I own a few domains for some years, one of which is a short generic word in another language, but in English it was a made-up word at the time.
Some time after I registered this domain, I received a letter from an agent seeking to buy the domain on behalf of his client, which is a large corporation in a core, mass-market field and which was about to start up a new company/business with this exact name. This was in 2000. They offered $2000 which I declined, as I was caught up in the false exhilaration of e-commerce and the dot com hype at the time.
A year or so later I found out that a company had indeed been created with the exact same name of my domain and this company has been trading since then, using alternatives to their company name for their web site(s), but nothing as good or easy to use/remember as the domain I have.
I did receive some offers since 2000 but mainly minor ones and nothing serious.
Recently, I received renewed interest from someone at this same company, initially offering $1500, but when I advised them that the minimum offer I would consider was $15000, they made an offer within days for this minimum amount.
This was a few weeks ago and I haven't responded.
The question I am toying with is - do I sell now at this price, or do I wait to receive a larger offer from this company which of course may never come?
The domain is parked but earns almost zero in revenue. The landing page does not feature any competing links or products/services that this company trades is and I am not using my domain to divert customers away (who wouldn't be consumer/general public) from their site.
I don't think I will get a large offer from anyone else as the name is effectively made up and there is now already a company with this name which they will have undoubtedly registered across the world or Europe which is where they are located.
Any advice as to what you think I should do would be appreciated.
If they do, say you want to get the domain professionally valued.
<<-- Don't do that.
First of all, this is a silly statement.
There is no evidence that I am looking for a particular "answer" and anyway, how do you know what I want to hear? The fact is that I came here to seek some guidance not "an answer" (is this a Q&A forum?) which no-one can really give, as nobody knows anything about me whatsoever.
Secondly, I haven't bothered to check the standing of respondents and anyway, are these long standing members beyond retort or criticism? Should it matter who they are?
Such attitudes do not make it conducive to want to engage on this forum and also, why must you intervene on their behalf? I am sure they are all more than capable of speaking for themeselves, if they want to.
<snip>
I don't want this thread to continue because I have found several replies going way beyond the question at hand and from what I have put in my postings. This will be my last posting on this thread.
I found some postings helpful and interesting, the best of which was Webwork's and which is what I thought I would get more of. Thank you again.
However, overall, the response has been disappointing from this forum and not very helpful because what I seem to have received mainly is unqualified judgement and criticism tainted by the members own situations and from the very same people who have the mindset and are in the business of speculating on domain names and seeking to capitalise on every opportunity they can get their hands on, justly or otherwise.
<snip>
[edited by: Webwork at 10:40 am (utc) on April 26, 2007]
[edit reason] Charter [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]
First of all, this is a silly statement.
There is no evidence that I am looking for a particular "answer" and anyway, how do you know what I want to hear? The fact is that I came here to seek some guidance not "an answer" (is this a Q&A forum?) which no-one can really give, as nobody knows anything about me whatsoever.
There are several unanswered questions, the most interesting of which is why the approach was made from this company now?
Your requested advices
Any advice as to what you think I should do
Secondly, I haven't bothered to check the standing of respondents and anyway, are these long standing members beyond retort or criticism? Should it matter who they are?
Such attitudes do not make it conducive to want to engage on this forum
why must you intervene on their behalf? I am sure they are all more than capable of speaking for themeselves, if they want to.
However, overall, the response has been disappointing from this forum and not very helpful because what I seem to have received mainly is unqualified judgement and criticism tainted by the members own situations ...
I stand by what I said though,
I've allowed a little leeway in the thread because the dialogue illuminates the imperfect nature of human communication and how that "fact" can lead to business conflict, business misunderstandings, etc.
Big_Monkey has done a pretty good job of responding to all manner of responses, some of which I construed as "within reasoned criticism, but not necessarly welcome or invited" and some comments which I knew would grate againt Big_Monkey or anyone in his/her place, but didn't cross the flaming threshold. Setting aside my analysis some comments lean a bit more towards being critical than helpful, especially when judged in the context WebmasterWorld's efforts to have everyone understand the inherent difficulties of a global forum. You all have been mostly civil. Thank you for that. Let's keep the dialogue at least at that level - civil - whilst laboring to improve on how we handle communication across many cultures and many diverse ways of doing business, thinking about business, communication, etc.
Criticizing one another for our imperfect communication - or business - skills is a writing exercise that could go on without end.
Signed,
Your most admittedly imperfect moderater
Err . . maderator . . umm . . masterator . . ahhh, hell, I'm not going there. ;-p
[edited by: Webwork at 11:10 am (utc) on April 26, 2007]
I was involved in a domain acquisition that involved someone that was sitting on a singular version of a plural that had 'first use' and was the primary focus of acquisition.
The buyer offered the potential squatting party (with the singular) 23k & later a final 27k offer. They were also issued a certified C&D by the entity with first use.
They turned these offers and warnings down and thought they could hide behind the interweb.
At the end of the day they lost the domain via judgement, and some time & stress.
I'm sure the hindsight that they 'could' have had 27k in their pocket as a result is not a pleasant view.
That's my offering of 2c for the day. :)
You want to hold onto it, so hold onto it. The truth of the matter is, if they haven't touched base with you in six weeks, they most likely don't want it that badly.
End of story.
[edited by: Webwork at 10:41 pm (utc) on April 30, 2007]
[edit reason] See my comments above about focus on the business issue, not the person or dialogue [/edit]
