Dynadot

information Taking A Close Look At Domain Name Appraisals

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Few topics generate as much heat as discussion of automated domain name appraisals. The value of human appraisals can also be controversial. This week I decided to take a look at appraisal options and limitations. Should we even be doing domain name appraisals?

Why Do You Want An Appraisal?

The first question to ask is why do you want an appraisal? The following are some possible answers.
  1. I am new to domain investing, and want to know if I am on the right track.
  2. I need help deciding which names I should keep or liquidate.
  3. I am unsure about pricing this domain name.
  4. I hope to learn new ideas about possible uses for this domain name.
  5. I want an appraisal that I can eventually use to make my case when negotiating with a buyer.
  6. I am looking for confirmation that what I think is right.
  7. I want to know appraisal data that may be in the hands of potential buyers.
The reason(s) you want a domain name appraisal will influence the type of appraisal that might be helpful.

Types Of Appraisals

There are several types of domain name appraisals possible.
  • You can post your domain name for appraisal right here on NamePros, and others will respond with appraisals. This is an example of a crowd-sourced domain name appraisals. Social media, and domain name investor gatherings, offer additional appraisal opportunities.
  • Some marketplaces, as well as certain podcasts and dedicated appraisal services, will produce an expert domain name appraisal, often for a fee. I call these appraisals expert, not meaning they are necessarily better than crowd-sourced, or even automated, appraisals, but because the appraiser is claiming to have particular expertise. The appraisal may be the view of one expert, or from a panel.
  • Several of the brandable marketplaces suggest a price for accepted domain names. This is not unlike the expert appraisals mentioned above, except that the appraisal cost is usually minimal.
  • Another option is an automated appraisal, in which an algorithm, or possibly artificial intelligence, is used to produce both a suggested valuation, as well as other information such as comparator sales or advertiser statistics. The best known of these are Estibot, the GoDaddy appraisal, and NameWorth. Other valuation products are mainly geared to evaluating website worth, as opposed to just the domain name, looking at SEO aspects.
  • Another option is a personal domain appraisal. For example, you and another domain investor might agree to privately appraise each other’s domain names. While this is just one person’s view, it has the advantage that there is not a direct cost, and the results are private, unlike crowd-sourced appraisals.
  • Last, but not least, a rigorous domain name self-appraisal, using some valuation metric or checklist, could be done by the owner. This has the advantage that you know exactly what went into the appraisal, including any assumptions. These free research tools can help you get started.
Probably many of us have used one or more of these types of appraisals, perhaps without thinking of it as an appraisal.

Avoid The Domain Appraisal Scam

A common scam that has been present for many years is to tell a domain investor that a domain name has sold for a large amount, but the buyer requires you to provide a domain certificate before the sale can complete. That process requires the investor to first buy an appraisal to prove the worth of the domain name. After the investor pays for the certificate, the buyer disappears, as the goal was always just to get money from the investor. While independent appraisals are, in principle, not unreasonable, and widely used in the real estate world, don’t fall for this scam.

Estibot

The oldest of the popular automated domain appraisal options is Estibot, which is used for about 2 million valuations per day. Estibot provides appraisals for all extensions, although the valuations will be nominal for newly released extensions.

One can do 2 free Estibot appraisals per day without an account, or sign up for an Estibot account to increase that limit and also get additional features. The Novice Plan allow you to do up to 150 lookups per day, and also adds Domain Flipping and Portfolio Monitoring tools. There is no contract or requirement for a minimum commitment at Estibot.

Portfolio Monitoring, one service with the Estibot plans, can be valuable. It monitors similar registrations, trademarks or domain names that have gone into development, among other things such as changes in algorithm valuation for the domain name.

The Estibot lead generator helps to identify potential end-user buyers for the domain name. You can get a rundown of the many Estibot tools on this page.

The Intermediate Plan adds expiring domain data, while the Advanced Plan includes API access. You can do 5000 lookups per day on the Advanced Plan, and 500 on the Intermediate Plan.

