Bought a PR4 Domain from auction and now the original owner wants it back

You paid the money, it's yours. If they believe it was a mistake they should be taking up with Godaddy.

It is yours now unless it is a trademark.

You paid for it and you got it..... That's it.... Ask her to write a complain about this to GoDaddy..... The domain is your property and never try to give it back if you really know what you can do with PR4....

Or if you are a kind heart then ask her to pay you the auction price and simply return it to her......

Its totally upto you... But there is nothing no one can do now except you.... If GoDaddy will transfer this back to the previous owner without your consent you have a full right to file a claim on GoDaddy......

Hope this helps.....

All the best....

They are screwed man, GoDaddy gives you more than enough notices to renew. They have some nerve contacting you like its your problem. If you want you could find out how much its worth to them and sell it back at a premium. One way or another its yours. Maybe this will remind them to check their emails from now on.

If you talk about GoDaddy Notices then whenever I log in to Godaddy then it comes smiling to me and asking to renew an expiring domain. Lol...

So I don't think she is telling you truth and in case she is telling truth then also you are the owner

So enjoy PR 4 Domain....

Wish u good luck with this.....

If you want a legal opinion, you'll need to ask an attorney.

From a layman's standpoint, their dispute over the domain name has nothing to do with you, and they should be referred back to GoDaddy (who will, not so politely, tell them to go suck an egg).

As was pointed out earlier, GoDaddy sends numerous reminders to renew domains about to expire. If the original owner didn't pay attention to them, they need to revise their business procedures.

Again from a layman's point of view, I think it would be perfectly OK to sell the domain back to them, for a substantial profit, of course.

Or don't, if you want to keep it. It's yours, and if you refuse to sell it back to them there's not a lot they can do (again, consult an attorney for advice) but keep pestering you.

"Suck an egg"

(Perhaps someone should read Allen's Money and Power interview)

Look at it this way - some inexperienced administrator blew it and their job may be on the line.

From the description it appears this could have been a non-profit website.

Personally, I would weigh how much the domain cost in auction and the 'value' it has for my intended use, versus the tone of the request for the domain, plus whatever they are offering for it and what they were using it for - plus being a decent person.

Of course, it is odd that no one apparently noticed the website was down for probably a few months.

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Tax em Tax em Tax em is what I say. I grab this $1 I'll sell it back to you for $10 if it is that important to you.

I think Karma's a bitch. We've all made foolish mistakes. I'd return it to them.

I bought a domain and later was contacted by the previous owner. Same thing happened to her. She let it expire carelessly. It was her primary money site. She offered to buy it from me but said she didn't have a lot of money.

I gave it back to her for what I paid, which was only $50. She was so happy she was beside herself. The domain was a lot more important to her than it was to me.

Another option is is to give it back and have them link to you. They will be building it out so that link would be important whereas you might not be building it out and the pagerank might just expire as the inlinks disappear or Google realize the links are not actually referring to your content.

chicagovolunteerhq . org

Being "vounteer" would suggest a non-profit org. They could have been so busy helping people they neglected the day to day business of running a website. My conscience would force me to give it back.

I think only a robotic-accountant type entity could keep it.

You paid... its yours! You need to find out the reason why the seller wants it back.

Donate the domain back to the non-profit and get a receipt for $1000 (or more) for tax purposes.

I'm sure you have a legal right to keep it and it's left to
your decision. Either wouldn't make you a "bad" person.

But if I forget to pay my wireless bill they cut my line and
I have to pay a "reconnection fee" so you may also want
to charge a "recovery fee" if you decide to 'return' it.

-Ray Edwards

I have that happen quite often and I feel better returning the domain despite not having to. Nearly always the previous owner is polite and understands there are costs involved which they are willing to pay.

What would you like to happen if you were in their situation?

You buy something, its yours!

Personally I would give it back for the money you paid being as it looks like a non-profit organisation. I bet they would be so grateful, they would have no problem in giving you a link (depending on your niche!)

MIGHT AS WELL GIVE IT BACK FROM A PURELY BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE

Why? Well others have weighed in on the ethics of it . I will not add anything but a purely business perspective since I buy a good deal of domains with PR and have helped many others do the same.

