Sedo.co.uk

I'm getting intermittent emails from [email protected] and it looks to be a form letter. What they are saying is they see that I have my domain "such and such" for sale and they would be happy to help me sell it. First off, how do they get my information about this specific domain? Are they just punching in a bunch of domain names and sending out form, generic letters to the owners or what? Secondly, (not that I will use them at all) does anyone have any experience with Sedo and what are you opinions? Personally, I do not like getting these email messages b/c it is not from an individual and it totally does not look serious.

 

[DomeBase]

Well... on the positive side, I do not think they are a scam. Not a bad site and I have had cordial interactions with their staff. They do appear to have sold some names and their euro connections are useful for marketing .INFOs. On the other hand, I am not sure that their site gets a lot of traffic and I have not had any inquiries on names listed there. My names there are not trash, but not knock-outs either. Best wishes.

 

[Stouch]

I get that letter too

 

[Drewbert]

sedo.co.uk recently sold-out to Afternic, so tread carefully from hereon in.

 

[vialli]

WOW

First Shoutloud.com, now SEDO.co.uk, AN wil be after Great Domains next

 

[SedoCoUk]

Please don't interpret this as advertising, but I think it's necessary to squash this one before it becomes a nasty rumor:

Sedo.co.uk has NOT sold out to Afternic!!

Nor would we ever consider it. Our entire positioning in the English speaking markets is based on being everything Afternic is not: Attentive personal service, a strong marketing program, and a more international user-base.

Drewbert is of course thinking of Shoutloud.co.uk, not Sedo.co.uk.

 

[DomeBase]

Originally posted by SedoCoUk
Please don't interpret this as advertising, but I think it's necessary to squash this one before it becomes a nasty rumor:

Sedo.co.uk has NOT sold out to Afternic!!

Nor would we ever consider it. Our entire positioning in the English speaking markets is based on being everything Afternic is not: Attentive personal service, a strong marketing program, and a more international user-base.

Drewbert is of course thinking of Shoutloud.co.uk, not Sedo.co.uk.

Thank you for posting. You are quite right to squash this rumor with the considerable ill-will concerning AN here.

 

[SedoCoUk]

Originally posted by DomeBase


Thank you for posting. You are quite right to squash this rumor with the considerable ill-will concerning AN here.

No problem!

After all, that AN ill-will is what keeps us in business! Every time someone runs screaming from another AN rip-off or horror story they run right into the arms of Sedo.co.uk and find a happy reception!

We may be playing catch-up, but even with the momentum AN has from sheer size, a company that refuses to provide valuable service to its customers can only go so far.

... Ooops, but I'm not unbiased!

 

[Drewbert]

My humble apologies. Yes, it was shoutloud.

I think I got confused because I get unsolicited from both of them. :^)

 

That sounds great, Sedo, I'm glad you responded to the AN situation. However, since you're on this thread how about explaining my situation from the start of the thread.

I'm glad Sedo is recognizing the faults and flaws of AN to better understand customers and service.

 

[SedoCoUk]

Originally posted by lol
That sounds great, Sedo, I'm glad you responded to the AN situation. However, since you're on this thread how about explaining my situation from the start of the thread.

I'm glad Sedo is recognizing the faults and flaws of AN to better understand customers and service.

Hello LOL,

In response to your original posting, here's how it works: Whenever we stumble across a domain that we like listed for sale somewhere, we will send off the "invitation" e-mail that you received offering free listing on Sedo.

However, before we send such an e-mail, we check our database to make sure that we have not already invited this seller to try Sedo-- so if you really are receiving "intermittent" e-mails from us, then something must be wrong. Perhaps you have many e-mail addresses? Otherwise you should only receive the invitation once.

I'm sorry that you find the e-mails bothersome and "not serious". The truth is that many people respond positively to them-- after all, we're offering to help them out for free. And as the underdog, we need to get the word out somehow!

In addition to the invitation e-mail, we send out a different form e-mail whenever a client contacts us to buy a domain-- so if you receive one of these from us, you should consider it good news and be sure to respond!

 

[krisblade]

Too bad the appraisals on Sedo makes impossible to close a decent sale on good spanish names. The sellers always look for that exact Sedo appraisal price (most of time, way too much). Even on names that does not get traffic. I´ve tried to negotiate some names contacting the sellers through email, but they always ask for $100k+ "that´s the eSedo appraisal".

 

[mole]

Originally posted by krisblade
I´ve tried to negotiate some names contacting the sellers through email, but they always ask for $100k+ "that´s the eSedo appraisal".

:dead: should ask sedo to do some charity appraisals on Dan's board. Should make some people happy.

 

[DnPowerful]

Originally posted by SedoCoUk


Hello LOL,

In response to your original posting, here's how it works: Whenever we stumble across a domain that we like listed for sale somewhere, we will send off the "invitation" e-mail that you received offering free listing on Sedo.

However, before we send such an e-mail, we check our database to make sure that we have not already invited this seller to try Sedo-- so if you really are receiving "intermittent" e-mails from us, then something must be wrong. Perhaps you have many e-mail addresses? Otherwise you should only receive the invitation once.

I'm sorry that you find the e-mails bothersome and "not serious". The truth is that many people respond positively to them-- after all, we're offering to help them out for free. And as the underdog, we need to get the word out somehow!

In addition to the invitation e-mail, we send out a different form e-mail whenever a client contacts us to buy a domain-- so if you receive one of these from us, you should consider it good news and be sure to respond!

