How I sold a domain I did not own
When most people read this title, they will instinctively think this is a brokerage deal. Well let me stop you right here. It was not a brokerage deal. I told this story before in a forum right after it happened so if you have read it before, move on but if you have not, it might cheer you up and probably teach you a lesson or two in the process.
This story started when I decided to try my hand on then popular move of domain tasting (domain tasting is when you buy a domain check it out for traffic and return it if it does not pan out within 3 days) Well I had purchased a couple of names and as is customary to me then, I listed them for sale in Moniker, Afternic, Fab and Sedo. I listed them because they had all shown acceptable Overture ratings and I was 99 percent sure I was going to keep them. Well two days later, there was non or minimal traffic from all so I panicked and turned the domains back for a refund. I think they were like 8 domains in all. I went about the tedious process of deleting these domains in the places I listed them for sale.
I never thought anything about these domains again until I received an offer letter for xxx for one of the domains about 2 months afterwards. I did a quick Whois check to clarify that the domain does not belong to me. I could not make anything out of the offer expecially since the domain was available for reg fee. This was when I realized I had forgotten to delete them from one of the sites I earlier listed them for sale.
So what did I do? I invested 7 bucks on a quick registration and counter offered with xxx + x/2
The buyer paid within the hour.
What is the moral of this story. Do proper research before you buy a name from the secondary market. The name you are trying to buy might be available for reg fee.
Second is, never accept a first offer except it sweeps you off your feet. This is why. If you accept too readily the buyer thinks they paid too much and you think you could have gotten more so no one wins the adrenaline race here.
Most people like to brag about the deal they got. That is why people often pay more for a domain at drop auctions but will not buy the same name for sometimes half the price from the seller before the drop. Auctions creates excitement. Humans are by nature wired to seek thrills and winning a bargain makes everyone feel nice afterwards.
I will be making posts on how I am working on my Brands and the challenges they pose so stay tuned
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Funny you wrote about this topic, i’m just about to close on a deal for mid $xxx for a name i listed at sedo that expired over 1 year ago,
regged it again and moneys in my account now
It was a BIN listing so cant really counter
The names not even that good, ofcourse to the buyer it is, but i let it expire.
all’s good now
Too funny! Good thinking on your part. What does the “x/2″ mean? I never was good at Algebra! : )
Thanks for the laugh.
Jeff,
I was no good at algebra either. In these case I was hoping it means half of a 100 which will be 50
That means the final price could be 150, 250, 350, 450, 550,…… 950.
Nice story Charlie. I actually had a similar thing happen also. I owned a LLLL.net domain which I sold at a profit to a reseller for low $XX. I then had an offer on it from an end user for low $XXX. I contacted the person I sold it to offering them twice what I sold it to them for. I haggled my potential buyer up to mid $XXX and got the money in my bank. I was happy with a much greater profit then I made originally selling it, the person I sold it to was happy being able to make instant money on the domain selling it back to me and the buyer was happy getting the domain they wanted
I completely agree with you about the need to negotiate EVERY offer you get. Pretty important concept I remember learning back in my Negotiation classes in my former life as a law student.
It doesn’t matter how great the domain is… here’s the scenario that plays out in my mind.
Me : “Mr Domainer, I noticed that you own Pets.com and SBA.com… would you be interested in selling them?”
Owner : “Sure… what price are you offering for the pair?”
Me : “Well, I can offer fifteen thousand dollars for th-”
Owner : “SOLD!”
Like you said… I’d suddenly be hit with a very strong sense of buyer’s remorse.
It’s especially true of domain names, because most of the time the buyer doesn’t have a clue of what a domain is actually worth… they just want to get a good deal. And often the only basis they have for determining whether they got a good deal is the difference between the sale price and your initial offer.
Nice post.