I hate it when people get my hopes up and then they’re dashed in an ohnosecond.

Ok, some background first.  I own a few domain names that sound cool but are not trademarked.  I liken it to buying up real estate on the Internet.  I don’t take people’s names like the cybersquatters do, like taking cocacola.com and then trying to sell it to the Coke company.  Some examples include kikkitt.com, cheapyo.com, great-game.com, beebabies.com, dahits.com, etc.  These are names that might be of interest to myself or others later on, so I’m investing in that phrase’s ability to make money later.  For now, I’ve parked the domains at sedo.com (click on any of them for an example) to maybe make some money for paid searches and stuff (like Google AdSense).

I get an email from someone interested in purchasing one of my domains.  Read more in the extended entry below if interested in knowing more about domain scamming.

Here’s the first email I received, out of the blue for one of my domains: 

We’ve found your name listed for sale.
 
If you are still interested in seling please send your quote and I will consider it with my partners.
 
Main direction of our business is software development and technical support.
 
Domains is not our business but a new way to earn on reselling. We are going to buy domains to resell them at higher prices since we have a large database of clients interested in good domains.
 
Looking forward to do business with you.
 
Regards,
Andrew Eisenberg
CEO
BNT Consulting

Of course, I’m intrigued.  I gave him my price of $1250, thinking I might be able to get $500 or $750 for it.  He responds very quickly with

Wayne,
 
1,250 USD. Ok.
Do you sell domain with a web site or just name?  If just name it’s ok. Web site is not necessary.

Have you had your domains appraised already?  Can you show me your valuation certificates?  As fas I know it’s a common practice to show appraisal of domain name (even without traffic and web site) before doing business.

Without appraisal I risk to overpay. In other words I won’t be able to make a profit on reselling this name. It’s very important for you and me to know the current market value of your domains.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging an appraisal company with REAL manual service. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate auto-generated appraisals.  I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I trust.  To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies in a forum http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/791528.htm

Just check this posting.  If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.  I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.  After I get an appraisal from you we’ll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid:  www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.

Naturally, I’m even more interested.  I mean, the guy basically said “ok” to my price, and he just wants to be protected by having a real appraisal.  I’d love to get $1250 for this specific domain.  I respond in kind, listing the manual appraisal that sedo does (I’ve listed most of my domains with sedo.com) and that I’m willing to do the appraisal, but only if he’ll accept sedo.

His response:

Sedo is a good broker. Unfortunately, Sedo is not acceptable as an appraiser because your names are listed with them and they are not independent. They are interested in earning 10% commission on every sale.  I need appraisals from a company which is not interested in selling your domains.

I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals. So I cannot accept appraisal from each and every site. I will only accept appraisals from independent appraisal companies I know and trust. 

Hmm.  What he said isn’t necessarily true, as Sedo only takes commission on what THEY sell.  It’s not like Ebay where they get 10% of every sale.  I’m free to sell it myself and not pay Sedo anything.  I’m paying Sedo, upon sale only, if their marketing efforts results in a sale. 

But no matter.  I email him back and ask what appraisal service they WOULD accept.

His response (again, very quick)

I thought about several companies including Afternic.com, but found very interesting information:

http://www.igoldrush.com/links3.htm “Capsule Review: After lots of complaints, Afternic is no longer a recommended service. We will re-review the service in the near future.”

I also found the following information about them http://www.out-law.com/page-1630

So Afternic.com is NOT acceptable.

Reading responses from experienced sellers I was impressed by one reply: “Many Internet users are not smart enough and popular domain brokers are using this fact to make money. They offer them cheap appraisal services. But if their customers would have something in their heads they’d understand experts could not make a professional research for $15-$20. These appraisals are made by machines. Easy money for such appraisers as http://www.Afternic.com and several other major brokers that offer cheap auto-generated appraisals. In my eyes, all services under $50-$55 are not manual and the results are generated by special scripts. I don’t trust auto-generated appraisals.”

The same is true for GoDaddy and SEDO. Their services are not manual. They are just collecting money using their well-known names.

I heard many appraisal companies often overpriced domains. So I cannot accept appraisal from each and every site.

To avoid mistakes I asked about reputable appraisers in a forum. Several experts recommended me DomainSecondHands’ appraisal service - http://www.domainsecondhand.com/appraisal.htm as a fast, accurate and non-expensive manual service.

I also trust the manual appraisal service from http://www.DomainMart.com but it’s very expensive - $200/hour.  This service was also recommended by many people. If you can afford $200 DomainMart.com’s fee it would be great. They also provide cheap automated service but it’s not acceptable.

Now I’m not so intrigued.  Basically he’s saying either spend a lot of money (who would do that, hmmm?) or use domainsecondhand.com.  Plus, what he claims about GoDaddy and Sedo are not accurate (they offer manual services).

I check out that website and it just reeks of “stay away”-ness.  You have to pay $99 for a 3-month membership and must put in a credit card just to register.  They list all these amazing offers, want ads, etc, which I’m guessing are faked to show how interesting it is to sell domains.

A little more googling shows an entry of someone getting almost the exact same email thread as I did.   The blog owner has turned off commenting for some reason; otherwise I’d let him know that he helped save me some time.

So I’m guessing the guy works for the domainsecondhand.com place and fakes interest in domains so people will go pay for the appraisals.  Then they give these appraisals and the “buyer” backs off saying they found something else.  Meanwhile, they just created a market for their appraisal services.  Or worse, they just created a market for my credit card number somewhere.

I’ll stick with sedo.