Should I set minimum offer prices or let people make any offer?
I’m always excited when I get an email from domain aftermarket Sedo informing me that I’ve received an offer on a domain name. That excitement usually turns to disappointment when I click through to see that the offer is for a measly $60. Please, it’s not even worth my time transferring the domain.
But this may be my fault. After all, you can set a “minimum offer” price on your domain listings. If I set a minimum offer of, say, $500, then the buyer who submitted the $60 offer would receive an error message telling them they must offer $500 or more.
But is this any better? Perhaps the buyer would see that the minimum is only $500 and assume that’s how much I’m willing to sell the domain for.
At Afternic you have to specify a minimum offer price that is visible to buyers. Most buyers understand that this is just a minimum and they’ll likely have to pay more to actually buy the domain.
What do you think? Is it a good idea to add minimum offer amounts to your domains on Sedo?
andrew olds says
Eternal dilemma, Andrew. Sedo assures us that names with set prices sell better than the vague invitation of “make offer” and I’m willing to believe them. For a while I adopted a system whereby I would set an asking price (say, EUR 1000) and a minimum bid (say, EUR 800) and this worked quite well. I always made sure that the sale price was about 75-80% of the asking price. However, I recently cancelled most of these fixed pricings because I found that in the months that had elapsed since I set those prices, the situation of the name had sometimes changed dramatically: it was getting more traffic or other extensions had been registered, etc,, which meant that I would have to adjust my asking price upwards (and sometimes downwards). Now I’m receiving lots of $60 and EUR 60 offers but I just counter them with a figure that is twice what I would accept and work down from there if they’re interested in negotiating. Usually, someone who offers you $60 isn’t going to arrive at the $1250 you’ll accept, but that’s not always the case: I currently have one domain in negotiating which started out at EUR 100 and is now up to EUR 1500. All a bit of a time-consumer but I think “make offer” is ultimately safer than going and setting prices that are, after all, dynamic and susceptible to revision. You mention the “excitement” factor of receiving bids: I think this is true and even if the bid is $100, I still get a bit of a kick that someone somewhere is interested in my domain.
Andrew says
@ andrew – thanks for sharing your experience. When I’ve set asking prices for domains in the past, I sometimes feel like I cheated myself when someone buys it as the asking price right away. And I never remember to change the prices, so you could get “caught” with too low a price (as you suggest).
JP says
I like low asking prices. This gives you more opportunities to get domains to auction at sedo. Sometimes this seems to create additional demand for the name just because it is at auction. The thing to remember is that minimum offer is going to be the starting bid, and sometimes the auction will only go up so much from that starting bid. Thats my 2 cents at least
Andrew says
JP, that’s fair. Auctions are good for certain domains, not others, as I’ve written before.
I wrote this post after receiving a $60 offer this morning. I countered $850 and the person responded with a $65 offer and a request to justify my asking price. Um, it’s not worth my time to justify an asking price for such an inexpensive domain. Take it or leave it.
JP says
Very true, not every offer is destined for auction. In general though I’ve used this tactic well. I’m usually careful though to make sure my minimum offers are mimimum bids I can accept. At least now sedo will show you’ve had an offer on the domain in the past. If you get enough of those, that can be worth a little something.
Andrew says
@ JP – agreed…although I’m disappointed if the domain doesn’t get more bids I want to make sure I’m at least satisfied with the offer.
Rob Sequin says
Since I don’t like the buyer/seller communication system at sedo, the lack of follow through buyers with no penalties and several other reasons, I have deleted my 2000+ domains that I had listed for sale there.
So, I guess I’ll no longer have the “pleasure” of getting $60 offers anymore.
Too bad, Sedo could be so much better if they cared.
robb says
If you’re happy to push your names to auction on a $60 or $100 offer and take a chance, then don’t bother setting a minimum price.
If not, then set a minimum offer price on all your domains at $500 or $1000 to eliminate time spent on lowballers. Do you really need to waste the time checking $100 and $75 offers? At least a $500 offer or more on an average decent domain tells you they are somewhat serious.
Listing a buy it now price is risky, because you might get caught over time if domain prices rise, or the domain becomes more valuable, before you get a chance to change it. You could set the asking price at a level well above fair value, hoping for that buyer that is well funded and doesn’t want to get into negotiations or risk an auction.
Lda says
On many levels Sedo is biased against the seller.
By far the most egregious ‘crime’ is Sedo’s long term practice of
setting internal ‘brokers’ against their own (seller) clients.
Have you noticed that every Sedo sale page has the following ?
> No time for direct negotiation?
> Then let our professional domain brokers handle it for you! Our
> brokers will work directly with you, take over the tedious back
> and forth negotiations with the seller, and use their expert
> knowledge to get the domain for you at the lowest price possible.
> Take advantage of our personal and competent service to finally
> get the domain that you really want.
If you’ve never questioned this astonishing practice, let it sink in.
Sedo’s INTERNAL brokers, with full access to your privileged
details, your negotiating record/style, other buyer offers etc. etc.
are up against you !!
Last time I had dealings with them, they DIDN’T tell you they were Sedo brokers when buying. Haven’t heard that this has changed.
