I really like GoDaddy as a domain registrar, and one of the reasons is that they make it very easy to register domain names. The 2nd best reason I like GoDaddy is their Domain Sales / Auction platform. You can list your domains for sale either via auction, or as a premium domain and your domain will show up to those seeking to purchase domains, but can’t find available dot com domains.
On occasion, someone will ask GoDaddy to contact a domain owner to see if they are interested in selling. I got an email from GoDaddy on behalf of one of those prospective domain buyers and I wasn’t sure what would come of it, but I responded saying “sure I am interested…. have them make an offer.” This was a domain I was holding for a project, but I knew if I got a serious offer, I could always find another similar domain. I got an offer of $300 and I wasn’t impressed. I replied and told them it was worth about $10k to me based on my intended use for it, but also said I would look at a realistic offer in the $5k range. I really didn’t expect to hear back, but I got an email stating that the buyer was now willing to pay $2,250 for the domain. Well, now I had some thinking to do. If I held out for $5 – $10k, I could lose this offer, and I was pretty sure I could find a very similar domain for my project. I did a quick search and registered a few similar domains and went on to accept the offer. I really didn’t know if the deal was going to go through, but I was willing to engage in the process to see what became of it. I accepted the offer and then contacted GoDaddy to find out more. They said it was a legit offer and that they had collected the money and asked how I wanted to be paid (check, wire, or PayPal). I agreed on PayPal and they agreed to cover the PayPal fees and also did not charge me a brokerage fee since the buyer had paid them to reach out to me.
A few days later, I received an email from PayPal stating that I had gotten paid (see screenshot below). I guess the title should have been “the best email a domainer can get from PayPal”.