Last year, I took down the “Make Offer” option on most of my Dan.com listings. Perhaps because many of my names might be considered overpriced to some extent, it didn’t lead to more BIN sales as I hoped. I put back the “Make Offer” option late last year because I enjoy the back and forth of a negotiation on a 4 figure name as much as on a 6 figure name.
More often than not, I price a domain name when I acquire it and don’t make adjustments on a regular basis. If I bought an expiry auction name for $250 and list it on Dan.com with a $3,999 asking price, I don’t tend to make price adjustments very often across the portfolio. Yeah, I might leave money on the table if a name becomes in demand and I haven’t repriced it in a while, but making a solid profit on replaceable inventory is fine with me.
One thing I’ve done lately when receiving an offer is increase the buy it now price. If someone offers me $1,000 for a name I have priced at $3,999, I will typically reject the offer and provide what I believe is a fair counteroffer. Sometimes, the counteroffer is the current buy it now price. I will then tell the buyer that they have a short window of time to accept my counteroffer or the BIN price of the domain name is going to be raised in line with its current market valuation. Doing this creates urgency on the part of the buyer. Either buy it now for the price offered or lose out on this chance in the future.
When the time window closes, I retract my offer and increase the BIN price. I also increase the minimum offer to the price I offered in my counteroffer so that becomes the new starting point if the prospective buyer wishes to continue the discussion in the future.
This hasn’t always worked out, but I have closed a few deals with these tactics. Sometimes this has worked and a buyer increases their offer enough to get a deal done. I don’t think I’ve sold a name at the higher price in the near term, but that’s not always the objective. Some people simply don’t have the budget to purchase a domain name for the buy it now price.
Perhaps I am losing out on smaller deals by walking away from them, but I am willing to risk those to close larger deals.
I definitely wouldn’t call this advice, nor do I think it’s appropriate for anyone other than me, but I want to share something I’ve been doing.
Interesting tactic! I’ve been thinking about what the optimal (starting) Min Offer tactic would be – no or very low Min Offer to get the conversation going with any interested buyer, or to have high Min Offer close to the BIN to weed out all tire kickers and set a reasonable expectation. What’s your take on it?
I think that is entirely based on the types of domain names in a portfolio. I believe mine is around $1,000 (the lowest BIN price on a handful of names).
Is it true there’s a 99$ minimum price on DAN ? Also, do you ever sell new hand-registered domains there, or anywhere else … 👍thanks
Tip ..Put $1250 and have a make offer….most likely the buyer will come up with $1000 which what you wanted.
Nice idea, Elliot. I’ve recently put my domains with the most views on a price escalator, regularly raising the BIN by 5-10 percent. This sets a pattern that I hope will be noticed by prospects. It also gives me a pleasant “don’t care” feeling if the domains remain unsold month by month. Has anybody tried this? Does it work?