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Some buyers just don’t get that people (yes domainers too!) pay a lot of money to buy domains

I got an inquiry for my domain name D-D.com which I bought in 2013 on a Namejet auction.

The inquiry came from someone in Spain that has a double last name separated by a hyphen with the initials DD. Something like DABNEY-DACOSTA. (not the real name)

I would like to purchase the domain name d-d.com. Many thanks.

I explained kindly that I bought the domain for my company name and I am not looking to sell. But as everything is for sale (for the right price) I said that he could make an offer to try to persuade me to sell. I also explained that I paid a lot of money to purchase the domain name. Indeed I paid $7,100 to buy it in 2013 and that is a publicly reported fact. (Maybe I paid more than a wholesale price as I am an end user for it.)

Dear ******,
the domain was bought for our company.
We paid many thousand Euro to buy it and we are not looking to sell.
If you are interested please make us an offer we can’t refuse.

Then he goes and makes this offer:

I am able to offer EUR 1,000.00 for the domain name.

I don’t know if I should doubt his reading abilities or his understanding of the simple fact that people are paying a lot of money to buy domain names. There a lot of end users paying good money for domain names and yes, even domainers pay a lot of money to buy domains! Domain investors don’t find domains lying around. They have invested their own money and they are not in the business to loose money or to run a charity.

People should understand that not all domains are bought for $10. In fact no good domains are being sold for that for more than 15 years now!

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About Konstantinos Zournas

I studied Computer Engineering and Computer Science in London, UK and I am now living in Athens, Greece. I went online in 1995, started coding in 1996 and began buying domain names and creating websites in 2000. I started the OnlineDomain.com blog in 2012.

16 comments

  1. I get this all day long, from what I get out of it, people think you are not using it, and you should take any offer that comes your way.

    I am surprised that one did not sell in the China 2015 hype machine, but Germany is where it would get the highest price. Either way you saved yourself $1.5M by putting a hyphen in the middle.

    Truth be told, $500-$1000 offers were great 10 years ago, but today considering what is being bid up in the aftermarkets, I can easily spend $10-20K a day without blinking, and there is always was jackass who just keeps on bidding.

    If TARYN is not getting everything at namejet, there is always some one off. $1000 just doesn’t get much.

  2. Kostas,
    IMHO you paid too much for D-D.com … hyphenated names are horrible … 🙂
    That said, generally speaking, lowballers are always annoying.

  3. Maybe he understood that you’ve been paying a lot for the domain, and he thought he was doing you a favor by putting an end to your misery 😀

  4. But are you still on speaking terms with this person? The article read like it has an open end.. just being curious here.. 🙂

  5. Hey, I praise you on a super short dash .com

    Although there have only been around eight public sales of 3 Character dash .com sold within a year via NameBio, making 3-4 and 8 grand with the one outlier, I personally like it, especially for the Chinese market.

    Have you listed it on 4cn etc?

  6. I don’t think many end users understand this business, like you said think everything within our portfolio is hand registrations for under $10.00. They don’t get that domain investors purchase domains from one another, auctions and EAP access before new launches etc..

    I like H-H and frankly I’m surprised at how many startups, funded with millions use them.

    At least you got an offer rather than crickets, will you give me the domain, what did you pay for it, I could go on and on.

    Problem is you just never know who’s gonna be the real deal! 🙂

  7. Exactly it happens with me as well. When I explain any buyer that I have purchased this particular domain for $3,000, their next offer is $500! I wonder what’s the problem with such people!

  8. I turn it around on them, and let them know I will purchase a similar domain from them for 5x their offer, shuts them up fast.

    India, Nigeria, Philliphines, Indonesia, Ukraine, Russia, and Egypt every morning my inbox is full of their $10 offers.
    The time it takes to ignore these inquiries only adds to the cost of my others in pricing.

    DNS needs to block Nigeria

  9. There are always psychopaths who seek pleasure by intentionally annoying somebody who has something that they want to have but don’t afford to acquire.

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