Many companies interested in one domain name

[mat]

If you had a domain name that currently had say over 5 companies interested in it how would you go about selling?

Ive thought over a few options. I have a figure in my head im after but obviously because of the interest I could push for more.

I guess there are a few options. Auctioning it, offering a firm price, asking for offers, some kind of sealed envelope approach maybe.

What would you do?


Mat

 

[accelerator]

Surely this should be sold in an auction?

Rgds

 

[Admin]

Set a high reserve and auction it

 

[rottensoundz]

Auction it

Hi Mat,

I have been thinking about the same thing

what about putting it into a stable auction environment

then post or email a letter to all the parties concerned
making sure the right person in each respective company receives and reads the letter.

in it explain exactly where the auction is what time it ends and a guide price

then choose whether to hint that another party has expressed interest

maybe state a off auction BIN price ( with secure monetary terms )

To Give You an Idea this is what I just wrote :




Hi ######

thanks for your inquiry

Yes, It is available for sale


It was in my list of domains I was about to put on the domain auction site

######.co.uk

to give you an an idea of a price,

Once I had Contacted all the potentially interested business

I would expect this domain to go for above £####
But Before I do this,

I welcome you to make me a offer



Good luck with the sale
If you can let us all know how it goes

Cheers

 

[mat]

Where would the best place be to auction it though? Sedo will rape me with their commision and someone has to start off the auction.

So far I have sent letters to all the parties interested and they are basicly now waiting on some kind of response on price, so im trying to plan out my next move as im going to respond on Monday!

 

[rottensoundz]

Another point well made

what about using

https://www.escrow.com/solutions/domain_name/index.asp

then as long as all the partys are aware, anywhere should suffice
I doubt you will use ebay

what about here at acorn

if you do contamplate sedo you will have to add more to the price in your head to cover it
but im aware there is always a problem starting the auction
what about reveal the reserve price to the most intrested party.
If set at the right amount ( may be even agreed on before hand )
they should set the ball rolling.

what about starting with one company offering them two prices,
a price they will be happy to open the auction at
and a BIN price to stop the auction from happening

after a quick search i have just found these guys
Names123 Domain Auction
i haven't finish researching them yet
they have 3320 .co.uk domains on there books
and don't appear to charge a commission ( after a ONE-OFF payment of £4.99+vat. )

surprising there are not many more

Cheers John

 

[Edwin]

If you think the sale could be worth a lot of money, why not get a lawyer specialised in Intellectual Property to conduct the auction on your behalf? A letter on their letterhead will probably be 100x more credible than an email from a private seller.

They could organise a sealed bid auction, for example, where all the interested parties get a month to submit their postal bids, and the highest bidder wins. An up-front minimum reserve could be included in the initial approach so that you could be sure of selling at an "acceptable" price at least, so long as somebody bid.

And depending on the circumstances, getting them to name the specific bidding parties invited to the auction might improve the chance of higher bids. If they're big companies, knowing that their competitors have also been invited to participate might tip their hand into offering more...

 

[Juniper]

Many moons ago, an old CEO for the company I worked for told me that he NEVER begrudges paying any of his sales staff their commission because it meant that he had earned himself from the deal.

Now transfer that philosophy to the Sedo situation, if you set your reserve price at the price in your head plus their fees, providing the domain sells, how can you lose?

Also, if the auction shows that there is more than one company bidding on the name, this should in theory help drive th price of the domain up. Yes you pay Sedo more in fees but you also earn more and you might just get a lot more than you bargained for the domain.

 

[rob]

what would sedo add in this situation? Buyers name etc all in place. Sedo do not hunt out or promote names apart from display on their site and the off mail list

 

[Paullas]

i thought sedo had brokers on there books who seek out potential buyers for hight generic domains?

 

[Juniper]

what would sedo add in this situation? Buyers name etc all in place. Sedo do not hunt out or promote names apart from display on their site and the off mail mutu

Are we not assuming that the seller knows the name of the potential buyers and would notify them of a forthcoming sale on Sedo? If this is the case then with the potential buyers seeing a 'live' auction wouldn't that help drive the price up?

 

[rob]

exactly. Only value add is the method. sedo is not the only place to run an auction

 

[mat]

Ive been looking into all the companies in quite a bit of detail and it does stand out that one of them is "the big boy" and would probably cough up quite a bit more than the other companies would be willing to even if they do want it.

I think this wont help in an auction situation as although the larger company could and would keep bidding more and more, the bids from some of the smaller companies just wouldnt be there to push them up.

I guess what im trying to say is, I have a price I would be happy to sell it for but on the other hand I think to the larger company it is worth alot more and would be within their budget at a higher figure.

I think im going to contact just the larger company for now with the greater price, letting them know that other businesses are after it. I will tell them that the price givin will 100% secure the domain for them. If they then make a counter offer I will use this with the other companies and see if they are able to come in with an offer above it.

Hope that makes sense

 

[Edwin]

i thought sedo had brokers on there books who seek out potential buyers for hight generic domains?

I've never found in practice that this happens. At least, I don't believe they pro-actively approach end-user companies in the target market and try and find an appropriate high-ranking executive to talk to, then organize competing bids. It's more along the lines of mailing the more deep-pocketed buyers they've already sold stuff to. I've been contacted a number of times by Sedo's broker team trying to sell this or that domain name. And I'm not an end user target, nor am I working in any particular "niche"...

 

[disruptive]

I found that sedo, will only accept socialnetwork.co.uk with a reserve of under E 2,000, which I find laughable since I have had so much more interest than this. I do not wish to put it into auction and leave the promotion down to solely just Sedo. If they were a bit more proactive I may have been tempted...but I fear that if I'm not careful it goes into their premium auction, and is auctioned to a bunch of guys who have no idea about .co.uk