A company made me an offer for one of my domains that nearly knocked me off my chair. However, they first want a reputable domain name appraisal in writing...which service would you recommend for this? I stated that I wanted the price of this appraisal as a down payment, in case they decide to drop out of it entirely (so that it would be no cost to me). Another part of me feels suspicious, probably because I'm paranoid by nature what are typical scams in these situations? The offer here is near $10k.
There's a scam where people who own a domain name appraisal service (but don't tell you they own it) make wild offers for domains on the condition that you buy an appraisal from their service - then they don't actually go through with the purchase. Hopefully that's not the case with you, but you're right to be suspicious.
That's what I was thinking - she provided no links or anything. I'm trying to Google some info on her and her company, but I'm not seeing much.
I think you should be pretty safe by making them cover the cost of the appraisal (good idea). Beyond that, at $10k I would highly suggest using an escrow service to handle the transfer. The fees you pay them will be worth protecting your domain.
If a company made you an offer for a domain, why do they then need an appraisal doing on the domain? They made the offer, either its worth 10K to them or it isn't. Why would they change their mind on someone elses say so? I doesn't make sense to me.
Actually, on second thought, Hopper is right. This is probably a scam. If they are really willing to pay $10k, then either they know what it is worth or should have done the appraisal themselves (already). Sorry. What was the domain (if you don't mind)?
not sure, although if I were making a purchase like that, I'd probably want something in writing. She also recommended escrow, I've never used that before, but I'll look into it. I want to avoid paypal, because they charge a percentage. I actually asked for cash I wonder what the reply will be. I dont want to post it, but it's a medical themed .info. I don't know why anyone would want to pay that much for a .info though.
Ok, I decided to look further into it. I got into the email headers and did a background check on certain parts. It actually came from Russia. I did a reverse check on that information and Google'd it. Turns out that this is a big scam. I sent the emails, headers and a description of the whole thing to the FBI.