Behind the Sale: AirMedix.com – from $10 purchase to $2,400 sale

Welcome to the sixth post in our Behind the Sale series on the Efty blog. In this series, I talk with domain name investors who share all the details behind a recent sale. You will learn how they bought low and sold high, how the negotiations went down and much more.

Today, I am chatting with Chuck Hambling a part-time domain name investor from Cape Coral, Florida (USA) which is in the southwest part of the state, on the Gulf of Mexico.

Chuck, tell me a little bit about yourself.

I began domaining back in 2005. After trying to hand register a “poker” name for a project I was working on, without success, I saw one on Ebay that I won. Before that, I never knew of domain reselling.  I was intrigued by the concept and began building my own inventory of names….I now have a portfolio of about 3,500 names. I am pretty eclectic in my name choices and don’t specialize in only one area.  Although I work full time I spend about 20 hours a week on my domains.

What is the domain name that you’ve sold?

I sold AirMedix.com in June of 2017 after receiving an offer trough the For-Sale landing page on the domain name. The domain was set on the Kiffer landing page, as most of my names are. I have gotten comments from other domainers about how professional it looks and asked if it was a custom lander.

How much did you pay for the domain and how much did it sell for? 

I purchased it as an expiring name in the NameSilo marketplace for only $9.99 in September last year and I sold it for $2,400. The name had a BIN of $2,995 with the availability to make an offer.

Can you share how the negotiations for this domain name went down? 

I originally got an offer from the buyer for $1,000. When I purchased AirMedix.com I saw it as a great name for an air ambulance or medical helicopter, so I was not satisfied with that offer.  With the limited information that is available in the offer (Name, email, phone number and IP address),  I set out to find some information,  The area code was based out of Ashville, NC and a Google search of the name and city turned up a doctor of the same name, who was on the board of directors of a hospital.  Furthermore, the contract for the air ambulance service in the area was coming up for a renewal bid.  I thought that the inquiry was indeed for an air ambulance company.  I waited 3 days before replying.  I laid out the possible uses that the name had, including air ambulance, airplane mechanics, air conditioning repair, etc, letting him see the competition for the name.  Through the emails, I  realized I was dealing with a local Air conditioning heating company who wanted to rebrand to look like they were a larger company. He asked about a payment plan for the name.  I suggested we do a lease purchase, which I would have structured through Epik.com, but only at the full asking price. He did not seem to understand and seemed concerned about that.  He came back with an offer of $2,400 and I responded that in order to not have to wait for 3 months to get all of the money, I would accept his offer.

All in all, it took a bit over two weeks to finalize the sale. I reset the BIN price on Efty and redirected him back there to click the BIN.  On items this high I would prefer to use Escrow.com, but I accidentally had it set for Paypal.  All went without a hitch.

Thanks for sharing Chuck, is there anyone else you like to add? 

This was the second Efty inquiry on this same name. The previous was for $500 that the buyer would not move off of, so I walked away.  Since utilizing Efty, my life is much simpler since all my financials are there; easily knowing my purchase cost, the length of ownership and eventually profit for tax purposes.  Inquiries and sales on my names have been more plentiful and since the integration of PayPal into the Efty platform, I have had several buyers click through on the BIN without any contact or negotiations.

Do you have a noticeable domain name sale that you would like to share? Drop me an email at [email protected] as I would love to hear from you!

Disclaimer: Efty does not have access to user’s sales data. We, therefore only share information on sales that have been publicly reported. Read our full governance here.