Even the free Estibot appraisals provide analytics information. For example, you can see exact and broad search data including volume and and cost-per-click (CPC). The output shows how the CPC data has changed over the past year. While there are other ways to access such data, I find Estibot an easy to use presentation.

While Estibot does list comparable domain sales, I personally don’t find Estibot comparator sale data very helpful most of the time. It seems to list sales very similar in price to the appraised value, independent of whether the name was in a similar sector.

The free version of Estbot shows whether the term is registered in the major legacy extensions plus .info, .biz and .us. One can, of course, get more complete information on this using tools like dotDB.

One thing to watch with Estibot is how the term was broken down, and whether for new extensions they included the extension in the search. Fortunately this is shown in the display.

Estibot, in my opinion, does not handle made-up brandable domain names well, usually suggesting low values. This is because such names will not have advertiser search data or registrations in other extensions.

Some registrars and marketplaces give Estibot valuations in listings, so I think it is important as an investor to know the Estibot value, even if you do not plan to directly use the appraisal information.

GoDaddy Valuation Tool

A few years ago GoDaddy introduced a free domain name valuation tool, which will evaluate any domain name, and it is free to use. They seem to have some limit if you do many valuations in a short time, but after refreshing the site it will let you do more. Because of their huge user base, and the visibility of the domain appraisal service, many millions of valuations are done each day. After they started the service, GoDaddy reported that there was an uptick on leads becoming sales on their platforms.

A GoDaddy appraisal is free and easy to do - just enter the name and press return. As well as suggesting a valuation for the domain name, it has a statement regarding the value of the individual terms in a multiple word domain name. In my experience, GoDaddy does a superb job splitting up multiple word domain names.

It also, in my opinion, is excellent at suggesting comparator sales. Since they have the huge dataset of Afternic and GoDaddy sales, there are numerous comparator sales that are not in the NameBio database. Note that there are additional comparator sales further down the results page, not just the several shown at the top.

The one weakness, though, is they do not provide the year of the sale. An exact match name that sold 15 years ago might not be very relevant now, due to changes in brand choices and Google search over the years.

When the GoDaddy appraisal tool was in beta development, they seemed to be making significant changes almost every week. It was not unusual to see huge fluctuations, sometimes by a factor of 2, in the appraised prices. Lately, however, the prices seem more stable. Clearly valuations should change with time, but slowly.

While the GoDaddy appraisal will handle any extension, even those that GoDaddy the registrar does not handle, with new extensions they do not seem to give proper attention to the match across the dot. For example, just now I checked and investment.fund and investment.dog each have identical valuations of $2155. I think most investors would consider the former more valuable than the latter.

For two-word domain names in legacy extensions, I think Go Daddy appraisal is strong as a technique for ordering probable value. That is, if I check 4 domain names, and the appraisals come back at $500, $1200, $1400, and $4500, most of the times I agree that the $4500 name has highest worth. A number of Requests on NamePros specify some minimum GoDaddy appraisal value.

It seems to me that increasing numbers of potential end users are checking GoDaddy appraisal values before a purchase. This can help if you are pricing below the valuation, or even near it, but obviously can be an obstacle if your pricing is much higher. In any case, it is important to know the value in case it does come up.

NameWorth

There is now a third significant automated appraisal system, NameWorth. While you need to sign up for a NameWorth account to do valuations, you can conduct up to 5 valuations per day on the free account, up to a maximum of 20 per month. They also have paid plans that include bulk upload and API access, in addition to more lookups.

NameWorth currently only evaluate .com domain names, although there is mention of adding .net at some point. Generally, but not always, you will find valuations higher on NameWorth than on GoDaddy valuator and Estibot.

One of the things I really like about NameWorth is they give 6 prices for each domain name, with corresponding probability of sale within a defined period for each. The top price, their trademarked Retail Level, is the price if the buyer approaches you to acquire this specific name for immediate business use with few or no alternative names. The Market Level (trademarked term) might correspond to a user browsing a marketplace for a name, and considering this name as one of several options. There is an Auction Level corresponding to the wholesale price if the name was placed in a 7 day auction. For each price, they state the probability of sale.

