3 companies all want to buy a domain at the same price

SOLD

Maybe send to auction .you may lose one of them but gain others if you schedule it with plenty of time.

Good luck

surely its simply first come first served?

That must be one hell of a domain to get multiple takers that quick @ xx,xxx, well done. Interested to know the domain when you can talk about it.

Depending on wording, asking prices can be bid up, happens all the time in the housing market! Ignoring the fear of them all pulling out, perhaps ask all interested parties for a first and final offer and you'll sell to the highest.

You could say that you've had multiple replies all offering at same time so your putting up for auction. Say first person to put a pre bid on DL or Robs site - backorder_uk has the chance to get it at that if no one else bids. That way your covered and get at least BIN

SOLD

Based on response so far, the domain will readily sell for the price that you set, so that figure is guaranteed. Obviously you would like to higher if possible, and why not?

Honesty is the best policy. No reason not to explain your position and use an auction process. Public auction on a recognised platform is the best way to go, but this may incur costs and will take time to complete with payment etc.

Alternatively, revise the BIN price and confirm that you will accept the nearest offer by a set time. There is a possibility that buyers will agree to a deal, delay and try to renegotiate as you have done.

Why did you set an asking price unless you were prepared to let it go for that? It should be first come first served in my opinion. How would people feel if they bought a domain here at BIN and then the seller said 'no I've received more than one BIN I'm going to set a new higher BIN'?

If I had received an email stating an asking price for a domain name, to which i then replied, ok, how do we proceed?.. then later I receive another email whereby the goal post has been moved.. For me that would instantly leave a bad taste in my mouth and i personally wouldn't want to deal with that person.

I think the question you should be asking yourself is.. Would you have been happy with the sales price if only one person come back to you accepting it? If the answer is yes! which i think it would have been otherwise you wouldn't have stated a buy it now price in your email... Then maybe just accept it and offer it to the first buyer who responded, at least this way you then have other buyers to fall back if the sale doesn't take place.

Alternatively, you could risk the sale and notify all parties that several other companies have expressed an interest outside of your original email, resulting in you now placing the name at auction to allow a fair playing field etc..

Personally, I would have had to honour my original 'buy it now' price which i offered to people when sending out the blanket email, however, that's just me and i totally understand others may act differently.

I think we've all been there at some point when agreeing to sell a domain at a certain price, then realising we could have got a great deal more for it (I've been there). However, sometimes its best not be greedy and just be happy with your original asking price.

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck with your sale.

Barry

SOLD

The demand surely is irrelevant when *you* set how much you would accept for the domain? I understand your situation and you probably wanted to hear people here say to make one of them pay more - however this is poor business form. Nobody on this forum would get far setting an asking price and then changing it if more than one person bought it. I personally would never do business with someone who did that and I'm sure I'm not the only one. However there is a financial point where I guess you can think that the reward outweighs a damaged/ruined reputation.

Aside from everything else, you must have done your research well for who to direct the emails to, so well done for that.

Just to mention, I said "depending on wording" because I read the initial post to mean asking price in low £xx,xxx, i.e. a range, but I suspect the OP gave a specific amount but didn't want to share it here (might as well, we don't know the domain)? In which case, you should really accept the first reply to purchase; they were the most pro-active after all. Always pains to realise you could have got more, so careful when stipulating a fixed price rather than tendering offers within a starting/guide price.

Moving the goal posts would not be tolerated on AD or anywhere else with regular buyers, and increasing a BIN is not good practice.

The eventual buyer will never deal with you again, mainly because you will not have any other domains of interest to them. They may object to a price hike, but the domain is a good investment which has measurable value to their business, beyond the quoted figure.

I've had hundreds of agreed sales, where buyers have not gone ahead, and others where they reduce their offers. It happens often. I have honoured every deal agreed, upon payment or invoice. However, in this situation I would consider changing the offer. It should come as no surprise to a buyer in a house purchase.

I agree with Keys above - appreciate that no one but you knows the order you received the responses.

I would reply:
(written for my own future reference)

>>>>>

“Sincere thanks for your expedient reply.

- I have received an unexpectedly positive response to my offer, so in the interests of fair play, and to assure full transparency and safety for all parties, I will be placing the name in a 3 day public auction at: xyz.com with a starting price of £x,xxx.

(10% LOWER than the asking price, so show you are not unfairly jacking up the price)

The auction with begin in 7 days time at 12:00 on Mon 20th and conclude at approximately 12:00 on Wednesday 22nd May - 10 mins after the final bid is received.

If you would like to participate in the auction, please register at xyz.com and follow their qualification process - to avoid any fake bids or timewasting.

In the event that the final bidder doesn’t complete the purchase within 7 days of the auction close, the name will be offered to the next highest bidder, at their final bid price.

We propose that the purchase transaction will be made via Escrow.com - the industry’s most trusted exchange platform - or via our UK solicitors - xyz & partners - in the same way that a UK property is exchanged and then completed, to ensure we only receive funds when you are in receipt and control of the domain name.

If you have any questions, or require any further information, or to schedule a video conference call, please reply by return.

Yours sincerely

>>>>>

- this then gives you an opportunity to reach out to any other companies that you think could be interested, and also to secure purchase options to buy any similar names from other domainers, that you can then offer to all of the unsuccessful bidders, knowing they have money to spend, and their desired name is already taken by a competitor...

And the learning from this for the future?

I have recently tried sending out some emails too, but with a slightly different approach:

“The domain is priced to sell with offers invited over £1000 (no VAT).”

And testing an alternative:

“We are currently reaching out to several businesses that we believe would benefit from using this web address, and the best offer that we receive in excess of £250 within the next 14 days will secure the name.”

(I haven’t any responses yet so clearly my meagre names are not anywhere near in the same league as yours

Also would you be prepared to share the letter you used / show much research or data you offered to justify the asking price?
- I was inspired to start by reading some great posts from ‘Federer’.

Thoughts / feedback much appreciated.

It is obvious that interested parties would willingly pay a higher price.

If you sell at current BIN to the first reply, they will be delighted.

Others will say "I wish you had explained the situation, we would have paid more to secure the domain"

Surely, common sense outweighs business etiquette in this scenario. There is nothing devious or misleading about being quite open, and giving them all an opportunity to buy at current market price.

I always say first come first served. Keeps it fair and most people understand if they missed out they were to slow to reply.

Maybe have a poll. It's a good way to see who not to deal with in the industry.