Thanks. But NO Thanks.

[Gerry]

Save Your Dime looks at a new twist on what people think brokering domains should be.

I do not think this will be widely adopted.

[Acro]

It's the car salesman approach.

[cursal]

And the incentive is where?

Sales on commission is a % of the sale, not a % on the up-sell.

And if we reverse the positions:
Might ask the owner if they are willing to offer 10% of their asking price and if you sell it for more than they are asking you should keep ALL of that too. I mean they only wanted their "reserve" price, right?

10% on the whole sale, either at asking price or above, is fair play in commission based business imo.

[Gerry]

And the incentive is where?

Sales on commission is a % of the sale, not a % on the up-sell.

And if we reverse the positions:
Might ask the owner if they are willing to offer 10% of their asking price and if you sell it for more than they are asking you should keep ALL of that too. I mean they only wanted their "reserve" price, right?

10% on the whole sale, either at asking price or above, is fair play in commission based business imo.

I absolutely agree.

Typically, a 10% fee is just for listing and promoting the domain. It may be as much as 25% if a tremendous amount of phone calls and direct contact with potential end users. But I mostly stick with 10%.

Off topic:

Look at different industries.

A very good friend of mine is one of the top three violin and stringed instrument authorities in the world.

His commission is 30% - in shop sales or connecting buyers with seller instruments. He's already topped his 2008 income in the first three months of 2009.

Most buyers and instruments are going to, where else - China. He sold two violins he owned (early 20th century Italian) for about $350K. He paid no more than 4000 euro in Italy for them not too long ago.

Look out Jacapo (Carter). I may be making a buying trip with him to Cremona and Milan, possibly Vienna.

He was brokering one cello owned by a person in Tennessee (I forget all the names of makers) that the owner wanted $750K. My buddy sold it for $1.4 mil to a doctor in New York. Now, my buddy could have easily given the seller his asking 750K and pocketed the rest. But these are rare prized instruments and there is a very close inner circle. Most buyers like bragging about what they are playing and how much they paid. Doing the pocketing would be suicide in this business. Besides, 30% of $1.4 mil is pretty damn good for never even handling the instrument.

He got one violin that I owned (c.1780-1820 Kloz (Klotz), German) listed in Sotheby's a few years ago.

It anyone is looking for a decent full sized violin, I will be selling 20-25. Most are mid to late 1800's, German, Austrian, Italian. Most are labeled by maker. Three are circa 1910-1920 Juzek, not Master Artist models.