Don’t Miss Out on a Good Deal Hoping for a Perfect Deal

Elliot Silver
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For many people I know in the domain business, negotiating a deal is almost as exciting as completing a deal. It can be exhilarating to get a buyer or seller to agree to a favorable deal, and when a negotiation takes weeks or months, the thrill of the actual deal may be lost by the time it comes to its conclusion.

Because of the enjoyment many people get from negotiating, it is very possible to lose out on a fair deal trying to get the best terms possible.

In a negotiation, I think it is human nature for the buyer or seller to want to get the absolute best deal possible. Even if a deal is fair for both parties, some people want to “win” the negotiation rather than reach a fair deal that is still good for both parties. In an effort to “win,” they might actually lose out on a deal.

While most negotiations

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HomeAway CEO: VacationRentals.com Domain Name Bought for $35 Million

Elliot Silver
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I read a report on The Next Web this morining, and it listed the sale of VacationRentals.com as the most expensive domain name sale of all time. I don’t recall hearing about the sale anywhere, but the embedded video confirms the sale price.

In the video, HomeAway Founder and CEO Brian Sharples mentions that the company primarily bought VacationRentals.com to keep it away from a competitor. From the looks of it, VacationRentals.com had been a very active website before the acquisition, although Mr. Sharples sounds like the purchase was a defensive measure primarily for the domain name: “The only reason we bought it was so Expedia couldn’t have that url.” (Start the video at about the 15 minute mark to hear it).

I am sure most people won’t update their list of the most expensive domain sales / purchases of all time, but it certainly is a big sale that should be noted.

Interestingly, TNW did not include the $35.6 million sale of Insurance.com or the $16 million sale of Insure.com. From my perspective, both of these domain sales are similar in nature to the sale of VacationRentals.com since they were active websites and weren’t exclusively domain sales.

A Counter Offer Nullifies The Offer

Elliot Silver
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A few years ago, someone made an offer on one of my domain names, and I counter offered trying to get a better price. I don’t recall if the person replied to my counter offer or not, but I followed up within a day or two to let them know I reconsidered and would accept their offer. The person told me their offer was no longer valid.

I was pretty upset, and at the time, I thought they had done something wrong. After speaking with a couple of colleagues, I then understood that what they did was completely legitimate, and in making my counter offer, I effectively rejected their offer.

With domain names or anything else, if you make a counter offer, you are

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Report: DJI.com Sold via Sedo $300,000

Elliot Silver
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In a tweet this morning, Sedo domain broker Dave Evanson announced that the company has brokered the sale of DJI.com for $300,000. The former owner appears to be an individual from Miami Beach who had parked the domain name at Sedo. I don’t know if Sedo made an outreach to try and sell the domain name on behalf of the owner or if they negotiated via the Sedo landing page. I looked through my Gmail history, and I don’t see any mention of this domain name being brokered publicly before.

The new registrant appears to be a Chinese company called Dajiang Innovation Technology, Inc. They currently use DJI-Innovations.com for its website, and throughout the website, the company refers to itself as simply DJI. This domain name is certainly a nice upgrade.

The sale price of $300,000 is pretty remarkable for this domain name. On the face of it, I don’t see that much value, but of course a domain owner can only get that much money if he or she asks for it. From my experience, a very high asking price is usually a deal killer, but clearly the buyer wanted (or perhaps needed) this domain name enough to justify the purchase price.

Congratulations to all parties on this deal.

Huge Domains Selling BlurredLines.com

Elliot Silver
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Blurred Lines

You know a song is popular when people make parody music videos. Singers Robin Thicke, T.I., and Pharrell Williams have one of (if not the) most played songs of the summer called Blurred Lines. You can’t drive anywhere listening to the radio without this playing at least once.

For your knowledge (and enjoyment), I have embedded the parody video of Blurred Lines from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleading squad featuring the Muppets (the Tampa Bay Buccaneers video was taken down from YouTube). Just like Carly Ray Jepson’s Call Me Maybe was parodied thousands of times, I am sure this song will be as well.

Now to the point of this article. The BlurredLines.com

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Tip to Find an Inquirer

Elliot Silver
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I like to share a variety of ways you may be able to find out who is inquiring about your domain names. This surely isn’t foolproof, but it’s one way you might be able to get a bit more intelligence on who is trying to buy one of your domain names.

More often than not, I find that buyers are fairly honest about who they are. They might not list their full information in their signature, but many who inquire use their real email address. Since many don’t list their full name or other identifying information, I’ve found it can be helpful if you search Google for the first part of their email address and see if you can connect the dots. For instance, if

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