In late 2009 I accepted an offer on Sedo for one of my domain names; a dictionary .net with several uses. The buyer was from a country in the Middle East and a newcomer to Sedo.
After waiting patiently for payment for more than 30 days, it became obvious that the buyer would not fulfill their obligation and Sedo canceled the transaction per my request.
They also banned the buyer from the Sedo marketplace as a deadbeat and provided me with the buyer’s name and info. Unfortunately, the buyer’s locale made it impossible for me to proceed with any form of legal action, as I would have done if they were in the US.
Fast forward to the future, 20 months later.
I received a sizable offer for the same domain and decided to send the domain into a Sedo auction. Unfortunately, it ended with a single bid: that of the person who had made the offer.
The buyer paid promptly and issued a request for an invoice, thus revealing his name – and that’s where the transaction turned very interesting: it was the deadbeat buyer from 2009.
I’m a realist when it comes down to domain pricing: the market’s liquidity dictates the pricing – as long as one decides to sell instead of holding long term.
Naturally I would have proceeded with the transaction, as I’ve done with hundreds of others on Sedo. But this wasn’t an ordinary transaction, it was a mockery of honest trading. It’s one thing when someone gets a good deal based on circumstances or the willingness of the seller to sell lower; it’s another thing when they reneg on a deal and break the contract.
I contacted Sedo, notifying them that the deadbeat buyer was somehow back on Sedo and that I wasn’t going to proceed with the transaction. What matters to me isn’t losing a sale but rather, having justice delivered. It’s a matter of ethics to honor a contract and by going around that, the buyer was essentially not playing a fair game.
Sedo deliberated for only a couple of hours before letting me know that they agreed with my position; the buyer had been banned for a while and was allowed back in at a later time per his request for “good behavior”.
Sedo froze the payment at escrow and informed the buyer that they’d have to come up with the remainder of the payment, honoring the initial contract.
It was a brilliant move by Sedo: the buyer’s eagerness to pay indicated that they had both their money and their reputation at stake. If they didn’t pay, they’d have to reverse the charges and lose every chance of every being on Sedo again. To my pleasant surprise, the next day the buyer accepted to honor the original contract.
I sat tight for a few more days while Sedo processed a split payment and finally the deal was complete. It took 20 months from the initial contract to the completion of the transaction but that’s fine since justice was delivered. It also more than doubled my anticipated revenue from the sale.
The way that Sedo handled the transaction was truly fantastic and communication via the phone was superb in every aspect. It’s also gratifying to see that the buyer decided to play fair in the end, so kudos to him for that.
You’ll find out about the $6,200 sale in next week’s DNJournal.