NameWorth also gives a demand rating for the domain name, looking at similar names that are developed or used in blogs, along with registrations of similar names. If you use their associated marketplace, BIIX, the NameWorth valuation can show on your lander.

Domain Appraisal Is Hard

While it is natural to be critical of both automated and human appraisals, and indeed sometimes they are very wrong, we should acknowledge that domain appraisal is not easy. The retail price depends on more than the name itself. An investor who does not need funding from domain investing, and is willing to wait many years, and is an expert negotiator, will secure a much higher price than an investor who needs to draw living expenses from a steady stream of domain sales.

Some types of names, such as 4 letter or short numeric, are easier to appraise because there is a wealth of sales data available and the structure is relatively straightforward. On the other hand, an appraisal of a newly released extension, or a thinly-traded country code, does not have that information.

Appraisal of single word domain names should be easy, but because the elite names trade so infrequently, and the role of the negotiator may be crucial in these sales, in practice this is not always the case.

Made-up brandable terms are among the most challenging to appraise, as each is unique and it is not easy to establish close comparators. Those who have sold many brandable names, such as the brandable marketplaces and highly successful investors in that niche, are probably in the best position to evaluate these.

Treat An Appraisal As A Second Opinion

There is little doubt that over-dependance on automated appraisals has hurt some early-stage domain investors. I think there is danger in depending too much on any one measure, whether that is number of extensions, age of domain, or automated appraisal. Therefore, view automated appraisals, or I would argue any appraisals, as a second opinion.

First do a detailed analysis, looking at things like business use, comparator sales, and alternative names, and decide on your own a price range for the domain name. If the appraised value is much higher, or lower, perhaps take a second look, but don’t give it more importance than that. Consider getting a fellow investor, or a site like NamePros, to give you a additional opinions as well.

It’s Not Only About The Price

Interpreting an automated appraisal should not be mainly about the price. Use Estibot as an easy way to get SEO statistics, or GoDaddy valuator as a source of additional comparator sales. Use a NamePros appraisal, or one from a friend, to help you with relative worth, and to suggest possible users for a name.

I think it is unfortunate that the automated appraisals, except for NameWorth, do not give a price range. If GoDaddy valuator, instead of saying that the worth was $1411, said it was in the range $500 to $2500, the appraisal would be sounder. The model NameWorth use, of different prices corresponding to different potential buyers, makes a lot of sense to me.

When using an automated appraisal keep in mind the approach and biases inherent in the appraisal. For example, Estibot take into account search volume and costs per click, which is not relevant for a made-up brandable term. Remember that GoDaddy appraisal for new extensions takes little account of match across the dot, so you must interpret results with that in mind.

I think ultimately automated appraisals could get much better through more sophisticated artificial intelligence, and in particular machine learning.

It is human nature that many people think their own domain names are more valuable than they really are. An appraisal can be a valuable reality check on the true worth of domains in our portfolio. That said, keep in mind appraisals can sometimes be very wrong.

Stay Tuned

Originally, I had planned this article to also cover how to optimize appraisals here on NamePros, with recommendations both for those requesting appraisals and those responding to the request. Given the length of this article, I decided to split that topic, and will be publishing it in a week or two on the NamePros Blog.


I welcome your comments on domain appraisals.
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
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Thanks For Valuable Information @Bob Hawkes

I Want To Add Something : Recently I Found ( PeerIdeas.com ) That's Allow You To Add Some Domains And Others Domainers Evaluate It As A Poll From ( Drop it To Super Premium ) I Think That's Add A Good Experience For evaluating Domains As A Human Evaluate .

Sorry For My English. Wish You Can Understand Me Well
My Regards
 
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ty, GD Appraisal is easiest to use. I also recommend it because of sold list of relevant names. Sometimes I deny a name because of this sold list
 
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Each and every domain is worth the exact amount of cash the owner asks for it.
 
