James
Top Contributor
Interesting read, not sure on his negotiation tactics.
https://medium.com/@ajt/how-we-got-the-com-for-our-startup-b48fd6c5511
https://medium.com/@ajt/how-we-got-the-com-for-our-startup-b48fd6c5511
Interesting domain acquisition story
- Thread starter James
- Start date
Moral of the story.. never give up, always stay in contact with the domain owner, and ALWAYS monitor the domain name for changes.
I've had some hits and misses with aquiring domains, for myself and customers. Quickest transaction turnaround was 2 weeks, with Escrow settlement and handover, with a large domain portfolio owner.
Longest was with an individual domain owner, who took 6 months of going backwards and forwards, because he had a "friend" who was advising him along the way. Ultimately agreed to sale, but only in person, did not trust escrow services.
Best result was a domain offer that went cold, owner didn't renew domain and I picked it up on the drop.
Never give up!
I've had some hits and misses with aquiring domains, for myself and customers. Quickest transaction turnaround was 2 weeks, with Escrow settlement and handover, with a large domain portfolio owner.
Longest was with an individual domain owner, who took 6 months of going backwards and forwards, because he had a "friend" who was advising him along the way. Ultimately agreed to sale, but only in person, did not trust escrow services.
Best result was a domain offer that went cold, owner didn't renew domain and I picked it up on the drop.
Never give up!
James
Top Contributor
Yeah we have assisted a few AU based start ups with acquisitions in the last few years. One of the best I remember was a domain a client paid 20k for and let it drop. We re acquired it for $1k. We also recently acquired a start up for A client where they went out of business and our clients purchased all the ip. Was a very good buy.
But on the darker side of negotiating domain purchases..
http://www.domaininvesting.com/dont-buy-domain-name-behalf-someone-else/
I will gladly assist a customer negotiate a purchase, for a fee, but handover to them for the final payment stages. Customers will agree to anything, until they have to cough up the $$. I had a previous customer who was "desperate" for a 2 keyword TLD .com domain. After weeks of negotiation, we settled on a price, but my customer got cold feet, and backed out, leaving me holding the ball. I still invoiced them for my time, which they refused, so we parted ways.
Weeks later the domain owner contacted me, seeing if I was still interested, and quoted a reduced offer. After all the research and time I had put into the domain, I decided to buy it for myself
http://www.domaininvesting.com/dont-buy-domain-name-behalf-someone-else/
I will gladly assist a customer negotiate a purchase, for a fee, but handover to them for the final payment stages. Customers will agree to anything, until they have to cough up the $$. I had a previous customer who was "desperate" for a 2 keyword TLD .com domain. After weeks of negotiation, we settled on a price, but my customer got cold feet, and backed out, leaving me holding the ball. I still invoiced them for my time, which they refused, so we parted ways.
Weeks later the domain owner contacted me, seeing if I was still interested, and quoted a reduced offer. After all the research and time I had put into the domain, I decided to buy it for myself
James
Top Contributor
But on the darker side of negotiating domain purchases..
http://www.domaininvesting.com/dont-buy-domain-name-behalf-someone-else/
I will gladly assist a customer negotiate a purchase, for a fee, but handover to them for the final payment stages. Customers will agree to anything, until they have to cough up the $$. I had a previous customer who was "desperate" for a 2 keyword TLD .com domain. After weeks of negotiation, we settled on a price, but my customer got cold feet, and backed out, leaving me holding the ball. I still invoiced them for my time, which they refused, so we parted ways.
Weeks later the domain owner contacted me, seeing if I was still interested, and quoted a reduced offer. After all the research and time I had put into the domain, I decided to buy it for myself
Well to stop this from happening, the first question you ask a client is what is your budget. Then you know a fixed budget range to negotiate via. It would be silly to try and acquire a domain when you do not know the clients budget.
marketingweb
Top Contributor
Interesting story and case study.
I will say though, the "winner" does come across as a bit of a bully boy. Using terms like 'non existent side project" is a bit harsh, when they don't know what the guy had planned or was working on. If it had been a landing page full of contectual advertising maybe, but a blank page with nothing there is often more likely to be the result of a dormant project than a domain someone is looking to offload at the highest price. And even for dormant or semi dormant projects, often hard to admit that your work to date is for naught if your intention was to develop something that you had some mental/emotional investment in, rather than having the domain mostly for it's own value.
I will say though, the "winner" does come across as a bit of a bully boy. Using terms like 'non existent side project" is a bit harsh, when they don't know what the guy had planned or was working on. If it had been a landing page full of contectual advertising maybe, but a blank page with nothing there is often more likely to be the result of a dormant project than a domain someone is looking to offload at the highest price. And even for dormant or semi dormant projects, often hard to admit that your work to date is for naught if your intention was to develop something that you had some mental/emotional investment in, rather than having the domain mostly for it's own value.
Data Glasses
Top Contributor
Previous owner should have leased the domain i think
