Is your potential domain buyer bluffing or not?

I received some spectacular news this afternoon, about a domain sale that materialized over the course of the week.

Without releasing any information that’d jeopardize the pending Escrow.com transaction, I want to share a few details about this sale, regardless.

A friend contacted me last week, seeking information on an offer, where the potential buyer seemed to leverage their numbers on the basis of trademarks, valuation services and other esoteric sources of information.

The bottom line is, that their initial offer was substantially low, so I offered to take a look at this person and the domain’s particulars.

After researching some trademark databases outside of the USPTO, it appeared that they had applied for a national trademark in another country, just days prior to their offer. That application made it clear that they were serious about making use of the domain, and could thus be persuaded to spend more money acquiring it.

Further research revealed that despite their locale, they also maintained active corporate presence in the US, and that the nature of their corporate entity presented my friend with the opportunity to respond in a rather aggressive manner, versus passively accepting the initial offer that was made.

It appears that the buyer’s rather eloquent tirade on trademarks, ownership statuses and other such attempts to justify their initial low offer, were a bluff – in the sense that it was aimed at getting the domain for the lowest possible amount of money.

They ended up spending several thousand dollars, and that’s great news for my friend, as much as it is for me; there’s nothing better than sharing information and assisting with a sale, completed at a price consistent with the value of a domain. It’s also good Karma points.

As a final note: While the same approach might not always work, it is important to keep in mind that a buyer who must have a domain, will pay your asking price versus dropping the ball, so research your domain buyer before responding in a way that will lead to leaving money on the table.

TGIF!

Comments

  1. Everyone bluffs

  2. Adam – Not true. Honest corporate buyers more often than ever will disclose who they are, their budget and will make a decision based on the asking price. The ball is in the seller’s court to define a reasonable asking price that produces an ample ROI.

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