. The buyer had to pay 20$ to send his initial offer of $199

 

of course, I want to be able to do so

 

Paying to make an offer on very high value names makes sense because it weeds out the low ballers who won't pay the fee. Do this with regular names and kiss your sales good bye!

 

I’m grateful for all interest in my domains, even ‘so called’ low ball offers and i always try to give the courtesy of countering even if we are way apart on price.

$10/$100/$250 is a lot of money to people in many countries, so whilst people living 1st world nations may deem these types of offers as ‘low-ball’ and ‘time wasting’, someone in another country could actually offering all they have by offering what they are for one of your domains.

 

I would say definitely not. I never understood the constant and often sarcastic complaining by a few about low offers. Every marketplace (well almost all) allow you to easily set the minimum amount of an offer. If you don't want low offers, simply set that minimum. I suspect that some spend more time complaining about low offers than they would spend providing short, polite responses.

Domain values are not well understood by most who use or consider acquiring domain names. We should not be surprised if offers are way out of line with expectations. We should definitely not take it as some sort of personal affront. If you have set the miniimum offer on a domain name you expect mid $$$$$ for at $50 why exactly are you surprised when you get low offers?

A fee just to make an offer would further weaken the sell-through rate and negative perceptions of the industry. So as others have said, use the minimum offer feature!

Bob

 

I might be okay to make a deposit in order for an offer to be considered.

It would need to be refundable though if the seller declined the offer. If the seller accepts, the deposit goes towards the purchase.

Otherwise I could not see paying a non-refundable fee just to make the offer. I would not charge anyone to make an offer.

I think people are smart and would try to find a seller on a no fee for offer platform.

 

Hi

if you had the type of domains that are getting frequent offers/inquiries on, then you might be more sympathetic, to their complaints.

I can see someone not involved in domaining, submitting a low offer.. even if just to get the ball rolling

but there are many low ball offers submitted by domainers, who know or have good idea of value for the domain, that they making the lowball offer for.

some will say "sorry, wasn't trying to lowball you" but most won't say or even make a counter offer.

and these are some of the same folks who boast of 4 and 5 figures sales, so if that's true, then they must have the cash.

but I don't bite their heads off, I just say "no thanks or thanks for your inquiry".

imo...

 

You make good points @biggie and I agree that unreasonably low offers from domainers is a different situation (and one I had not thought of when I was making my remarks). And I also agree with you about not biting their heads off, even if domainers do make low offers, though !

But re the following....

I still don't understand, if the seller does not want to consider anything less than say $10,000, why not set that as the minimum to submit an offer. When the minimum is set to $100 (or even less) then don't complain if people submit bids of $$$ to $$$$ level.

Even if an offer is well off, it really is trivial to respond with a short message like. "Thank you for your offer, but it is well outside the range of what I can consider for this domain name."

Bob

 

I make offers that leave me a fair amount of room for profit as a domain reseller. I just cant buy domains at the top of reseller prices. I usually have some basis for determining my offer amounts.

I too have names that are firmly priced based on end user price expectations. I set those to bin only.

Names that I have set to just make offer, I expect to get offers far, far below reality.

Lastly, I never really care who is offering. Domainer, Google, it really doesnt matter to me. I know what I paid, what my objective is, and that's it. I lower my prices if I need capital or want to parlay to a bigger, better deal.

 

Also, I have successfully nurtured a buyer or two that really wanted a name but just didn't have the money, to make a deposit that I would put towards the purchase if they paid it off within 60 days.

I refund half if they cant follow through.

 

There is already a tool not to deal with lowball offers: set the minimum amount

Although it comes with 2 downsides: loses the potential sales via negotiation and persuasion; anchors the price expectation at a low point.

 

I think Inquiry Fee is a bit of overreaction to low ball offers. I'd just set the minimum offer to fend low ballers off. I'd never ask for a fee for an inquiry.

 

You’re making the assumption that all sellers use listing sites like Sedo to field offers. In that case, yes, setting a minimum price works. It does not work if you sell directly on your own, which I do for example.

That said, the idea of charging to receive offers or paying to make an offer is appalling to me. It takes seconds to review an offer via email and delete if need be.

 

I dont like letting leads get away. Period.

I'll even try to offer alternative names that are similar but priced lower. Sometimes that can get them to take the one they want and pay up.