I think a lot of people who react negatively might just not be the target audience of BB. I see it in the following way:
Can I create my own marketplace?
I can make a really basic site, but it would take me a chunk of time to get it to my satisfactory level. I can create simple sites with wordpress etc, but still it would take me more time to build a marketplace, let alone a marketplace that stands out and look nice.
Can I create a logo myself?
Probably, but it will take a lot of time for me and it wouldn't look that good. It is just not in my skillset
Can I attract visitors with my own landing page or marketplace?
I might just be able to do that, but I would have very minimal traffic on my site. I know the basics of SEO etc, but it would again take up a lot of my time and I don't think the results will be as good as BB results
Can I get $2000 on average for my brandable names myself?
No, I would probably be very happy with 1 sale of $1000. I can't attract enough visitors, I can't make my site and logos look appealing enough and I am bad at negotiating, as I would bite way too early.
For these reasons, Brandbucket adds value for me:
- They save me a lot of time
- They attract visitors
- In the end, after all fees I still get an average of $1000 a name (going off an average sale price of around $1800 and covering 10 to 20 listing fees per sold name), which is more than what I would probably get on my own
For me, the only question is: can I sell at least 1 name on Brandbucket? If I can, I am happy and they provided value for me. If not, I am still covered, as I can sell the BB published names to cover my cost.
A lot of complaints I read is also about the sales percentage. While this might not be (much) higher than the average sales percentage of a domainer, I still think people can easily get a lazy Brandbucket attitude.
What I mean by this is that a lot of people just go for BB acceptance of regged domains and expect sales. They are envious of
@michaeljkrell his sales ratings, but might forget that most of his names are not regged. I regged all my names as well (and during .com sales too), but I don't expect the same sales rates as Michael. Furthermore, I still think getting BB accepted is not all there is to it. I can still differ quality in accepted names based on my own judgement. I might be off, but at least I have tried everything I can to increase my chances in selling.
For instance: I know a lot of VCVCV and CVCVCV domains are accepted on BB and they sell a bunch of them if I am correct. However, I cannot see the difference in 95% of these names and why one of those is accepted for $3000 and another is for $1800. As I don't understand it, I don't just publish a bunch of those. I look for accepted names that I think have value as well and where I can imagine a business usecase for. Sure, I have some VCVCV and CVCVCV patterns as well, to cover everything, but I like names like Veritool or Lectera better, as I can imagine a company being interested in those names. I might be way off, but I treat my BB profile the way I treat my total domain portfolio: I don't buy names because others think they are good, but because I myself also see value. I don't think all BB sellers are doing this.
So to summarize: BB provides value for me and even if they take a big chunk with their 30%, the net price I get from them would be higher than the price I would get myself. Furthermore, they save me time, so I can focus on my other domains.
If you are like me and cannot create a good portfolio site with nice logos and a decent amount of visitors, you are probably somebody who can benefit from Brandbucket. If you
can create these things yourself and get a nice amount of visitors, you might not be BB's target audience. You can of course have your opinions on their business model, but don't forget that they still add value for domainers like me. Therefore, they have their place in the domain industry in my humble opinion.
