The Underlying Factor of Domaining and Selling Websites: Part I
People tend to concentrate on so many different facts when selling domain names or websites. I am not going to come right out and say those are not important factors, because they are. But there’s one thing that seller’s often miss, and don’t concentrate on.
This underlying factor to selling domain names and websites is the buyer.
Seller’s need to concentrate on organizing their sale and marketing their sale, however there is one factor they do not have control over: The Buyer.
This is something I have been thinking over the past week as my auction on Flippa continues on. Currently there is a bidding war between two distinct people. Each buyer continues to bid at the last minute (for no apparent reason), each bid extending the auction another 4 hours. They know, or should know, that bidding at the last second does nothing. I can tell you that I have no idea what is going through the mind of these buyers. Why do they bid every 4 to 8 hours? Why do they wait until the last few minutes to bid?
These are all things I’m thinking about as my auction continues. I am no God. I don’t possess the answers for these things. But I can try to put myself in the buyer’s shoes, predict their motives, and take proper action from there. I’d love to get your ideas on the psychological mindset of buyers, so any comments would be appreciated.
My guess is your buyers are both dedicated to getting the cheapest possible price, but as you said, we’ll never actually know what’s going through their mind.
My guess is that there may be all following three reasons (not just one or two)
1.They don’t want to lose your domain name
AND
2. Their budget is small and both parties are looking for minimum possible price (as they both think bidding early will inflate price and it may go out of their budget )
AND
3. Doing so they both from their side think that opposite party may give up OR accidently miss bidding opportunity before auction end.
“….each bid extending the auction another 4 hours.”
maybe they are just hoping the other one falls asleep ?
Maybe they’ve been using too much eBay
There’s a similar mindset at SnapNames ..
they think it is like ebay & are trying to snipe each other…
Best,
Matt
“They know, or should know, that bidding at the last second does nothing.”
Well I think it’s really quite simple actually.
By bidding at the last moment you are not tipping your hand.
Even though the auction extends for 4 minutes there is always the chance
the other bidder(s) may not be around to bid against you and you can win.
By bidding earlier you show your intentions and force the other bidder(s) to take action thereby raising the auction selling price.
When I bid on eBay, I use an auction sniping service for that very reason.
When I bid on Godaddy’s expired domain auctions I do the same unless I know I won’t be around at auction end time.