I registered it in 2005ish before that whole niche in porn took off, some dude offered me $100 3 days later, being young and naive I took it thinking it was a great flip. Year later I watched him sell it for $100,000. I learned my lesson that day.
Subject Line: Whatever.com ($2,500?)
Hi,
I see you are the owner of Whatever.com. I'm in the process of trying to find a domain name for a client I am building a web site for and think your name could be a good fit. I am contacting different domain owners as we have it in the budget to buy a cool name and Whatever.com is on the list we came up with.
Would you be interested in selling it for $2,500?
Let me know and I can have the funds wired to you next day or PayPal'd to you. Just let me know your PayPal address.
Thanks for your time.
-YOUR NAME
Might be worth mentioning Escrow.com/Sedo upfront.
1) Have a friend send an e-mail asking if it's for sale. If they respond with a reasonable price, buy it.
2) Assuming the owner/squatter is remotely intelligent, they'll do their diligence and realize that the .NET is being actively used. In that case, you'll have to decide how bad you want it and/or if you would ever consider re-branding. You could try the: "This is the best offer you're ever going to get, so take it or leave it." But the owner could always call your bluff, and just hold onto the name knowing that it's getting ever more valuable to you as you grow.
I'd try option 1, wait a few months (depending on what they say), and then try some blend of option 2.
Buyer
Hi there,
Is the domain-name.com domain for sale?
Cheers
Jotux
I have future plans for the domain but I'd considering selling it. Make me an offer.
Buyer
Hi Joe
How about $500?
Cheers
Jotux
That works for me. You can paypal or dwolla money to me, I'll give you the auth code to transfer the domain.
Never hurts to just ask.Once someone gets contacted about their domain, their estimation of the domain's worth automatically jumps. So if they're thinking it's not all that valuable, your contact will make them think it's worth something. Even a layperson will think it's worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.
They are going to want to at least recoup their cost in a sale (sunk cost fallacy?) so I'd offer them at least that plus 10% so they aren't insulted.
Both were webcam related sites.
7 letters, .com address, six or seven years ago
Solid domain name, and I had an interesting product for it. Didn't materialize the way I hoped, so I shut it down. I've kept the domain though.
I've occasionally run across domains in the $5k range that were quite good, but I still seem to find good enough .com addresses that I've yet to resort to buying one. I'm working on a new product now that is a 5 letter .com address, I bought it straight from a registrar, and it's exactly what I was looking for.
I've probably only owned one that was stand-alone valuable. I bought a domain in 1997 via Network Solutions, and have held on to it since then. It's a six letter .com dictionary term.
My biggest domain-fail was letting Naked-Celebs.com expire. I bought it for something like $300 in 2009 and forgot to transfer it to my main portfolio, and somehow let it drop... I still shudder thinking about that sometimes.
7 characters.
It was a huge amount of money but it made sense seeing as the buyer was a business with a 2 letter name.
I agree with supply and demand, and letting market forces dictate pricing etc etc.... but domain squatting is one of my biggest pet peeves out there.
Which left such a big hole in my poor little bank account (I am a college student) But one year later, turns out it was worth it, every penny of it. :)
purchases for employer
party-------.com for 5500
---force.com for 12000
-----lite.com for 11500
c.gg for $50 EUROs