# Fanatics.ca - Sold $20,000 USD



## RedRider (Nov 29, 2020)

I read on another forum that fanatics.ca sold for 20,000 us.


----------



## Nafti (Nov 29, 2020)

This one was sold by a member here. Excellent sale for sure.


----------



## jaydub__ (Nov 29, 2020)

Nice sale *THUMBSUP*


----------



## MapleDots__ (Nov 29, 2020)

Nafti said:
			
		

> This one was sold by a member here. Excellent sale for sure.



You gonna keep us waiting?


----------



## Nafti (Nov 29, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> You gonna keep us waiting?


Yup! :lol: I will say that it wasn’t me.  I believe he doesn’t mind saying that it was him but I will wait for him to confirm to be on the safe side.


----------



## rlm__ (Nov 30, 2020)

for some reason I thought everyone knew?


----------



## MapleDots__ (Nov 30, 2020)

rlm said:
			
		

> for some reason I thought everyone knew?




20k and the site does not resolve, how long ago was it sold?


----------



## aactive (Nov 30, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> 20k and the site does not resolve, how long ago was it sold?



I have purchased many domains where I may not be developing it right away, but will in the future. Not unusual.


----------



## rlm__ (Nov 30, 2020)

MapleDots said:
			
		

> 20k and the site does not resolve, how long ago was it sold?



Aug 29


----------



## FM__ (Dec 1, 2020)

Congratulation!


----------



## domains (Dec 1, 2020)

Very nice sale, what can you say about the negotiation?  Do you think the singular would be worth more?


----------



## rlm__ (Dec 1, 2020)

domains said:
			
		

> Very nice sale, what can you say about the negotiation?  Do you think the singular would be worth more?



Ok, sure, here's the blow by blow:

I was initially contacted by an independent domain broker late October, 2019, but I recognized the email as having worked surreptitiously on behalf of Mark Monitor.  Its a good example of where just a little bit of research and the buyer was fairly obvious to me, despite using a broker.  I felt pretty confidently in the driver's seat of this right from the start.

I started with "make your best offer".  They started at @ 2500 USD.  Since they clearly wanted to talk in USD, I continued to negotiate in USD.  I said I was very interested in buying another domain myself, and that it was $20K USD, so if they would pay that, then I could get the domain I wanted, they could get the domain they wanted.  So my price was $20K USD, otherwise I was happy to just keep the domain.

Next they said no way to $20K but they could do $5K.  I said no thanks, but best of luck.

A couple weeks later, she responded with, I'm sure you have some flexibility on $20K, give me your price.

I said it was still $20K USD.

They increased to $7500 USD.

I responded with a no thanks, I understand its expensive, if its not worth it to you, no problem, I understand.  Pick a two-word variation for $20.  Best of luck!

Next they offered $10K. I ignored them.  A few days later, they responded with, "you're really not interested at $10K?"  I said no.  By now its December.

Mid January they say $10K was really their best price.  I said no, but best of luck!  But I did say that I recently happened to notice that this domain was getting upwards of 500 unique visitors per day.

Then crickets for 6 months.

Exactly 6 months to the day from her last email, she follows up with a "where are you at with this price?"   I said no change here. She said, maybe we have some more flexibility on our end.  I said great because I'm not motivated to be flexible.  Business is going great with everyone wanting to get their businesses online right now!  I presume as a broker, you're seeing the same?

Late July they came back with $15K.  I replied with:

_"Clearly your client wants the domain, they keep coming back to it.  As it stands they're just losing valuable time using the domain, when they're probably going to eventually buy it anyways.  So if you can get to $20k, feel free to initiate an escrow.com transaction (my escrow email address is the same).  We could potentially have the domain transferred this week."_

Two days later, the escrow transaction was initiated and agreed to at $20K USD.  It took them about a month to fund the transaction. Closed on Aug 26, escrow wire payment hit my account Aug 29.

So if there's any lessons to be taken from this, know when you're in the driver's seat and hold out and be patient, its worth it.  A large corporation may not even plan to use the domain right away. It is common for them to just buy a domain and sit on it.  The bigger the corporation, the more likely that is true.  So time is not urgent for them.  They'll sit and wait and hope you blink.  In this case I think I just wore them out, they wanted to just get it over with, even though they didn't even need it right away - as evidenced by the fact that the domain is dead to this day.  This whole exercise was probably done by Mark Monitor, convincing their client's lawyers they needed this, despite no IT or business people on the client side who even really wanted the domain. Otherwise they'd have had the sense to at least redirect the domain to the .com.


----------



## theinvestor__ (Dec 1, 2020)

[notify]rlm[/notify] thanks for sharing but just out of curiosity have you ever tried just giving them a deadline? 

I have found that when you know it’s a big company and they contact you months apart. I give them 7 days and tell them if they can’t decide in that timeframe my price will no longer be valid. They respond pretty quickly after that.


