Anyone having any luck selling domains on eBay?

[floname]

I have mostly sold on ebay, but lately the market seems so depressed that its just brutal! The .99 open bid is absolute suicide! Is it name quality or a depressed market? I've lost on a few names lately that I thought were D*mn good names. Its very frustrating! Anyone feeling my pain?

 

[CopaSurfer]

I have a similar feeling. Where are the days when a domain such as WhatIsMyIp.com was sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars at eBay? A bit more "hype", or more precisely: some "unexpected" top sales of fresh and creative domains of that kind, wouldn't be bad for the industry (nor for the platform where they occur) at all!

 

[larryharlow]

I havent sell anything for more than $10 lately.
Maybe it's time to buy!

 

[thejamez]

What do you expect... Ebay is a cluster-f*ck and nobody I know uses it anymore for anything.

They once had a great thing... all the magic is gone now. I don't even visit ebay anymore...

 

[floname]

Your right guys, I end all my listings on the weekend when the market is busy, but It seems that it really IS the time to buy. Your either a lucky buyer or a starving seller! I'm so fed up with all the unbelievably ridiculous domains that absolutely flood the market because nobody can find anything good unless the auction is ending in 5 mins. And the whole "best match" search results thing favors only big spender sellers anymore (most of whom aren't doing so well either as of late) I watch the market religiously and look for trends, but its just so all over the place anymore, its literally impossible to even break even let alone turn a friggin profit! I've decided to keep a few of my good names and try to market them to end users. If anyone can offer pointers, they'd be greatly appreciated!

 

[turnhardtoeasy]

I think someone from namepros sells hell lot of domains on ebay...
i dont remember his name but search namepros and you will come to threads talking about him... he has even given hints on that thread
just search....

 

[-Adam-]

turnhardtoeasy - the person your thinking of is probably syntheticrhymes and even he is feeling the downturn of the market as well.

 

[turnhardtoeasy]

turnhardtoeasy - the person your thinking of is probably syntheticrhymes and even he is feeling the downturn of the market as well.

yep hez the man
Oh... sorry to know that...

Recession Kills :td:

 

[floname]

turnhardtoeasy - the person your thinking of is probably syntheticrhymes and even he is feeling the downturn of the market as well.

I've seen alot of his names! He does sell alot and I think his strength is in volume. He's got upwards of 100 name auctions going at any given time and I have seen a few of his go for some coin!

Another one is EmpireDomains. I've watched his auctions the last couple of weekends he's posted and even his names are tankin! He usually has around 60 ending on Saturdays & Sundays and I've seen him knock down $2500 in a weekend. He used to boldface every listing (ebay charges $2 for bold) and he's not even doing that anymore. I haven't noticed any downturn in the quality of his names though.

I myself have had more than a few good sales ($330 is my record) but with the market fluxuation, I just needed some objective input on whether its me, the market or both. It's definitely a combo of both.

Thanks so much for all of your opinions!

 

[Chris99460]

Guys/Gals,

The market like everything in this world is garbage. Since I own an article directory which is automated, I have read some quality articles relating the domain world to the housing crisis. Basically, housing was a steady investment with some bumps in the road. Yet, housing was pretty stable and when one paid their mortgage, they felt like their money was going into a savings account. However, I bought my house in Las Vegas is 2003 and let me tell you; I wish I never did. It is hard to believe that housing prices have dropped 10,15, or more years into the past. The same premise is true about most investments. This financial turmoil is more than a storm. I can only surmise that the worst has not come and reading every state financial report is like reading the obituaries. BTW, I have housing-crisis.net for sale if anyone wants it rofl.

 

[srisri24]

Is anyone having exp in selling LLLL.coms on ebay?
how are they doing?
what could be the least price that we can expect?
Please share your exp.

Thanks

 

[snoop]

Ebay is a very good reality check. The best auction site for cheap names. At the end of the day though you are only going to get what they name is worth.

---------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ----------

Is anyone having exp in selling LLLL.coms on ebay?
how are they doing?
what could be the least price that we can expect?

$0, these are often available for hand reg (pretty much daily).

 

[bmugford]

eBay has never been a great place to sell domains IMO.

