Negotiating the sale of a Domain Name

This is not a new story by any means, but since I've seen several questions about negotiating a domain sale recently, I thought I'd post one of my more interesting transactions. Here's how it went down...

It was a young lady who first emailed me with a very brief message: "would you consider selling this domain name?" That's all there was. This strongly indicated to me that this was a serious, interested party. Why? Basic human psychology. Most offers that come through ramble on and either made an offer or ask for a price right from the start. I felt this was someone who knew how to play the game -- they wanted ME to make the first move in the price war, and they wanted to provide as LITTLE information as possible.

I decided to NOT respond to that first email to test my theory. If they WERE as interested in the name as I suspected, they would ask again soon. Sure enough, 3 days later I received another email with another very brief message asking the same question as before. I waited 2 days this time then replied with "I wouldn't rule it out, but it would have to be a very substantial offer as I'm currently using this domain for my business. Have a nice day."

The next day, an even shorter email from her: "What is 'substantial?'" I replied the next day with "I would not consider any offers of less than $12,000."

Several days later she emailed me with: "Is there any way you could take $4,000 for it?" (Now mind you, I knew I had a serious buyer on my hands at this point, and it was time to really play the game). I waited several days to let them sweat a bit and let them wonder if I dropped the issue because of their low offer. I finally replied to the lady with: "I'm sorry, but as I mentioned last week, I can't consider any offers of less than $12,000 as I am using this for my business".

She replied within hours this time (I sensed she was growing impatient) and said: "Can I have my boyfriend call you? He's better at negotiating".

Now THERE'S a dead giveaway! I gave her my phone number, and the next day I got the call from a very friendly down-to-earth gentleman: "Hi Gene, me and my girlfriend are starting a business and we're interested in your domain name. I could pay you $5,000 right now... and use escrow.com for the transaction -- I'll even pay the fees".

At this point I acted like I was growing very impatient. I explained to him everything I told his 'girlfriend', and nicely said g'bye.

Because of many things he said in our conversation, I suspected that this 'couple' were actually working for a major corp somewhere, pretending to be a mom & pop business.

He called the next day and left a message on my answering machine (I was expecting this would happen, so I didn't pick up the phone). "Hey Gene, we've been thinking about it and we decided we could go up to $10,000. Please let me know if we can make a deal -- call me as soon as you can".

I waited 2 days, called him back and after a bit of small-talk I said "it's been nice talking with you and I really wish you well in your new venture, but $12,000 is my absolute lowest starting point". (notice the key words "starting point"... I intentionally used those words so as to give the impression that I may even try to negotiate a higher price if you gave me time to think about it!). I got off the phone quickly, and waited for him to make his last move. He called that evening and accepted the $12,000 price. He began the escrow, I transferred the domain and I had the bank-check in hand about 10 days later.

Patience is your best friend in this business!

Gene