There are many scenarios within this type of situation. For example, many domainers use average monthly type-in's, CPC/PPC rates, extension, length, local and global search volume, prior sales of similar name, etc., as indicators.
To start things off, suppose you own a short brandable dot com name that is also an acronym (not very popular mind you but definitely brand worthy) that gets about a dozen visitors per day. Who knows exactly why they came. PPC is ZERO to the parked page. Now, a little known company registers every other extension. Then someone contacts you (does not indicate in any way to be connected with that company) and tries to sell you a sob story as to why you should sell the domain at their low-ball offer. How do you handle this scenario. (As you can see, I had a lot of time on my hands today.)
=========== Answer 1 ===========
- Archive.org
- Google looking for most likely suspects
- Google every piece of info listed on their whois
- Determine their specific business
- Try to find their active site(s).
=========== Answer 2 ===========
Suppose they register an email address explicitly to back up their story. No trail. No whois based on the email (using a standard free service or an email at their ISP). First name only. You know or suspect they are using the sob story to manipulate you and you have good reason to believe it is the same company that registered the other extensions. Do you call them out? If they rejected your previous counter offers (for which you are glad they did), how much leeway do you have to up your price? Do you ignore the psychology and simply set your price or work them up as high as you can? If so, how do you recommend going about it?
This is a real life scenario. The offer began on sedo (via GoDaddy) which was rejected. The interested party contacted via parked paged later using whois info.
My belief is that a lot of companies think that if a domain is registered and for sale, it is from someone looking for a quick buck. They don't consider this entity as a legitimate business. Especially if they come across this domain via traditional or mainstream registrars. However, how do you establish and arrive at the best possible price?
=========== Answer 3 ===========
you can do nothing
or
you can respond
but act like you've been there before.... even if you haven't
=========== Answer 4 ===========
Decide your price or price range. Are you likely to get another offer in the future? Could they pick another name? Chances are you won't have perfect info to go on, so do your best based on the info you have. Looks like you are in a good position to start.
=========== Answer 5 ===========
Trust your gut feeling. If your instinct says that the sudden registration of all the TLD's and your receipt of that email have anything to do with each other, there is a very good chance that is the case. Personally, I doubt it's just a coincidence.
Quote them a high price and stick to it. If this is the case, they've gone to not just the time, but the expense to register all these names in other TLD's. They've not just "bought in" to the name, they've bought into it at the "table limit", in the sense that they actually could not have invested any more in trying to secure this brand in a non-adversarial manner. By that, I mean the next step up in cost would be to do a C&D/initiate UDRP.
In any case, you have what they want. They can't just "pick another domain" if they're this stuck on the name. So, if I were you, I wouldn't quote under $5,000. The sob story should not sway you.
Worst that can happen: They say no.
Best that can happen: They pay your price.
Just remember. It's YOUR domain. Therefore, it's YOUR price.
