Receiving low ball offers on my domain names is a slightly annoying part of this business. Having someone try to convince me why a domain name I own is worth what they are offering is much more annoying. I want to share a method I use to get back at someone who has lowballed me on an offer and tried to convince me the offer is good.

Days, weeks, months, or even years later, when you’ve received a far more adequate offer for the domain name, I like to rekindle the email thread where this person gave his low ball offer, and let them know of the high offer and ask if they want to beat it. Most likely, they will pass, but it’s a subtle way to tell them their analysis was wrong and their offer was silly.

Since many low ball offers are the result of automated programs (or even paid contact centers), I don’t bother doing this to the people who made a low ball offer but didn’t follow up with a discussion about why their offer was good. This is a time waste and will likely end up going to an email address that doesn’t work any longer.

Chances are good that this won’t result in a sale, but at least it will be an opportunity to gloat a bit when someone wasted your time.

Since moving to our home, my wife and I have undertaken various home improvement projects. I am far from a “do it yourself” type of person, so we’ve had a number of contractors come to our house to give estimates for the different projects.

Here’s how the process has gone. The contractor will look at the area that needs work, and we’ll bring the discussion about the job and pricing to the kitchen table. More often than not, there will be some small talk before getting to business, and invariably, the contractor will ask what I do for a living, followed by more probing questions about my business.

Generally speaking, I try to downplay my business as much as possible for obvious reasons. The first time it happened, I had a painter who thought I owned a big Internet company (my “you’ve never heard of my company” line fell on deaf ears). His price was almost 3x the price of the painter we selected who ended up doing a fantastic job.

I can’t criticize contractors for trying to size me up to see how much I can afford and quote a price accordingly. I do the same thing when a buyer inquires about a domain name, although my methods seem far less intrusive, and most buyers wouldn’t even know I am seeking out this information. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty about doing it, especially because there are many people with great jobs who are looking for a particular domain name to go out on their own, but it’s a part of doing business.

If you want to get the most for your domain names, you need to do your research on the buyer, just like most other businesses.