Dear Sir: Please send me your domain name

August 31, 2006 3:09 PM

I'm establishing a site with a madeuppish name. I've got the .net and .org domains already, but somebody else . . .

somebody else took the .com version out last year, and hasn't done anything with it. How do I politely approach and broach about getting the .com from him? I'm willing to pay for it--what's a reasonable price?

posted by Kibbutz to computers & internet (10 comments total)

Man, the only good answer to "what's a reasonable price" is "it depends."

It depends on how interesting the name is, how much it leverages real words, how short it is. The fact that you own the other two will betray your intentions which will raise the value in the seller's eyes if they check.
posted by o2b at 3:28 PM on August 31, 2006

Also, keep in mind that just because it isn't used as a web site doesn't mean that they haven't done anything with the domain name. It may be in use for email or some other purpose.
posted by i love cheese at 3:39 PM on August 31, 2006

Can you wait until his registration expires? If it hasn't been used he may nbot renew, then you get it cheap
posted by InfidelZombie at 3:40 PM on August 31, 2006

Maybe he's waiting to get the .net and the .org and complete his collection! :)
posted by snarkle at 4:09 PM on August 31, 2006

Waiting until the registration expires is 99.999% a waste of time. I just made up that statistic. Chances are a) he'll renew at the last minute b) a spamsquatter will get it first

I'd try a personal email or something. If you don't get a reply, make a reasonable offer. Think about how much you'd sell a domain you don't use that much. If it actually is their name, they almost definitely won't sell it.
posted by cellphone at 4:10 PM on August 31, 2006

Asking what a reasonable price would be without telling us the domain is like asking how much a house will sell for without location and square footage (is it kibbutz.com?).

And as someone else said, just because it appears they're not doing anything with it doesn't mean they're not.

Lastly, reasonable has little to do with it. I recently received an offer for my domain and the only way I'd sell it would be for a very unreasonable amount. It has more to do with how badly you want it.
posted by justgary at 4:14 PM on August 31, 2006

madeuppish.com is still available - for a few minutes, anyway.
posted by nightwood at 5:24 PM on August 31, 2006

I got my company's domain by waiting for it to expire.

I'm currently waiting for another to expire (I know the last holder died).

A third belongs to an acquaintance who took it out as part of a joint project which foundered. He hung on to the domain, which I would really like, so I just emailed him about it. We chatted about his plans for it and mine and he told me he was going to hang on to it, but if he ever gave it up he'd let me know.

In general, unless you know the person, I think that approaching them is going to cost you more money than you'd like.
posted by unSane at 7:48 PM on August 31, 2006

Oh, man; *please* don't do this.

This is *ugly*, bad and wrong.

Did you want to buy that 2LD in all the *other* 267 TLDs as well?

Repeat after me: possesion of a domain name does not constitute a trademark infringement.

And if your 2LD is *so* unique that anyone using it in another TLD will be mistaken for you... then how does someone else already have it?
posted by baylink at 10:11 AM on September 1, 2006

Just approach them, say you've noticed they're not using it, you'd like to add it to your portfolio of domain names in case you want to use it, and offer a small amount of money to cover their costs/time. Make your email seem as unspammy as possible (I occasionally get dodgy automated offers for domains).

But don't expect to get it. Bizarrely, most people say they're definitely not going to sell, even if no prices have yet been discussed and for all they know you might be willing to pay millions. Think of another name and this time start by buying the .com
posted by malevolent at 1:22 AM on September 2, 2006