Offers good for.........................???

[Gerry]

Should there be a stated rule on how long offers are good for?

Within the past two weeks I have had members contact me to the tune of something like,

Congratulations. Please send payment to:

Both were old threads and offers - one was 4 days old and one about two to three weeks old.

Sure, we could post a time limit in our own post.

But this seems to catch me (and perhaps others) off guard and wonder WTF??? You are just now getting back to me?

One person was nice about it. And another not too nice at all. Actually, a little pissed that I refused to pay for an offer that was over 2 weeks old.

This is also a reason that I closed my threads and take out the prices. I did have someone contact me from another forum and wanted to buy a domain I posted for sale back in November.

 

[tristanperry]

Hmm. I know what you mean, it can be annoying getting a retro-spective PM.

However some people simply aren't online every day (the idea seems alien to me too ), and as such some people will think it's normal enough to follow up 4-14+ day offers.

Plus for some members (and for certain domains, myself included), they may be happy to receive PMs from sellers after a short while asking them to buy the domain now.

So I think that it'd be hard to make this a specific rule, since different people act differently. I've seen some people put in their sig "My offers are valid for 24/48 hours only" - I guess this is a solution, or make sure to put that in the posts?

 

[Biggie]

Should there be a stated rule on how long offers are good for?

Within the past two weeks I have had members contact me to the tune of something like,

Congratulations. Please send payment to:

Both were old threads and offers - one was 4 days old and one about two to three weeks old.

Sure, we could post a time limit in our own post.

But this seems to catch me (and perhaps others) off guard and wonder WTF??? You are just now getting back to me?

One person was nice about it. And another not too nice at all. Actually, a little pissed that I refused to pay for an offer that was over 2 weeks old.

This is also a reason that I closed my threads and take out the prices. I did have someone contact me from another forum and wanted to buy a domain I posted for sale back in November.

i think if you're the seller, a potential buyer should ask you first if the domain is still for sale and at that price if it was listed, when they are inquiring about a thread more than 30 days old.

a buyer who comes back "4 days later" and says "ok send me payment info" when they didn't inform you and get ok from you beforehand, that they needed that much time to consider the price....is not being very professional.

though plausible excuses may be accepted.


if someone comes back "two or three" weeks later looking to buy, you hope the name will be sold by then.

i think what you do by taking out pricing and closing threads is a good practice, as a practice in contrast, i rarely list prices publicly.

 

[nameadvertising.com]

As Tristan said, a sig (like mine) helps. It diffuses any such complications.

 

[tristanperry]

As Tristan said, a sig (like mine) helps. It diffuses any such complications.

Out of interest, do you get (m)any who contact you after the 24 hours asking you to pay/asking if you are still interested?

 

[nameadvertising.com]

LOL, I never got ANY interest from anyone here in the forum for months. Sign of the times I guess.

But yes, I did get pm's of interest after the offer time expiration. This way, I can renegotiate on current terms, if changed, rather than on originally posted offer.

The potential buyer will have no excuse for ambiguity.

 

[fab]

Both were old threads and offers - one was 4 days old and one about two to three weeks old.

4 days old seems reasonable, two-weeks not.

 

[acronym007]

I think there is an unwritten rule, at least amongst professionals, 24 hours is acceptable. Anything beyond that needs further communications. Buyers see sellers stall, sellers see buyers stall. Those are tactics and sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. I personally would not worry about any deal if someone writes me back 4 days later. In the domain indsutry allot of things can change in 4 days that could cause a domain's value to rise or fall.

 

[draggar]

I think one week would be a fair amount of time - not everyone can check the forums every day (or every few days).

You may want to consider a disclaimer in the posts to - 24 hours, 7 days, 30 days, etc.. for sales and offers.

 

[acronym007]

I have never used a disclaimer and I have never had any issues with other professionals. The only time there is an issue is with some noob who wants to see if they can sell the domain for higher so they stall for a week, then when it doesn't sell they write you back like you won Lotto. Congratulations!!! You won. I'm like won what? LOL. Anyway, I respect the newness but business moves fast.

 

[Gerry]

I have never used a disclaimer and I have never had any issues with other professionals. The only time there is an issue is with some noob who wants to see if they can sell the domain for higher so they stall for a week, then when it doesn't sell they write you back like you won Lotto. Congratulations!!! You won. I'm like won what? LOL. Anyway, I respect the newness but business moves fast.

Well said and very factual.

This is also why taking offers threads needs a time limit on the forum.

I have seen some threads going on for three months or longer stating,

Looking for more.

No kidding? we're always looking for more.

Keep the thread alive for three years and maybe the market will catch up with your expectations.

 

[GeoOwners]

I vote 7 days...

24 hours to me says I'm not serious...many times people wouldn't have even seen the offer yet.

 

[Gerry]

The biggest issue to all of this is this:

95% of the people looking for offers have no idea

how to price it -
what is a good offer -
and how to set a BIN.

The offers given are cluing the seller into what the value is.

Every one is so damn scared they are going to sell something too cheap but yet that same person wants every one else to price things too cheap

I do not have time nor the patience to wait on someone to figure out what their domain is worth. I make an offer and move on. NEXT! Look at other domains.

If need be, I will start posting offer good for xx hours. I am always buying and looking and DNF is not the only place I look. If something is posted and I like the BIN, I jump on it.

 

[nameadvertising.com]

More often than not, an offer is the buyer's ability to pay at the low end of their expected maximum, rather than their true appraisal of the domain. They must have already figured the true value of the domain name inside of their head, (whether rightly or not) before making the offer.

The best way to start an offer based sale is to set a minimum, a time line and a BIN at a future date, if necessary.

Being that domain names hardly get snapped in an instant unlike back in 2002, a 7 day limit for BIN and offers is very reasonable. I choose 24 hours. If someone is still interested, the buyer knows, after all the reason the seller posted the name was to make a sale in the first place.

 

[Gerry]

Being that domain names hardly get snapped in an instant unlike back in 2002, a 7 day limit for BIN and offers is very reasonable. I choose 24 hours. If someone is still interested, the buyer knows, after all the reason the seller posted the name was to make a sale in the first place.

Good points.

But I also scan other drops, sales, auctions, etc. Allocating a specific amount of money different formats, sites, auctions, sales is not too difficult for me to keep up with.

Offers made days or weeks ago - that money is long gone and allocated to something else.

Such a delay in getting back to me, whether 4 days, 5 days, 2 weeks or one month, often time demonstrates that while the seller was looking for more - they may have come to the realization that they are not going to get more.

I really feel that there should be a time limit (7 days) of such threads until such threads are closed. Honestly, these 3 month, 8 month, 2 year old threads getting revived is annoying.

I will say this:

I certainly appreciate the seller contacting me and trying to work out a price we can both live with. Says volumes about the caliber of the person to contact someone and begin negotiations.