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@Bob Hawkes ,

Thanks for another great article,

It would be nice to know what the main metrics are that are being used for domain appraisals by the three companies that you have mentioned.

I know that some appraisal software and even some experienced domainers might consider multiple factors in determining the value of a domain name, but what would be the top 10 factors.

IMO
 
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Nice analysis for a quick read.

Bob, please add a poll on the 7 reasons to seek an appraisal. Maybe add an 8th "other" too for any unforeseen reasons.

My why is the 7th point - "I want to know appraisal data that may be in the hands of potential buyers."
 
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  • Domain name appraisal can be used as a reference, not all trust
 
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The automated ones are for the most part useless. No machine can understand a specific word and what it means in the world, and especially word combinations and how they fit together, let alone how that too translates into potential value based on global markets and businesses etc.

Just search Godaddy for random two and three word domains and you'll see what I mean:
CasinoFeetMedia.com - $748
StocksMediaBurger.com - $381

Clearly the algorithm is basic and ups the price based on each known high value keyword.
 
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Thanks For Valuable Information @Bob Hawkes

I Want To Add Something : Recently I Found ( PeerIdeas.com ) That's Allow You To Add Some Domains And Others Domainers Evaluate It As A Poll From ( Drop it To Super Premium ) I Think That's Add A Good Experience For evaluating Domains As A Human Evaluate .

Sorry For My English. Wish You Can Understand Me Well
My Regards
Thanks for the recommendation, Jaleel.

@Bob Hawkes PeerIdeas.com is a new website, designed to bridge the gap between automated appraisal services and the informal peer-driven appraisals that are posted on this site and elsewhere.

There are a few key differentiators we've introduced:

1. It's a seller-focused space, unlike automated services that buyers can also make use of to potentially drive down the sales price.
2. It's anonymous, so we never reveal details of the domain owner, or those who vote. This allows for more honesty between peers.
3. It's completely free. There are no limits to the number of polls you can run, but we do require everyone who posts to also vote, which we believe keeps things fair.
4. It's a great learning experience. You get to see how your vote compares to your peers.

I hope to see a few more NamePros members join in.
 
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I should also mention that PeerIdeas requires that you own the domain first before submitting it, so it's not suitable for pre-purchase research.

However it still adds value for most of the use cases Bob outlined above.
 
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Thanks, Bob for reviewing this aspect of domaining which I believe is one of the most challenging for most newbies. Why this is very important is because the value is what makes your domain attractive to the end-users and even the seller. When you know the value of your domain you know the price to place on it with your mind at rest but if you don't, then you are at a crossroads between underpricing and over-pricing. Lucky enough, we have some tools out there to measure the value of our domains as readily pointed out by Bob: Godaddy, Nameworth (relatively new) and Estibot which appears to be the most popular and most sourced in this context. Out of all the three, I still prefer Nameworth because of the details associated with their valuation and the aesthetics too. I however don't know how dependable these results are considering the fact that Biix appears not to be a proactive platform to showcase your domain or how many domainers here talk about Biix or have their domains on that platform? I feel part of the problem is the boundary created by the fact that only countries that are on the escrow list can use their platform. secondly is that when you try to reach out through email, no-one responds to your mail, speaking from experience. At a point, I began to doubt the fact that they are truly in business but I still use the lovely Nameworth to value my domains-I just love it. Thanks a lot, Bob for touching on this topic. Best regards
 
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Recently I Found ( PeerIdeas.com ) That's Allow You To Add Some Domains And Others Domainers Evaluate It As A Poll From
@Bob Hawkes PeerIdeas.com is a new website, designed to bridge the gap between automated appraisal services and the informal peer-driven appraisals
Thank you both for drawing attention to PeerIdeas. I have not yet tried the platform, but it certainly seems to add to the existing options. I plan to give it a spin.

