Don't bet on it.
With the way you're calling him up and pleading with him via email, he'll most likely renew it using a 7-dollar Godaddy coupon or some Thanksgiving Black Friday 4.99 coupons with other registrars.
Posting a final offer is not "pleading" but you need to restrain yourself from making further inquiries. Do not constantly check Whois - you can check that at GD.
I would also tell OP that this name will not DROP. It will be bid on at Godaddy because it meets domainer criteria (age and search stats) especially as it was bought > reg fee last year.
If the guy is not a big domainer he will find it harder to drop something that cost $150 than to throw more money $8 after it. After all, he thinks it's worth $1000.
At TDNAM - I'd be surprised to see it get more than $100 again. I'm surprised a domainer would have bought it at that price based on the description.
He's lucky the OP came along
To be honest, i'm sorry if you are still a student and therefore can't afford that price. But i think that price is quite reasonable, seeing how other domains get sold around that price range.
It's probably overpriced when the END USER market is considered.
A brandable 5L has an end user pool of thousands (well hundreds).
A 5L that is obviously a First Name Surname Letter has a market of the people with that First Name Last Name initial. There may only be 50 people in the entire world that care about that combination. There may be a famous person or movie character that shares the same name combination - but thats not going to be enough for someone to spend money on it. (Unless the character is a seminal character in movie history)
The domain is a bloggers domain. No blogger is going to pay as much as the asking price.
You could borrow money from someone, then pay them off when you get a job. You'll probably have to save money, in short.
Or make a final offer and walk away. Imho you should NEVER take out a loan to get a domain unless that domain is really a strong part of your future plans. It's very easy to get attached to an "idea".
I think using the .CA is a perfect solution (if you're a Canadian).
The .CA market is considered poor by lots of domainers for domaining reasons.
I don't think .CA has a credibility issue for end users.
If I was looking for someones blog called John Q Public... I would almost certainly put in a location to narrow it down...
John Q Public US -> Florida->Miami
Putting in Canada is a natural start and the .CA should rank fine with content.
I have seen this strategy many times.
Buyers who shun the seller's price tag, will get the domain in another extension and start developing it for the purpose of trying to outrank my .COM domain higher on Google search.
It's not a keyword or product domain so it's not really the primary concern. The domain is to be used to build a personal business on something that is recognizable to his person.
Trying to outrank the .com isn't anywhere near as important as just managing the site and his content. A good .CA should ALWAYS rank above a domainer .COM. If it doesn't because the .COM owner has a bee in his bonnet about being superior? Then it will rank just below - but reality is that if people are looking for the OPs site - they are capable of hitting back and trying again.
The situation you describe really is important for high competition, keyword domains or highly competitive businesses focused on SEO.
People will not be searching on the "Name" but on the content (unrelated to name) or from getting the name via other sources (business cards/events/conferences and the like)
One more point. There is a difference between skipping the .COM for a product and trying to use a .BIZ, .CO or a .US and skipping the .COM and going to .CA for a Canadian.
I'd almost prefer it. I certainly don't think the .COM has a premium of $1000+ over it.
Unfortunately though, I'm a domain developer myself. So when i saw that the buyer went to a similar domain in a different extension, i started developing my domain as well and fight fire with fire. So now, it's a head-to-head battle, and his customers are confused which one is which. But i have the COM domain, and public perception sides with COM domains as more legit, than say an identical domain in any other extension. Because he was developing his site, his customers were landing on my site instead.
If the domain has natural traffic and natural PPC potential - then keeping it ranked higher makes sense.
Otherwise it is really bad faith usage and done solely to disrupt someone elses business. If that's how you want to roll that's your right.. I think it's kind of a shitty thing to do.
In my opinion the owner of the domain would be a FOOL to turn down $300 on this name let alone $500 on this name. The OP is the most MOTIVATED buyer he'll ever see.. and IN MY OPINION has a nearly EQUAL QUALITY name in the .CA.
//Last post. I've spent ages on this thread