No level playing field here. Seller tactics/ploys/bluffs etc. can’t possibly
work because the broker knows all. The seller can’t win.
In fact it’s a massive conflict of interest and deliberate deception.
In various financial industries there would be regulators looking
closely at this for criminal breaches.
Given the broker’s unfettered access to your private data, the
possiblility for broker corruption within Sedo is also very real.
Just consider the advantages in personal buying you’d have if you
could trawl through Sedo’s private client data base information.
Zero transparency and internal buyers makes Sedo a place that
NO-ONE should sell at until Sedo embraces even a minimal level
of transparency, professional ethics and procedures.
Adam says
Sedo has a bigger problem. It’s called customer service. THEY HAVE GOT TO FIX THAT FIRST.
Jorge says
1. Counter
2. Wait for lowballer to cancel transaction
3. Enjoy the fact that your name now has +1 under the “Previous Offers” column.
Rob Sequin says
Andrew,
Seems as though you touched a nerve with your Sedo post 🙂
Antoinette says
I had noticed that Sedo offers broker services to buyers but not to sellers. I emailed them about this but, frankly, I’ve emailed their customer service so many times, I forget what their answer was.
Some might think of this as ranting but all of the above is good information to me. I haven’t had much luck selling domains at Sedo (at what I think are fairly low prices) so I’m open to hearing about any alternatives. I’ve looked at Moniker Marketplace but there are so many terrible domain names listed there or ones that have ridiculous prices ($50 million? Really?).
Is Afternic a better agent for sellers?
Andrew says
@ Antoinette, I always recommend listing your domains at both Sedo and Afternic. They both have slightly different audiences, and you need as much exposure as you can get.
Andrew says
@ Jorge – good point. Hadn’t thought about that.
Tarry G says
I like Sedo as a seller – but I NEVER offer on domains listed on sedo. I always look at the whois information and offer directly. NOT because I’m trying to avoid the commission but because I refuse to make an offer to the seller only to find that the seller takes my offer and turns it into the base offer for an auction.
Not playing that game as a buyer. Until they put in an option that allows a “this is my offer – but my offer is cancelled if you put the name in an auction” button I will never bid on a name there.
I don’t allow people to shop my offers – if we come to an agreement on price – then we do a deal. With Sedo you can agree on a price and then at the last second the seller can effectively say “hey thanks for your offer – I accept it – unless of course someone else is willing to pay more than you are in the next 7 days” – great for the seller – unacceptable for the buyer….
Stephen Douglas says
Hi Gang,
Although my comments here will give away some tips I give my clients who pay me well, here’s the breakdown:
1) With all auction sites that basically sit your domains until somebody shows interest, be sure to set your domains at a MINIMUM price for your reserve. You can always counter with a higher price if the specifics on the domain change, as Andrew Olds stated in the first comment. Your minimum should be a price that you can live with. (I think I’ll make a blog myself on the subject of “seller’s remorse” in this industry).
2) Andrew Allemann makes a good point about wasting time on lowballers. I get the feeling that they are just people who want to “get back at those domain pirates”. So set a healthy low minimum on your domains on Sedo and Afternic.
3) If you have domains you want to sell rapidly for a low price ($15 – $99), no better place is with Snapnames Private Domain Auction systems. I used to like Afternic’s Bazaar, but Name Media has downplayed that system now, hardly any sales pass thru there more than $50.
4) Sedo’s customer service has been hurting lately. I just sold a domain name over a week ago on Sedo… the “10 day payment from buyer” period has passed, and still no information or updates from Sedo, even tho I emailed for status updates.
5) Everyone should take a serious look at Rick Latona’s domain sale newsletter and try to get some domains featured on it. Fair prices for sellers and buyers on some very good domains. Digipawn.com
Another great post, Andrew. I think I’ll shut my blog down now. 😉
Stephen Douglas
http://www.successclick.com
Antoinette says
Thanks for the tip, Andrew. I didn’t know you could list domains for sale at more than one site (I thought there was some exclusivity).
Tarry, I thought that any domain at Sedo that was bid on automatically went into auction, I didn’t know it was an option. I have so much to learn!
jp says
I’ve been putting some more thought into this, and I think the minimum offer idea only really makes sense in cases like Mike’s MostWantedDomains, where there is a blanket statement that all domains HERE have a min offer of $2,500. It seems fairly confusing and meaningless to a potential buyer on a per domain basis. On a per domain basis realistically the minimum should always be the minimum you’d sell for and at that, assuming the buyer knows your selling decision is based solely on amount then why on earth would a buyer ever see a mimimum offer and offer any higher than that, on a per domain basis.
On a portfolio wide basis, it makes sense because it basically says, “The price depends based on the domain you want to buy, but don’t bother us for anything unless you are willing to cough up at least $2,500”. This actually informs the buyer of something that they can make sense of. They may still offer just the $2,500 but it shouldn’t blow their mind if you come back and say $25k, whereas if you set a $2,500 minimum offer on a domain at Sedo and resonded to that mimumum with $25k the buyer will most certainly think to themself, “why the heck did this jerk set a minimum of $2,500 when he wants $25k?”. It makes no sense.