We just got an offer, out of the blue, for a .com domain name we’ve been sitting on for a few years. We weren’t cybersquatting; we had a business model and everything but it didn’t pan out.
A Swedish company has offered us a significant figure, two thousand euros to be precise, for it. I’m not going to name them, or even what business they’re in, in case they google and find this discussion.
They currently have a .com domain with their primary business name; our name happens to include their name but without the business type, plus a common noun appended to it. They’re a completely different type of business than what we planned to run, but one could see how they might be building an ad campaign based on the combination of words.
I did a quick check, and apparently no one has yet registered the corresponding .se domain.
This started with them making an initial inquiry to the primary whois contact for the domain, and she responded asking them to make an offer, which they did.
My question is, should we make a counter offer, and for how much more? We don’t want to scare them away, but if it turns out they might have been willing to pay 10x their initial offer, we really could use that money…
Unless they’re a huge* business, I’d probably take the money and run. $2300 is a lot of cash for a domain that’s been collecting dust.
I mean, if it’s like Nike and you’re not cybersquatting, yeah, hold out for more, of course. But if it’s just some company that’s bringing in a few million a year, they’re probably not going to offer you 20k for it.
Also, if they’re really big…take a gander at Nissan . com (click on the lawsuit thing at the top) and you’ll see why the website for the car manufacturer is nissanusa . com. Nissan has been putting this guy through the ringer for years.
People ask this question a lot and many of them counter and get nothing. They probably don’t need your domain name in the sense that their business would suffer without it. They would simply like to have it and are offering a decent price. I would ask myself, “How would I feel if I countered and got nothing?” I would regret not taking the 2,000 euros.
Not strictly relevant to your situation, but the podcast Reply All just had an episode, This Website is for Sale, that talks about the business of domain brokering.
FWIW, I’d expect that a normal business would not lead with their final offer (unless the culture of Swedish business is very different from that of the rest of the world). I doubt they’re low-balling by a factor of 10, though. Try counter-offering in the 2-3x range, say, EUR5000. It’s not a crazy counter, so you’d look like a serious, good-faith negotiator. I doubt they’d walk away immediately from that (though, of course, they might). More likely, they’d either call your bluff and say take the EUR2000 or leave it, or, they might come back with a meet-you-in-the-middle final offer of EUR3500. You have to weigh the small risk they will walk away from a good-faith negotiation with the possible benefit of getting a better price (but not a lottery-winner price–I think that’s really unlikely).
I had a domain name that my business partner told me to buy (for the business) on a lark. Not a business name at all, more a political phrase. I think him and a friend wanted to make a satire site.
Anyway I got offered, I dunno, $1000 for it? I almost said yes then I was like “no, I have a thing they want and they probably want to turn it into a non-satire site so eff them, I want more money!”
I asked for $5000 and they paid it! They still haven’t put anything up, it’s been over a year…
Anyway yeah, throw out a big price then come down to the middle. They won’t say “no” and walk away forever. They’ll say “no, how about $2000++?”
Thanks for all the responses, everyone. After reading this thread and advice from facebook friends, we decided not to take too much of a risk, and sent a counteroffer of 3000EUR. We’ll see how that goes.
I had a friend who had a three-letter domain that represented his (well known, in the community) initials. As an older tech guy, he was savvy enough to grab it in the early days of individual registrations. A few years later, a Very Big Company known by those initials decided it just had to have that address, and thus my friend’s family acquired a very upscale and well-outfitted kitchen.
The same initials, with a hyphen in an appropriate place, replaced his personal domain just fine.
I’ve heard that 3- 4- and 5-letter domains that spell common words or big business acronymns can exchange for five and six figures. But all in all, two grand for an unused one is a pretty good return on investment.
It’s funny, though, how the other end of the game can work. I hold a… famous name domain that a media company has tried to chisel me out of at intervals. I’ve always responded positively to their inquiries, but have absolutely no intention of handing it over because they’ve demanded I do so. (They all but demand I pay shipping on it.) I never hear anything further, until the next time they make a blank demand. Weird.
I’d guess that every couple of years they send out these letters to everyone who’s domain they want (but aren’t overly worried about) and see who hands it over just out of fear.
If Mr. Nissan had $3 million to spend on defending himself (he indicates a $58k award was less than 2% of what it cost to defend the computer company), he must be independently wealthy, have wealthy friends, or doing more than ok with the computer business (I can’t fathom that the ad revenue on Nissan.com generated much).
No, it’s a very specific case of the media owner wanting this specific domain - but they make their rather petulant demand that I wrap it up, with a bow, fully charged, with all accessories, gift wrap it, and deliver it NOW… and then ignore all return correspondence. Three or four years along, another such demand shows up.
They have things I want, too, beyond digits on a check, and I’ve tried to be reasonable about opening negotiations. They just persist in being dipshitty about it. Oh, well. I am using the domain to good purpose and in good faith.
Today, they accepted the 3000-euro counter-offer, no quibbling. Thanks again for everyone’s input.
We figured out what they probably want the domain for. We saw a link on their existing site to a large annual trade show for that industry which is named <industry><that common noun>. So our name for our failed-to-launch business turned out to be <their business name><that common noun>. They definitely had more than a passing interest in acquiring it.
They still haven’t put anything up, it’s been over a year…
