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Some domain name investors are being idiots

Some domain name investors are being idiots. Plain and simple idiots. Well, most are probably idiots, including myself, but regarding this issue below maybe not so many. I hope…

So I sent out an email to what seems to be a domain name investor in China and asked if a domain was for sale.

I tried using his landing page where he has a contact form that is all in Chinese only and at first I couldn’t make it work as the form didn’t like my phone number, or any other phone number except for a Chinese number! So I ended up using the owners phone number and it worked.

I got a reply to my email a few days later. (Not sure if the form actually worked or what…)

Here is the reply:

“Hi,
Thank you for your inquiry of the domain name *****.com, recently there are some other people to ask this domain too.  Before i quote the Price i want to know what industry do you want to use and your budget, because it has diffrent price for diffrent company.
Thanks
miro”

I think Miro here thinks that everybody is an idiot where in fact he is blatantly being one.

Domains have different prices for different companies? Really? Why so? And even if you think so you don’t actually write this down replying to an inquiry! You keep it in your head!

When I get an inquiry I do some research on the domain (how the term is used, other websites, etc.) and a limited search on the buyer.

But my price only goes up or down about 10% depending on the buyer and mostly only because of the hustle involved in selling the domain and the overall domain name transaction.

I don’t really care who the buyer is and what they will do with the domain. Just like I don’t sell cheap for “students” I won’t sell higher because the buyer is a rich company.

My prices are targeted to companies anyway.

So what will happen if I say to Miro that I don’t have a big budget and I want the name for a school project? Will I get a 90% discount? I doubt that.

So what is the point of this stupid email? The only thing that can happen is that the buyer will think the owner is simply an idiot. And this is the case here.

I don’t have high hopes that this will lead to a deal. It has been a few days since I asked for a price and have not received it. Let’s see what happens…

Sold.Domains

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.

13 comments

  1. Just tell him you’re a poor student 😀

  2. Just tell him you are war veteran and want to use the domain for a non-profit project to help other veterans. That is what one buyer said to me for a domain a few years back. He/she actually used helpveterans@gmail.com email. With little online search it was obvious that it was a for-profit business. Held my ground and eventually sold the domain for a price I was happy with and sure enough, it was that same business. Also, not all domain sellers are domain investors and not all domain investors have the same level of expertise. Sounds like your guy is just starting out in domain sales. Thanks for sharing, :-).

    • Too many buyers have too little ethics. I mean think about what that buyer did — he took advantage of the goodwill of veterans of wars. Who would want to do business with that kind of character? SMFH.

  3. Wow, he straight out said he would charge differently for different companies. Best way to lose a sale.

  4. Didn’t expect the response to be quite that stupid when I started reading.

  5. My impression is that this seller has made an honest and very direct statement. Do you all have BIN prices for all domains? Some do. Could you sell a domain ireport.com to anyone else than CNN?

    • No, I don’t have BIN because I can’t. If you want to sell to CNN you put a $1m price and wait for CNN. You don’t send such stupid emails. Who in their right mind will reply to this email by saying “I am rich and want to spend some big bucks for this domain.”.

  6. come on… for FUN give he a big KONs response…
    tell him you have mucho big business and too much cash…
    ask him to price High as a sign of appreciation of you HUGE success…

    dare ya… (smile)

  7. LOL ,the funniest news about domain names i’ve seen lately, thanks for sharing.
    I can even felt the writer’s anger across the screen.

  8. It’s perfectly okay to ask what he asked : “Before i quote the Price i want to know what industry do you want to use and your budget” then it all becomes unprofessional “because it has diffrent price for different company.”
    Konstantinos, I bet you can negotiate and get a really good deal for that name!
    I would not go down to his level, but I would use his inability and his lack of confidence to price his asset as leverage; being professional and transparent in the process of doing so. 🙂
    Be unreasonable folks!

    Alex

  9. Come on now how many domainers do the same thing but just don’t advertise it. Once a domainer gets an inquiry he researches the buyer without his knowledge in order to quote a price.

    I wonder if possibly their are some ethics rules in place that keeps some companies from lying.

    Can’t knock a guy down for being too honest and transparent can you?

    • If domain owners are fixated on the identity of the person making the offer, then they’re missing the point.

      When a purchase inquiry is received, the sensible thing to do is to research ALL potential buyers – yes, including the person making the inquiry but also everybody ELSE. That’s a normal way to get a sense of the market demand for a given domain name.

      Who this person is or what they could pay – that’s less important than who else might come along, how soon, and with what competing budget.

  10. Dear Miro,

    I have three different businesses. Can you please tell me your price for each one?

    Shoes for the Barefooted Foundation (non profit, shoe supplier to orphan children)

    She So Pretty Bruh, Inc. (dating website)

    Space Rockets “R” Us, LLC (rockets, tunnel drilling, electric cars and such)

    thanks,

    E. Muskrat Love

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