Thread: Buying a domain

I found a domain that I want!!! :3083:

I contacted the owner and he said it was for sale and he told me to make him an offer!! How would I know what to offer him and what is the process for buying a domain from another person??

I ran the domain name through dnScoop - Domain Name Value, History, Stats Tool and Forums and that said that it's value was $0, mg: because there is nothing on the site - no incoming or outgoing links.

And the domain is about 5 years old. So that's good, right??

Should I offer him $10 or what??? :shuh:

Go for it.

Offer him 10$, see what he says?
Declare that the domain has no value, and no PR I'm assuming, so it has very little worth.

Dnscoop is more for fun than anything.
A domain will have value by age, the domain name itself, backlinks, listings, etc.

Depending on the url itself, 5 years old, worth a bit.

The owner can of course put it up for sale just to see the interest.

Lots of domain owners will put a domain up for sale with a huge reserve just to test the waters.

so have u get the domain name right now?

Originally Posted by GRIM

Dnscoop is more for fun than anything.
A domain will have value by age, the domain name itself, backlinks, listings, etc.

Is there something better than dnscoop? This domain has age. The name is something valuable to me, but not necessarily to others, and there's nothing on the site. Just an image with the domain name on it and a contact email address.

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Depending on the url itself, 5 years old, worth a bit.

The owner can of course put it up for sale just to see the interest.

Lots of domain owners will put a domain up for sale with a huge reserve just to test the waters.

I saw, probably a year ago that this domain was taken, but not really being used. At that point, I wasn't interested in getting it. But nobody else has taken it in that time. Either nobody else wants it, or the guy is asking way too much

Originally Posted by webhostbeez

so have u get the domain name right now?

I'm not sure what you are asking, webhostbeez...




But other than sending him the money to buy the domain, what is the process for transferring the ownership?

Originally Posted by unr

Go for it.

Offer him 10$, see what he says?
Declare that the domain has no value, and no PR I'm assuming, so it has very little worth.

The problem with this approach is that the current owner knows it has at least some value to RHM or she wouldn't be asking about buying it.

@RHM: If I were in your position, I would figure out just how much I was willing to pay for it and then offer half of that amount. It will give you some room to negotiate. If you truly don't care if you get the domain or not, then offer a low amount and see what happens.

Transferring ownership is simple.
Find the registrar of the domain by asking him where it is registered.
If you buy it, you will have to register at that registrar and then he just pushes the domain to your account.
Then you are the owner.

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Transferring ownership is simple.
Find the registrar of the domain by asking him where it is registered.
If you buy it, you will have to register at that registrar and then he just pushes the domain to your account.
Then you are the owner.

Is there any way to find out where it's registered without asking him? I'd like to go ahead and set up an account so it's ready to roll once we settle on a price...

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

Is there any way to find out where it's registered without asking him? I'd like to go ahead and set up an account so it's ready to roll once we settle on a price...

You can run a whois search and try that way

Originally Posted by GRIM

You can run a whois search and try that way

Had to try 3 differnt whois searches before I found anything! But here's what I got:

Registrar: IN2NET NETWORK, INC.
Whois Server: whois.in2net.com
Referral URL: http://www.in2net.com
Name Server: DNS5.DOTEASY.COM
Name Server: DNS6.DOTEASY.COM
Status: clientDeleteProhibited
Status: clientTransferProhibited
Status: clientUpdateProhibited
Updated Date: 06-sep-2006
Creation Date: 27-apr-2002
Expiration Date: 27-apr-2008

So what do I do with that?

I think you can use a service like Sedo to act as a broker for the transaction.

http://www.dollarhost.com/Domain/

This is linked from 'in2net.com'

Looks like a host who resells registrations, not sure on what to do in such a case.

I would get the owner to change the registrar from that hosting company to namecheap or godaddy.
Seems to me, reading the agreement at that hosting company, they want to hold the domain basically as a hostage unless you pay their fees (unspecified).
Ask the owner what the costs are at that host company and what it will take to transfer to your account if you have to open one at the host company.

Expires this april.
You can always hold off until then to see if the present owner pays up to keep the domain.
Or wait until then and he might let it go for cost?

If someone's asked about it, he's more likely to hold onto it, thinking that someone out there wants it. If the domain has been renewed for 5 years they are pretty unlikely to let it go for $10, having invested 5x reg fee already. Wanna PM me the name RHM?

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Expires this april.
You can always hold off until then to see if the present owner pays up to keep the domain.
Or wait until then and he might let it go for cost?

I kinda like that idea! So once it expired I could go to godaddy or somewhere like that and just register it myself??

Originally Posted by Halobitt

If someone's asked about it, he's more likely to hold onto it, thinking that someone out there wants it. If the domain has been renewed for 5 years they are pretty unlikely to let it go for $10, having invested 5x reg fee already. Wanna PM me the name RHM?

If it is the same person over the 5 year period, yes he may want at minimum what he has into the domain.

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

I kinda like that idea! So once it expired I could go to godaddy or somewhere like that and just register it myself??

Yeah, you could do that by backordering the domain and hoping you get it when it is freely available.

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

I kinda like that idea! So once it expired I could go to godaddy or somewhere like that and just register it myself??

Probably a very slim chance unless you've backordered it. Domain tasters seem to grab everything that drops to see if it gets any traffic or not.

And for the love of God, don't register at network solutions.
Slashdot | NSI Registers Every Domain Checked
More here.

How much is the domain worth to you?

Originally Posted by Autumn

How much is the domain worth to you?

As cheap as I can get it!

I don't know, not very much. I'd love to have it, but I'm fine without it too... :sundecided: And I don't have much money, so I'd have to get it cheap.

Red Hot Mama added 2 Minutes and 41 Seconds later...

Originally Posted by iowadawg

Yeah, you could do that by backordering the domain and hoping you get it when it is freely available.

If I did go and backorder it and got it that way, would it lose it's age value?

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

If I did go and backorder it and got it that way, would it lose it's age value?

No

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

If I did go and backorder it and got it that way, would it lose it's age value?

No, but you could lose backlinks, directory listing value, etc.

Originally Posted by GRIM

No, but you could lose backlinks, directory listing value, etc.

But, according to that dnscoop thing, there are no backlinks. The only thing I can find that adds value is the age and it's name (and the name would only be valuable to me..)

Red Hot Mama added 1 Minutes and 28 Seconds later...

And google doesn't show any backlinks either.

Another thing to consider: if you backorder it, then the owner re-registers it, you've lost cash (a wee bit) and have no domain.

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

But, according to that dnscoop thing, there are no backlinks. The only thing I can find that adds value is the age and it's name (and the name would only be valuable to me..)

Red Hot Mama added 1 Minutes and 28 Seconds later...

And google doesn't show any backlinks either.

I was only putting out info of how it works, not what would be in this particular circumstance.

Originally Posted by Red Hot Mama

Is there something better than dnscoop?

No, they are all mainly for fun, I wouldn't take them serious.