OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
Yesterday, I got an “inquiry” for a 1 word ultra premium and generic .info domain that I bought for 4 figures and has a 2002 registration date. The so called inquiry read:
Just wondering what you are willing to consider as an offer for this domain name. I am not willing to pay much more than the average cost of registering a domain name.
I am usually polite and just reply stating my price and/or thanking the buyer for his/her offer but this particular tone really got me to send this reply:
Hi,
if you aren’t willing to pay much more than the average cost of registering a domain name then you need a time machine. Go back in time in 2002 and register it.
Good luck.
If you are not prepared to pay more than $10 how do you expect to buy an 11 year old domain? I would have had more respect for him if he said that he had a $1 budget but he was willing to negotiate. Needless to say he did not reply.
Some people don’t get the analogy but that is like knocking on someone’s house and offering the owner $1,000 for the house he build last year for $100,000 and also saying that you are not willing to pay more than that.
There is only one reply to that: “get the f**k out of my house”.
I guess a lot of buyers are just ignorant. They have no idea what a domain name can be worth. They assume just because you can register a new domain for under $10 that aftermarket domains should be priced within this price range as well.
I had a buyer who offered me $50 for a 12 years old domain that I had $2.5K in mind for. Usually I don’t reply to lowball offers but in this case I replied with “I’m sorry but the domain is for sale for $2,500”. One week later he emails me back saying “That’s way too much for a domain name. I’ll give you $250 USD for it, not a penny more. ”
I replied: “I’m sorry but the domain is still for sale for $2,500 and not a penny less. If you should wonder what premium names realistically sell for you may want to check out the weekly reported domain sales at http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm .”
Haven’t heard from him since 😉
The “not a penny more.” part is what makes me tick and I guess that made you reply “not a penny less”. 🙂
I copied your reply and I will paste on all inquire I get with that kind of tone 🙂
Thank you.
It was just yesterday that a party emailed me to buy a very good .com name that was registered in 1996. He told me he knew the domain was not very valuable, as all I had done with it, was park it over all these years.
He said under the circumstances he was willing to pay me $15.00 for each year the domain had been registered. Plus $150.00 to cover my reasonable costs as that was all I was allowed to charge him per ICANN rules. So $240 + $150 = $390 for a domain I paid $14,000 for in 2000.
I sent him back and email and said I could not possibly take such high amount of money from him for such and old and stale domain name.
He never replied, lol.
Undervaluing the domain name you want to buy is another way to not ever buy the domain.
Konstantinos, I like your reply message part “then you need a time machine. Go back in time in 2002 and register it.” That’s quite funny. Seriously we all need the time machine to go back and register gems at reg fee 😀
Speaking of time machines, has anyone ever watched the movie Hot Tub Time Machine? It’s a super cheesy comedy but it has a relation to domain names. You guys ought to check it out!!!
I have seen it. It was good!
Well that same thing happened to us… a short LLL domain name that happen to make the big company´s name but is a generic word… THEY CONTACTED us and we told them: let´s discuss a deal advising them that we already turned some serious offers down… their response was very low and humiliating xxx $, needless to say that I couldn´t stop laughing since then… or they just want a bargain or they just think we are stupid… even if the market crashes I can hold that domain for 20 more years for less than the money offered… the weirdest thing is that the domain is big and will get bigger in the years to come and that domain name is key for their marketing and internet presence… so we will just wait comfortably and develop it they way we thought at first…
Maybe they don’t know what domains are worth.
They will be back…