I was offered $250 for this domain? What should I do?

Whoa! Minutes after I submitted this message, he said it was more than he planned, BUT my email made him feel comfortable with the dollar amount. He asked me what he needs to do next. He must have his gmail account linked to his phone so maybe he isn't totally non-techie. haha

I told him what to do and said I'd pay the escrow fee. If he really is new at this, I think I'll stick around for free until his website is up and running. Nothing to involved, but a short answer here and there just so I don't leave him clueless.

If this goes through, which it looks like it is, point to remember... talk the SEO talk to make them feel comfortable about what they're buying. haha

 

Well now that you sent him a counter offer, I guess we will see. However, I tend to err on the side of caution. If it is worth $250 to $500 today or next week and has a 'fashion' type identity and good potential then I would say hold on and auction it with a min starting bid. I mean really, is $250 going to make or break you? If this is a good site then it is like $ in the bank. Remember, 'Hindsight is usually 20/20'.

 

Just so you know, there's no newbies to domaining who are willing to spend more than $250 on their first name purchase. Of course by saying so, he gets enough sympathy from you and you will let go the domain for that much money. I'm not saying he's lying since nobody can tell, but believe me if he offered $250 on the first offer, he has room to go higher. How much higher it all depend if he's an end user who is in need of exact domain name.. and if that's the case even $1k is still cheap. Don't be greedy stick with your offer, it's still good chunk of money and remembers selling and buying domains is just like any other business.. people are always looking for bargains.
Good luck

 

Take the money and run.

some cheeky sod offered me $25 for a £500 dot com, had he offered me me $250 I would be $250 better off now.

 

Don't respond if he think its too cheap. $500 is a low amount for a end buyer. But if you don't really care then I suppose you can always go a bit lower.
If it was me I would probably stick to one decision only. Also is $500 worthy of using Escrow? previously I sold domains like that to end users and they just transferred the money and I pushed the domain. Completed in a few hours.

Very simple compared to the longer process via Escrow.

 

Well I guess using escrow or not depends on the trust between the two parties and not how fast they want to proceed. I also noticed that we forget that people here come from different places, and therefore economies, etc.. i.e $500 for some people could be lot of money, the same exact $500 could be not that big of deal to others.

 

I think the fact that I told him I'll use an escrow and explained to him what it is made him feel more comfortable. He agreed on $500 so that part is done. He said he's going to call GoDaddy now to understand the process of domain transfer. I already explained it to him, but he wants to make sure which is fine. I also noted to him that if he made a name.com account he'd at least have ownership in a matter of seconds. Either way...

He said he only has a personal domain of his name right now. It does actually seem like he's very new in buying domains, but there are cons everywhere. Once I have the money in my hands I can get more details for peace of mind, haha. I'm totally fine with $500 because there's a chance he is new and just doesn't know what he's doing (would also make me feel like a jerk though).

 

It seems like she/he's an end buyer which is good. once you finish the transaction, give it few weeks if not months and you might be surprised on what will be there. It could be a huge company and you will be like damn i sold it for cheap but that's not your problem, nor your money so at the end good job and nice sale.

 

Well, I guess we can wait and see if you got a deal. But if you think this is a decent domain and it's worth $250 to $500 and has a 'fashion' connection then it's like $ in the bank. Unless you need the $ to invest in your business today, hold out for top dollar. I think appraisals and auctions are always good ideas.

 

The fact that he responded so quickly suggest to me that you could have got significantly more out of him, unfortunately now that you have given the offer you are bound to that, it would be great if you could follow up to tell us whether this guy really was the newbie he is making himself out to be.

 

He actually paid GoDaddy to take care of the transfer process. haha. I got an email from the GoDaddy staff giving me his info to start the transfer of the domain. If he really is a newbie.... he's really good at pretending.

You're right though, it's obvious he does want the domain. Next time I'll try to get more. However, I did get to $500 out of it when some told me to just take his $250 offer and run. Since this is my first time selling a domain over $100, I guess I was just afraid of loosing it. You guys taught me a lot though. Thanks for your replies! I'll update later when I see what happened with the domain.

 

Sorry, I went offline for my one day off a week. I still reckon you could have got the 850~1K. Though as it was your first time congratulations mate. Now you know what to do next time!
As for all the people saying take the money and run, it frustrates me half of them are quite large in posts, while some of us with small amounts (me) and of course a few with large post counts actually know what we're talking about....
Again though, it's a learning experience and a nice profit from a domain. May I ask what you are going to do with the profits? Reinvest in 50 more domains that could all sell for more? Or buy a profit website that will earn you cash long term? Something else?

 

I wasn't sure if Godaddy was going to act as an escrow service or not so I asked him about it. He said they'll be sending me another email probably from another department. He also said that did a free appraisal for him and the domain was worth $100. lol. I'm not sure how much I trust those appraisals though, but I didn't mention it. I didn't want to start some argument and loose the sale. Here was his last comment... "Congrats, looks like you did well!!!"

I won't know until later what the real deal is. My curiosity is getting up there though. Either he's the sucker or I am. We'll see.

Oh, I'm thinking about using $100 for domain investment and the rest I'll probably use for my online suit business (advertising, photographes, etc). I've always been more into the SEO side of things, but after getting a decent sale on a domain, I'm gained a whole new interest in domaining.

 

Never trust the appraisals man. They're a load of bollocks. Basically if I want to go and eat a big juicy whopper, though only mcD's is around where I can get a big mac, then I have a limit as to how much I'll spend to get that whopper, and as whoppers are always better, then I'll always pay more for the whopper. You could give me a free big mac and I'd pay $1000, if I was that rich to drive and get me a whopper.
You getting my point.....?

 

Easily get more! How goes your venture?

 

That's a great domain name. If you're not in a hurry to cash-in, I'd suggest either developing it 'professionally' or parking. In time, the domain will age, traffic will pick up and the dn/site value 'potentially', higher. Your prospective buyer is clearly able to see the potential.