Anyway, I told him my asking price and he replied saying that was fine but he would like an appraisal so that he would know that he was paying a fair price. I replied saying that most appraisals are useless and that a domain is worth only what someone was willing to pay for it. He was welcome to get his appraisal and use that to determine an offer.
His reply was that he would be willing to pay me 10% under what the domain would appraise for via a legitimate, human-based service such as Godaddy or Sedo. The catch is he wants me to pay the appraisal which could easily be $60+ and says this is common practice for the buyer to pay the appraisal.
Has anyone heard of this situation? Any suggestions?
The more reality you can lend to a prospective offer the more like it is real.
Still, I'd never go for a deal along these lines. I'd name my price and live with the consequences.
Have you talked to the buyer on a land line? Does the buyer have a brick and mortar business address? Does the prospective buyer have any history of making similar deals?
I haven't talked to him, doubtful on brick-and-mortar business but I don't have one either, and it appears he has a history but that can be faked.
I think the suggestion of applying the appraisal towards the selling price may work best. I just registered the domain so am not in too much of a hurry to sell it to the first buyer.
Godaddy or Sedo
Unless GD or Sedo are offering bounties for anyone bringing in an appraisal I wouldn't say this fits the standard scam model. The standard scam requires the use of a specific no-name appraisal service.
It's a scam for sure. If you want to test then offer him some other domains at some ridiculously high prices. And if he is a scam, he will say OK to that price but ask you to pay appraisal fees.
What's his name? Machomann?
Unless GD or Sedo are offering bounties for anyone bringing in an appraisal I wouldn't say this fits the standard scam model. The standard scam requires the use of a specific no-name appraisal service.
It's a bait 'n switch tactic. They won't actually use them, but suggest something similar to them.
- Someplace in the text of the letter the scammer makes a point of saying that they just do this as a hobby or side-business and that they aren't a professional domainer.
- Signature claims to be a VP, PHD, Dr. or something similar.
- If you examine the full headers, you'll see the message actually originates from a dial-up account, not the URL of company they claim to be from. Ones I've seen are .ru and .no providers (despite the email text sometimes showing a US company address), but I'm sure there are other points of origin.
- The Company URL they give often resolves to a parked page.
- Google the company or user name given - if its a scam chances are its already been posted on one of the domain forums.
If none of these apply in your case, it MAY be legit, but as Dinkar suggested, tell them to get their own appraisal if they want one and offer to subtract the appraisal fee from the purchase price.
[edited by: MamaDawg at 1:58 pm (utc) on April 15, 2007]
Here are some common earmarks of the ever-popular domain appraisal scams:- Someplace in the text of the letter the scammer makes a point of saying that they just do this as a hobby or side-business and that they aren't a professional domainer.
- Signature claims to be a VP, PHD, Dr. or something similar.
- If you examine the full headers, you'll see the message actually originates from a dial-up account, not the URL of company they claim to be from. Ones I've seen are .ru and .no providers (despite the email text sometimes showing a US company address), but I'm sure there are other points of origin.
- The Company URL they give often resolves to a parked page.
- Google the company or user name given - if its a scam chances are its already been posted on one of the domain forums.
My hunch was right in that it was fishy, but I'm always skeptical to turn away business. It never costs anything to let someone make an offer (unless they want an appraisal!) and escrow protects the seller, so I thought I would at least hear them out.
<snip> <Thanks for understanding the edit might be coming. ;0) >
[edited by: Webwork at 2:57 pm (utc) on April 16, 2007]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
