
Ask HN: Tips for getting domain from domain sitter? - siquick
I have the .co.uk and .net for my site but someone got in a couple of years ago and bought the .com and has never utilised it.<p>I would like to own the .com<p>Any tips for how to navigate this situation?
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allendoerfer
As someone, who bought a (for me) quite expensive domain lately:

Get some sense of the actual value of the domain and make an offer. Prepare
for all kinds of bullshit: There are no other bidders, there are no limits of
any kind, the seller "has to do" nothing, everything he says is a lie. Offer
instant cash. If you made an offer roughly around the actual value, this
argument wins, use it against everything the other side comes up with.

What other comments are saying is not true. They won't sell you the domain for
cheap, because of a bad market or to save fees. Domainers are shady sales
guys, who want to extort as much money from you as they can. You are
vulnerable to them, because they already know, that you want the domain,
because you already have chosen that name. You have to offer them a deal that
is roughly around the actual value (e.g. what others would pay) and be ready
to walk away at any time. Instant money is the argument that gets you a
discount.

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rayalez
Any tips on how to determine the actual value of the domain?

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allendoerfer
Unfortunately, I don't know the market for English .com domains. What I would
try to do is search for the price similar domains have been sold for, similar
meaning of similar length and keyword search volume, CPC etc.

For the German market there are some quite active Facebook groups where people
sell (mostly German) domains. I befriended one of the bigger guys there and he
helped me with an actual number the owner guy would definitely sell for.

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davemel37
It really depends on the name. Is it generic? Is it brandable? etc... Also, is
the owner someone who bought it as a domainer, or someone with a side project
that never came to fruition. One way to check is if HitFarm is the parking
company, or if there is a professional sales pitch to buy on the name. (vs. a
godaddy parked page.)

Step 1:Resign yourself to the possibility of not being able to buy it. This is
crucial because there is no incentive for the guy to not ask for a million
dollars even when they are willing to sell it for ten dollars. You absolutely
need to be able to walk away from an outrageous offer.

Step 2: Decide how much you are willing to pay for the domain. Since this is
for your own company, the market value is irrelevant. The only metric that
matters is how much its worth to you.

Step 3: Offer 65% of the amount you are willing to pay.

Ideally, you should not let the seller know you own the related domains
(unless thats public). The best case scenario is that you play dumb, and
pretend you are a nobody with no real commercial interest in the name. (i.e.
my dead puppys name was domainname.com and I want to put a memorial blogpost
on the domain and show them a terrible blogspot site that looks like a 12 year
old made.)

Bottom line, unless you own the trademark on a non-generic name, the domainer
holds all the cards...

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Tomte
Using lots of "the same domain" with different TLDs is also a form of "domain
sitting".

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rajacombinator
1) make a reasonable offer 2) move on an find a different domain name because
a) it probably doesn't matter and b) if it does, they're not going to part
with it easily.

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AznHisoka
Contact him and give him a firm good first offer. Stand by that offer and
don't waver away from it.

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PaulHoule
You can always try to buy it.

Prices for domain names have been depressed for the last few years and the
owner might be happy to part with it for something on the order of 10x or 20x
a year's registration which is not insane.

