SheldonWhitehouse.com (Sheldon Whitehouse is a US senator seeking reelection in 2012)

[alzika]

I registered this domain a few years ago. I just got an "offer" through GoDaddy that says something wants to purchase the domain for $500. This seems a bit on the low end, right?

Since he is seeking reelection, perhaps they want to set up a website for the campaign in his name.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

[RON2]

Counter at $1k. Best of luck!

[bmugford]

I would just take the offer and be happy with it. There are obviously limited buyers, so there is limited upside.

Brad

[ngconcepts]

ditto what bmugford says

[alzika]

I contacted his campaign office and it WAS indeed the senator's campaign trying to buy the domain.

Does this change the value?

[jstewart]

1000 Minimum, no if's and's or but's, if you haven't already responded I would counter with 5000 and meet somewhere in the middle. Don't let this go for under $1000

[OXCELL]

Don't be to greedy here..........It could come back to bite you.......

[Maxwell]

A supply and demand analogy would be moot here, as the supply, in the case of domain names, is always a supply of just one domain. The demand, on the other hand, is limited, but in more abundant supply than the domain.

The very fact that they admitted to making you this offer puts you in a very powerful position.

That said, $500 is an absolute pittance for this domain name.

I would try to grab high $x,xxx at minimum.

Now, you could apply the argument of "what if he says no?"

I say, let him. This is politics. If he's not interested in shelling out a nice tall stack of Ben Franklins for this domain name, tell him he's got competitors who will gladly take their checkbooks out.

And, to be honest with you, the last thing this guy wants is for sheldonwhitehouse.com to resolve to his competitor's website.

Remember, he needs this domain name worse than you need the money. In fact, what I would do is shop it around to his competitors first, and then say to him "I've got an offer from your competitor. If you can't come up with $____, the domain name is going to him."

[SiberForum]

That domain name could be a pretty good one. Just you will need to contact Sheldon and offer that for him as I suppose no one accept him will be interested in such domain name.

[alzika]

The offer WAS from his campaign. Initially, it was $500. I told them that wasn't enough. They came back with $750 and I again told them that wasn't enough.

I posted this on a couple of forums and someone sent me an offer of $2000. LITERALLY 15 MINUTES LATER...I get informed by phone that their campaign had agreed to buy it for $1000, but I had to inform him that I had another serious offer for $2000.

I have the site now turned into pretty much the story of how I acquired the domain. Please view: http://www.sheldonwhitehouse.com/

Now, I have the option of either seeing if they come back with $2000 or potentially selling for domain to the other party for $2000.

Heck, I may even keep the domain at this point and just keep the current website up.

I KEEP getting told by the company in charge of his campaign website that his campaign is low on funds and how they don't think they can go much higher every time I say that their price isn't enough, yet a few days later, they always come back and say "fine, we will buy it for X". I checked. His campaign has 2.2 MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH RESERVES.

Opinions?

[Maxwell]

The offer WAS from his campaign. Initially, it was $500. I told them that wasn't enough. They came back with $750 and I again told them that wasn't enough.

I posted this on a couple of forums and someone sent me an offer of $2000. LITERALLY 15 MINUTES LATER...I get informed by phone that their campaign had agreed to buy it for $1000, but I had to inform him that I had another serious offer for $2000.

I have the site now turned into pretty much the story of how I acquired the domain. Please view: http://www.sheldonwhitehouse.com/

Now, I have the option of either seeing if they come back with $2000 or potentially selling for domain to the other party for $2000.

Heck, I may even keep the domain at this point and just keep the current website up.

I KEEP getting told by the company in charge of his campaign website that his campaign is low on funds and how they don't think they can go much higher every time I say that their price isn't enough, yet a few days later, they always come back and say "fine, we will buy it for X". I checked. His campaign has 2.2 MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH RESERVES.

Opinions?

Low on funds... listen to these jokers.

You shouldn't have told them that the offer was for $2,000. I'd have said "an amount which is a four figure sum in excess of your most recent offer".

If you play your cards right, I think you could get as much as $25,000.

[alzika]

Low on funds... listen to these jokers.

You shouldn't have told them that the offer was for $2,000. I'd have said "an amount which is a four figure sum in excess of your most recent offer".

If you play your cards right, I think you could get as much as $25,000.

They requested proof of the offer as I don't think he trusted me. I had to send him screenshots. *shrug*

[CureCancer]

Hmmm

[alzika]

Unethical practice if you ask me for registering someones name and trying to sell it to them. I don't approve of this practice and it's people like you who give our community a bad name. Your domain is worth $0 - your lucky you havn't been sued for using google ads on the website to make money off his name.

No offense, but if you read the story on my domain, you will realize that I didn't register the domain just to resell it to him. This was a legitimate game that my company was going to develop. THE SENATORS OFFICE CONTACTED ME.

I have owned the domain for 3+ years and never ONCE did I try to sell it them or anything else as it being a US senator's name.

[bmugford]

No offense, but if you read the story on my domain, you will realize that I didn't register the domain just to resell it to him. This was a legitimate game that my company was going to develop. THE SENATORS OFFICE CONTACTED ME.

I have owned the domain for 3+ years and never ONCE did I try to sell it them or anything else as it being a US senator's name.

No offense, but your story does not pass the smell test IMO.

At the time of purchase, we had no knowledge whatsoever that coincidentially, this also happened to be the name of a United States Senator from Rhode Island: Sheldon Whitehouse.

While designing our game, I created the character Sheldon by researching names and learning what each name meant. I came across the name Sheldon and learned that it meant "steep valley" or "steep hill". This seemed like a perfect fit for the name of the main character, as he would have to climb a relatively steep hill, in a sense, in order to complete and finish the game. Thus, the name of our game was to be called Sheldon: White House.

Then you have content on the page related to the Senator - his picture, information, etc.

Brad

[RON2]

The story doesn't really explain why you don't just give the domain to Sheldon Whitehouse or at the least redirect it to his official page. If you truly wanted to offer "all of your support" as mentioned on the site, wouldn't the be the most supportive thing to do?

IMO, take the $2k from the first person that can make payment and avoid being in the middle of a formal dispute. Those are no fun at all.