Money in the bank Vs. money on the table

[eBranding.com.au]

All the domains that I'm looking to sell are listed on Sedo as 'make an offer', usually with a minimum offer of a few hundred dollars.

An offer came in recently through one of Sedo's partner platforms: Go Daddy.

The offer was about 35% higher than the minimum I'd set. For this domain name it was a decent offer.

I considered the offer and decided to counter-offer. I thought the strong opening offer indicated that they likely had the capacity to go higher - and I didn't want to leave money on the table.

There was no response to my counter-offer, or subsequent lower counter-offers. The last one was for the original amount they offered, but they were gone.

I could have made a decent return on my investment and put money in the bank.

By being greedy I left all of the money on the table.

Why did this happen?

• Some people buy on impulse - I gave them time to reconsider.
  
• People are often considering a few potential names - I gave them a reason to look at other options.
  
• Sometimes the first offer is the final offer - some people don't want to negotiate and go back and forth, they just want to buy a domain. This is particularly true for end users. The reason their opening offer was so good, was probably because it was the most they were going pay.

I've been down this path before, it's always a fine line in trying to maximise returns and still close a deal.

While this was only a small sale, it's another lesson learned. The only failure in making mistakes is not learning from them.

 

[johno69]

Thanks for sharing.

I had an offer a few weeks back on a domain I have a for sale landing page on.

I replied accepting the offer, to never hear from them again.

Some people will just never settle and that's just how it is.

 

[snoopy]

Thanks for sharing.

I had an offer a few weeks back on a domain I have a for sale landing page on.

I replied accepting the offer, to never hear from them again.

Some people will just never settle and that's just how it is.

I find maybe 10-15% of the time people don't follow through. Have a couple that have been "sold" multiple times over the years.

In one sedo account I've got 80 sales over the last couple of years with 8 cancelled by Sedo for non payment. The recent ones where it looks to be from Godaddy the failure rate is much higher, I'd guess over 20%.

Regarding countering I'm not sure how easy this is this is to do with godaddy, little doubt it is a pain & confusing for buyers given how godaddy operates their aftermarket stuff.

 

[Lucas]

I could have made a decent return on my investment and put money in the bank.

By being greedy I left all of the money on the table.

I had a very similar thing happen about a year ago. I contacted an end user (large US company) to see if they were interested in a .asia domain I had. They responded with an offer of $11000. I just about fell off my chair. However, being greedy, I counter offered something like $14000. To cut a long story short I lost the sale and they lost interest in the domain even after I said I would accept their initial offer. I should have taken the offer and ran!! Lesson learned.

 

[snoopy]

I had a very similar thing happen about a year ago. I contacted an end user (large US company) to see if they were interested in a .asia domain I had. They responded with an offer of $11000. I just about fell off my chair. However, being greedy, I counter offered something like $14000. To cut a long story short I lost the sale and they lost interest in the domain even after I said I would accept their initial offer. I should have taken the offer and ran!! Lesson learned.

It is a tricky situation. Backtracking later gives the impression their first offer may have been too high. Even accepting though need to be handled carefully in terms of how it looks. Often they'll back away as soon as you say ok.

I've had similar situations a bit. Sometimes the first offer is the best offer, sometimes they will pay double. There is no right or wrong. I think it is just a fact that alot of sales are going to be lost or money left on the table for one unpredictable reason or another.