I've been contacted by the Godaddy Domain Buy Service, basically saying they have someone interested in buying one of my domain names.
Has anyone sold a domain name through this service? Any experiences to share?
My initial thoughts are:
1. They must be fairly serious about buying the name to pay GD $70 plus commission.
2. They are probably not regular domain buyers to be using the GD service, rather than contacting me directly via whois.
3. Due to both of the above points, there's a good chance they are an end user.
4. The GD service includes an appraisal which may be good or bad for me as the seller, depending on how high their appraisal is.

I'd be interested to hear from anyone with good or bad experiences to share.

http://www.domainstate.com/showthrea...hreadid=105314

IMO, GoDaddy does a real good job in acting as the broker with a number of good contact attempts, including considerable personal work by a broker who is assigned to the order.

However, afer using them both as both buyer and seller several times I can report absolutely no success.

When I am a buyer the owner does not respond to the emails and phone calls GD makes (not even a counter-offer) and the brokerage time expires and my $70 fee is lost.

When I am the seller and approached by GD (both email and phone calls are made) the offer is always too low. When I make a reasonble counter-offer it is rejected or times out and the brokerage service buyer loses the $70.

I've had a couple of contacts by them. can't remember the exact wording but only once or twice have I responded - and the offer was far too low (reseller pricing).

Whilst godaddy may include a buyers valuation in their package - that dosen't compel the buyer to offer anything like that amount. Looking at Godaddys own premium name pricing you may be forgiven in thinking that the offer would be on similar lines - but, it wont be.

I don't ignore all Non-direct contacts - but, have never concluded a sale - You may as well see what the offer is

Thanks for the replies guys.
I've asked them to send me the offer and we'll see what happens.

I think the buy service fee ($69) is absurd when it's not even known that a domain is available (for sale) and fee is non-refundable.

So for $70 you get to keep a worthless appraisal on a domain you never had any chance of obtaining.

Originally posted by doughmein
I think the buy service fee ($69) is absurd when it's not even known that a domain is available (for sale) and fee is non-refundable.

I agree that $70 is a lot for just sending a template email to the whois contact. On the other hand, I guess a lengthy negotiation that doesn't result in a sale would leave GD out of pocket, having only made $70 and no 10% sales commission.

Originally Posted by trader

However, afer using them both as both buyer and seller several times I can report absolutely no success.

When I am a buyer the owner does not respond to the emails and phone calls GD makes (not even a counter-offer) and the brokerage time expires and my $70 fee is lost.

When I am the seller and approached by GD (both email and phone calls are made) the offer is always too low. When I make a reasonble counter-offer it is rejected or times out and the brokerage service buyer loses the $70.

I can't agree more!!

As a seller, we have a strict policy to ignore Godaddy offer requests. We do not even click on the offer links anymore to see how much the offer is!! We only now look at offers now when they include the amount in the offer email.. which is after we ignore the 1st 2 rounds of emails... and then even then we generally just delete them.

No we are not crazy... and I will tell you why we have made that decision:

1. godaddy offers are rarely over $100, and even more rarely over $500 even after counter offers.

2. even if you get a good offer and you decide to sell, the process you need to go through to get the domain sold, transferred and then paid out.... well the pain and frustration you will experience as a seller is rather bad. So my advice is, the price had better be a good one to make it worth the pain!


Funny enough, just last month we decided to re-evaluate and actually sold a domain, and still waiting for the domain to be transferred and paid... So now we again stand by our original decision, just delete their offer emails, and only accpet really crazy high offers.

They seriously need to rethink their entire transfer process as that is what is letting them down.

Cheers
David

Sold a name through them a few weeks ago. It took about 2 weeks to complete. Paypal was the only payment option (around $1200). It is a bit strange having to add the name to their auction site in the process. Needs to be simplified though the experience was ok.

I gave up on GoDaddy a couple of years ago.

I blacklisted their domain on our mail server, and every e-mail from them goes into the void.

Well, after waiting a day and a half the initial offer came in at $80 - laughable considering they have paid $70 just to present me with the offer. Needless to say I don't hold much hope for a sale and I think I'll also be ignoring them in the future. It's a shame GD don't do a better job considering their reach.

Sold one domain via Godaddy buy service for $ 8k.

They will use escrow.com.

My idea is to transfer the domain to Godaddy, and push to Godaddy's account, so there will be no problem if the Buyer refuses to confirm the receipt of the domain at escrow.com.