That's nonsense. I personally have received half a dozen spams to the same email addy, and whatever your rationale (sounds awfully familiar from spammers) it's still unsolicited mail (ie SPAM).

In the beginning, when Afternic was a decent service, they never sent out spams--their service spread via word-of-mouth.

I'd say make your service decent, stop sending out spam in place of said service, and maybe you'll get somewhere. Spam makes people unhappy.

 

[uncle]

I get those too. This is nothing but spam.

And you know it.

 

the best way to get domainers to a service like sedo is by brokering big sales and word of mouth will do the rest.

judging from the "recent sales":

brosse.com - 12-jul-2002
conflict.com - 28-jun-2002
Q1Q.net - 20-mar-2002
pocketpc2002.com - 5 mar 2002
harleyweb.net - 01-mar-2002
lab2.net - 26-feb-2002
aslen.com - 11-feb-2002

it would appear theres plenty of room for improvement on the sales front, but getting a reputation as being "spammers" isn't going to help you - and neither is over inflating appraisals given the sales values you are achieving.

 

[SedoCoUk]

ALL- Thanks for the additional feedback! Even if it hurts this is the kind of stuff that will help make us better, so please keep it coming if you have honest suggestions and are not just trying to vent. I thought I should respond specifically to a few things that are incorrect:

1) Sedo Appraisals Inflated? You've been duped!
------
I would bet my lucky mousepad that Sedo appraisals are actually among the most conservative in the industry.

Krisblade, if a seller tells you their domain was appraised by eSedo.com (our Spanish site) for more than $100K, they are lying! Only 2 domains in the history of eSedo.com have been appraised for more than $100K-- the first is cine.com (appraised in 2001, prob. a bit less now); the second you wouldn't be buying unless you run a business that rhymes with "eJay".

Our average Spanish appraisal is around $800 US. In general, a Sedo appraisal value is about 30-50% of the GD ones I've seen kicking around. There are a few reasons for this:

• [1]Since appraisals are only a small part of our revenues, we can give realistic valuations even if it means hurting a few seller's egos (and not getting repeat business from them).
  
  [2]Our philosophy on appraisals is that you are paying for an expert "domain name consultant", who researches relevant issues for your domain name (the potential of int'l markets, legal snags, marketing strategies, etc.), suggests some possible buyers, and offers a guideline price. We want to help you SELL, not just stoke your ego.
  
  [3]We do a lot of ccTLDs and international domains, which happen to be worth less than English .coms.

2) "Recent sales" section out of date:
--------
Safesys, those sales are actually even older than the dates that you indicated! We haven't updated our recent sales list since the beginning of the year because too many wanna-be appraisal firms were lifting the data. Fortunately, we have sold 100s of domains since then (or we wouldn't still be in business!).

3) Helping Sedo become better known:
------
Obviously, the "invitation"/ SPAM e-mails are more ubiquitous/ annoying/ a problem than I was aware of. Thank you for making me aware of the extent of the problem; I will get them stopped.

As far as improving the service, we do have some big things in the works which you will no doubt hear about in the coming months.

However, if you have specific suggestions, your advice is very welcome! I appreciate the kind of polite, constructive criticism that SafeSys and DNPowerful have given. It is probably better done via e-mail than on the forum though. You guys are our clients, so please feel free to e-mail and tell me how we can better help you do business: [email protected]

 

Safesys, those sales are actually even older than the dates that you indicated! We haven't updated our recent sales list since the beginning of the year because too many wanna-be appraisal firms were lifting the data. Fortunately, we have sold 100s of domains since then (or we wouldn't still be in business!).

In a post bubble world, I'm *very* cynical of claims like this.

Would you care to substantiate it (either publicly or privately)?

However, if you have specific suggestions, your advice is very welcome!

Make lots of sales and make them public, the rest will follow. Then you'd have to beat the hopeful listees off with a pointed stick as there'd be so many of them.

 

[SedoCoUk]

Originally posted by krisblade
Too bad the appraisals on Sedo makes impossible to close a decent sale on good spanish names. The sellers always look for that exact Sedo appraisal price (most of time, way too much). Even on names that does not get traffic. I´ve tried to negotiate some names contacting the sellers through email, but they always ask for $100k+ "that´s the eSedo appraisal".

Hi Krisblade,

To be generous, your post is misleading, and I think some facts should be stated to set the record straight:

You are bidding $300 or $400 for some of the best domain names in the Spanish language, like cine.com ("film.com"), compra.com ("buy.com"), and empleo.com ("job.com").

The fact that you are getting rejected has nothing to do with "Sedo appraisals preventing a sale from closing" as your post suggests. The people on this board are intelligent, let them decide whether your valuations or Sedo's are the more accurate.

Further, saying that sellers "always" quote an eSedo appraisal of $100K is quite misleading if it happened to you once.

Please pay more attention to the honesty and accuracy of your posts when a business's reputation, (and indirecly, peoples' jobs and livelihood), are on the line. Your one misleading post led to Mole and SafeSys commenting about Sedo's "inflated valuations", when in fact the exact opposite is the truth!

You have a responsibility to the community (and to Sedo!) to tell the whole story.

Thank you!

 

Originally posted by SedoCoUk


Whenever we stumble across a domain that we like listed for sale somewhere, we will send off the "invitation" e-mail that you received offering free listing on Sedo.

thats not spam?