The truth is it is probably in your best interest to sell it back. From what I see the value of it was the links to it that gave the site its PR to begin with. That owner if they wanted to could make those links disappear in a hurry by contacting the better sites linking to you. So sure you could keep it but they could make sure its worth nothing.

but whatever you do don't listen to the people telling you to take a too tough your loss attitude or you will only ensure that owner will be motivated to have the links to the sites redirected. Frankly if its a real established non profit they probably will be forced to use another name and will end up redirecting the links anyway. Worse if you are using the domain in part of a network to rank other sites - they could also arrange for it to be deindexed and then it will be worth the breeze blowing outside.

It is likely trademarked if not in the Federal system by a concept what is known as common law trademark. If the value of the domain is mainly people that are looking for their site/org it makes your footing really tenuous as it would allow them to employ other legal theories besides trademark against you. If it is truly is a non profit or something along those lines your likely playing with fire. Do you really want to get in a legal fight with a non-profit? The best way to handle it is to offer to give it back for what you paid for it.


Nobody thinks they could buy CocaCola.com on an expired domain auction and expect to keep it do they?

I've seen this situation several times.

In legitimate cases, usually the domain renewal e-mails were being sent to somone no longer with the organization, or to someone that had lost interest, or was mad at the organization, or was not picking mail up for some other reason, like being out of the country feeding starving children in Bangalore or something.

In non-legitimate cases, the people seeking to have the domain "returned" were never the legal owners in the first place, and are trying to scam somebody into sending them a good domain for cheap. It's good to check on that.

While technically you now are the legal owner of the domain itself (as far as I know, better consult an attorney for specifics in your area), there may be issues with actually using it if they have a business registration or long history of use associated with the name, and you don't.

If the organization and requester are legit, and with a history of use of the domain (see the wayback archive at archive dot org), and somebody just goofed up on renewing the domain, then the good ol' karma-meter kicks in, and it's a matter of deciding if returning it is the right thing to do.

All I can say is if you want to be nice..have her pay what you paid for it in the auction and maybe 5% on top. Good Luck

If they are legit then I would most likely give it back. But the decision is really up to you, you purchased the domain correctly.

Good luck either way

I have to agree with the majority of the posts. If you want to sell the domain back to them, then do so. Otherwise keep the domain for yourself. The previous owner should have made sure that Go Daddy received the renewal fee.

Okay, I just wanted to add my 2 cents here...

1) The domain was on auction, which means that the owner is definitely blind or doesn't pay too much attention on his website, which doesn't matter anyway. Remember - it doesn't matter what happened, as far as you don't have any proof. It could be a mistake by GoDaddy, either a mistake from the domain owner.

2) "Owning" this domain name won't make you a milionaire. You may even have further problems with it. Why? Because, in fact, the domain name is not yours. Yes, you bought it from an auction and you have the rights for it, but it is not a reliable solution. Better to give it back to him in exchange of 2x the auction price. I.e. - get rid of it. You will still have some profits.

P.S. I don't think that Page Rank matters in this case

I had a similar thing happen to me. The domain was a business name (like arizonatilework.com or something like that) and I assumed it just went out of business. I did a bit of work putting content on and then building links. I was actually getting some sales too.

Then about a month after I buy it, I get an email from some attorney, apparently the owner didn't know he had to renew domains - lol. I guess one day he went to his website and noticed it was totally different.

So, I just asked them to compensate me for the time and money I spent. I didn't feel right keeping someones business domain like that. Bad karma for sure.

They were thrilled and I was happy to make someone happy. Does that make me a bad business person?

Lee

P.S. Now when I buy domains that are the names of business I do a lot of checking first to make sure they really are out of business.

Unless these guys own trade mark on the name, then it is their bad.

If they wanted they got to pay $$$$$

Like everyone has said: you paid for it. Its their problem.

If you feel that it is not that important to you or it won't have an impact on your project then return it, I never let a domain expire and if it happens I won't expect someone to give it back to me but I would ask if I can get it back. You can ask them for a link back if you return it.

Also if you feel that you wasted your time try to sell it to them or rent it to them! rent it for 10 years and sign an agreement with them , as long as they are in business then you have some type of income, you are happy and they are happy.

Charge the last owner 10 times more for the auction price.

Ultimately it's up to you what to do, but I've had this happen many times and I'll give them a good deal to buy it back. Consider this - would you rather not have to deal with any headaches about this? What if they didn't leave you alone about it? What if they then attempted to UDRP the name and you'd have to defend yourself to keep the name? Ready to pay a lawyer for that?

