Need some advice, previous owner wants to buy website back

Sean S

Active member
Hi everyone,

Was wondering if any of you have had any experience dealing with this or offer me some advice.

About two month ago I managed to win an auction on a domain name that I had a back order on for more than 1 year. The domain is a nice domain which gets a good amount of traffic daily and I have finished setting up a website and forums on it and working to build content and get members.

I then went to another forum/website I was a member of, and found one of the previous owners there. I PMed him to let him know that I am the new owner and I would be happy to see him back on the website I purchased and would offer him a administrator position.

He then replied back saying that he is interested in buying back the website as he never had intentions to let it go. His partner had access to the website host and domain and he let both expire.

If I got an offer like that for one of my other domains, I would sell it on the spot. But this domain does have a lot of potential and I don't know what to do. I don't want to be too rude by saying outright no cause I did spend a lot of money to get the domain.

Thank you for reading, and looking forward to see what you guys have to say.
 
^^ Ditto that.

Admin powers should not be given away simply because he used to own the domain, with power comes great responsibility (to quote someone ;)), but with great power comes great possibility of screwing you up if it goes wrong!

As for selling - its your domain now, its up to you. There's little place in business for sentimentality.
 
what website is it? is he offering a premium on it or just wants to offer you the renewal charge to get it back? bottom line is its yours so think about how much money you want for it and tell him thats how much you'll sell it to him.
 
I then went to another forum/website I was a member of, and found one of the previous owners there. I PMed him to let him know that I am the new owner and I would be happy to see him back on the website I purchased and would offer him a administrator position.

You did WHAT?!?!?
spanking.gif


No no no no no, and again, I say NO! I can think of all kinds of ways you could get screwed, and none of them are good.
 
I don't see any moral dilemma here.. Sure it sucks that he lost it.. But that's nobody's fault but his own.. Its yours now to do what you please. Good Domains are getting harder and harder to find if its something you have experience in or have plans for.. I say do it to it. :p
 
Yeah, I never would have gone and contacted him over it. And I also would not sell it back to him unless I really wanted to and he made it worth it. That would include the amount you paid for it, plus the time you spent on it getting members and creating content and such.
 
Add up what you've invested into it already, and don't forget to add all of your own time at, say, $60 per hour, then once you've got the figure - times it by 25 and tell him that's the cost to buy it back.

Let me know if he shows any interest ... lol

In all seriousness, what do you hope to gain from this newly acquired domain; money or traffic?

If it's traffic and building a popular site, forget him and crack on with creating your site. He lost out, it's tough.

If it's money you want, then only you can work out the figure.

Hope that helps - not that you've given us a lot to go on - we don't know what the domain name is, or what you paid for it ... :)

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Thanks for all the replies so far, very good points.

Unfortunately I tend to be one of those people that trusts everyone fully unless they give me a reason not to.

I'm realizing now that contacting that person was a mistake and will probably tell him that I'm not interested in selling the domain right now.

As for the domain, it is called AMGpower. AMG being the tuning company bought by Mercedes-Benz. The domain itself right now does not have that much of a great value money wise, since there is no content to offer. However, it's a topic that I'm interested in and think I can build a community and at the same time profit off.

The good thing about the domain is that I get a lot of direct traffic and search engine traffic already, just need to establish some solid content so that people start joining. I think that if I put enough time and effort into it, I can turn it into a large scale site within a year.

Thanks again for all the replies so far, it is helping me a lot.
 
I'd agree on the pulling power (pun intended) of the domain, and also that involving the previous owner in an admin capacity would leave you wide-open.

Maybe you could offer him some low level moderator position if you feel he has knowledge that would be useful to the site, and that he would freely volunteer (for the pleasure of having some involvement in the site); otherwise a clean slate and leave him out of it.

Good luck with it ... :)

Cheers,
Shaun :D
 
Thanks for all the replies so far, very good points.

Unfortunately I tend to be one of those people that trusts everyone fully unless they give me a reason not to.

I'm realizing now that contacting that person was a mistake and will probably tell him that I'm not interested in selling the domain right now.

As for the domain, it is called AMGpower. AMG being the tuning company bought by Mercedes-Benz. The domain itself right now does not have that much of a great value money wise, since there is no content to offer. However, it's a topic that I'm interested in and think I can build a community and at the same time profit off.

The good thing about the domain is that I get a lot of direct traffic and search engine traffic already, just need to establish some solid content so that people start joining. I think that if I put enough time and effort into it, I can turn it into a large scale site within a year.

Thanks again for all the replies so far, it is helping me a lot.


If the domain name had of been AMG.com, I would have said don't sell it for sure. But "AMGpower" is not that good of a domain name if you ask me, even though it has AMG in it. I mean, I could register AMGanything.com. And still have AMG in it.

