dag

Does anyone have opinions (or, even better, facts) regarding which of the big domain listing sites (or anywhere else) offers the most accurate domain appraisals? I'm considering Sedo, Afternic, GoDaddy's D.N.AfterMarket, and Moniker. I'm not referring to their automated appraisals, just the human ones. And are there any other even more accurate places I should consider getting an appraisal from that's within that same price range ($14.99-$19.99)? And yes, I'm aware I can get appraisals here at NamePros for free...

Thanks!

cyberfixation

I did a GoDaddy person one and it really ment that someone looked over the automated one (according to their tech support) and just ended up charging more. The appraisal ended up bogus and very low (high xx to low xxx). I had two others done from other companies and ended up mid x,xxx and high x,xxx and an offer from Sedo for like $1,200.

Check it out here:dSounds.com

So basically to sum it up, godaddy has awesome domain reg. but horrible appraisals.

I am curious to hear how others compare the rest on your list.

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fonzie_007

Don't waste your money paying for an appraisal. Appraisals are seldom worth the money and often incredibly inaccurate.

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JMJ

A complete waste of money.

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dag

I had my suspicions that the GoDaddy appraisals were particularly lame, but it's interesting to hear that the whole concept of paying for appraisals isn't looked upon as highly as, say, Sedo thinks it should be in their list of "marketing your domain" tips.

So what's the best way not to ridiculously overvalue your domains or lose lots of money by undervaluing them? Is it really just a gut reaction thing after you've gotten offers?

gingeman

Paid appraisals are a waste of money. I don't know of a genuine human service out there for the money you state. I got a 'human' one from sedo once but it was clear that it was the same story as cyberfixation- you just pay for someone else's opinion on the automated one. They are not as accurate as the one's here. Save your money, if you want an accurate appraisal, put it in a post here and see what happens. If you are lucky you will get several "real people's" opinions and can form your own from that. The value of a domain is only ever what someone will pay for it!

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smub

well look at it like this ... how accurate are astrologers ?? how accurate are people who predict the future ?? 99% chance they'll be wrong, so my point is it is a complete waste of money where you can get an appraisal here at namepros for free ...

good luck

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B33R

You're better of asking for an appraisal here on NP for free.

A few people here can give you a rough estimate or at least a rough price range rather than the shot in the dark these companies seem to take.

cyberfixation

I guess I am the 'odd one'... I think appraisals are pretty cool (I don't have the experience to know if they are very accurate). But maybe because I had a few done and got some prices that I liked or maybe I am mentally "attached" and just tied up in the tech/statistical aspect of it.

For those that don't understand the statistics of the process please let me attempt to explain what i have learned, maybe this will help sway you. For those that know i apologize for taking up space on this thread, however, any feed back would be awesome.

So from my understanding, an appraisal is really just a massive correlation matrix done between your domain name and hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands, of domains that have been sold recently.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/domain-name-discussion/180917-pro-appraisal-accuracy.html

What a good appraiser would/should do is create a database of these domains that sold recently (like in the last three months). This database would include as many variables as possible, including: domain length, use of hyphen, TLD, number of words in domain, frequency of words used in language, backlinks, dmoz listings, Page Rank, etc. This database is used for a base to rank new domains off of.

There are also of course variables that don't even matter so there is a balance that must be met with the number of variables tested on. An example would be: how many of the letter "e" is in the name... (maybe this is a good variable.. i don't know..)

So when a new domain comes in to be appraised the appraiser will look at those variables and start matching them up. So it (human or computer) will look at all the domains that have sold recently that have the same number of characters and start averaging a price for ones that matched up, then they will move to the next variable, such as use of a hyphen. They then see where the selling prices of the previous domain compare to the domain being appraised.

If the domain doesn't have a hyphen then it will get another value associated with it that will most likely be higher then any domain with a hyphen. If the domain had two hyphens then it would be compared against domains that have sold that also had two hyphens. So this process goes until each variable is found and compared with variables of sold domains to come up with a bunch of average prices.

Depending on the domain there may be domains that were sold that are similar in a number of variables (instead of just one) so the selling price of domains with a number or matching variables has more weight on the average selling price than the averages that just compare one variable.

