I just used the top post in this thread.
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/04/finding-and-buying-a-domain-...
Made the owner an initial offer of $750. Didnt hear back from him for a month. The guy countered with $10,000. I used the language in the post above and he agreed to my highest range price of $1500 (I never moved past my first highest range price).
I don't think most US dev firms (and programmers that work for them - and independantly for that matter) don't realize the reality of the situation. I have contacted firms to build my project for 6 months in an attempt to find a firm to build my very specific project. I received quotes anywhere from $15k-$75k one at $250k (that firm said it charges that amount for any project they havent attempted in the past). Most were in the $30k range (because I specified that was my budget). I specified a budget simply because I discovered that the firms were giving bids a little higher than my budget.
So, when I budgeted $25k they would come in at $28k, etc. What did I learn from the process? None of them had a clue as to what I wanted despite my having 20 page build sheets, exact specifications of how it would work, etc. And the amazing thing is that this project is a version of what has been around for 10 plus years. Decided to finally use a firm in the bay area that outsources and that isnt going smoothly either.
As another example, look at the portfolio of the guy who blogged about outsourcing in the original post. Does he appear to have skills. Not from his portfolio. But he thinks he does.
Don
Nice but for personal use only - not commercial use. Looks like you have to contact them to find out how much it would cost for commercial use (usually means "not cheap")
Why? Because this is a seed funding site. It's a similar philosophy to buying into a franchise. The franchisor does a lot of the work for you and tell you exactly what to do. Most people these days tend to not want to think so they prefer that others do their thinking for them. They'll justify their decisions saying it's a solid working model (franchise) or they have access to greater funding/mentoring (seed funding) but it's all the same.