----------



## rlm__ (Dec 1, 2020)

theinvestor said:
			
		

> @rlm thanks for sharing but just out of curiosity have you ever tried just giving them a deadline?
> 
> I have found that when you know it’s a big company and they contact you months apart. I give them 7 days and tell them if they can’t decide in that timeframe my price will no longer be valid. They respond pretty quickly after that.



Yes, that's a good point.  I have tried that before, but seemed to find that it would put them off more than make them close.  The reality is, big corporations are SLOW and in this case there was the added broker middleman.  They may have to wait for a board meeting to get approval on a price, sometimes the timing may be bad, who knows. Quite often they will appoint someone to negotiate with a top end price.  If you're exceeding that, they have to go back for approval.  So I don't usually push a deadline unless its really dragging out.  After they came back more than 8 months later, that's when I could/should have used the deadline option, with a price increase after the deadline.

I'll add a few more thoughts on this.  First, I don't think its reasonable to give a deadline or face a price increase in a short amount of time.  I mean yeah, if its been a year, sure, you can definitely justify it.  If its been two weeks, no that just seems unreasonable.  However, if you start with your asking price but then negotiate downward, then I think it is reasonable to say that any negotiated discounts below the original asking price are valid for a limited time.

Its also good to remind people that other negotiations with other clients may be simultaneously ongoing.  So if someone is contemplating a little too long, and then I get another inquiry, then I can use that as an excuse to follow up and say "hey, I just quoted another individual on this domain name, so I thought I'd follow up and see if you've moved on with another domain? Or are you still considering this one?"

I will also do it in reverse, so for the second recent quote on a domain, I'll say to the second one, "yes, I just quoted this price to another individual too, the price is ...."

Its not too often you get multiple inquiries on the same domain in a short period of time, but it does happen, and when it does, don't hesitate to use it to try and create a sense of urgency.  In theory you could _always_ do that, but I don't unless its true.  I don't want to come across too much like a used car salesman on a regular basis.


----------



## whiteknight (Dec 2, 2020)

congrats on the sale nice domain also


----------



## FM__ (Dec 2, 2020)

Congratulations and thank you for sharing.


----------



## JoeN (Dec 4, 2020)

Amazing sale, and thanks [notify]rlm[/notify] for the detailed breakdown of negotiations.


----------



## RedRider (Dec 8, 2020)

Domain Names Owned by Fanatics

http://robbiesblog.com/domain-names-owned-by-fanatics/7692

They did not buy the .ca?


----------



## FM__ (Dec 8, 2020)

RedRider said:
			
		

> Domain Names Owned by Fanatics
> 
> http://robbiesblog.com/domain-names-owned-by-fanatics/7692
> 
> They did not buy the .ca?



Even if they did, I would imagine that Robbie wouldn't be able to pick it up the way he does for other TLDs as CIRA doesn't publish a zonefile and it might not be in the reverse whois database at DomainTools either. I am not even sure he looks at ccTLDs at all.


----------



## rlm__ (Dec 8, 2020)

FM said:
			
		

> Even if they did, I would imagine that Robbie wouldn't be able to pick it up the way he does for other TLDs as CIRA doesn't publish a zonefile and it might not be in the reverse whois database at DomainTools either. I am not even sure he looks at ccTLDs at all.



There is no public zone file for .CA like there is for .COM.  So knowing what domains exist in .CA is much harder to find.

Also, in the fanatics ca whois, you can see the following:

Registry Admin ID: 86426067-CIRA
Admin Name: Domain Administrator
Admin Organization: Fanatics Inc.


----------



## Esdiel (Jan 4, 2021)

Thanks for the details [notify]rlm[/notify]. Very interesting.

I see you mentioned communicating via email but was wondering whether you spoke with these guys on the phone too? 

I would imagine most buyers would want to at least have 1 chat over the phone before closing a deal like this?


----------



## rlm__ (Jan 4, 2021)

Esdiel said:
			
		

> Thanks for the details [notify]rlm[/notify]. Very interesting.
> 
> I see you mentioned communicating via email but was wondering whether you spoke with these guys on the phone too?
> 
> I would imagine most buyers would want to at least have 1 chat over the phone before closing a deal like this?



Nope, all done through the broker via email. 

I had dealt with that broker on a previous sale before, so I knew they routinely work for MarkMonitor.  In fact, they may work exclusively for them using their "consultant" email address as a way to hide the fact that its actually just MarkMonitor.

And when I know I'm working through a broker, I will assume they can see my past negotiations.  So you're sort of establishing a negotiation pattern they may expect you to maintain.  If you negotiated down on the first transaction or two, they're likely going to expect you to negotiate down again and may stall purchasing waiting for you to break first.  I prefer to set the tone that I don't negotiate, so next time they come around, they know what to expect.


----------



## theinvestor__ (Jan 12, 2021)

Looks like it’s now forwarding to .com


----------

