I received a strong offer on one of my one word .com domain names last week. I declined, but in the process of doing so, I went back through prior offers to reconnect with those prospects to see if they might be still interested in doing a deal. I don’t do a great job of rekindling old negotiations, but perhaps my domain name dropped off their radar and a quick touchbase will restart a discussion.
One of the previous prospects made an offer in 2021 and we last exchanged emails in 2023. That prospect maxed out at $15,000, but I figured I would reach back to them to see if the brand matching .com might be able to help them grow. This business operated on a non .com domain name, so I figured they would have had a few years to grow into the budget required to secure my domain name.
A quick visit to their domain name told me everything I needed to know. The domain name is listed for sale for ~$50,000 via Spaceship. I don’t see any sales data on NameBio, so I don’t know if the domain name was sold in between now and the time of our last discussion. All I know is the company no longer exists.
Although this company’s $15,000 max offer in 2021 was a non-starter for me, there have been numerous other decent/reasonable offers for my domain names that I rejected. I have figured these startups will either come back in the short term with a more serious offer, or they will grow to the point where they understand the brand matching .com domain name will enable them to take their business to the next level when that time comes.
For many startups and businesses, that time never comes. They don’t get to the point where they can spend 6 or 7 figures for a domain name. They might even fail to grow at all.
It is understood that you need to reject good offers to get great offers. You can’t sell a domain name for a $1,000,000 if you accept an offer of $500,000. Most prospective buyers don’t start out by offering $1,000,000 if they think there is a chance their $500,000 offer might be accepted. It can be like a game of chicken as you wait for that $1,000,000 offer. Sometimes that $500,000 is the best offer and it can quickly disappear if that business fails.
Hmm,
That makes me wonder if you sold the domain for 15k under the stipulation if the company goes belly up the domain defaults back to you. If the company grows you get an additional 15k within x amount of years.
Even without the second part of the extra funds, most startups don’t make it so odds of the domain coming back would be pretty good. Mind you there would have to be an iron clad contract.