Is it illegal contacting German businesses?

[federer7]

Have a quick question: is it illegal to contact German companies to sell a domain name?

I sell domain names (.COM / .NET /.ORG) daily to end users in U.S., England, France, Holland and some parts of Asia - simply by doing a search at a search engine and sending a few emails, 1 by 1, to companies that I feel could benefit from owning these domains. I have never had any problems and mention at the end of each email that this is a one-time offer and they will not be contacted again should they not be interested in acquiring the domain. I send the messages individually and not in bulk.
Now, is it legal to send emails to businesses in Germany?
If it is, is the best strategy to simply buy/acquire domains, insert in SEDO and set a BIN price?

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.

 

[Arithmos]

Have a quick question: is it illegal to contact German companies to sell a domain name?

I sell domain names (.COM / .NET /.ORG) daily to end users in U.S., England, France, Holland and some parts of Asia - simply by doing a search at a search engine and sending a few emails, 1 by 1, to companies that I feel could benefit from owning these domains. I have never had any problems and mention at the end of each email that this is a one-time offer and they will not be contacted again should they not be interested in acquiring the domain. I send the messages individually and not in bulk.
Now, is it legal to send emails to businesses in Germany?
If it is, is the best strategy to simply buy/acquire domains, insert in SEDO and set a BIN price?

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.

In Germany even one e-mail without permission is deemed to be UCE -> spam and might be sued.
But apparently nobody cares - except the poor German domainers like me.

 

[Sunblind]

Ja.. schon schade, wenns doch hier so easy wäre, wäre ich
schon längst Millionär

Wenn das Wörtchen...

 

[VegasII]

Das gilt doch nicht nur für Deutschland sondern für die gesamte EU (also auch für Holland und Frankreich) oder hab ich das falsch in Erinnerung?

 

[federer7]

So how do German investors sell their domains? They just sit back and wait for buyers?

 

[Sunblind]

So how do German investors sell their domains? They just sit back and wait for buyers?

just right. what did you think?

 

[federer7]

Is buy-it-now prices (at Sedo.de) the best strategy?

 

[zenit1]

Not really, it's more likely to offer an additional way and it is the passive kind. Active, for example, letter by mail is a way to reach the potential customers.

It all depends on the quality of the domains, too.


HP

Is buy-it-now prices (at Sedo.de) the best strategy?

 

[federer7]

I guess there will always be high demand for high-quality names.
The higher premium names do not really need to be marketed and companies come to us to buy them…

But I never thought of sending letters. I guess I can give that a try - thanks.

 

[Flamenco]

There are few things to add:

We are all in Germany, so we have to be more careful than someone like you who is not living in Germany. Probably 99.9% of people receiving an email from you from Portugal or somewhere else wouldn't bother to try to come after you, they will probably simply delete your email if they are not interested. Even here most people don't care and don't have the time for bullshit fights.
I am not encouraging you to send 1000s of emails now. Just saying how it is.

Finding a middle course is probably the best option.

Somtimes (only sometimes ) I send emails to germans too, even though i am in Germany.
If i would just sit back and wait for someone bidding at Sedo, most likely i wouldn't be able to sell a single domain for a good price. So sometimes i don't give a sh... and simply send emails and calculate the risk as "possible additional cost" (which most likely will be compensated by the sales). Till today no problems at all. There was a crazy guy telling me he had a TM for a pure generic name (he lied) and he wanted it for free. And one guy politely asked me to stop sending emails to him (which i of course did). thats all.

So it all depends what kind of a person you are and how you calculate.

If i were you and were living in some other country, i wouldn't be afraid too much.

JUST MY OPINION

 

[federer7]

Thanks for your kind reply.

I have sold several German domain names in the past (when I invested in German .COM domains a few years back), through emailing potential buyers back then - and sold several in the process.
Now I am investing again (going to try .DE as well) and I'd like to continue with my mix of 1) waiting for offers @ Sedo and 2) contacting/emailing some potential buyers (businesses relevant to the domain's exact keywords) - hence the checking to see if I am ok contacting companies in Germany...

My email is short and to-the-point, and works wonders (generates sales) every day of the year:

----------------------------

Hello,

I am contacting some companies as one of the domains we are selling could be of interest:


Landhaus.com


Please let me know if your company is interested in acquiring this domain name.

Best regards,

Luc Biggs

Key Domains
Rua Fernando Barros Fereira
2560 Torres Vedras
Portugal
Office: 00351 915 224 625

* This is a one-time offer; please note that your email has not been added to any mailing list. If your business is not interested, you will not be contacted again concerning the sale of the above domain

----------------------------

(P.S. I have no yet sent out 1 single email for Landhaus.com…. but 5 offers received in past 48 hours)

Anyway, most people actually politely thank me for letting them know about the offers I send/email them concerning domains that could complement their business

 

[Arithmos]

Ah - this domain dropped a week ago.
Make sure that you don't offer biscuits and cookies on that domain:

Registerauskunft des Deutschen Patent- und Markenamtes (DPMA)

I like your mail.

 

[federer7]

Thanks for the heads up. I will make sure cookies and biscuits do not appear on the landing page

I like my email too - but especially the results it generates.

 

[federer7]

Is that the official site to see ™ applications in Germany?

 

[Arithmos]

yes. And there is another for European CTM:

OAMI-ONLINE - CTM-ONLINE - Trade mark consultation service - Basic

 

[federer7]

Thanks for the links. Whenever I have doubts, I will be checking them.

 

[BBenken]

Hello Luc,

nice to meet you here again… I recognized your email roud:. You sent it to me last year and finally sold *solarberatung.com* to me. (By the way, you should delete the old Sedo listing!).

As for your question: Yes, I actually used to write emails to potential buyers some years ago, but don't do it any more. Although it is clear that you have more sales when you are active, your average income is higher when you are just waiting for buyers approaching you. For example, I once offered a bundle of five domains for 900 EUR to some players in a certain industry, but nobody was interested. One year later, one of the recipients came to me (he didn't seem to remember my initial mailing) and bought these five domains for 2.500 EUR. This is a typical effect, I think - because at the latter moment, he really was in need for these domains, whereas one year ago it was just the wrong time for him. Further on, I learned that those companies who actually come to me to buy a domain name often are not those whom I thought could be potential buyers.

Only one time I received a warning letter because of an unsolicitated email. I had to confirm that I never won't do that again. However, I refused to pay the lawyer's fee, and he didn't sued me.

Björn