Sometimes ethical reasons for doing something can also be business reasons for doing it if you really think about it.

Thanks for all the answers and opinions warriors. Compassion and kindness are good things for sure. I sure wish I had received more of both in my younger / poorer days.

Funny that I was looking at Charlie Chaplin videos on YouTube today, and by accident came across this quote by him on this video at 1:46

1st i'll ask her to take up that matter with godaddy.. its all depends on the importance of the domain to her.. if it is for a good cause/ her bread winner.. i'll def ask her to pay me back the action fee and give it back to her.. Who knows how hard she worked to get the domain name ranking that good.

Oh well ,seller beware. If they approved or pre approved the trasnfer , it's legal !

Real business costs money, so if they want it and you agree to sell then the price you want is where its at !

What the heck?! You bought it man! It is yours! To top it off how unprofessional of that guy! LIKE WHAT!?

You paid the money, it's yours. If they believe it was a mistake they should be taking up with Godaddy.

Ill buy the domain from you then sell it back to then for double the price. But really though. You bought it fair and square so either keep it, sell it back to them (double money or auction fees) or give it back to them. You are the only person who can do it. I'd personally tell them tough luck.

To be somewhat fair, why not offer to sell it for 3-4 times your purchase price.

It's yours. I once had one of my domains expire and I complete forgot about it. I had to pay $4,000 to get it back. Once it expires and someone else buys it, they lost it.

If she wants it back sell it to her.

Michael

How much is this domain name really worth to you?

Perhaps, if the previous owner chooses this might be settled in court and cost the non-profit very little (if any) in litigation fees.

Domain Name Disputes (BitLaw)

Keep YOUR PR4 domain. They no longer own it - you can either

Keep it - you have all rights to do so
Give it back - whether you sell it at auction price or make a profit?

Either way, you have the upper hand

To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing they can do about it legally. It is your property now.

If he didn't auto-renew: sucks to be him.

Damn all the hate here LOL...As a domain investor I get this a lot....Let us not forget about this...

Godaddy send you a LOT of emails that the domain is about to expire. It is not like the OR (original owner) did not get emails letting them know the domain is to expire UNLESS they dont keep good records and changed there email address and never updated it with Godaddy.

Noe think about this. Lets say you buy a car....forget to pay for 3 months. You thought the bank was taking out payments on auto pilot. You check your bank account and the money does not seem to be taking out. After 3 months they repo the car. You go to the auction house where it is beign sold and ask for it back becasue you THOUGHT your bank was paying for it....Think they are giving back the car??

Come on folks....People have to be responsible for there business. Why give it back becasue THEY did not pay attention to all the signs in there face about the domain getting ready to expire... Even when it did expire they have 45 days to STILL get it back...

Keep the domain or sell it back to her. Period!

Ok I'll add my opinion for the sake of an extra perspective.

I've been on both sides of this in the past. I've lost domains for several reasons outside of my control and never got them back once the registrar (rightly or wrongly) let them go.

I would never blame the new owners for that (even though some of them blatently just abused the work I'd done building the domain reputation over many years, by throwing up ads to rinse money from the people I spent a long time attracting).

It goes without saying that if you bought it - it was probably legally available to buy.

On the other side of the coin - I've been in your situation too and I've never found anything other than selfish reasons not to give the domain back.

I took each incident on its own merits, but as you might expect for someone wanting their domain back - they'd obviously put a lot of effort into creating it and were devastated when they realised it had dropped. As has been said already by others in this thread - I couldn't in good conscience keep the domain knowing how little it meant to me and how much it meant to them.

The upshot of that action was that the new owners always happily linked to any of my sites from theirs and actually also became clients of mine and even friends.

Life is too short - you KNOW what the 'right' thing to do is.

Some people here are desperate for a dollar and will tell you to milk the owner for all you can get - regardless of the niche/focus of the site and it's previous owner - that'll always be the case.

Only you have to live with your decision, so if you don't give a crap about them and you just want to keep it "because it's yours" - that's fine, if you feel ok about that. If you don't then it shouldn't even be a choice.

We'll never know what you decide to do, so what we think is pretty much irrelevant, but as someone else said - I've put a couple of people on my ignore list after seeing their posts in this thread.

