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Buyer psychology: similar offers for different domains

In the past couple of days I have received 3 similar offers for 3 completely different types of domains and extensions.

All 3 offers were for $10k but the domains and my asking prices are different. I have refused all 3 offers. On 2 of the cases $10k was their initial offer and they are stuck at that. The other buyer went from $5k to $10k and is also stuck at that price.

The $10k offers were for a common 1-word .org, a 2-word .com and for a last name .us.

I am looking for $40k, $25k and $15k respectively and I very firm on my prices.

Is this some urban legend or something that domain names must cost $10 or $500 or $10,000 or $50k? What about prices in between?

And it seems that you can get randomly any of these offers from people from similar backgrounds.

E.g you can get a CEO of a large company offering $50,000 and another CEO from a similar sized company offering $500 for a similar domain name.

It is seems there is a vague perception of what a domain name must cost based on ignorance, no facts and no previous research.

I know that the psychology of pricing is very complex. But domain names range from $10 to $30 millions. You can’t just pick a random number and get stuck there.

I am sure there must be company meetings where only 10 seconds are spent on deciding the budget for purchasing a domain name. You can’t make a sane decision this way.

I have said it again that people research on the internet even before buying a pair of socks yet when they want to purchase an important asset for their company they base their offers on something their plumber or their aunt said to them last month. Go figure.

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.

10 comments

  1. You received a $10,000 offer on a last name .us? That’s great news!

  2. @yakov that’s great news indeed

  3. I don’t care if it’s Madonna.us, for $10,000 sell it Zournas!

  4. 100% true. all of domains buyer’s offer prices depending on buyer’s financial status & need.

  5. Excellent topic. And very good point that people dont know how to price domain, so how do they price it? What is it based on? It is likely not super obvious to them how to value it.

    For example, does good description of domain on landing page helps the sale? I believe it does. My thinking is, lets say it is CEO of company who liked the name, he still probably wants to get second opinion from his colegues. Yet his colleagues (lets say CTO and CMO) likely wont have much feelings attached to the name, hence if he sends the link to domain to his colleagues, they wont know where to start. By adding description that able to convey the value of domain, and invoke some sort of feeling, they are able to get social agreement and more likely to feel more confident about their decision. Lets say CTO and CMO both thought that domain sounds pretty good (because of emotional description). While if there was nothing, they might have said… meh, we not sure. Hence being able to convey the message that domain owner wants to convery, to others in the CEO ranks (or friends or cofounders or coworkers). We do know that for some people it doesnt matter, they just want the name. But for every person who 100% sure they want domains, there are a lot of emotional elements that play into domain selection. By making it easier to pitch to their own group, the domain has higher choice of sale. ( this work in other fields of marketing, hence i am applying that thinking domains). Think is as domain owner, we dont know a lot of this subtleties, and it takes ton of work to create good descriptions. And ultimately it might domain, that would sell anyway. But i personally believe making it easier for buyer to convince him/herself and help to convince its closest allies has value.

  6. Hmmmm, you hit it hard with the last sentence. Many spend time to research on socks, wears and even less important thing to ensure they buy the best but don’t do the same with domain names which do reflect in their stuck price offer.

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