domains Would you like to charge a domain inquiry fee?

[equity78]

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...]

 

[NickB]

In my opinion, charging the possible buyer just to get a quote, would drive away a 90% of your possible deals, even the BIG ones. IMO, it's a very bad idea. But hey, everyone is free to do what they want with their assets.

If any shop wants to charge the people just to enter and see the clothes or material, they are free to do it. But then they will see how many sales they get.

Althought I doubt that even a Ferrari store would do this.

Don't think it would scare off a multi million/ billion pound at all.....

If you own the only one word .com in existence then if someone wants it they will have to pay for it, you charging $20 to open a dialogue will not dissuade serious buyers, it will save you time and energy by not dealing with people who want it on the cheap

 

[Recons.Com]

Of course. I know what you mean. There are always going to be buyers that dont pull the trigger.

How would that buyer that didn't buy have felt if they also lost an upfront fee just to make an offer?

I am against the fee. Most my sales are at bin with zero negotiation. Most buys are on impulse, I am not going to make it more difficult.

But I can see those trying it potentially making more, because of escalated commitment. You pay even peanuts, you try to buy the name at even higher than budget.

 

[capybara]

I absolutely support people who are doing this. The more sellers create barriers for their incoming communication, the greater the odds for other sellers who do not.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

I absolutely support people who are doing this. The more sellers create barriers for their incoming communication, the greater the odds for other sellers who do not.

Interesting, I can see that.

 

[DaveX]

Most buys are on impulse.

Exactly

 

[Ategy]

If people are tired of $20 offers, then just increase your minimum offer threshold.

That being said, I do think the process of paying could filter out a wave of tire kickers as some people call them, while at the same time serving as a minimum level of authentication of the potential buyer/broker.

Just make it $1. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but at least people won’t feel ripped off when you refuse their offer, and the fact they made the effort to pay anything I feel would weed out a good percentage (although not all) of disingenuous offers.

That being said .. I personally wouldn't use it.

Also .. depending on the fee, there are situations where I wouldn't bother making an offer if I had to pay first. Depends on several factors .. namely ratio of the fee vs value of the domain .. and my trust that the domain is even legitimately for sale, and not just a domain that isn't for sale with an extra revenue source from the offers.

 

[Sutruk]

Don't think it would scare off a multi million/ billion pound at all.....

If you own the only one word .com in existence then if someone wants it they will have to pay for it, you charging $20 to open a dialogue will not dissuade serious buyers, it will save you time and energy by not dealing with people who want it on the cheap

In this case, why charging only $20 bucks? why not $500? or more?
I mean, really, even if a multi million/billion company see that you are charging $20 bucks to get a quote... well, maybe that would not sound very serious even to them.
What do you think a multi million/billion company would think about you, trying to get $20 bucks to get a request? That sounds.. a bit cheap! At least for me

 

[Keith]

I’ll make one last comment and then leave it.

Charging someone to make an offer shows your weakness and inability as a negotiator. It basically says, I don’t have the skill to turn a low offer into a worthwhile sale. Anyone can sell a domain for $100k when that’s the opening bid. Very few can get $100k when the opening bid is $1k.

The ability to negotiate is what separates successful people from lucky people.

 

[DaveX]

Let's ask some bigger domain investors how they would vote on whethere an upfront fee just to make an offer would be advisable...

@EJS @Kate Buckley @Rick Schwartz @Mike Mann @Domain Shane @MediaOptions @Bill Sweetman @AbdulBasit.com

 

[NickB]

In this case, why charging only $20 bucks? why not $500? or more?
I mean, really, even if a multi million/billion company see that you are charging $20 bucks to get a quote... well, maybe that would not sound very serious even to them.
What do you think a multi million/billion company would think about you, trying to get $20 bucks to get a request? That sounds.. a bit cheap! At least for me

Charge what you like then....People are not stupid....... they should know why you have this price in place, if they don't then tough sh*t you have asset that is not going to depreciate in value and will only increase over time so you can set your own rules if people don't like it they can go and and get the .co or .top or whatever.....

 

[Sutruk]

Charge what you like then....People are not stupid....... they should know why you have this price in place, if they don't then tough sh*t you have asset that is not going to depreciate in value and will only increase over time so you can set your own rules if people don't like it they can go and and get the .co or .top or whatever.....

Yes, people are not stupid, I agree. Maybe this is more than a $20 bucks question. I see this more like a way of doing business. And charging $20 bucks just to get a quote, I don't think is the proper way to go.
But as I said, everybody is free to do whatever they want with their assets. Cheers.

 

[Sutruk]

I think that a better question for this thread would be...
If you have a $1Million domain name, would you like to charge an inquiry fee?
Because charging an inquiry fee for other or less valuable domain names, would be bad, for the seller, and for the general view of the domain industry.

Anyway I would not do that even in the case of a $1M domain. Just put a lander stating "Minimum $1M offers" or whatever you want to put your minimum offer.

In my opinion

 

[DaveX]

Maybe you could have a "Lowballer Test"...like a captcha. The prospect could put in an offer amount and get an instant rejection or redirect to the economy section, or be forwarded to the inquiry fee page.


