Make Offer Leads to “Dilution of Domain Value”

For many of my domain names listed for sale, I have a “Make Offer” option next to the buy it now price. Domain name pricing isn’t science for me, and if I miss the mark by a considerable amount, a prospective buyer may simply choose an alternative domain name. I rely on domain name sales to fund the majority of my business, so I would prefer to give someone the option to make an offer rather than pass over an overpriced domain name.

Darpan Munjal, Founder of Squadhelp (a branding agency with a focus on domain names), shared an observation that domain investors may wish to consider when listing their domain names for sale:

When I have the “Make Offer” option available on a sale listing, a prospective buyer will regularly make an offer rather than hit the BIN button. These people must assume the owner would consider an offer since the option is available.

I tend to price my names a bit on the high side, so there is often room to negotiate. If I receive an offer and think the BIN price I set is too low, I will usually tell the buyer the BIN price is firm and the price will be increasing soon to induce a sale. This has worked in the past.

Domain investors should assume the Make Offer field will lower the chances of completing a BIN deal on the domain name. Darpan’s quantitative data backs this up.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

6 COMMENTS

  1. “Make Offer” implies:
    #1) Fire Sale
    #2) Ammo for a UDRP on that domain OR a different domain
    #3) In the end most legitimate offer come thru GoDaddy’s platform or Sedo

  2. I get lots of sales thru make offer or inquire because it opens the path of communication.
    Making sales is always about compromise, communications and negotiations.

  3. This is classic Occam’s Razor territory.

    It’s the willingness to accept a lower price that’s the cause of lower prices and NOT some silly “Make Offer” button..

    The 40% “dilution of value” is far more likely explained by domainer inexperience in pricing their inventory or in negotiating domain sales.

    Also, a “price dilution” may reflect a domainer’s need for cash now, versus cash later. Most solid deals take time and some folks cannot afford to wait.

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