For years, I’ve stated the single most important methodology in successful domain selling: if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Pricing your domains right is an important element of a transaction, and while you engage in negotiations with another party, there is usually room to achieve a higher sale – simply by asking.
As a domain investor, I am also assisting others that might not be able to understand their domains’ worth. This is something that can be achieved via honest and expert appraisals of domains in public venues, or by engaging in direct communications with them.
The idea is to help sustain the domain market at a high standard, where opportunities do exist, but also domain value is retained; nobody wants to see gold sell at $100 an ounce.
If you come across someone underselling a domain name, there is a chance that they are not – for whatever reason – aware of its value. If you aren’t personally interested in scoring an incredible deal, it’s a good practice to alert them of its worth, by providing information on similar sales, or even leads to a potential buyer willing to pay more.
“If you don’t ask, you don’t get.”
…and if you ask, you get UDRP trouble!
Mike – This isn’t about contacting someone for a domain they own a trademark on. Only inexperienced newbies do that.
It’s about negotiating up when you have an offer on the table. If they offer $2k and you say “OK”, that’s all you will get.
Acro – I wish you are right about UDRP. Recently we have seen filing such cases without having a trademark. UDRP is wrong tool that is very dangerous for legitimate domain holders. You know that, I know that, everybody knows that, … but there is nothing we can do. Certainly, if you do domaining at $2k level, then you are safe. But that level is not what I am interested in…
Mike – Here’s a novel idea: don’t invest in domains that carry trademark risk.
Acro, you can’t have a battle of wits with an unarmed person, it’s just not fair. LOL
Seriously though there are several sources of education to help any domain investor price their names for maximum price and marketability.
Valuation tools can be helpful in providing data to support ones asking price. We offer both a certification standard and domain valuation articles that will also help domain investors determine and stand by a fair market value and asking price.
Perhaps the best advice I have received that makes it easy to reply to the old how much do you want question is to do the research using all the tools I have mentioned, then to determine a price that you can stick by and be confident with and stick with it.
The problem with domain values is there is such a broad range of pricing from wholesale to retail. If I was selling a house for 1 million I can promise you I didn’t pay only $100,000 for it but in the domaining world a domainer will only pay $1,000 for a $10,000+ domain. Only with domains do you see such a crazy range of pricing. No other industry is like this.