>It seems smarmy to quote an offer price without a sincere intent to sell.

Merryman is 79, and receiving emails about selling the domain he's owned for decades. He has never asked for these emails, and just wants to be left alone. He throws a highball offer, hoping they'll go away. He then clarifies that he doesn't want to sell, which he is of course fully allowed to do. Then they sue him.

I would say there are smarmy actions in here, but not on the part of Merryman.

> He then clarifies that he doesn't want to sell

He increased the price to 100k, then 200k, then said no.

I think he was serious about selling it. But he was so severely low-balled initially that he doesn't trust Jump to give him a fair price.

Jump's original bid is 2,500 dollars.

Perhaps a more direct "fuck off" would have been better?

View it from the eyes of a guy that retired in 2001, or any reasonable person, and $50k for a domain is an absurd amount that should have been tantamount to "I'm not selling, take off."

>or any reasonable person

There are many reasonable people who understand that $50k is nothing for a decent domain name.

And I guarantee you there are far more reasonable people who don't.

Not knowing what something is worth won’t get you out of a contract.

I dunno, as long as there is no contract I dont see why he can’t reconsider. I mean, offers are retracted all the time

Sure, that's the most you can say. Without a signed agreement he has no obligation to listen to them or sell.

Why would an email not be an agreement?

Its not legally binding, are you asking why an email isn't legally binding?

Yeah, why not?

Because a window isn't a door

So you don’t actually know?

"smarmy" is not illegal. It's also not a binding contract.

I think we've found the potential buyer.