johno69
Top Contributor
James' post on acquiring the .com for his business prompted this one.
I had a similar experience, when trying to get my hands on lawnbowls.com
I previously purchased the .net from a member here via ebay for a song really.
I started off emailing asking if they were interested in selling, as the domain was pointing to a website that had not been updated for about 12 years.
I thought I'd used a discreet email to fly under the radar, but clearly I did not.
They came back to me saying they had previously been offered 5 figures a few times and even named the company making the offers. I do believe them as that particular company would be chasing it for sure, they are the biggest manufacturer of lawn bowls in the world.
They said that they had researched me and saw I owned a few domains, was a web developer and wanted to know who I was representing, what the plans for the domain name were, and to make a serious offer as the website was their primary business website and email.
I put together a reply that explained that it was in fact for myself and my own project. I did talk about how I in fact was a web developer and I even linked to other websites I have previously done (like findpoker.com.au, which still ranks #1 for the term "Poker Suburb" for almost any suburb), went on to say what I had planned for this project and my passion for the game.
I offered more than just money, I offered to let them keep the email accounts active, I also offered to make a couple of minisites, this being one.
I also offered to purchase their business name domain name and copy the current website to that domain.
I did make an offer of low-ish $XXXX. I didn't mention a currency as I expected to transact in USD of course.
They came back to me with a a request that I also do not sell the domain in the first 5 years, and confirmed that I meant GBP, and said they accept the terms if I accept these things.
I couldn't get to the bank fast enough!
I do truly have a passion for this project, and am not looking to sell any time soon so I had no problem with these extra terms.
It just goes to show that it's not always about the money, but if you play things right you can still manage to get what you may think is out of reach.
I had a similar experience, when trying to get my hands on lawnbowls.com
I previously purchased the .net from a member here via ebay for a song really.
I started off emailing asking if they were interested in selling, as the domain was pointing to a website that had not been updated for about 12 years.
I thought I'd used a discreet email to fly under the radar, but clearly I did not.
They came back to me saying they had previously been offered 5 figures a few times and even named the company making the offers. I do believe them as that particular company would be chasing it for sure, they are the biggest manufacturer of lawn bowls in the world.
They said that they had researched me and saw I owned a few domains, was a web developer and wanted to know who I was representing, what the plans for the domain name were, and to make a serious offer as the website was their primary business website and email.
I put together a reply that explained that it was in fact for myself and my own project. I did talk about how I in fact was a web developer and I even linked to other websites I have previously done (like findpoker.com.au, which still ranks #1 for the term "Poker Suburb" for almost any suburb), went on to say what I had planned for this project and my passion for the game.
I offered more than just money, I offered to let them keep the email accounts active, I also offered to make a couple of minisites, this being one.
I also offered to purchase their business name domain name and copy the current website to that domain.
I did make an offer of low-ish $XXXX. I didn't mention a currency as I expected to transact in USD of course.
They came back to me with a a request that I also do not sell the domain in the first 5 years, and confirmed that I meant GBP, and said they accept the terms if I accept these things.
I couldn't get to the bank fast enough!
I do truly have a passion for this project, and am not looking to sell any time soon so I had no problem with these extra terms.
It just goes to show that it's not always about the money, but if you play things right you can still manage to get what you may think is out of reach.
