Offer to buy domain name!

[gh]

We would like advise on selling domain names, we have rented for a few years and have purchased a number of domain names relating to our home and area that it is situated and not used many of them, just keeping them aside until we are ready.

We have recieved an enquiry from a French Official to purchase a domain name we bought.

Shocked as we were to received such an e-mail it is genuine and they are serious to purchase.

Question's
1 do we need to sell?
2 what can they do if we dont?
3 what is a acceptable amount?

We really would like to keep it, however, the amount is rather more than anticipated, and we are in a quandre what to do.
As we have experience in share trading this is another ball game altogether, we have no expertise of domain names and their value.

[la vache!]

I think Joanna is the domain name expert here - I'm sure she will be able to give some good advice!

[vrooje]

Is it a .com? .fr?

My guess as to the answers to your questions:

1. Nope.
2. Nothing, but whatever you do, don't let it expire.
3. Depends!

The answers to #1 and 2 may depend on whether you've purchased a .fr or .com, though I'm not sure.

For #3, I can only give you an anecdote. My parents are real estate agents, and the domain name they wanted (sandiegorealestate.com) was taken, but not being used. I contacted the owner of the domain name, and he offered to sell it to me for $5000. They didn't buy, but that was the offer. This was about three years ago.

I would imagine that if they had wanted realestate.com, it would have been significantly more.

[gh]

Thank you both, its a .eu domain, poitou-charentes.eu

We hope in the future; when we have more time, to build it into a sort of "all in one site for visitors to the region" places to stay, eat, activities, travel etc blog (if i ever get my head around them).

Thanks for the tip vrooje, got it in the diary for renewal.

[dmjarvis]

I agree that it's unlikely that you will be forced to sell if you don't want to.
In terms of price I guess it's a case of how much the domain name is worth to you to keep it. If it is integral to your plans, and the resultant website will earn you a good income after deducting development costs, then the price will be higher than it would be if you had no real plans for the domain (or if the development costs were unlikely to be covered by the near-term income). Also depends what the offeror will do with it. If they have big plans then it'll be worth more to them, but beware holding out for too high a price only to find that they go and register a name which is quite close to yours, and which ends up nicking all of your traffic anyway.

[A-two]

Last time I looked, dot EU domain names could not be resold. You can transfer servers, in effect licensing another person to use it, but you would have to remain as registrant and handle the admin side of things. If the purchaser is a government agency, they would not be allowed to use it under those circumstances.

For more information, got to EURID.eu and read their rules, also go to the registrar from whom you purchased the domain and ask them how they are handling registrant changes for dot EU, if at all. Similarly, I would check out a specialist domain name reseller like Afternic.com which offers an appraisal service for a fairly modest fee and will act as an escrow agent in any sales. If you can sell and decide to do so, they can advise on specific criteria by which domain names are valued.

In addition, prior to offering the new dot EU domain names to the general public, all EU Government Agencies were given an opportunity to reserve their selected names. If they are now interested to acquire a domain subsequent to the public offering which has since been bought by you, that means either they passed on it originally, missed it or have changed their mind about it. Whatever the reason, if you would prefer not to hand it over to them at cost, then to protect it for yourself, you need to show that you have more than some vague plan to use it in the future.

Rather, you need to point it to an active website that is relevant to the name. Don't delay, do it now. Your vacation rental will do fine. Otherwise, you may find your registration cancelled and a refund made for your out of pocket expenses.

It doesn't sounds like whoever has approached you is familiar with all of the above, so taking a wild guess, I would say that you are dealing with a minor official on a fishing expedition (no offense intended and please correct me if I'm wrong). If I'm not wrong and obstacles are put in this person's way, then they will probably take the path of least resistance. As someone has said above, this would be to think of another name that is a minor variation of the one you have and buy it for the same price you paid for yours at the click of a mouse. This may be a good thing if you don't want to sell, or it may be a bad thing if you are hoping for a round the world ticket from the proceeds.

This is just my opinion, yours may differ, but hope it helps and good luck!

I'm curious though, what made you buy an EU?

[gh]

Thanks all, have looked further into this as previously said no experience. We just liked the look of it as; it is in our Country and department. We will use it and it is not for sale tempting as the offer is.

After receiving further information we can sell ref EURid as our TLD is not being sold via a "reseller". It is a very interesting if not intense subject to research that certain well know household names that crop up in my travel of discovery is Google, for example, is an ICANN-accredited registrar, while Yahoo and Microsoft are resellers.

"All individuals who reside within the 25 European Union states are eligible. Organisations that have either a head office or a postal address within the European Union are also able to take advantage of a .eu domain name. " ref EurID

It looks like someone has forgotten to buy before the "sunrise" period and we were fortunate to grab it. So as long as we continue to renew no problems. Though wish we had bought Sex.com sold for $14 million according to DNJ.

Hope they dont get severly reprimanded

[A-two]

After receiving further information we can sell ref EURid as our TLD is not being sold via a "reseller".

Where do you get this from? Please post the link.

Anyone who sold you a dot eu domain name is by definition not a reseller since the Registry only permits accredited registrars to sell them in the first place. As well, as of a few weeks ago, the world's largest registrar, Godaddy, was refusing to transfer dot eu domains on the basis that the Registry had not clarified the rules. If that's changed, I'd like to know how, or if you have a Registrar who has told you that they are willing to change the registrant data on the whois database, then I'd like to know who that registrar is.

So as long as we continue to renew no problems.

Not true. A registrant who cannot show legitimate use within a reasonable period of time after purchase is likely to be deemed a speculator if challenged. You have been challenged.

Sorry to disappoint you, but your French Government official is not going to get severely reprimanded. He may not care to pursue your name, but if he does, and were to ask my advice, I would recommend that before he starts an ADRP process (dispute resolution process) to win your name, he ought to approach EURID directly (one phone call) and tell them that you are neither using the domain name nor cooperating with his reasonable requests to transfer the name for official government use. It is after all, a geographical place name that he could have reserved had he applied for it during sunrise, so he has a valid claim to it.

Let's say he does make that phone call, then he could probably have it in his hands in...well, let's be conservative...10 minutes...and pay you....well, let's be generous...nothing. Use it or lose it.

You don't have to believe me of course, but I did work with the committee that helped draft ICANN's domain name transfer regulations, although that was before dot EU existed, so I have had no involvement with EURID.

[gh]

Wow, great post.

http://www.eurid.eu/en/shared/about

May I clarify again, we will use the .eu it is not for sale and it was purchased legitimately.

Thank you for your in-depth reply, appreciate your knowledge on this subject.

[gh]

Seems we are No1 in google, no appreciation needed Paolo, i'll keep up the posts! www dont work YET but the name does! How much space have you for more shoes?

[Spiffy Iona]

I'm trying to find some travel/vacation catalogs... did any of you come across one?