Personal Name Domain Names

[luckylee82]

I am currently working for a company that wants to acquire a domain name (www.companyname.com). The domain name is currently owned by a woman who's last name is the same as the company name. The current owner has done NOTHING with the site for the past 6 years that she has owned it...i have already checked alexa.com and it appears as if there is no traffic to the site.

I hesitate to offer to buy the site because she will up her price immediatly after she finds out that a large company is after her domain.

What other options do I have?

Am I allowed to lie and say that I am a small-timer who is interested in her site merely to build my own personal webpage with family pics on it?

[trader]

Why woud your company be so cheap where you even bother to ask if you should lie to get the name. Of course you should not.

Simply pay a fair price. After all, it's tax deductable vs the company income anyway.

[davezan]

Am I allowed to lie

Let your conscience be your guide. ;)

[Dpeper]

Negotiate business is business you don't need to offer any information. Just a dollar amount.

[Webwork]

I'm always deeply moved by the line "I'm a college student and don't have much money". Invariably I reply with the common sense advice that it would be foolish for a poor college student to spend more than than the registration fee for a domain name and therefore they should simply find a different, unregistered domain and leave me to develop Money.com.

Oh, you mean it's not my domain . . Money.com? Hmmm . . plan of action.

"Hello, my name is Webwork and I'm a poor unpaid forum moderator. Please accept my offer of $100.00 for Money.com. I need it for an important school project."

IF you really won't to do business then don't screw around. Some people, once offended, will forever thereafter simply ignore you. That's the price of treating someone as if they're a fool. A pretend offer makes you dishonest and many people will not do business with you thereafter, even if you make a solid offer at some future date.

[percentages]

>Some people, once offended, will forever thereafter simply ignore you. That's the price of treating someone as if they're a fool. A pretend offer makes you dishonest and many people will not do business with you thereafter, even if you make a solid offer at some future date.

That is so true!

I get several offers per week via NetSol for my Domain Names. If ridiculously low, I ignore them, if getting close to the ball park I counter with my absolute minimum, as per the request.......yet, most of these people still underbid by huge amounts......I have better things to do than mess with cheap idiots......make a fair offer and I will be all ears, mess with me and I won't sell at any price, simply because you wanted to mess with me!

The buyers need to understand that most likely the sellers are in the game for the long-haul. We won't sell to anyone who doesn't make the right offer in the right way! Get cheap on us and you will be ignored!

[4css]

Am I allowed to lie and say that I am a small-timer who is interested in her site merely to build my own personal webpage with family pics on it?

And should she search one day to see those "family photos and find a larger corporation within her domain? What then? I'm sure she would still have your contact information.

I hope she keeps it and doesn't sell it to you. You don't deserve to have it.

I hate it when the "big" people take from the "little" people with lies and deception.

[luckylee82]

yikes! okay.. what I have gathered from your postings is that i should NOT lie.... point well taken.

[crevier]

Regarding your statement that "The current owner has done NOTHING with the site for the past 6 years that she has owned it", it's not very easy to get that kind of information, so be careful what assumptions you make.

You're mixing apples and oranges here. A domain name is not the same as a web site. I own several domain names that have never had a web site but that I use all the time. Yes, perhaps web sites are the most common use, but there are dozens of other uses for domain names (e-mail, ftp servers, gaming, etc).

So, don't assume that if a web site is stale, or if a domain name has no web site, that the domain name is not in use.