Acro.net – Technology Rants & Raves by Acroplex®

Very rarely – if ever – do I post twice on the same day. But a “domains wanted” thread over at DNForum made me scramble enough material for yet another domain-related rant.

What the heck, it’s also Friday.

So when a buyer posts about their budget being in the “$xx – low $xxx” range, one would hope their expectations about domain quality aren’t that high.

Otherwise, either they have a small budget and high expectations, or a small brain. Or both.

However, when a fellow domainer jumps in to defend the lowball poster’s demands, that’s when I take offense.

And I quote my initial response from that thread:

Short domains: $x,xxx
Aged domains: $x,xxx
Short & aged domains: $x,xxx – $xx,xxx

There are some so-called “industry standards” that once broken will further allow a bunch of clowns to demand something for nothing.

Short domains, aged domains, short *and* aged domains – all are worthy of a domainer’s respect. When you violate this rough guide, you’re disrespecting an entire industry.

Sure, I could have walked away from the thread – then again, I’m known for voicing my opinion when I strongly feel I’m in the right.

A seller is in the wrong when they declare their domains are “premium” when they are not. A buyer is in the wrong when they demand unreasonably low prices for domains that are worth much more by definition.

TGIF!

During the past two weeks I’ve had an onslaught of offers on Sedo.

While some sales came to fruition after negotiation and/or public auction, the majority were of the same kind: lowball offers.

I spoke to my account manager about possibly introducing a system where offer-makers are identifiable, the way sellers are.

The method would allow serial lowballers to be blocked by individual sellers from making further offers; first, for a set period of time and then – if necessary – for good.

I don’t set minimum prices for the domains that I list on Sedo and the reason is simple.

Many times I’ve seen an initial offer of e.g. $100 jump into the $x,xxx territory once negotiations – and non-standard messages – get rolling. A higher minimum price can be a roadblock, even if it’s in the low hundreds. That’s because a minimum asking price is only a selling threshold and not a selling point, but those two are often misunderstood by potential buyers.

The truth is, a lot of end-users offer the least amount of money, if they can get away with it.

The exception, perhaps, was when I sold a three letter .com via Sedo last year. The $xx,xxx selling price had a $9,999 minimum offer set.

Still, it’d be great to pass the message along to the time-wasting lowballers: without offering money, you don’t get the domain honey.