I badly need some advice from the pros asap...

[seanboy]

Hello,

I just received an email from someone who wants to buy one of my names. Since I am fairly new and this is the first email i've ever received about one of my names, I need a little advice. I also need an appraisal on my name but I don't want to post it publicly. Could one of the pros here please PM me?

Thanks,

Seanboy

*Update*
Nevermind, it was spam :disappointed:

 

[maroulis]

send me a PM

 

[JMJ]

I don't consider myself a pro at anything but what I generally do is respond back telling them. "Yes the name is for sale. If you would like to make an offer feel free to do so." You want them to begin the price negotiation. If they make an $xx offer they are likely newbies themselves and may have a hard time believing a domain which they can get from Godaddy for as low as $2.95 (or whatever) it said on the commercial they just saw would sell for much more than that.

If they make a decent offer in the low $xxx range in most cases you may stretch them to mid to high $xxx. If the offer is mid-high $xxx then they will likely go low to mid $xxxx. This is all sort of a rough idea of a way to work it though. You can also judge their interest by their response time. If you respond back with make an offer and they respond back within minutes or hours then their interest is likely greater. If you don't hear back from them at all then you should probably respond back a week down the road with something along the lines. "I've talked with my partner on this particular name and we have come to a price which we feel is reasonable." And give them a reasonable price.

To break this down even further lets say the person came back with an offer of $500. In most cases I will multiple their offer by 10 but not make it obvious that I did so. IE $500 offer $4750 counter. $50 offer $550 counter. When you start going from hundreds to thousands it gets abit more tricky and you can easily turn off the buyer if you get to greedy. My suggestion is despite what others might tell you. If you have no personal attachment (and keep this a minimum) to the name close the deal for a healthy profit with the first interest you have in a name. The odds are greater that you don't ever get any interest on that particular name again. Also this is more for "general" names. Premium names is a whole different ballgame.

Also try to figure out who they are. If it isn't obvious. IE the sent you an email from their Microsoft.com email or whatever drop their name/email in google and see if they are somehow related to the domains topic.

 

[britishbulldog]

Blast me a pm !

 

[fatter]

also be aware there is an appraissal scam, many offers are fake to get you to pay for one of their appraissals and they have no interest in the name

 

[seanboy]

does anyone have an example of this "appraisal scam?"

 

[mulligan]

Goes something like:

Hi,

Im interesed in buying the domain in the title of this email.

Does the domain have a website or is it just the domain?
What is your asking price .. $3000 or is it more?

Usually signed but not always by a Phd or the like.

There are numerous versions of this email.

Upshot is that they will eventually ask you to get it appraised, the scam is that you pay a company (Likely attached to the email sender) for an appraisal and you never hear back from the 'buyer'

Have a look here:
http://www.domainappraisalscam.com/

 

[seanboy]

Hmmm...my email seems to be legitimate, not entirely sure though. They didn't offer a price, they asked me how much I was selling it for.

 

[maroulis]

here's the most recent appraisal scam I got couple of days ago - ofcourse some google search and didn't even bother to reply back

From: Styggen <[email protected]>

Hello,

Please give me your price for the name in the subject line. Your name was listed for sale.

Domain names is not my main business. I'm going to make money on reselling to raise funds for launching a portal about tourism in Norway.

If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.


Happy New Year to you and your family!

Regards,
Marcus Styggen

============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.

===========================================================================

 

[Focus]

Tell them you did'nt plan on selling it but will consider an offer in the
$xx,xxx range..I could'nt open your email btw

 

[ColdGin]

seanboy...we all received once or more this kind of emails....I can understand the excitment when receiving one email asking for a domain...but most of them are scam.

 

[droplister]

sounds legit to me, he didnt say that the buyer wants the appraisal, he wants it. Best of luck.

 

[Ian]

Shoot me a PM if need my help! Cheers

 

[seanboy]

here's the most recent appraisal scam I got couple of days ago - ofcourse some google search and didn't even bother to reply back

From: Styggen <[email protected]>

Hello,

Please give me your price for the name in the subject line. Your name was listed for sale.

Domain names is not my main business. I'm going to make money on reselling to raise funds for launching a portal about tourism in Norway.

If you offer more domains for sale with good reselling potential please email us your list.

Looking forward to do business with you.


Happy New Year to you and your family!

Regards,
Marcus Styggen

============================================================================
NOTICE - This communication may contain confidential and privileged
information that is for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any
viewing, copying or distribution of, or reliance on this message by
unintended recipients is strictly prohibited. If you have received this
message in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message
and deleting it from your computer.

===========================================================================

Yep. That's exactly the same email I got. Except the name was "Lorin Yeaton." I am so glad I posted here before I responded to this douche-bag. Thanks alot to everyone for your help You just saved me a ton of headaces!!!

 

[fatter]

sounds legit to me, he didnt say that the buyer wants the appraisal, he wants it. Best of luck.

the buyer usually doesnt ask for an appraissal till second email contact about the domains

 

[JMJ]

I feel sortof left out because I don't get these anymore. The scammers must have blacklisted me..lol Must have something to do with me telling them what they could do with their body waste and pushing up daisys afterwards.

 

[petrosc]

does anyone have an example of this "appraisal scam?"

See this thread at NP

http://www.namepros.com/warnings-and-alerts/165976-fallen-half-way-into-popular-appraisal.html

 

[Devil Dog]

I feel sortof left out because I don't get these anymore. The scammers must have blacklisted me..lol Must have something to do with me telling them what they could do with their body waste and pushing up daisys afterwards.

Ha! Same here. :lol:

 

[seanboy]

Strange, I just remembered that I have a private registration on this domain. The only other place that I have it for sale is at Sedo. It is possible for them to get my email from Sedo? Something is fishy here :greenconfused:

 

[maroulis]

I'm only getting these on newly acquired names from drops.. case in point above.. I was 100% sure he was about to fall for famous appraisal scam but didn't want to rain on his parade