[thelist] Selling Domain Name
David Kaufman
david at gigawatt.com
Tue Mar 6 23:10:15 CST 2012
Hi Graham,
On 3/6/2012 6:42 AM, Graham Hays wrote:
> Hi
>
> we have a domain name that we no longer use and have been
> approached by someone who wants to purchase it via
> www.toselldomains.com. We'd like to sell but have no
> experience of this - advice anyone? Is this a reputable
> site?
>
> Graham
I use and would recommend sedo.com for your domain sale. i have sold a
few through them and am very happy.
I have never heard of toselldomains.com, and scammers are rampant in
this space, because domain transfers are tricky and its easy for someone
to steal your domain unless there is a reputable third-party escrow
agent handling the transaction that understands domain registrar
procedures and who both parties can trust -- and that would be Sedo.com.
A company I used to work for bought a domain from an international
seller for over $10,000 and (against my advice) used escrow.com instead
of Sedo to broker the deal.
Escrow.com screwed it up technically with their ignorance of the domain
business -- they released the funds to the seller after all he had done
was updated the whois record for the domain at HIS registrar, to point
the nameservers of the domain at our DNS server. Apparently escrow.com
is still so incompetent as to allow sellers to retain control of the
registration until AFTER they receive the disbursed funds -- an open
invitation for an unscrupulous seller to run away with both the domain
and the money. Fortunately for us the seller was honorable and approved
the registrar transfer a couple of days (of me jumping up and down, and
screaming at my boss) later.
Then again, you're the seller. It's the buyer that must beware, right?
:-) See, an escrow agent is supposed to collect both the money from the
buyer and the goods from the seller, and only after both the payment has
cleared and the goods authentic, release both to the other parties. But
with domains that means the escrow agent must take control of your (the
seller's) domain, such that you can't take it back, to protect the
buyer. And of course the buyer must trust the escrow agent to hold the
payment he makes and not give it to the seller unless/until they have
irrevocable control the domain. But domains cannot be transferred to
new registrars more often than one every 60 days. So what sedo does is
they have accounts at all the big registrars and you transfer the domain
to *their* account at *your* registrar, so they don't trigger the 60-day
rule and, after they give you the funds, the buyer can take possession
by either opening up his own account at the same registrar and keeping
it registered there, or has the option to transfer it to any other
registrar he might want to use, for instance, where he manages his other
domains.
If you use the escrow or domain transfer service the buyer *recommends*,
and you've never heard of it, then you run the risk that it is actually
his own fake company (or his buddy who helps him scam domains from
people). And if the buyer *insists* on using a questionable or unknown
service, then it is almost certainly a scam. After you approve a
registrar transfer request, they might just disappear without paying
you. As I said scams are rampant.
So you *have* to trust the escrow agent, and sedo's reputation is
unmatched. You could also trust a giant corporation like Godaddy, who
also does these things (via domain "auctions", but the domain has to be
registered with them first) and it might be easier for both parties to
trust that such a big brand name is not conspiring with the other party
to defraud them and steal their money (or domain) from them.
Anyways, again, sedo.com has this down to a very customer-friendly
science. they will even handle the *negotiations* if you want them too.
And no i am not affiliated with them -- just a happy customer for many
years.
hth and Good Luck!
-dave
More information about the thelist
mailing list