Lastly, negotiating in person also has it's drawbacks. Personally I prefer to negotiate by email in most cases. Depending on the other party and your own skills an in person does't always work out the way you would like.
I think it totally depends on what you're selling, who you're selling it to, and many other factors.
For example, a guy emailed me one day about a domain I owned, and wanted to know if I'd part with it. None of the domain appraisal tools rated it as having any significant value and I wasn't emotionally invested in it, and had no specific plans for it, so I emailed him back and offered to sell it. He made an offer, I accepted, and told him to Paypal me the money, and then I'd transfer the domain to his GoDaddy account. No "escrow", no face to face meeting, no weird stuff, just email and two strangers trusting each other over $100.00 and a domain. And if F2F had been required, it would never have happened, since I was in NC and he was in Canada. So, totally an appropriate case for doing everything via email.
Now... our startup is in the business of complex, B2B enterprise software solutions which will sell for 10s (if not 100s) of thousands of dollars for a subscription. This stuff will need to integrate with existing legacy systems, and - if successful - will have big implications for the way people get work done. We are not going to get anywhere without some serious face time when it comes to selling this stuff.
Of course, those are two extremes, but I think there are a lot of cases where the higher bandwidth of face to face communication is still very valuable.
"None of the domain appraisal tools rated it as having any significant value"
Well first let me tell you that means practically nothing.
Especially on the end of "no significant value". Although I've seen more errors with domains with value being said to have "no value" than I've seen with domains with clear value "having no value". (Can't off the top see if I mean "false negative or false positive" but you get the point.)
"He made an offer, I accepted"
In general, in any deal to sell there always needs to be some "kickback". Otherwise someone might feel they have left money on the table. General rule. Kickback doesn't have to be "more" or "less" money. It can be as simple as "ok but only if you..." (some non monetary item that makes the other party feel you are borderline on their offer).
"trusting each other over $100.00 and a domain"
Easy because the total amount at risk is $100. (Would you do the same if you had a domain and someone offered $20,000 for it and that was the value?).
"We are not going to get anywhere without some serious face time when it comes to selling this stuff."
Agree.
Let me know if anyone ever approaches you to sell any other domains.
I think it totally depends on what you're selling, who you're selling it to, and many other factors.
For example, a guy emailed me one day about a domain I owned, and wanted to know if I'd part with it. None of the domain appraisal tools rated it as having any significant value and I wasn't emotionally invested in it, and had no specific plans for it, so I emailed him back and offered to sell it. He made an offer, I accepted, and told him to Paypal me the money, and then I'd transfer the domain to his GoDaddy account. No "escrow", no face to face meeting, no weird stuff, just email and two strangers trusting each other over $100.00 and a domain. And if F2F had been required, it would never have happened, since I was in NC and he was in Canada. So, totally an appropriate case for doing everything via email.
Now... our startup is in the business of complex, B2B enterprise software solutions which will sell for 10s (if not 100s) of thousands of dollars for a subscription. This stuff will need to integrate with existing legacy systems, and - if successful - will have big implications for the way people get work done. We are not going to get anywhere without some serious face time when it comes to selling this stuff.
Of course, those are two extremes, but I think there are a lot of cases where the higher bandwidth of face to face communication is still very valuable.