Your business is your business - just do what works for you.

Andy

Hi,

Yes its yours fair and square!

they never renewed so they lost any rights to it!

Maybe it could be worth asking them to buy it at a profit from you! So you could get a quick flip of it and make some cash! Just an idea, but as i said you the legal owner now so do as you please

thanks

TheKaver

This question has pretty much turned into a slugfest on morals and ethics, but it appears to me there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution.

I think if I were in this situation, what I did would depend a great deal on how I was treated by the other party, and what their circumstances and arguments are.

It's yours. If you get legal paperwork or a phone call from legal staff. Sign up for prepaid legal. cost under 30 for a month, this entitles you to a free legal phone call or letter, I would opt for the letter.

She made a mistake and trying to cover her butt. It could be trademarked but I doubt it.
If she would of came to me and said, OMG I forgot to renew that, I probally would of gave it back, if she said it was a mistake and she wanted it back without being nice. I would keep it.

Mistakes happen. The real question is, what where you planning on doing with the domain?

If it has real value for you then the answer is simple. Keep it. You purchased it fair n square.

If you purchased it to re-sell, then i'd say your buyer is already at the door.

If you purchased it because you where wasted at 3am and said adult website was option #2 then, maybe transfer it back for cost price.

You may or may not have legal rights to the domain. It depends on what the domain is and how it was previously used.

What the thread has missed thus far is that it isn't just about the domain name. You have to look at exactly how the domain relates to the previous owner.

Their organization's name has a copyright whether it's registered or unregistered. By extension of that, you could get into some trouble if this domain matches their name. If your development plans center around the same topic they used it for, you are walking on thin ice.

To illustrate, imagine if Acme Fun let AcmeFun.com drop and you picked it up. Acme Fun is a children's toy company. Even though they let the domain drop and you now have it, you can't use it for anything toy related since that would be in violation of their name.

You may (domain allowing) be able to develop it under a topic that doesn't conflict with the previous owner's rights.

I'll say this, and only this. PR4 domains are a dime a dozen. Visit any popular forum or website selling site and you'll find something that easily fits that bill.

If selling or donating the domain back to the organization makes YOU pleased with yourself do that.

If keeping the domain and laughing at their mistake pleases you then go that route.

What would I do? I'd make them buy it back from me, at cost, plus any fee's that were associated with the transfer to me and then back to them. I say that's fair and honestly, if I had the extra cash in the bank I'd give it back to them and tell them that in return I'd like a link to (the closest) related website in my portfolio.

Wow this thread is hilarious!

Really thanks to all who have posted for making me laugh.

Oh and "PR4" alone doesn't mean much nowadays. This domain is probably next to worthless, and on that basis I'd just give it back.

This is a no brainer. You keep it. If I were you I would just flip it back for double the price if they really wanted it. Otherwise keep it.

If you have to ask if the shirt needs ironing .. don't ask just grab the iron.

When PR is updated .. the PR is most likely gone. You are probably the legal owner of an non-trademarked domain. If they were trademarked you would know it by now.

The person who lost the domain could be the nicest person in the world. They just simply either was ignorant of the domain process or maybe had a true emergency and just missed the entire process.

Life happens.

On the other hand, this person could be someone who Bought the domain as a potential feeder site and just didn't get around to doing the maintenance in time and let it go dead.

AS marketers we all tend to get stretched too thin at times.

Or maybe they are the biggest spam queen to hit the internet in ages. They only take a break from spamming to tip over wheelchairs and kick canes out from under the elderly.

There are people out there that are just plain pissy.

The deal is .. we are not really paying anything forward if we are looking for distinction from an act of kindness.

The OP must make a decision based on turning the page. If they were on the other side. How would they want to be treated.

With this information, they can then make a decision.

The person on the street that begs for money can be the real deal or the con artist looking for a fix. I can only donate with good intention. What that person does with my good intention will not lessen my intent.

Considering the PR, as long as its legit, OP probably paid at least low $XXX for it. You could consider selling it back to her for the price you paid which wouldn't hurt - there's plenty of PR4 domains ready to expire everyday.

Keep in mind, Godaddy spams you to register a full 3 months before registration actually lapses (they want you to re-reg early).

They must refund you first before transferring the domain back to them. Since you have paid the domain, it's yours already. If they want it back, ask for a refund first.