Finally, according to the appraiser's proprietary design, each of the averages of the variable are added up. Some appraisers may think that TLD is the biggest factor (for example only) and give the dollar figure that was averaged off that the most weight. Page Rank might get the least... Its totally up the to appraiser on this one. This is where they come up with a price. The range is usually their "p" value. This determines how much error there is in their analysis/correlation so they give a spread to take that into account.

Real Estate uses practically the same process but geography is primary variable on that one. Because a "Market Analysis" (an appraisal for real estate) is used for the buying and selling of pretty much every piece of real estate it proves that the system works for valuing something, as billions of dollars of real estate are sold weekly based off these numbers. (okay can't back up this fact on $ sold/week... ;-) ).

You can check this process out at Zillow.com. You can take a house and add bedrooms and bathrooms (both variables) and see where you end up in the market analysis as far as price is concerned for a home. Its really cool.

So statistically I think appraisals are pretty accurate and one of the best ways to assign a value to a domain. However, it all depends on how good and mathematically correct the appraisal companies process of computing this is and of course their sample size. (a company with 1,000 sold domains for a sample size is going to suck compared to someone with 10,000 sold domains.)

So that is why I think godaddy appraisals (6 variables) are horrible but zetetic appraisals (28 variables) rock.

I hope this post wasn't a total waste of time to read and someone got something out of it.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=180917

I have attached a page out of Keith Pieper's Handbook that has some cool info on it but it is a bit out of date. I included the copyright info so i hope i am not breaking any laws or pissing any one off. (Keith Pieper = Zetetic and i very much respect the guy/company, sorry for any biase that might be in there.)

Attached Files

Picture 2.pdf (58.2 KB, 3 views)

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Mark

Agreed with most above .... Don't pay for appraisals at all - Your best bet is just plain old experience in this industry and even then , There is NO set formula to follow

End users compared to Wholesale Buyers (Domainers/Parking Folks usually) will pay two completely different price ranges for domains and unless it has current income or traffic there is little method to the madness.

GoPC

My own personal experience has shown that no matter what an appraisal (paid or not) says a site is worth, you can never value the vision in the head of the developer that has fallen in love with your domain name.

Before "Google - the search engine"... how many time had you actually heard or used the word "google"? What kind of OVT ranking would it have had? What would a professional appraisal have shown the worth of google to be? Yet, someone had a vision to make google this huge massive monster of a search engine that is unarguably worth dump truck loads of cash today.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder"... it's true in love and it's true with domains. Appraisals are pointsless except to get a feel whether or not the appraiser sees your vision for the site.... which they rarely do.

gopc.com has been simultaneously appraised at mid 6 figures and added to the elites list for public auction at Traffic West in May AND been completely rejected as worthless by a competing domain aftermarket company while yet another wants an exclusive brokerage agreement for the domain. In addition, I have been offered $100 cash money for the site from several members here and $1500 cash from members of a different forum while nobody has bid on it (even though it's listed at $1000) at tdnam.

Who's right? Who's smoking their lunch?

There are resellers, ppc investors and end users and they ALL have a different idea of what the worth is. Your returned valune is going to be partially dictated by the group you ask too. Keep that in mind.

All in all, what do YOU think it's worth? What is your vision or your purpose? Turning a quick buck isn't always an answer... your domain has to have a vision to have value.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=180917

In my humble opinion.

GoPC

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Just wondering why folks tell you your domain isn't worth reg fee then pay SNAP $70 for your domain...

JMJ

No computation could ever prediect how much one buyer has to spend and one sellers current need or desire. And there would be and are alot of those senarios.
????: NamePros.com http://www.namepros.com/showthread.php?t=180917

You can't compare domains to real estate as far as appraisal values are concerned. Real Estate is primarily based on the square footage + land value + area. And generally land value and area are one and the same. A person can have Gold faucets in every sink, gold door handles, marble flooring throughout and spent buttloads of money to do so but it doesn't mean they will get their money back unless they find someone willing to pay over appraisal value for those extremities.

Every domains is unique. There is no possible way to compare one to another. Take sex.com and fun.com . Both 3 letters, both are common household words, and both are enjoyable social events. But I don't think you'll see fun.com selling for 14 million anytime soon even though it may be worth it and even though I think sex.com is worth ALOT more.

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cyberfixation

Very good points by all. I have to admit i agree.

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