How to Get Back at a Low Baller

Receiving low ball offers on my domain names is a slightly annoying part of this business. Having someone try to convince me why a domain name I own is worth what they are offering is much more annoying. I want to share a method I use to get back at someone who has lowballed me on an offer and tried to convince me the offer is good.

Days, weeks, months, or even years later, when you’ve received a far more adequate offer for the domain name, I like to rekindle the email thread where this person gave his low ball offer, and let them know of the high offer and ask if they want to beat it. Most likely, they will pass, but it’s a subtle way to tell them their analysis was wrong and their offer was silly.

Since many low ball offers are the result of automated programs (or even paid contact centers), I don’t bother doing this to the people who made a low ball offer but didn’t follow up with a discussion about why their offer was good. This is a time waste and will likely end up going to an email address that doesn’t work any longer.

Chances are good that this won’t result in a sale, but at least it will be an opportunity to gloat a bit when someone wasted your time.

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

16 COMMENTS

  1. better to sell at a good price and then send them the link to dnjournal via email when sold where sale reported lol
    yep lots of lowballers and annoying ‘buyers’ out there

  2. Agreed that while it’s mega frustrating, you just have to brush these guys off and move on. Sometimes it’s more satisfying to go along with them on their valuation but politely decline. Then they feel the frustration 🙂

  3. I generally don’t like to waste much time on lowballers. Some people are just not able to grasp the value of generic domains or have an overwhelming sense of entitlement.

    I prefer to focus my time on inquires that might actually be converted into sales.

    Brad

    • I’ve converted a few low ball offers into nice sales, so I usually reply. I’ve found there are people who aren’t reasonable / knowledgeable about domain names, and the fruitless discussion with those people is frustrating and can quickly become a time suck when they really want a domain name but don’t want to pay what I think it’s worth.

  4. I am interested in what you constitute a low ball offer? Turning this on its head I am equally annoyed when I make a reasonable offer in a x,xxx name and somebody comes back with a mid xx,xxx price.

    Considering the transparency in domains is so low, I think it is hard to fault anyone on either side. For example a name I recently purchased was recently quoted in the low mid range of x,xxx I offered half of the price and got it for xxx. I felt ba making th offer but my bid was hit.

  5. If you do it correctly, its a decent strategy. Don’t be silly about it though. Every offer I ever recieve on a domain is saved in a folder, and when I am about to sell it, I give everyone one last chance. A low ball offer is subjective, to me its someone who is interested in my Domain….and I want to save that person’s email!

  6. Not worth it.

    When you have someone researching your house worth and threats that you get to the point of filing a police report, better off just focus and move on.

  7. Some lowballers are just not worth trying to educate or replying to..let them sit on the counter offer for a month or two. They will be back under another alias with a decent offer lol 🙂

  8. How do I persuade them it’s worth a figure a bit more along the lines of what I believe it is worth.

    I have a domain that receives more offers than the rest of my entire portfolio combined, ranging anywhere from $100 to $3,500 (USD). I’ve been told privately by two established and fairly successful individuals who made their fortunes in the aftermarket sales of top-tier domain names that because I own virtually every extension imaginable and am willing to bundle them all into a single sale for the dot-com, to absolutely hold firm and wait for an offer of an amount far in excess of the higher end of the spectrum of offers I receive.

    I have an idea for development that I think could potentially be worth hundreds of millions if not billions developed, but I already own a couple of businesses and both time and capital are issues, as the idea by its nature requires more start-up capital than my companies are worth.

    It is extremely versatile, but the idea I have in mind for it is something that hasn’t been done yet (at least successfully), that’s legal and for which a billion-dollar market exists.

    How do I find the person that’s willing to offer just compensation for the rights to the names, and who would be able to do with them what I am not — at least not at this moment in time?

    I’ve tried the SEDO featured listings a few times. The amount of offers increased but the amount being offered remained fairly consistent.

    Again, I reiterate that the advice given to me in private came from very reputable figures within the industry whose names I’ll withhold for now as I’ve not asked their permission to disclose business advice given to me in confidence. Suffice it to say many readers of this blog would recognize them as authority figures within the world of domaining.

  9. I have been the Low Baller.

    Usually the owner knows what they want, but wants an offer that might be higher than their real asking price.

    They sometimes come back with the answer. “The real market value of domain Name(dot)com is …” Which might be higher than the true value.

    Sometimes it is just best to go away for a few days or weeks and make contact later.

    In real estate today, this is an option that works.

  10. Many low-ballers will never be top dog in their field by being chintzy.

    Let them go back to making $20 an hour instead of $200 or more because they did not have the chutzpah or intelligence to pick up a great domain when they had the chance.

    Just the way people today said they wish they would have bought domains in 1995, the same will be said of 2013 twenty years from now when it breaks the bank to buy an incredible domain as opposed to a thousands now.

  11. Elliot,
    One way to eliminate or cut back on low ball offers is to state the price you are asking for your domain name and not ask the potential buyer to “make a offer”.Many domain name sellers who do this are just looking for a free appraisal.I can’t think of any products or services other than domain names that don’t have a price set by the owner or provider.

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