Brad

 

[shane mac]

Do you find that it is just domainers buying the domains on ebay?Ive never tried it.But like everyone says this is a buyers market right now and I dont see an upturn for a couple of years to come.The good thing is though that the good old days will return,when the economy sorts itself out,and we will all be in a better mood then.Its time to bite the pillow for a couple of years.

 

[promo]

In my experience Ebay is a great place to BUY domains.. And a horrible place to sell them..

 

[Domainace]

Ebay is a mixed bag. I was moving away from it when I noticed a few months ago that LLLL domains I could get for $8 or $10 were consistently bringing in $15 to $50, despite the economy. So I went in as much as I could, and it was nice for a while. That's now over.

There was a set of similar domain names that brought in over $100 each on Ebay a few months ago during that good time. I held one back, and put it on auction last month. It got $27.

On the other hand, I just sold a VCVC.com domain for 50% more than it sold for on Sedo (the Sedo buyer never paid).

That, though, is the exception, and there aren't enough exceptions to make selling worthwhile at the moment. I'll still sell a few, just to keep testing the waters, but Ebay is not a big part of the picture at the moment.

On the other hand, I picked up a nice health domain (.com) on Ebay with 5,400 exact monthly searches for $1. So buying can be fun.

So there are deals to be had, more when buying than when selling. But you have to ask yourself if it's a valuable use of your time. Even if you make a profit, you have to ask if investing the same time elsewhere might bring you more profit.

I find the best Ebayers are extremely well organized and automated. But even that may not be enough in the current market. End-user sales are the most resistant to the economy. Speculators are in hiding (or broke) but an end user sees a name as a way to make more money for their business.

There's a fantastic end-user thread in Namepros. I highly recommend you set aside a day to read that from beginning to end (and take notes).

 

[miles2go]

I had tried before but not get much response. I but i m glad that i didn't sell it today i am happy with this domain name.

 

[floname]

Ebay is a very good reality check. The best auction site for cheap names. At the end of the day though you are only going to get what they name is worth.

---------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ----------



$0, these are often available for hand reg (pretty much daily).

Yeah, 4 letter .coms are all over the place. Premium letters are still selling for a good price, but not great. I've seen some that didn't even get a .99 open bid. These were about to expire though and registered at some podunk reseller site and couldn't be transferred out. But I think everyone in this thread is right, its the end user market that will ultimately keep a seller alive. Just in the last 2 days, I've learned enough in this forum to warrant a huge turnaround in my approach to this whole market. I've been at it about a year &1/2. My pitfalls were costly, but valuable. I got to the point that it pays for itself, but doesn't pay the bills.
My regular gig is in the tank too, I own a small landscaping company and that's hurting right now. I'm downsizing, selling equipment and restructuring that biz also. The markets are all brutal right now. I think if people would just turn of the f*ckin TV, things might turn around quicker.

 

[DubDubDubDot]

Is it name quality or a depressed market?

It is both quality and the market.

Good names that have legit development potential are going to have buyer competition no matter what. A year ago I had a few domains per day ending on my watch list, but now it's more like a few per week. I think I've bid on only one or two domains in the past month, and I could have done without them.

The domains hurting most right now are the crappy names that domainers of all levels (me included) had previously been buying on an impulse for $10-$20. These names are now selling for $1-$5 because in this economy the "oh what the heck" domain sale is dead. There are eBay sellers where 90+% of their inventory revolves around this garbage.

It was so easy to feel like bidding $12 was nothing, and hey, it had a year left on the registration to figure something out, right? Wrong. Looking back, I let pretty much all of those expire.

Another one is EmpireDomains. I've watched his auctions the last couple of weekends he's posted and even his names are tankin! He usually has around 60 ending on Saturdays & Sundays and I've seen him knock down $2500 in a weekend. He used to boldface every listing (ebay charges $2 for bold) and he's not even doing that anymore. I haven't noticed any downturn in the quality of his names though.

I don't know if EmpireDomains does it anymore, but he was putting up deceptive descriptions. For instance, he would state that the keyword has X number of "exact" searches on Google when in reality it was the broad search number. He would also print that Google pays $x per click, when that is actually the AdWords cost and AdSense pays way less than that. He was also stating other BS, but I don't recall what it was.