It would be nice to know what the main metrics are that are being used for domain appraisals by the three companies that you have mentioned.
Yes. After doing a bit over 2400 Appraisals on Estibot, maybe 10,000 on GoDaddy, and I think a hundred or so on NameWorth, I have some feeling for the answers, but for good reasons each platform want to keep their algorithm details proprietary. I sense that Estibot place emphasis on search volume, CPC, registered TLDs in that term, and sales of very similar names. CPC seems important, so if you have a domain planning to use for monetization their rating may be particularly relevant. Single words common in a dictionary get major boost as they should. They clearly factor according to TLD sales history, while not perfect they at least come closest to some sort of valuation across TLDs. They obviously consider more factors, many more, but it seemed to me from the valuations I did these factors were very important.

For GD it seems to me that what is most important is the sales record in the term or terms. They do take into account the TLD and price the sale was in. Let's say Example.info sold for a high value, Example.anything would benefit moreso than if Example.com had sold for the same value, since .com generally sell for more than info. If the exact term has sold for good amounts in multiple other TLDs, then the boost is even more. They weight registered TLDs to some degree. My guess is that they do not weight nearly as much as Estibot the SEO information. This is just a recent speculation, but I wonder if GD factor in the asking price if a name is on one of the major marketplaces, or at least their own. It is anecdotal, but my guess is they do from some changes I saw in prices.

For NameWorth I have probably not done enough to even surmise a guess. They clearly pay attention to length, and also how the structure of the word has typically sold (i.e. high value terms and also structures like an ily ending). if wanting a brandable evaluation, I think they come closest, but it is super difficult niche to appraise.

Bob, please add a poll on the 7 reasons to seek an appraisal. Maybe add an 8th "other" too for any unforeseen reasons.
This is an excellent idea. When I saw it was too late in edit window to implement well, so what my plan is is to use your idea of the poll with the second half of this topic, to bee published in a week or two. Thanks for idea.

No machine can understand a specific word and what it means in the world, and especially word combinations and how they fit together, let alone how that too translates into potential value based on global markets
I agree the current state of the art is there. I am not an expert in AI, but seeing the sophistication of even some current AI, I am not sure though that within a few years it would be possible to come near to the quality of a skilled human, but maybe I am wrong.

don't know how dependable these results are considering the fact that Biix appears not to be a proactive platform to showcase your domain or how many domainers here talk about Biix or have their domains on that platform?
NameWorth should stand on its own. I simply mentioned BIIX since if you plan to use that marketplace the NameWorth integration seems to me an advantage. BIIX is still very new as a marketplace, so think you need to take that into account in considerations. Note that I have not currently tried using BIIX, and not trying to promote it or any other service, but I do plan to for some of my domain names.

Thanks for all of the comments.

Bob
 
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.....Out of all the three, I still prefer Nameworth because of the details associated with their valuation and the aesthetics too. I however don't know how dependable these results are considering the fact that Biix appears not to be a proactive platform to showcase your domain or how many domainers here talk about Biix or have their domains on that platform? I feel part of the problem is the boundary created by the fact that only countries that are on the escrow list can use their platform. secondly is that when you try to reach out through email, no-one responds to your mail, speaking from experience. At a point, I began to doubt the fact that they are truly in business but I still use the lovely Nameworth to value my domains-I just love it. Thanks a lot, Bob for touching on this topic. Best regards

.....NameWorth should stand on its own. I simply mentioned BIIX since if you plan to use that marketplace the NameWorth integration seems to me an advantage. BIIX is still very new as a marketplace, so think you need to take that into account in considerations. Note that I have not currently tried using BIIX, and not trying to promote it or any other service, but I do plan to for some of my domain names. Thanks for all of the comments. Bob

Last year BIIX did some promo, had good feedback and I liked what they were doing a lot. For a few months there was good support. However as time went by they became slower and recently there's been no support at all with no replies to direct emails or support tickets sent via BIIX platform. Sadly I have no other option but to stop using them which is unfortunate because biix appeared to be so good and promising before. I also am wondering if they are still in business?

