I recently sold a domain name for a bit over $2,000. It seemed like a nice price, and it’s always nice to sell an unsolicited domain and not have any broker fees or commissions to pay. I had mentioned in the negotiations that I felt the domain was worth $10,000 and mentioned that I would settle for around $5,000, so why did I settle for $2,250? There are lots of reasons, but mainly that it was for a project that I could easily use another domain for (and subsequently registered), and I also had not invested a lot in that domain name. For whatever reason, I still had domain sellers remorse, but the question I have to ask is “am I justified in having sellers remorse?”
I keep lots of records, including what people have offered me in the past for domain names and I did not want to add this to the list of “premium” domain names that I own and no one is willing to pay my price for. I have a few on that list right now, one of which I would gladly entertain the previous $1,500 offer for – which was many years ago – but overall, I am happy when I have the restraint to hold out for the right price.
Recently, I had a low ball offer on a domain from someone who said, “your price is right, I just don’t pay retail.” That was encouraging and of course, this really was a premium domain, so I am glad I held on to it and was not tempted to sell it. In the past, I sold a domain name for $2,000 that had a monthly cash flow of $125. While that is not a lot of money at all, it’s a nice amount of money when you have to do nothing at all for it. After 16 months, I said to myself “if I had held on, I would still be earning money.” In that case, I sold that domain to take a very nice vacation for a wedding, so I would say it was well worth it. After all, what good is owning something of value if you never cash in, right?
In the end, I believe that domain seller’s remorse occurs primarily in cases where a seller feels that they could have gotten more money for their domain. Whether or not they go after that money depends on how much they need the money and how much they feel the buyer wants or needs their domain. In the two cases above, seller’s remorse really wasn’t justified, and here is why. In the first case, while I could have held out for more, the domain did not have enough value on its own merit to where the seller could not have found another domain. In the second case, the domain that was making $125 per month was in a market that was shrinking, so I was selling while there was still a viable market.
Selling a domain is a good thing, so don’t let sellers remorse kick in and have you question your sale. Leaving room for someone else to mark a domain name up or letting someone else spend the money to build a brand of off a catchy domain are a few factors that keep the domain economy strong.