 

[floname]

Empire

Yeah, Empire was probably one of the most popular domain sellers on ebay before the market really tanked. I think he coined a new approach to selling the names and had so much success, that alot of other sellers began to follow (including myself) Everybody was watching his store to see what kinda names he was selling and they would go register different variations of them. Some would sell for a small fraction of what his "originals" were and some would sit stagnant. I think empire got to the point that everone was copying his auctions, literally down to the font color and the stats that his auctions were so famous for. He's probably somewhat responsible for some of the overflow because he hopped on the "guru" bandwagon and started teaching other sellers. Its like the market bubbled up! One guy does ok and hordes of others follow him and literally flood the market with the same sh*t. Buying habits have changed, and alot of these $100+ "hot" domains sat without any traffic and wound up on the drop engines with domainers thinking twice about payin the 8 bucks to bring it back to life!

 

[snoop]

But I think everyone in this thread is right, its the end user market that will ultimately keep a seller alive. Just in the last 2 days, I've learned enough in this forum to warrant a huge turnaround in my approach to this whole market. I've been at it about a year &1/2. My pitfalls were costly, but valuable. I got to the point that it pays for itself, but doesn't pay the bills.
My regular gig is in the tank too, I own a small landscaping company and that's hurting right now. I'm downsizing, selling equipment and restructuring that biz also. The markets are all brutal right now. I think if people would just turn of the f*ckin TV, things might turn around quicker.

Enduser prices are much much higher but the chance of a sale is low. eg buydomains which is the biggest in the business turns over under 1% of names per year (on a fairly high quality portfolio). So the time value of money needs to be allowed for. Some do better with active marketing though it becomes more like a job at that point, it works for some though but don't forget to factor in the time spent researching and sending all those emails.

Economy wise things look to be improving to me. For those who are waiting for the next downturn make sure you have a plan in case you are wrong. Usually when things crash lots of people sit waiting for the next one and miss the rebound.

---------- Post added at 04:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 PM ----------

Good names that have legit development potential are going to have buyer competition no matter what.

Agree.

 

[Domainace]

Enduser prices are much much higher but the chance of a sale is low. eg buydomains which is the biggest in the business turns over under 1% of names per year (on a fairly high quality portfolio). So the time value of money needs to be allowed for. Some do better with active marketing though it becomes more like a job at that point, it works for some though but don't forget to factor in the time spent researching and sending all those emails.

I agree with this, and it's something to remember for those of us with smaller portfolios.
People who actively market their domains do much better, I would say, and can manage to get regular cash flow.

So far as it being like a job, yes it is. But remember this thread is about selling on Ebay, and that's a job, too, if you do any volume at all. I've tried both, and I'm inclined to think that end-user sales are a more productive use of time.

Ebay profit margins are smaller, and there are the constant headaches of making a listing, making a graphic, dealing with confused buyers, crooked buyers and non-payers (while Ebay keeps the listing fees in all cases). For end users, you just research and send out the emails. Time consuming, yes...just like Ebay. But very few frustrations compared to Ebay.

Buydomains have the resources to sit and wait for buyers, but that doesn't apply to most domainers.

 

[ExpressDomains]

I started selling domains in about January, Justin (EmpireDomains) taught me. Hes a great teacher but I agree theres just too many people who have no idea what there doing and there will be names like isellgunsandfoodforfree.com. I am becoming a top seller on ebay now, maybe not in volume but in quality. I can't nearly put up as many auctions as some of the sellers, I usually just do about 40-50 per weekend and the business for me is doing fine because I have over a 200 persons customer base. When I started the market for domains on ebay wasn't all that much better so I don't know any better. I'm only 16 and I seem to be doing fine in the market but I see alot of people failing and stopping completely selling domain names on ebay. I hope it comes back around because this is really my only source of income and I need to buy a car soon :P Come check out my store! Auctions end Saturday and Sunday Nights. Link is in my signature

Alex Wilson

 

[floname]

Hey Express, I've seen some of your names and I do watch your auctions regularly. I'm impressed at the level of success your having, and your choice in names. Keep it up, cuz its guys like you that inject a little hope into an increasingly scary place to sell. I wasn't "taught" by Justin, however I did purchase his ebook and it had alot of valuable info on his strategies and his approach. Good luck out there!

 

[ExpressDomains]

I as well purchased his ebook which kinda worked as a reinforcement for everything I was taught. There was a ton of useful things in the book. Good luck to you too!