P.S. It also appears biix.com site has not been updated in a very long time, if at all.
 
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@Bob Hawkes ,

I like to see the day that all appraisal systems give the same dollar value for a domain name (or close to it) and that will tell me that it might be the right value, but as long as there are big differences between what you get from different places then it's more like a guessing game than a true appraisal.

By the way I did register the domain AiAppraisals.com in case things start going more in that direction.

IMO
 
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@Bob Hawkes. Nice domain. We are gradually getting there
 
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Hi

i think

the subject and content, only helps to hype the hype further,
and by focusing, you assist in legitimizing it, to those most likely to become dependent on it.

imo...
 
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@namemarket the owner/developer of NameWorth has been tremendously busy on new developments for his tools at both Biix and NameWorth for a while now. I also wonder if he may be suffering from some illness because he has tended to disappear altogether for periods which have been a bit long for comfort.

@Bob Hawkes thanks for another great article. Regarding the GoDaddy appraisals: it is often very difficult indeed to see what similarities, if any, exist between the domain it "appraises" and the domains it lists as comparators.

A huge problem with GoDaddy's appraisals is that prices are taken from its own sales records, to add to the fact that no sales dates are given for the comparators. They are mostly to domainers, in fact they are the vast majority. Hence they can only be regarded as wholesale prices. This is really rubbed in when you ask the price they will sell you a domain at. It is inevitably far higher, sometimes a multiple, of the appraisal it has just given you. Best used as a baseline for the event you are forced to sell. Don't go below it.

Finally, a note for @oldtimer, the day appraisals begin to converge it will be a sure sign the corporations are taking over the game entirely. People will be responding to expensive advertising campaigns and pricing will be set by algorithms and agreed by corporate cabals. We won't be able to compete. It won't be long after that there is no place for us in domaining other than on the narrow periphery of the business. If you don't have very deep pockets by then you'll be out.

Edit: I just put a couple of names through Estibot. The "valuations" were risible. These were names with dictionary words in English. The "comparator" names were random letters in both cases. I agree with most of the people who appear on DomainSherpa.com - Estibot estimates are a joke. Some minimal SEO information, but would any of it be relevant to an end user buyer's business? Questionable at best.
 
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Finally, a note for @oldtimer, the day appraisals begin to converge it will be a sure sign the corporations are taking over the game entirely. People will be responding to expensive advertising campaigns and pricing will be set by algorithms and agreed by corporate cabals. We won't be able to compete. It won't be long after that there is no place for us in domaining other than on the narrow periphery of the business. If you don't have very deep pockets by then you'll be out.

I tend to disagree,

The appraisals don't have to be exactly the same, but if they are close enough they tend to give us some reassurance that although different systems might have been used, but they all have managed to arrive at a logical dollar value that makes sense.

If you get an appraisal on a house from several different experts in the real estate Industry and one says that the house is worth 500k and another one values the same house at 100k you tend not to trust any of them, but if the appraisals for the house from different companies are close enough it makes it easier for you to believe in them and that does not mean that all the experts are in collusion, it simply means that they all know their business and have arrived at a logical value for the house (or very close to it).

IMO
 
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Domain appraisals are worthless and with the only intent to appraise domains following the appraiser intentions.
Domain appraisals are worthless by definition, and the most amazing is the amount of domainers following and believing domain appraisal tools like the GD one, and wasting hundreds and thousands of dollars on a daily basis just because the GD appraisal tool says the sh*t is worth $3k or $5k.
The only thing that can give you a close picture of a domain value are previous similar sales, that's a fact, and not an "appraisal" that is just made to inflate or demean the real value of a domain, and ultimately to make a domainer spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on the daily auction by an appraisal tool "order".
 
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Thanks Bob for this nice article on domain appraisal tools. I am trying to add related tools list over here https://www.dnguide.in/tools
 
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I have think that such automated appraisal tools can on purpose be programed to appraise your domains at 0 so you drop them, i know very good this clever tools.
 
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