I see people selling permanent links all the time. How is this possible? Do they plan on not keeping their site?
They probably sell permanent link as a source to supplement their advertising campaign and bring in more traffic to their main business website.
Some also buy dropped domains with a high PR with a few to making a quick buck. They have no intention of maintaining the site.
It's just like how can someone sell a method that makes "$10,000 a month with a few hours a week of work required" for $17? IMO I think it's not possible, maybe a few people will keep them for a year or so? However I highly doubt someone will keep the same site in the same exact way with your links on them forever.
INGdirect is absolute right... many people in here on DP buy PR3+ domains to sell links and have no intention of maintaining the websites. As OP correctly said there's nothing permanent on the net... so permanent means one day to a few years.
When I hear the word permanent I assume the site will be around for a few years or that the link will remain until the site disappears. If the site is valuable or well ranked its usually a safe bet it will be around for a little while at least. For instance, if you somehow managed a permanent link from Yahoo News, I would consider it a permanent link....I doubt yahoo is going anywhere in the next few years (maybe in 300 years it will be gone tho!). I think anyone with any common sense what so ever knows that there is no such thing as a truly "permanent" link. For lack of a better term maybe we should starting calling them "till my site dies links"....well, then again, that's not very catchy now is it?
I am afraid on yearly deal though i have done few. Permanent deal is " No way". No serious buyer/seller will deal on permanent basis. 3 months deal is best.
I always ask fo perm links as i want to maintain ranking for as long as possible. however, it is prob best to buy 12 month links as sites do often go off line.