I always like to dig up stories or experiences from the other side of the coin when it comes to domain acquisitions. Buyers not from the domain industry often give their true feelings about how smooth or rocky the process was when acquiring a domain name.
Most of the time these stories are under the radar and never given any widespread notoriety so we don’t ever get to see them in the domainer community.
A few weeks ago I wrote about Fomo.com and Ryan Kulp, Ryan actually went on to have a Twitter spat with Rick Schwartz.
Here is one that’s about 6 years old and it looks like the buyer was seeking to buy, StartingABusiness.com. They currently still own the name and there is a website on the name.
From the article:
When I emailed the person who owned it, I was met with an absurd for sale price. I think like a year later they came down into my range a little more and we
finally were able to do it. I still paid too much… but I was motivated. I really don’t think anyone else in the next decade would have paid what I paid, but that’s all you need. One price that someone is willing to sell something for and the other person is willing to pay. There’s no way to actually put a “value” on a domain name.
Here are some tidbits from the article which you should read in it’s entirety.
- some of these people are total jerks
- some are just playing a game
- Domainers make dumb unintelligent comments about your business and your domain name.
- Only deal with those that have full first and last name and signature info in their email, respond in a timely manner.
- “We’ve had this domain scheduled for development, but we might entertain good offers.” This is a total lie.
- Marchex Company just really doesn’t get it and they are very scuzzy.
- Name Administration Inc (Frank Schilling’s company) They are not worth your time to even communicate with.
- Rick Latona and Rich Green with buydomains were both very professional and very helpful
- SEDO is horrible.
That was funny and pretty much true.
I love the comments on Sedo, he ain’t lying.
> Here is one that’s about 6 years old
At first I thought that was a characteristic of the Twitter conversation, two 6 year old arguing.
” So just to be stupid, I gave him a 10,000 offer even though I didn’t even think it was worth 10K and wouldn’t have paid that, at this point I was curious what his response would be.”
So he’s making offers he won’t stand behind, and he is the good guy?
I think the same goes with the buyers. Some are more sophisticated like this person and did all the research. But many don’t care. My experience is that corporations often already had a purpose and a budget in mind. They could go a little above their budget, but not much.
Also I think the characterization of sellers are not necessarily true. All my domain names all started with a business idea and I do have “development plans” for each of them. Each may be at a different development stage, if I didn’t sell them, I’ll keep develop and execute my plan one at a time.
I do not change pricing based on buyer, so a buyer tells me that he/she was a student or a large corporation makes no difference to me. The price is based on (mostly) what I think it is worth, not what the buyer can afford.
Will I lower the price a year from now if the same prospect comes back? Maybe, maybe not. It all depends on the domain name. Some people may think that websites are not as important in the age of social media marketing. But unless people stopped using domains in email addresses, short memorable domain names will always be valuable.
I’ve been through thousands of domain negotiations. You get bad apples everywhere. A lot of what he describes aren’t bad apples, they just negotiate in ways which aren’t favorable to him, so he kicks and screams. What’s new? Corporations do that all the time in all sort of transactions, nothing to do with domains.
Worst case? No deal, I’m sure no one shed a tear over it. Life goes on. People negotiate differently. Embrace it, improve your ways, and always be learning.
Well said
What a great post, Ray Hackney !
The “buyer” that created the account of his self-education and window into the “domain name business” has, with exceptional clarity, given a crystal clear and very accurate report.
Fascinating.
thank you
Stupidity is a habit deeply rooted among buyers and sellers of the domain market, and in other markets also stupidity is famous even though many do not want to hear or read this word, because they feel identified.
Should sellers contribute to his thread, speaking about all the poor college students that need the domain for a class project? Or the not for profits with no money, and can’t be found anywhere after a search, that will put the domain to good use if we just give them the domain for free? Or the story that we finally do accept as true, make some profit, and then find the buyer was a big corp with a great con man as their front?
Both sides have reasons to distrust, and at times dislike, the other.
Seems like the sales platforms, with third party intermediaries and BIN’s, are a good way to address both sides of this. Then that brings up an entirely different set of issues, but moves the target off the buyer and seller a little bit.
Excellent balanced comment.
Rich Green is a true pro, Rick Latona whatever happend to him, still selling watches?