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The first rule in negotiation is to get him to give you a price. From here you have the upper hand in knowing what his thought process is. By you providing him

The first rule in negotiation is to get him to give you a price. From here you have the upper hand in knowing what his thought process is. By you providing him an offer price you are doing one of two things. You are either letting him know your "minimum", or what you think it is worth personally, or you are letting him know your "maximum". Either way you are hosed here. If you let him know your "minimum" he knows he has room to negotiate up. If you let him know your "maximum", you are opening yourself up to paying way more than what you could have potentially purchased it for. By getting him to concede a price you gain this upper hand. If you believe that the price is to high, you should work to prove him wrong. If you believe it is a steal, then jump on the deal. Now the question is how to determine if his price is "realistic". There are several factors at play here. First he may see you approaching him about the domain as a chance to make "big" money. His understanding of the market may be minimal and he may have read new stories of people paying top dollar for domains. He may perceive your approaching him as a chance to make his cash. Knowing what his price range is a step for assessing this. Proving exact traffic will be difficult, but you can guesstimate the amount it may potentially receive. 1) Is the domain name currently ranked in Google in the top 10 or 20? If it is in the top 10 it has instant appeal for you and the price just went up. Top 20 still getting a good price, but not as much as in the top 10. 2) Is he monetizing the site currently in any way? If so, you should ask him to provide you with documentation or some kind proof on how much he is making from it. This may be difficult and he may be reluctant to show you. Comes down to power of persuasion here. 3) Is the domain something "catchy" or a high-demand domain name (i.e. 3 letter .com)? 4) If you find yourself making no headway or want an extra negotiating tactic you can always have the domain "appraised" by an independent 3rd party (yes there are companies that do this, I just can't think of their names right now). Just Google domain appraisers or I am sure someone will jump in here and fill in the blanks. You can sell this as a benefit to him as he will now have an outside opinion on the value of his domain. The problem with this method is that you and him may be thinking the domain is worth $100, but the appraiser comes in and says it is worth $1000. Now he is going to want a $1000 when you could have had it for $100. This is where knowing his price thought is beneficial. 5) Put your offer out there. Walk away if necessary if you don't feel him budging. Give him a few days and come back to him. Let his emotions (good and bad) wear down over those days. If this is the first time someone has approached him regarding the domain he may be tempted for a big offer at first, but after a couple days of sitting on his brain you may get a more realistic response. As for terms, just make sure that all control and ownership of the domain is transferred to you. You could work with an escrow company or third-party for this.

lionhearted 16y ago
> The first rule in negotiation is to get him to give you a price. This can backfire if they offer a very high price that they can't come down on without losing face. An alternative strategy is to offer your "maximum plausible position" (forget who coined that phrase, smart guy though) - in this case, the lowest dollar amount that you won't look like you're joking. To use a high profile real life example, look at Scott Boras, the baseball agent. He'll ask for 7 years and $110 million for a client that eventually gets 5 years and $60 million... but who was arguably worth less than that. You're right about over-bidding, you need some knowledge about the worth of things to make an offer that isn't ridiculous without risking overpaying. But if he's bidding a on a decent parked 3 letter domain name, for instance, it'd be silly to bid less than low hundreds. For a longer or less memorable phrase, maybe you could open with offering $50. But it's not always a mistake to offer first, it can set the tone and scope of the discussion.

lionhearted 16y ago

> The first rule in negotiation is to get him to give you a price. This can backfire if they offer a very high price that they can't come down on without losing face. An alternative strategy is to offer your "maximum plausible position" (forget who coined that phrase, smart guy though) - in this case, the lowest dollar amount that you won't look like you're joking. To use a high profile real life example, look at Scott Boras, the baseball agent. He'll ask for 7 years and $110 million for a client that eventually gets 5 years and $60 million... but who was arguably worth less than that. You're right about over-bidding, you need some knowledge about the worth of things to make an offer that isn't ridiculous without risking overpaying. But if he's bidding a on a decent parked 3 letter domain name, for instance, it'd be silly to bid less than low hundreds. For a longer or less memorable phrase, maybe you could open with offering $50. But it's not always a mistake to offer first, it can set the tone and scope of the discussion.