This is a follow up post to an earlier post called "The tail of 2 businesses.. One get’s domains the other doesn’t!"

Near the end of the post I put in two links to the TKG.com blog postings about purchasing the domain name TKG.com . As a domain investor, this gives myself and others a side to the story we often do not see. The domain was purchased through Sedo.com .

To sum up the TKG’s side of the story, they were interested in owning/buying the domain name for a long period of time. The company that owned the domain changed hands over the years and the domain appeared to become only an asset to Symantec Corporation.

So Symantec must of decided to use the 3rd party service of Sedo.com to offer the domain name for sale. On 4-27-2006 Symantec (The Kernel Group at the time owned it, but must of been bought out by Symantec) changed Domain Name Servers to ns1.sedoparking.com . This would make me assume, is when the domain was listed for sale.

In Early 2006 The Karcher Group (current owners) notice the domain is now For Sale and really want to act on it. They sent a message to Sedo, but never got a reply. Then they hired a Sedo Domain Broker. The broker appraised the domain at $33K and suggested to offer atleast 60% of that… So TKG offers what I consider a fair amount at $25K…. The sedo broker Never Replied Back! Putting the domain on the back burner for 2 years…

Come April 2008.. TKG now visits Sedo again and places a $10K offer and shortly after gets a $15K counter offer! (Keep in mind 2 years earlier TKG offered $25K for it and never got a reply back) After a re-counter of $12.5K TKG waits and waits again with No Reply. Now this isn’t Sedo’s fault totally, since it’s the seller who needs to reply to the offers, but the Sedo Broker thing IS Sedo’s fault.

After not hearing back from the $12.5K re-counter, TKG hires a Sedo Domain Broker again… TKG was in contact with Sedo and told the broker about the previous offerings above. The Sedo broker never replied… 3 days pass and another Sedo Appraisal arrives in the TKG email… TKC.com is now Appraised at $24K (Sedo is really trying to kill this deal..)

The Sedo Broker goes into hidding again. 8 days after the first offer, the seller replies with a $15K offer. At this point TKG just accepts the offer so they can get their domain they want. The payment was sent via Wire the next day and No Reply for 3 days from Sedo. The 3rd day email was stating they got payment. (wow) 6 days after payment is sent, the transfer process started. Over a week takes place and the transfer finally happens!

Holy Smokes…. Now this "other side of the story" really makes me think about using 3rd party services to offer my domain name for sale. Some of the doings were the "sellers", but clearly the domain broker for Sedo could of gave two shits about making the deal happen. The second appraisal nearly killed the deal. Slow replies or no replies etc…

Now just like most domain investors, we know Time and Communication are Key to closing a deal. Two years ago The Karcher Group would of paid $25K for TKG.com . Heck, they offered it. The seller dropped the ball and went for the fence asking 6 figures but the Sedo Broker sure didn’t seem to help at all.

Hearing a story like this from a buyer, really made me think!

I know Domains and I want to talk to any interested party in my domain! I don’t want other people blowing a deal! By listing your domain name with Sedo or even Afternic leaves a good chance that somebody else could blow a deal on YOUR domain! I will be making sure that any domain name that I have for sale, will have Clear, Easy and Free access to contacting ME for any inquires.