Efty and Saw.com Announce Brokerage Partnership

Many domain investors use Efty landing pages to broker their own domain name sales. They receive inbound inquiries generated from their domain names, and they negotiate the sale of their domain names on their own. I enjoy negotiating a domain name sale on my own, but it is very possible I am leaving money on the table every time I do a deal.

In a blog post this morning, Efty announced a new brokerage partnership with Saw.com, the domain brokerage co-founded by Amanda Waltz and Jeff Gabriel. Efty users will be able to assign leads to a broker from Saw.com who will broker the sale on behalf of the domain registrant. Efty users will set a target price and a floor price, and the broker will work to close a deal on behalf of the seller at the desired price.

Rows.com Acquired for $100k for DashDash Rebrand

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This morning, I read a TechCrunch article about a company called Rows that was formerly known as dashdash, before a major rebrand. The article covered the company’s $16 million Series B round of funding, which followed its $8 million Series A round of funding in 2018. Smartly, the company acquired its matching Rows.com domain name in advance of the rebranding effort.

Historic Whois records at DomainTools show that Rows.com had previously been owned by Future Media Architects (FMA). FMA owns a large portfolio of exceptional domain names, and most of them are for sale. The company uses Saw.com to broker domain names on its behalf. From what I can tell, Rows.com was acquired by DashDash in late April or early May of 2020.

One must look no further than the company’s blog post about the Rows rebrand to learn how much the company paid to acquire the Rows.com domain name:

TransferWise Acquires Wise.com and Rebrands as Wise

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Last November, Jamie Zoch detected a change in the Whois record for the Wise.com domain name. Wise.com had been owned by Broadcom / Symantec, and the domain name transferred from CSC to GoDaddy under Whois privacy. In a tweet, Jamie predicted that an online money transfer service called TransferWise was going to be revealed as the buyer of the domain name:

Future Fund Acquires Sushi.com for SushiSwap

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A venture capital company called Future Fund, which operates on Future.xxx, announced that it acquired the Sushi.com domain name for its SushiSwap protocol. The acquisition was announced in a tweet this morning:

How Much of a Discount I May Accept

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I have most of my inventory-quality domain names listed with a buy it now price and a less prominent link to make an offer. I tend to receive more offers than people buying the domain name straight away, so I tend to price the domain name with that in mind. I was recently asked how much of a discount I am willing to accept to sell a domain name, and I want to share some broad insight.

There are several main factors that I consider before agreeing to a discounted sale price:

  • The buy it now price. Knowing that the majority of prospective buyers will submit an offer rather than clicking the BIN price, I tend to price my names a bit on the high side. This allows me to comfortably offer a discount without cutting too much into my returns. If my BIN price is more in line with what I believe is the true value of the domain name, I am less likely to give a discounted.
  • How much I paid to buy the domain name. I need to ensure that I am profitably selling my domain names, so the price I paid will help determine whether and how much to discount.
  • How easy it will be to replace the domain name if sold. If I can easily replace a domain name via auction or private acquisition, I may be more willing to give a deeper discount on a domain name than on a domain name that will be tough to replace.
  • How much I need the liquidity. If I have had a dry spell with domain name sales or I could use the funds to purchase other assets, I may be more inclined to give a larger discount.
  • Who is inquiring about the domain name. If the prospective buyer is a huge corporation, I will likely be less willing to give a discount than if the buyer is a small church or non-profit organization.

Situationally, I may not take anything less than the asking price or may take up to 50% off the buy it now price depending on the factors above. Most of the time, I price names knowing I will have to negotiate a bit. I tend to be more or less generous with the minimum offer depending on the domain name.

One thing I have done in the last few months is tighten the minimum offer standards for most of my domain names. Previously, the minimum offer settings on the account would guide the portfolio. Due to some limitations at DAN, that amount had to be the lowest price domain name in my portfolio. I received many very low offers that were not worth responding to. For many of my names, the minimum offer is either around 50% of the BIN price or what I would consider to potentially the absolute rock bottom price I would consider if I needed to close a sale pronto.

Ultimately, I would say that I might be willing to sell a domain name for a maximum discount of 50% off the BIN price, but the domain name would have to be easily replaceable and I have a strong desire to sell the domain name. Most typically speaking though, I would generally discount somewhere between 10-20% depending on the factors outlined above.

Where I List My Names for Sale These Days

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Someone recently asked me where I list my domain names for sale. I’ve mentioned this in articles at various times on here and on Twitter, but I thought I would share an update to give current information about my portfolio sales listings.

I would guesstimate about 95% of my domain names are listed for sale on DAN.com. These domain names have DAN landing pages and nearly all have BIN prices with the make offer option. DAN has earned my business since I closed my first deal on the platform in April of 2020, and I am happy to send visitors there to buy or negotiate to buy a domain name I own.