Domain inquiries arrive in all types of colorful examples of how people approach domain ownership.
Having been an active domain investor for more than 15 years, I can honestly write a book about the myriads of inquiries that often lack common sense.
It’s not that a particular offer arrives with a price that is unreasonable. It’s that quite often, these offers arrive with a nonchalant, “I do not really care about the domain” attitude.
Allow me to demonstrate with an example, why this attitude is from the get-go destructive towards any future agreement.
When you visit a car dealership, you are more than welcome to look around. You can touch the car, get in and out of it, test drive it even – as long as you are not looking like a homeless hobo.
If you decide to buy the car, however, you never tell the salesperson that you don’t really need it, and proceed with offering 1/10th of its value, or less.
Domain valuation is one thing, and knocking off a domain’s ticket price is another.
If you don’t really need a domain, but instead treat it as a commodity that you “could have” and not one that you “must have,” then save us both time and aggravation by not stepping foot into my dealership in the future.
It seems that thanks to these individuals, one has to create a long list of disclaimers to be agreed upon, even before a quote is given.
It’s a recommended type of defense, and often, protection, against those that trivialize domain ownership, and domain assets.
I think there’s a fine line to consider with this. Eliminating all those nonchalant inquiries may remove 98%+ of inquiries all together. That leaves a lean 2% to work with over the course of 1 to 5 years worth of offers. I think there may be some resellers that wouldn’t mind entertaining a lengthy negotiation process to happily reach 50% of their asking price. After all, we do still need to consider that many resellers are asking prices that don’t come anywhere close to the true value of the domain asset in the first place.
It’s really a case by case basis. Every coin has 2 sides.
Eric – An offer that is accompanied by an indifferent attitude does not constitute a goodwill inquiry, in my book. It’s not a matter of price, it’s a matter of devaluing the process. Domain owners are not bazaar peddlers.
Any indifferent attitude towards the “wares” should be given the “move along, then!” response.