.mobi DotMobi Valuations - My guide

[newdomainer.mobi]

I have a different stance to many on valuations; it is my opinion that if a domain has a purpose then it has a minimum value of $500.00

The domain industry is on 2 levels.... domainers who think nothing of trading domains for $10 and dealers who sell to end users (or 3rd party brokers) for $500 +

If a domain has any value at all then IMHO it is worth $500 - how can anyone justify anything lower?

Seriously; if a domain is worth squat it's got to be worth $500... It's a unique address - it's an important part of anyones web presence - be they a business or just a small scale social site..

So a domainer to domainer trade should be $200+ even allowing for renewals etc.. over a 2 year period prior to resale..

Ask yourself a question; if you cannot see why a domain is worth $500 (to someone) then should you reg it at all? - Certainly if you own it, why are you selling for a few $'s?

Domains aren't cigarette cards they are business assets (generally) & should be traded as such... why sell a $500 asset for $50 or less?

In a domainers market it can be fun to trade - I don't deny that.... if $25 flips are your thing then don't let me criticise you - I'm sure you make regular money & I can't deny that it's a lot of fun... but SEDO won't even consider an auction until you've got a $70 bid & thats just to start...

The reason that domains are so under-valued is because there are quite simply not enough end-users yet... there's a stock-pile of domains globally which deflates the values of our portfolios... I would suggest that maybe 80% of names will never be developed (certainly not inside of 10 years); unfortunately that even applies to many of the good names we all have; they may never be developed - again; certainly not within the next 10years..... but when you have a name that an end user needs a $500 minimum price isn't going to make them go elsewhere - after all its $500 not a $million..

Grab those $500+ sales when you can because most domainers lose money... why do they lose money? They lose it because per 100 names that cost them $1,000 to reg & renew each year, they sell 15 names for $25.00 & the rest they hold... next year the 85 left (per 100) cost them $800 to hold but they sold the best 15 last year & only sell 10 this year... you get the picture, it's a tale of diminishing returns.

The 1st 10 (i.e. your best 10) sales out of every 100 names you hold need to be $500 sales... if you can't sell 10, settle for 3... you've made $500 gp year-on-year & you still have 97 names left.. next year you still have some good names & the market is likely to improve.. you could sell 5 or 6 for $2,500 to $3,000 (or more)...

80/20 rule = 20% of what you do earns 80% of your money... don't sell that 20% for pin money or you won't even break even!

So my 2 cents worth is that a name falls into one of 2 value groups

$nil or

$500+

Anyone care to take me on for my views on this?

 

[Steven]

I think it's always good to think optimistically, but the situation may be too idealistic for many.
My take is that even if .mobi domain has a purpose, it will not neccessarily (most likely not unless pure generics or special lll/nnn) be + $500 (even $200 for domainer to domainer trade).

It's like me telling people to sell some of their .com domains with a purpose for over $1,000 (or heck, even $10,000). Sure it's easy to tell them, but can they actually sell them for + $1,000 (or + $10,000)? This is excluding some special type rare domains like LLL.com, NNN.com, LLLL.com that are also traded commonly among domainers.

 

[RegFee]

One thing's for sure: if you plan on taking this advice and not settling for anything <$500, you probably won't be doing much selling on the forums, especially with hand-regs. And that's where real work starts to come into play, contacting end users, listing the domain on various sites (which domainers frequent anyway, so good luck getting more than it's worth there) and just creating your own portfolio site and advertising in non-domaining circles. I think some alternative advice would be to save the $1000 you speak of above and buy a $1500 domain with it, sit on it for a year, sell it for $3000. Hand-regs are generally meant for quick flips.

 

[newdomainer.mobi]

One thing's for sure: if you plan on taking this advice and not settling for anything <$500, you probably won't be doing much selling on the forums, especially with hand-regs. And that's where real work starts to come into play, contacting end users, listing the domain on various sites (which domainers frequent anyway, so good luck getting more than it's worth there) and just creating your own portfolio site and advertising in non-domaining circles. I think some alternative advice would be to save the $1000 you speak of above and buy a $1500 domain with it, sit on it for a year, sell it for $3000. Hand-regs are generally meant for quick flips.

Do you mind if I dissect your argument?


One thing's for sure: if you plan on taking this advice and not settling for anything <$500, you probably won't be doing much selling on the forums, especially with hand-regs

Question: Explain what a "hand reg" is please?

I am not aware of any automated system that spits out non-hand reg names... All names are hand regs are they not? It's just that some are older than others & may have been developed etc...
Surely by your measure I can "hand reg" a name for $5 & then sell it to someone for $25 as a flip... & then what? does the buyer then market the name as a hot, aftermarket name & sell it for $100? or $500 or $5,000?
You tell me, when does the name cease to be a hand reg? & what difference does it make that it was hand regged then sold for $5,000 or whether it has changed hands a few times before being sold for $5,000?

Domains aren't 2 penny stamps for Gods sake, they are either valuable business assets (or they are worthless) There is little middle ground..

A tea pot is either serviceable or not... a crap tea pot with a hole in the bottom isn't worth 80% of a good one or 60% it's worth approximately 0% - nowt, squat, zilch, zero, nada, nothing....

Either the people buying these names are mugs or those that are selling them are.... ? go figure - show me a scenario that is any different...

