Seek Out Sellers to Find Buyers

We’ve all seen domain sales before that are similar to domain names we own. We (you and me) think that the buyer would possibly want to purchase one of our similar domain names if we could only get in touch with them to let them know the availability and price.

The problem that I’ve encountered though is that many sales are done in private and the Whois information goes to privacy. This makes it difficult to find out who bought the name, especially if the buyer was a large company with many levels of red tape.

One of the best things you can do to find out the buyer’s contact information is to reach out to the seller to ask for the buyer’s contact information.  Since the Whois has changed, you can most likely find out the seller’s contact information using DomainTools’  historical Whois lookup tool.

You’ll most likely want the person’s name, email address, and phone number. You might even offer a commission to that person as an incentive to give you the buyer’s information. I would also let the seller know why you want it by mentioning your domain name.

Some sellers are reluctant to give out any information because they may have other names to sell that buyer and also because many people don’t like giving out the contact information of someone they know, especially if they don’t know you. However, if you let them know why you want it, perhaps they will be willing to share to help you close a deal, or maybe they would even be willing to contact the buyer on your behalf.

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

8 COMMENTS

  1. I would not give any one the information on the long shot that some guy I don’t even know is promising to give me a commission. I can almost guarantee that 8 out of 10 would not give out the info either.

    • If you had a good comparable name I’d offer an introduction if asked. Not only is it good karma but its also a good way to help two people make a deal, and I’m sure both parties would remember me if I needed a favor of the same nature.

  2. I agree 100% if both parties do business with each other or have the ability to do business in the future but if its just some random person than I would be extremely hesitant.

    • I don’t disclose my sale prices for a variety of reasons both personal and competitive. It’s tacky to discuss how much money I earn and it serves me no purpose.

      That said, you can see names I’ve sold on my website and if someone has a very similar name they would like to pitch to the end user buyer of one of my names, I would likely be happy to provide an introduction assuming I know (or know of) the person who asks. I’ve done this many times and expect nothing in return.

  3. @ Elliot …. I can largely respect and accept your preference to keep sales stats private …
    ..But just keep in mind that many organizations(both big & small) and individuals..acting in the capacity of principal/owner or broker/intermediary publish either some or many of their sales & prices… DNJournal’s widely followed weekly and YTD domain Sales charts show a broad & deep array of sales “released/announced” publicy by numerous sellers..including by many of the top, experienced and most savvy “players” in the domain arena… So I just say that most of such is not tacky,, that’s all

    • The difference is that guys like Frank and Mike have tens or hundreds of thousands of names in their inventory, so their published sales help boost the value of their other holdings. For instance, Mike’s reported Visit geo .com sales likely increased the value of the dozens of great ones he also owns and tells other companies where they need to be to acquire one. Essentially, he is the market maker.

      In addition, they don’t report all sales and sales aren’t their primary revenue streams, like my business. If I were to report my sales, people could probably get an idea of how much I earn, and that is really the one thing I keep private.

      Reporting sales prices can make it harder for me to buy similar names at good prices, and since I keep a relatively small inventory, it doesn’t help me in that regard.

      The only real benefit to me of reporting sale prices is the platitudes and congratulations that many would receive, and at the end of the day that doesn’t do anything for me or my business.

  4. Kudos @Elliot
    Well said 🙂 and I think Elliot has been open and helpful to offer help to connect to the buyer, anyone with similar domain he has sold before..
    Are you people nuts … Take a break and think when was the first and last time that anyone had offered help like Elliot is talking about ??

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