Also, the AMG official site doesn't have the word "Power" even in their own domain name: http://www.mercedes-amg.com/

Honestly, I wouldn't read too much value into a domain just because it has the AMG part in it, people here have registered "XenForoThemes, XenForoMods" and so on. Doesn't mean they are worth anything, far from it in fact.

I did once get hold of a domain name that I should have kept, but didn't and let it expire a year later. I owned vivvo.org, and vivvo itself wanted it from me for what I paid for it at the time. After spotting I was running the vivvo software they sold on that same domain name. Yeah, I know, the cheek of it!!!

In fact they even moaned about it for a while and threatened they could force it from me at the time. But that all soon died off a little later! After I let it expire, they snatched it up right away, they was waiting to get it. I should have hung on and forced them to buy it, or force it away from me. In Google is was always ranked 1-2 for the keyword Vivvo (obviously). Hence why they wanted it and wasn't too happy I owned it.

A domain is only really worth anything if you have an exact duplicate of a very popular one with a good extension like .org or .com. If I owned XenForo.org for example, you could bet your bottom dollar Kier Darby would want it from me tooth and nail.

But anyway, that my opinion about that domain you own. I don't see much value in it at all. So take the good offer you've been given.

I'm thinking this is your forum using it right now: http://www.amgpower.com/http://www.amgpower.com/forums/forum.php
 
Thanks again for the replies everyone :)

mrGTB, I agree with everything you said and yes that is the website. And as I mentioned, the domain itself right now doesn't have that much great value cause there is no valuable content yet. What's appealing about the domain is that it is very marketable to the targeted crowd. It's a term that is used a lot in Mercedes scene just like how M-power is used in BMW scene.

One other thing is that from the message he sent me, it doesn't seem like he would want to offer that much money to begin with to make it worth my while. And one other thing I don't understand is that why didn't he backorder the domain like I did. Apparently I wasn't the only one wanting to buy the domain as it went to an auction even though I had a backorder on it.
 
If the domain name had of been AMG.com, I would have said don't sell it for sure. But "AMGpower" is not that good of a domain name if you ask me, even though it has AMG in it. I mean, I could register AMGanything.com. And still have AMG in it.

This is a great name for an AMG related site as many people equate high power Mercedes with AMG.
 
If I owned XenForo.org for example, you could bet your bottom dollar Kier Darby would want it from me tooth and nail.
if xenforo keyword is trademarked... and i believe it is (or would be). you would be lucky to be able to sell the forum to the owner of the trademark for a huge amount. either you would have to transfer the ownership for a nominal amount or xenforo company would probably take you to UDRP where they are likely to get enough support. the process is pretty expensive and that's why only big companies take that route and almost everyone wants to settle the thing on favorable terms.
 
Definitely do NOT make him an admin. You don't know this person and you don't owe him anything. If you think he would be a valuable member let him spend some time on the new forum and earn his moderator spot (which is as high as I would let him go). If he's upset about losing his domain name, even if he doesn't show it to you, he could sabotage your website as an admin.
 
I kinda agree with a few others.

I think contacting the old admin was a BIG NO NO!

To me it seems like you were kinda putting it in his face. Though I don't think that was your intention. But it seems that way........

Personally DO NOT make him an admin, and avoid further contact.

Don't take his offer if you really have spent a lot in this investment. And you are willing to go far with it.
 
If you think he would be a valuable member let him spend some time on the new forum and earn his moderator spot (which is as high as I would let him go).
I agree with this. Different situation, but when I started my first forum, I added my brother and two personal friends as moderators, not knowing their moderating skills or how they'd post on the site. As it turns out, one of the three got power-hungry and obnoxious, and another broke the most rules out of anyone on the site by far.
rolleyes.png
I've learned from that mistake and with the forum I'm starting up now, I won't be adding additional moderators until I can tell from their forum activity that they're fit for the position. Another wrench is thrown into the mix in your situation, Sean, because the admin may use his powers irresponsibly and maliciously in attempt to get his domain back. Not everyone is as nice online as the members of this community are. ;) Good luck!
 
That's a very nice looking theme... Could you share it please. I want something like that for one of my old sites.

Thanks! I'm fixing up some minor details on it, and as soon as it's done I'll send you a copy.

I think contacting the old admin was a BIG NO NO!

To me it seems like you were kinda putting it in his face. Though I don't think that was your intention. But it seems that way........

Personally DO NOT make him an admin, and avoid further contact.

Don't take his offer if you really have spent a lot in this investment. And you are willing to go far with it.

That's what made me a bit upset. It wasn't my intention to put it in his face but it may have came out like that.

I sent him a message back refusing his offer for now, we will see what happens.

Thanks again for all the replies everyone :)
 
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