Buyers from outer space

[bulkcorn]

Why does anyone who is interested in buying a domain go through the trouble of initiating the first contact and tell you they wouldn't pay any more than £10 for a name? Surely, if the name was that bad, and only worth £10, why not go find something more expensive!

... and the new breed of 'web designers' who want to buy a name for their friend/relative who they can 'only convince to pay' very low £xx.

Am I missing something? Or has this game changed?

Followed a domain to a site where you have to pay £9.95 to submit an offer. . Sounds like a very good way to avoid buyers from outer space.

 

[Skinner]

I'm in this position quite often to be honest, not usually friend/relative but clients who have X amount for adwords, Y amount for web services but scrimp on the domain.

I tend to tell them they need to expect at least xxx for a reasonable name, but that doesn't stop them saying ok, £101.99 is your budget for the domain name.

Friends are even worse, they expect you to use "contacts" to get names for pennies. While I'm happy to work with other domainers/designers who have a client to sell at a resellers prices, because everyone gotta make a slice, but when they want a perfect name for reg fee its a damned nightmare.

... and the new breed of 'web designers' who want to buy a name for their friend/relative who they can 'only convince to pay' very low £xx.

 

[foz]

Comes with the territory, I get $1 offers would you believe.

Easy fix. Always ask for an offer from the outset. If of no interest, ignore them.

 

[foz]

Just in, $2 for Herbalist_co_uk, what do reckon guys cut my losses and accept

 

[bulkcorn]

Comes with the territory, I get $1 offers would you believe.

Easy fix. Always ask for an offer from the outset. If of no interest, ignore them.

$1? That's a record! :lol:

Just in, $2 for Herbalist_co_uk, what do reckon guys cut my losses and accept

Simply hilarious ..... when you don't let rile you! :lol:

 

[Edwin]

You often get the bonus of free analysis right alongside the ridiculous offer. "I'll give you £10, which will leave you with a 100% profit on your registration fee."

 

[Alien]

Followed a domain to a site where you have to pay £9.95 to submit an offer. . Sounds like a very good way to avoid buyers from outer space.

I wouldn't pay £9.95 to submit an offer on a domain, I think it's ridiculous.

Just using a minimum offer system like 'Sedo' has would sort any lowball offers.

 

[Edwin]

I wouldn't pay £9.95 to submit an offer on a domain, I think it's ridiculous.

I can see how it could be seen as a scam.

I can also see how it could be seen as a "service".

Especially in the .com field, where Whois privacy is rife. If the £9.95 guaranteed that the actual owner WOULD see your offer, it might be worth paying for.

But a certain level of trust would need to be in place that the owner is going to take heed of offers (even if just to send back a canned "no" or "not for sale" reply - could be set up to happen without disclosing their contact details) rather than just send them automatically to ":blackhole:" and keep the money.

There are plenty of .co.uk names that I'd have been willing to pay £9.95 on to get past the fact that I had no way of contacting the owner (common name, no other details in the Whois, no site up).

Makes me wonder if Nominet (or the registrars) could provide it as a value-added service of some kind. For your money, you're guaranteed that a 1-page A4 letter will be snail-mailed to the actual registrant's contact details of record (for example - I'm making this up on the fly here...) That would preserve their privacy, and the anonymity that comes with it - yet give people some way to get hold of them if they're really motivated enough.

 

[foz]

I wouldn't pay £9.95 to submit an offer on a domain, I think it's ridiculous.

Neither.

An example @ $19 - securedoffers.com/make-offer/

 

[Edwin]

Neither.

An example @ $19 - securedoffers.com/make-offer/

Leaving aside the service itself, they have some rather nifty wording in their FAQ. For example:

Are all the domains held by companies that use the SecuredOffers.com service available for sale at reasonable prices?

The short answer is, “No”. Not all of the domains are available for sale. And many of the asking prices may strike you as unreasonable.

The domain owners that use SecuredOffers.com to qualify inquiries on their domains typically own large portfolios of thousands or tens of thousands of domains. Not all of these domains are available for sale. Some may be reserved for future development, or may be licensed to third-parties. If you use SecuredOffers.com to inquire about a domain, the answer you may receive back is that the domain is not available for sale.

Large portfolio owners have typically invested millions of dollars in building their portfolios. They have years of experience with domain name valuations and are familiar with the sales prices from thousands of domain name transactions. This gives them a wealth of knowledge in valuing domain names.

Unlike mass-produced items, the nature of domain names is that each one is unique. A popular domain name will receive dozens of inquiries and offers. Yet a domain can only have one owner at a time. Pricing is set by the ‘best and highest use’. If a large consumer products company wants to use a particular domain for the nationwide roll-out of a new product, that domain will likely be worth more to this company than it would be to a corner store in a small town. So if the corner store inquires about the price of the domain, the response may be a number that would seem unreasonable to the corner store but would be viewed as a bargain by the consumer products company. The wider the commercial applications of a domain name, the more likely the valuation will be substantial.

Gets the point across extremely well, I thought...

 

[foz]

Another one for a chuckle.

If this site is not being used then please can you give it to us.

 

[foz]

On a roll.

NorthAyrshire_co_uk

Price: $1
Comments: Best offer.

 

[foz]

Always learning the obvious

Your valuation of this domain is clearly unrealistic since I have recently purchased similar for £7 and £15.

 

[foz]

We would like to obtain xxxxxxxxx.co.uk for full use and are prepared to pay the current rate for a .co.uk domain as suggested by the UK registrar Nominet of £7.50.

Our bid reflects current $ exchange rate plus a gesture of admin fee.

Please advise next steps ASAP.

You get the drift.

 

[bulkcorn]

You often get the bonus of free analysis right alongside the ridiculous offer. "I'll give you £10, which will leave you with a 100% profit on your registration fee."

..... if my maths is correct, it means the investment on the domain was £0! :lol: Amazing when someone else calculates the return on your investment for you!

I wouldn't pay £9.95 to submit an offer on a domain, I think it's ridiculous.

Just using a minimum offer system like 'Sedo' has would sort any lowball offers.

I wouldn't too. I agree stipulating a minimum offer is a good was of keeping the rubbish out ... but it won't stop some lowballers. All one can do is just ignore any offers below the minimum bid.

 

[foz]

..... if my maths is correct, it means the investment on the domain was £0! :lol: Amazing when someone else calculates the return on your investment for you!

Especially when they assume your investment was £5, how would they know?

 

[Skinner]

I had someone tell me they see I use daily and daily charge X, so they will offer me X (they didn't even factor the name was over 10 yrs old so I'd have paid 5x their offer), I replied and said

"I'll make you a deal, DVLA sold S7 EVE for £295, if you get me that number plate for £295 incl assignment/transfer fee, I will sell this domain to you for X to you incl transfer fee.".

Oddly I never heard back from them, I don't even try to negotiate with these people, the ones who come with a high-xx offer I sometimes reply as means they are lowballing but the ones who talk of reg fee's and not in use etc I ignore.

 

[bulkcorn]

We would like to obtain xxxxxxxxx.co.uk for full use and are prepared to pay the current rate for a .co.uk domain as suggested by the UK registrar Nominet of £7.50.

Our bid reflects current $ exchange rate plus a gesture of admin fee.

Please advise next steps ASAP.

You get the drift.

What next steps did you advise??? :lol: Hopefully something not including any censorable words.

 

[foz]

Hopefully something not including any censorable words.

Really, I behave myself. Honest.

 

[Alien]

LOL, some great 'buyers' comments in this thread! :mrgreen: