I recently saw a good reported sale of a domain name I had inquired about a couple of years ago. I made an offer via email and the domain owner told me it wasn’t for sale. I have no idea whether it wasn’t really for sale at the time or whether my offer hadn’t piqued his interest.
The sales price looks reasonable, and it wasn’t that many thousands of dollars from my offer. Had the previous owner given me that price when I first inquired, I am almost certain I would have bought it, since my opening offers are generally not the most I will pay for a given name, and it was certainly in the ballpark.
The moral of the story is that if you receive an offer that makes you want to sell the domain name, you might consider getting in touch with the people who previously inquired about the domain name. Even if you set a price higher than the high offer, you can possible make more money. Circumstances may have changed and it may bring back interest in that particular domain name for someone who had previously inquired.
At worst, you waste a day or two waiting for a reply. At best, you can generate some incremental revenue or create a private bidding war between two interested parties.
Yes, I suspect most domainers don’t have a sales background and thus could probably gain from a minicourse, webinar or book on selling.
Elliot,
Let’s say you have a mailing list of 5,000 dog walkers. Would you email them (spam?) or send a postcard? Seems like more would see the postcard even tho it would cost.
@ Ron
I think your comment would be better served in a different post since it’s unrelated.
well, i agree…where would you suggest?
@ Ron
Not sure… It’s not really domain related…
Elliot-
Thinking of trying a new mexican restaurant that opened down the street, Whaddya think?
Mark
Not domain related? I thought maybe you would want to get in touch with 5,000 dog walkers for your website directory.
I guess Mark doesent see it either.
@ ron
Your question is more of a business question than a domain question. It’s something I will eventually need to consider, but there are better resources out there for those types of questions.
Just as a side note, it would be very tough to mail postcards to dog walkers who tend to be more transient and don’t necessarily have mailing addresses listed.
It is a good strategy to follow up if you know
the buyer is serious.
The flaw with following that strategy is that a lowballer
a year ago is still a lowballer today.
The seller has no idea if the prospective buyer was really
interested if they don’t make a serious offer.
For example, if the buyer knew the domain was really
worth $ x,xxx – $ xx,xxx (wholesale), why offer $ 200.?