Big name domainers, fat promises

In a post over at TheDomains, Mike Berkens is visibly dejected over deadbeat domain buyers, and I fully understand that type of rant.

While the majority of such sales appear to occur via semi-anonymous channels, such as Sedo or GoDaddy, sometimes a deal goes south coming from well-established domainers of varying magnitude in the business.

Personally, I’ve recently experienced the “good old boy” attitude of a domain buyer, whom I naturally trusted that they’d honor their word, and they’d uphold their track record in the business. Once we agreed on the selling price, the other party disappeared for days, eventually emerging with excuses and extending their promises time-wise.

Five weeks later, I realized that even with such seemingly certain deals, one risks getting nothing out of a gentleman’s agreement. That incident made me lose faith in such agreements and forced me from now on to require the signing of a contract that incorporates a date that the buyer must perform by.

In another recent incident affecting a fellow domainer, he was made an offer for a domain by a top tier domain investor and developer. If that name were to be revealed, it’d send shockwaves across the domain industry, due to the childish manner that they renegged on a sale.

It appears that some people would take advantage of their high status in the domain industry, pulling out of deals that they officiated via email. A shame really, as domainer awards mean nothing when honoring one’s word isn’t the #1 rule to live by.

To recap: deadbeat domainers can be small and large, anonymous and eponymous. Unless there are legal implications when pulling out of a deal, those that can get away with making fat promises will continue to do so, as an indication of personal and professional ethics, or a lack thereof.