Desc in Sales Threads.

[Jacksplat]

I'd like to suggest a rule for any sales threads. Feel free to suggest otherwise, it will only enlighten me. My opinion can be wrong.

When stating a starting price in the description of a sales thread it should reflect the minimum sales price.

Just yesterday I bid 125$ on some two worder here with a starting bid suggestion of 100$. The seller pm'd me asking me if id pay 550 in a way suggesting a quick sale. For me the name is barely worth 150 so i said no thanks. I do try to offer a reasonable value.

My point is this.. and its coming from a buyers point of view and not a seller.

This happens often, my time gets wasted as there was no intention to even sell this at suggested bid. in some cases its to get free bumps for thier thread, and in others it can be a free appraisal. meanwhile its the buyer who wastes their time. It takes time to buy or consider a domain. The one above was only a moment, but there are others we know take some research.

Let me know in this thread if this will be considered.

Jack

[afloat.com]

Yes, the question has to be asked why was there a starting bid of $100.
actually the seller made this statement:

"Please note: The phrase "Offers starting at $100" doesn't mean I will sell the domain for $100 if that amount is offered. It is not a BIN price. It indicates that $100 is the starting point for negotiations -- e.g. I am not seeking offers less than $100. Some folks seem confused about the meaning of this phrase and have expressed some frustration that I've posted a BIN in the mid-$xxx, so I hope this explanation clarifies things."

umm, no actually it doesn't clarify anything.. Why would you set a starting point of $100 for offers if you would never accept $100 for the domain, thats deception.

[Jacksplat]

he made that statement after i played pm tag with him and called him on it.

i quoted his posts to save the history.

[jdk]

I second that. Another suggestion is for domains in the Fixed Price section to include a price for the domain. There are so many threads that do not include a price.

Going off what you said, if the seller does not include a starting offer price, at least put a range. I can't tell you how many times I will offer $xxx with the seller saying $x,xxx. At least tell the buyers what price range you had in mind to save both parties some time.

[Jacksplat]

This is only the most recent such event, but there are so many it does get tiring. And at the end of the day it does hurt sales for everyone.

http://www.dnforum.com/showthread.php?t=225013

[biggedon]

Hi

it seems that even though some sellers have starting bids at $1.00 or $100.00, we know from experience that they won't sell at starting bid prices!

imo...it's just for exposure, to remain on top of the que in that sales section.

usually they may get a few bumps until it reaches stagnation if not sold. then the seller will bump by adding a BIN. bump further by reducing the BIN, then it's either sold or goes back to vault.

the above is typical example from "offers wanted" area.


currently, the tactic is within the rules, and sellers can take advantage if they wish.

imo > it's up to the buyers to decide, whether they want to participate or not.

[Jacksplat]

I dont sell so I cant appreciate the reasons for such deceptive sales tactics. I do understand however and would of course like these rules if I did sell domains.

If you think about this seriously you may notice there are probably 20 times more sellers than there are buyers. Not a good recipe for longevity. You may want to reconsider.

Jack

[NostraDomainus]

I believe recent discussions here @ DNF (http://www.dnforum.com/f72/change-coming-soon-spring-cleaning-time-thread-221055.html) surrounded the notion of encouraging greater buying/buyer activity - and thus I agree some clarity and further (for lack of a better word) regulation to promoting positive sales tactics, while also enforcing the rules already in place, could be productive. Maybe outline some minimum Do's and Don'ts to Domain Selling here @ DNF?

Another example aside from JackSplats suggestion: Ban use of un-quoted Search Engine Results for multiple keyword combo domain sales and advertisements - it's misleading to domain sales and value and market integrity and, while I may be wrong - then ask, if I am wrong: What do un-quoted multi-word SE Results have to do with Domain Value? I've never seen an answer to this, yet the practice is tolerated. [Hypothetical Ex: IndexDisclaimer.ComNetOrgWhatever 4-Sale -> Index Disclaimer gets ~283,000,000 Google Returns - WOW!! (while it's left out that "Index Disclaimer" (that is, using Quotes around the Keywords) gets only ~36,000!)]

It's almost to the point where for your own due diligence beyond any Good Faith, you have to ask each Domain Seller for every domain sale you are interested in, whether large or small, 101 Questions in order to just cover your (_|_) ..which may not really resolve the issue of amount of time required to buy a name - but add to it. Everyone will have to become a little lawyer :S

Then again, maybe that's part of what comes with participating in a market, any market, in the first place - not to say it's right or wrong - it just is. ..and then You Win Some and You Lose Some.

(PS: Anyone know of a list of standard Questions to use when buying domains?)

Best Success in All Your Endeavours!

[Jacksplat]

Nice input Jason. You brought up another issue which of course most of us do see through about the quotes, but alot of newcombers may fall prey to. I come to dnf mainly to buy, and sometimes comment in other threads, i go other places for other reasons but DNF is to buy domains. I feel I'm in touch with what builds "buyer confidence". I hold back all the time commenting in sales threads when I see BS. And to think that because one guy does buy into that hyped domain description doesnt mean 50 others lose faith in the "system" here.

Lets not forget all the template sites (new crap) in the websites for sale thread. Didnt you open a Forum for such knock-off sites ? Yeah, I do buy knock-offs, but I am fortunate enough to look before I bid and see through the crap like false stats, false member base in forums, and so on.

DNF has a great thing going and can really capture a very large audience coming into the market this year. You need some transparency (cant believe I used that term) when sellers make their descriptions.

Discussing some of these errors will only fuel more exploits. We all know where that leads. One thing I can do even if I pull this crap about starting bids at 20% my intended reserve is to get a Free Top of the Line Appraisal at the expense of many potential buyers time.

Time for some fine tuning. Nothing runs itself.

Jack

The sales thread I mentioned above got slightly heated. I couldnt resist replying each time I felt called upon. I did just make a final post saying I'm done in that thread as it really isnt the place to bring things up. Again, it is hard to resist. I hold back alot and the way he replied just brought it.

My bad.

Jack