> The first rule in negotiation is to get him to give you a price.
This can backfire if they offer a very high price that they can't come down on without losing face. An alternative strategy is to offer your "maximum plausible position" (forget who coined that phrase, smart guy though) - in this case, the lowest dollar amount that you won't look like you're joking.
To use a high profile real life example, look at Scott Boras, the baseball agent. He'll ask for 7 years and $110 million for a client that eventually gets 5 years and $60 million... but who was arguably worth less than that.
You're right about over-bidding, you need some knowledge about the worth of things to make an offer that isn't ridiculous without risking overpaying. But if he's bidding a on a decent parked 3 letter domain name, for instance, it'd be silly to bid less than low hundreds. For a longer or less memorable phrase, maybe you could open with offering $50. But it's not always a mistake to offer first, it can set the tone and scope of the discussion.
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> The first rule in negotiation is to get him to give you a price.
This can backfire if they offer a very high price that they can't come down on without losing face. An alternative strategy is to offer your "maximum plausible position" (forget who coined that phrase, smart guy though) - in this case, the lowest dollar amount that you won't look like you're joking.
To use a high profile real life example, look at Scott Boras, the baseball agent. He'll ask for 7 years and $110 million for a client that eventually gets 5 years and $60 million... but who was arguably worth less than that.
You're right about over-bidding, you need some knowledge about the worth of things to make an offer that isn't ridiculous without risking overpaying. But if he's bidding a on a decent parked 3 letter domain name, for instance, it'd be silly to bid less than low hundreds. For a longer or less memorable phrase, maybe you could open with offering $50. But it's not always a mistake to offer first, it can set the tone and scope of the discussion.