Close Out Old Sales

A few days ago, I listed SSSN.com and PRRR.com for sale via Embrace.com. Unfortunately, the domain names were not sold, and I am happy to continue holding them until a buyer is willing to pay my asking prices. One important thing I did this morning was delete the sale post on Embrace.com. I think people should remember this step when conducting a sale.

I set up the sale page with buy it now links from Escrow.com. I think they make buy it now listings easier for buyers to execute quickly. The one downside is that I don’t think you can set up an expiry period for these links. For instance, if I list a domain name for sale for $5,000 today, someone could theoretically use the link to set up a transaction in 10 years from now. With the crazy market values of some domain names, it would be problematic if I give someone the ability to buy a name in the future at today’s prices.

When you use buy it now pricing on domain names, be it on marketplaces, forums, personal websites, or other platforms, it is important to close out old sales. Sure, it is wise to have a disclaimer about the sale prices (ie “offer valid for 48 hours”), but people don’t always look at those disclaimers. Even if you make it abundantly clear that the listing has a deadline, someone might still try to execute the deal and the seller would risk reputational harm if he or she doesn’t honor the sale.

I think it is important to close out old sales posts and to update marketplace buy it now listings. This is especially critical when dealing with domain names that have fluctuating valuations, such as short or numeric domain names. You may be in the right if you publish a sale deadline, but it makes sense to remember to close out the sales posts to avoid problems in the future.

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

4 COMMENTS

  1. I had such problem with a numeric domain I had given a price many years ago at Afternic, and because of that a buy now price will be set forever until you remove it… With thousands of domains I could never remember that.

  2. It up to the domain owner to remove old listings. If you don’t remove these domains, someone may buy them from a domain marketplace. Buy-it-now is risky on these platforms. You may be able to cancel the transaction.

    However, make offer won’t matter much because you can decline if this domain name is no longer available to purchase at a specific price and/or asking price.

    The Internet is flooded with old offers, especially in forums. We can’t always go back and say that deal is unavailable to buyers. Don’t see how a reputation is put on the line for not honoring an old deal. People should know that domain names may change prices and hands.

    Reputation is damaged if a deal is agreed upon and seller backs up to sell to another. i.e. CamRoulette.com deal. If there is no reputation to protect, then it may not matter much. What if the buyer attempts to take a legal route?

    In any case, thanks for increasing awareness on posting domain names for sale and removing them after they don’t movie at a specific price. 4-character domains are becoming high online properties.

  3. It is up to the domain owner to remove old listings. If we don’t remove these domains, someone may buy them from a domain marketplace. Buy-it-now is risky on these platforms. You may be able to cancel these transactions.

    However, make offer wouldn’t matter much because you can decline if this domain name is no longer available to purchase at a specific price, asking price and/or has been sold to another entity.

    The Internet is flooded with old offers, especially in forums. We may forget to go back and say that deal is unavailable to buyers. Don’t see how a reputation is put on the line for not honoring an old deal. People should know that domain names may change prices and hands.

    Reputation is damaged if a deal is agreed upon and seller backs out to sell to another. i.e. CamRoulette.com deal. If there is no reputation to protect, then it may not matter much. What if the buyer attempts to take a legal route?

    In any case, thanks for increasing awareness on posting domain names for sale and removing them after they don’t movie at a specific price and/or no longer available to sell. 4-character domains are definitely becoming highly sought after online properties.

  4. Indeed, that is why I never set any permanent buy now pricing, have no time to deal with that.
    When I was asked for a quote so long ago I gave such price and should have deleted it sometime later because it doesn’t have an expiration date.
    Immediately canceling the transaction will still have consequences, even if your account has more than a decade and this only happened once.

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