question Are you skeptical of sales data?

[Internet.Domains]

Are you skeptical of sales data? That's alright if you are. Do you believe all sales data? That's alright if you do. Do you only believe industry veterans? Cool. Do you believe the smaller investors? Great. Do you not believe anyone. That's OK also.

There are those in this industry that seem to believe well known brokers at any cost and yet not believe the less known individual participants. If that describes you, fine.

There are also those who are skeptical of sales data from well known brokers and leading publication's. That's OK as well.

Regardless of your level of skepticism, or your lack of skepticism, its important to not attack those that disagree with the data or lack of data.

We are all going to "trust" different sources. Some may trust industry veterans. Some might not. Some might trust the smaller individual parties more than veterans. All good.

Having skepticism is not "bullying" and having lack of skepticism is no different. It's all good. All cool. Wherever you stand on this issue, or who ever you believe, keep it professional.

Theres no reason to bicker back and forth, because the next sale could be missed, as a result there may be nothing to report.

 

[MapleDots]

If anything I don't believe there is enough data reported. I have some higher level domainers as friends and I often converse with them via email. The one thing I found out is that none of them talk about their sales.

So if the question is do I believe, I strongly believe not enough sales are actually reported. Now deduct some of the fake reported sales and I still think the industry as a whole is underreported.

 

[tonyk2000]

Generally speaking, I do trust sales data, with some exceptions:

a) Sales with a payment plan which is not yet completed. May be never completed. At least one marketplace tends to report such sales in the very beginning, after just the 1st payment.

b) nGTLD sales, especially if the extension is too new. May be a marketing trick - yeah there was a sale logged somewhere, but ... between parties related to nGTLD operator. Nothing new here. I myself evidenced new forums (not domaining related) where the founders and mods had to register a few handles and had to start public discussions between themselves... to make the forum more popular and to let real new members join.

c) I would not trust anything coming from a couple of particular brokers. If you were invlolved in some wrongdoing once - then you'll have no trust in future. It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. (Warren Buffett)

 

[garptrader]

When I see a sales report, my belief in its legitimacy is influenced by the type of name. If it is reported a 20-year old commerce-related one-word .Com sold for $500k or more there is no reason to doubt the report. If someone reports a six-figure .Info sale for a mediocre keyword registered in the last few months, then I would be skeptical.

 

[carob]

What do I trust? Sedo reported sales, Godaddy appraisal tools reports of related sales on Godaddy, Uniregistry's reports of sales of com org net countrycode.... the rest, just maybe.

And yes sales that get uncovered in company financial statements that have been filed and then researched.

 

[capybara]

The buyer's perspective should indicate they had enough reason to pay that amount for that name. The reason could be flawed but then there should be a reason (2) for the reason (1) to be flawed.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I didn't vote because it's complicated.

I do trust that the vast majority of sales reported on NameBio (and DNJournal) are true. With 1.8 million listed sales is there an error in a few? Quite probably, but the vast majority are correct and it is a useful source of accurate information as long as you realize which venues do, and do not, have sales reported in NameBio.

I trust that the comparator sales in GoValue and Estibot are correct, although no doubt that there are occasional errors.

I follow the Report Completed Sales thread on NamePros and find it useful because sales are reported from venues not in NameBio. Are a few false? Quite probably, but not many, in my opinion.

Sales in other places that are reported one needs to be careful, if it matters to you. Sometimes what looks like a big sale is really between two companies held by the same principal investors but really it is almost a form of bookkeeping moving assets from one company to another.

I am bothered by the fact that GoDaddy (and other) expired auctions are taking place before the time has passed to recover the name, and therefore sales appear but then don't take place. I wish names were not auctioned until totally available. Another problem is it seems there are more auction nonpayers so when these are taken out sometimes a sale is for less than it first was. One way around this would be to only list them after 30 days when complete, but then we would clamour for faster reporting.

I like the data to be as accurate as possible. In everything there are always some uncertainties. While we should recognize these, I don't stay awake at night worrying about this topic.

Bob

 

[BaileyUK]

Simple domain logic should tell you if a domain sale stacks-up. I really don't understand those that want to go to the ends of the earth to discredit a sale. Sure by all means question the validity, that alone should bring it to the attention of others that can add support or otherwise. I can't see the point in hammering home a specific questionable sale. Far better, in my mind to bring to the attention those that have a habit of listing unsupported sales where a pattern emerges particularly on places like here at NamePros. This is only as Cautionary flag to those that might get drawn-in by the members hype.

Why waste time digging - Accept that maybe as many as 20% of reported sales have some other agenda behind the said sale. This could be between financial partners looking for publicity (high value sale) Even money cleansing or tax evasion. And then we have the small guy trying to hype his portfolio. There's nothing new in any of this from business to property to New share issues, It's all part of the playing field of 'Buyer beware'

These days. I prefer to view a whole months sales data (from various sources) one afternoon every month, A couple of hours catch-up rather than a constant eye. It makes for a focused afternoon where if there's anything new to be learnt or pattern emerging there's sometimes a trail

 

[BaileyUK]

I didn't vote because it's complicated.

Yeah I agree, Easy to see why 'OTHER' has 50% of the vote so far...There really isn't a cut-and-dry answer

 

[carob]

Another interesting thread topic would be, what reasons are there for false, untrustworthy or unreliable sales reports? Reasons might include money laundering, promo activity, auctions that closed high but went to a lower bidder, or auction scams. Got any good reasons to share?

 

[frank-germany]

Are you skeptical of sales data? That's alright if you are. Do you believe all sales data? That's alright if you do. Do you only believe industry veterans? Cool. Do you believe the smaller investors? Great. Do you not believe anyone. That's OK also.

There are those in this industry that seem to believe well known brokers at any cost and yet not believe the less known individual participants. If that describes you, fine.

There are also those who are skeptical of sales data from well known brokers and leading publication's. That's OK as well.

Regardless of your level of skepticism, or your lack of skepticism, its important to not attack those that disagree with the data or lack of data.

We are all going to "trust" different sources. Some may trust industry veterans. Some might not. Some might trust the smaller individual parties more than veterans. All good.

Having skepticism is not "bullying" and having lack of skepticism is no different. It's all good. All cool. Wherever you stand on this issue, or who ever you believe, keep it professional.

Theres no reason to bicker back and forth, because the next sale could be missed, as a result there may be nothing to report.

I trust everybody
unless ( until ) it's proven he's a lier