Call it a price compatibility check.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

Maybe you could have a "Lowballer Test"...like a captcha. The prospect could put in an offer amount and get an instant rejection or redirect to the economy section, or be forwarded to the inquiry fee page.

Epic, I liked that economy section reference. I imagined like a plane lol.

 

[Abdillahi Abdillahi]

I registered a domain and sat a minimum offer of 700 something. Within 14 days of registration, someone offered me the minimum offer through the landing page. In the same time, I had a BIN double that price. I said the name is not for sale for that price and his argument was I thought that was the minimum you would sell the name for. I said not selling it for that. I had no plans for the name actually and I could have taken that but wanted to make sure this buyer would not have the notion that a minimum offer is what can get you the name. I reduced my BIN like 300 and he increased his offer the same amount and then I said what the heck accept. He did not change the nameservers so far, and no, he is not domainer.

 

[frank-germany]

anchors the price expectation at a low point.

that's the main pain

 

[frank-germany]

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.

I even register a similar version and offer it for the amount offered

 

[Domain Shane]

Let's ask some bigger domain investors how they would vote on whethere an upfront fee just to make an offer would be advisable...

@EJS @Kate Buckley @Rick Schwartz @Mike Mann @Domain Shane @MediaOptions @Bill Sweetman @AbdulBasit.com

This is my opinion only. For a portfolio of the quality of mine I think it would be a mistake. I have ZERO problems handling the inquiries that come in. Lowballers don't bother me one bit. They take a total of 5 minutes of my time per day to weed out. And what I lose in time I more than get back in a morning laugh. Someone like Nat needs to do it because of sheer volume and the quality of his names gets him thousands of inquiries a day. This insures they are serious. I would do the same thing. I actually do do the same thing with my nursery. We have the best landscaping company in town but we run one crew. A crew that has been the same crew for 25 years and a designer that has been there longer. We are booked months in advance and have never gone one day without work to do for 25 years straight. We charge $100 to give a bid. That's right, I charge just to give you a chance to work with us. To give us money. We do it because we get so many people that are just kick tires and have no idea what it costs to do good work. When we started charging a fee our sell through rate went up to 80% because we eliminated people that weren't serious. I'm sure we lost a few customers that would have gone with us but again, we are always booked so this gave us more time to spend on the people that did go with us. And we reimburse the $100 if they do.

So in short, if your quality is so good people are rewarded for working with you then you should and it helps, but it hurts you if you need more customers. 99% of people in this forum are in the latter whether they know it or not

 

[DaveX]

This is my opinion only. For a portfolio of the quality of mine I think it would be a mistake. I have ZERO problems handling the inquiries that come in. Lowballers don't bother me one bit. They take a total of 5 minutes of my time per day to weed out. And what I lose in time I more than get back in a morning laugh. Someone like Nat needs to do it because of sheer volume and the quality of his names gets him thousands of inquiries a day. This insures they are serious. I would do the same thing. I actually do do the same thing with my nursery. We have the best landscaping company in town but we run one crew. A crew that has been the same crew for 25 years and a designer that has been there longer. We are booked months in advance and have never gone one day without work to do for 25 years straight. We charge $100 to give a bid. That's right, I charge just to give you a chance to work with us. To give us money. We do it because we get so many people that are just kick tires and have no idea what it costs to do good work. When we started charging a fee our sell through rate went up to 80% because we eliminated people that weren't serious. I'm sure we lost a few customers that would have gone with us but again, we are always booked so this gave us more time to spend on the people that did go with us. And we reimburse the $100 if they do.

So in short, if your quality is so good people are rewarded for working with you then you should and it helps, but it hurts you if you need more customers. 99% of people in this forum are in the latter whether they know it or not

Thanks so much

 

[DaveX]

This is my opinion only. For a portfolio of the quality of mine I think it would be a mistake. I have ZERO problems handling the inquiries that come in. Lowballers don't bother me one bit. They take a total of 5 minutes of my time per day to weed out. And what I lose in time I more than get back in a morning laugh. Someone like Nat needs to do it because of sheer volume and the quality of his names gets him thousands of inquiries a day. This insures they are serious. I would do the same thing. I actually do do the same thing with my nursery. We have the best landscaping company in town but we run one crew. A crew that has been the same crew for 25 years and a designer that has been there longer. We are booked months in advance and have never gone one day without work to do for 25 years straight. We charge $100 to give a bid. That's right, I charge just to give you a chance to work with us. To give us money. We do it because we get so many people that are just kick tires and have no idea what it costs to do good work. When we started charging a fee our sell through rate went up to 80% because we eliminated people that weren't serious. I'm sure we lost a few customers that would have gone with us but again, we are always booked so this gave us more time to spend on the people that did go with us. And we reimburse the $100 if they do.

So in short, if your quality is so good people are rewarded for working with you then you should and it helps, but it hurts you if you need more customers. 99% of people in this forum are in the latter whether they know it or not

Just for that, I'm gonna check out every domain on your daily list for a month!