1-800 SELLING
Mr. Quimby:
My company has repeatedly been contacted by brokers offering to market our toll free number, which is 1-800-SELLING (1-800-735-5464). Since we are a business consulting firm, and not in the business of marketing toll free numbers, we do not know which of these brokers are legitimate, or those who are not. While we can check on whether a broker has a verifiable permanent address or web site domain, that still does not assure integrity. The fact that your web site addresses many issues surrounding the sale of toll free numbers, and does not appear to be only a slick tool designed to generate a quick, aggressive sale, led me to email you.
Can you point me to a resource or give your personal opinion on what a vanity number like ours could generate for the seller? The brokers who have contacted us love to hype that they are most qualified to get us “top dollar” offers for our number, but are unwilling to even quote a reasonable sales price estimate prior to signing a contract. I wish to know the possible value of our specific vanity number, not the outrageous number that some infomercial producer has paid for a completely different vanity number in the past.
Can you offer any assistance on this matter?
Thanks
Craig Puckett
Hi Craig,
Most of the people in this business that go out looking for that type of situation are way more bark than bite. There’s really nobody that is good at marketing a number that doesn’t have more good numbers than there’s time to develop, so they don’t want to do it for a percentage.
1-800 SELLING really doesn’t sound like a good shared use number. Shared use numbers are usually local services, not nationwide programs that can be shipped. And most sales things are more nationwide because you can sell most things anywhere.
I would think your best value is from a nationwide advertiser that really wants it. In terms of guessing the value or price for it, I’d said It would be about 70 to 150K. 70K is the price if you go out and try to find someone and approach them, whoever them is because there’s no clear target audience. And 150 is the price you could get if they approached you. There aren’t that many worth more than 100K, but this could be worth up to 150K for the raw number in a really good situation. There’s no book value or real guide to go by, but that’s my opinion for what it’s worth.
Bill
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Michael J. Schreyer says:
July 18, 2010 at 10:39 pm
I am trying to negotiate with a large company for an 888 number [number and company name were edited]. What is a fair price? $300, $600, $3000?
Michael J. Schreyer
Bill Quimby (678 comments.) says:
July 19, 2010 at 1:29 am
Michael,
That’s not really based on a “book value” as much as how they use it. What is it costing them to give it up? What would be enough to make a difference and make it worth it to them to give it up. The larger they are the more it would cost and to some degree the less money is going to be the only factor. Realize that this is much more of a soft price than other things like a car of piece of property. If you were a friend and played softball together with the owner, he would probably just give it to you if you needed it. But if you come on strong like a big company and try go get pushy, the same person would probably want a LOT of money. My advice would be to take your time, try to listen more than you talk and look for their hot buttons. But figure that if you’re not offering a couple thousand bucks at least, you’re probably not serious.
Bill Quimby