(by the way I also have little interest in selling via the forums unless I am approached for this precise reason althouh I have sold two names recently to a fellow member for $3,000 the pair)

And that's where real work starts to come into play, contacting end users, listing the domain on various sites (which domainers frequent anyway, so good luck getting more than it's worth there) and just creating your own portfolio site and advertising in non-domaining circles. I think some alternative advice would be to save the $1000 you speak of above and buy a $1500 domain with it, sit on it for a year, sell it for $3000. Hand-regs are generally meant for quick flips


"Hand regs are meant for quick flips" - I really don't get that comment at all... are you suggesting that domains are just like collectors items - just meant for flipping to another domainer to sell to another etc...

I am tempted to ask "Are you all bloody mad?" (But I won't

Domain names serve one purpose - that's to stick on a server with a website attached to it, has "domaining" got to such a point now where the participants have forgotten what the things they're trading are actually for?

An argument earlier is that maybe I'm wrong, maybe names aren't worth $500 or $1,000?

Well answer this, if the name isn't worth $500 is it worth a cent?
An end user is going to be someone with a purpose are they not? I'm not talking about domains for hobby sites "Midtexasdogwalkersclub.com" or anything of a similar nature; any name like that is worth diddly squat - they are usually regged by the end user & not bought on the aftermarket.

The 'buy a $1,500 domain & double it inside a year' argument?

I don't get this either? Who is going to guarentee that a $1,500 name will double in 12 months? I don't see that happening - of course some will - but it'll be those that were undersold in the 1st place; any name that is fairly valued at $1,500 now has a chance to be worth $1,400 in a years time given the current economic outlook.

Now, I have a grasp of the English language... (it matters not what language we talk about - but it helps to be able to master the language)...

So, tell me; am I better off using my language skills to register $1,000 of new names by doing something that seems unpopular these days....

"Thinking"


I have searched for 1,000's upon 1,000's of names over the past 18months & guess what; many were gone!

But, of those that weren't - I picked up potential $1,000 names for $4 - $7 each...

Who's the mug?

Finally; you allude to the fact that if you don't sell to domainers then you have to master the art of selling to others...
Now, please bear with me here because I'm having alittle trouble getting this?

Are you suggesting that domains just get flipped & traded between domainers forever & ever amen?

Or does someone end up throwing the ball out of the court so to speak into the hands of an end user?

If it's not the latter then the domaining industry is a complete Pyramid scheme (which it generally isn't).... so the next question is; if you don't sell them to an end user - who the hell will?

Because whoever it is, they are the ones that cash the biggest cheque (check)... now let me give you a clue...

The person who cashes the cheque is the person who was holding the name at the time that the end user was in the market for it...

I don't know the figures so I can't claim to know exactly how this works but generally speaking; end users who can't reg the name they want either employ an agent or do this themselves;
They look up the owner of the name via Whois... then they contact the owner, then they either do a deal or look for another name..

Most of my sales to date are like that (well over half)... the end user will almost always pay a minimum of $500 for a name even if they are a one-man band type business... when you get higher up the chain - $xx,xxx is more commonplace.

So who is the clever one? The person who hand regs & sells for a $10 profit or the one who hand regs (or buys off the person above) & then waits until a buyer falls into his lap with a nice juicy cheque?

If you can't afford to hold 100's of names then don't keep "flipping" 2nd rate names - get your head to work, build a small portfolio of smart, clever hand regs & then sit on them, renew them & when you can afford it, add to them... sell only when you get a decent price... the same is often true of share dealing - the constant flipping of assets isn't productive for anyone other than the brokers; the domain industry would benefit enormously by domainers just keeping their hands in their pockets IMHO...

There is no difference between the person who sells a domain to an end user (or broker acting for the buyer) & you!

Except they usually make 80% of the profit.....

I gave up collecting sports cards, tea leaf cards & stamps when I was about 15... it seems that this is the mentality that dominates this 'industry' (I am almost loathed to call it an industry to be honest... it falls far short by many measures from professionalism through to business like thinking..

All just my own point of view, certainly not meant to insult anyone... I just like to put the cat among the pigeons sometimes & see what happens..

 

[NewWorldArk]

One thing's for sure: if you plan on taking this advice and not settling for anything <$500, you probably won't be doing much selling on the forums, especially with hand-regs. And that's where real work starts to come into play, contacting end users, listing the domain on various sites (which domainers frequent anyway, so good luck getting more than it's worth there) and just creating your own portfolio site and advertising in non-domaining circles. I think some alternative advice would be to save the $1000 you speak of above and buy a $1500 domain with it, sit on it for a year, sell it for $3000. Hand-regs are generally meant for quick flips.

Do you mind if I dissect your argument?

Quite the Post. Very Well Dissected. Repped.

 

[binaryman]

Quote "Do you mind if I dissect your argument?" Unquote

Well Dissected Indeed. Could'nt agree more

 

[snoop]

So my 2 cents worth is that a name falls into one of 2 value groups

$nil or

$500+

Anyone care to take me on for my views on this?

This argument makes zero sense. Perhaps you'll go around and buy all those $10 domains for $500 to prove your point lol

 

[newdomainer.mobi]

This argument makes zero sense. Perhaps you'll go around and buy all those $10 domains for $500 to prove your point lol

Snoop; I have over 3,000 domains, many of them I have bought for $10 or thereabouts... because I see $500 value in them...

As I said earlier.... who's the mug in this game? if you want to reg some names & I see value in them I will be more than happy to pay you $25 each for them - the 80/20 rule which does apply to most things dictates that however good your names - 80% of the return will arise from 20% of your names... so if I buy 10 names for $25 each = $250 & sell 20% of those for $500 = $4,000

Minus renewals over 2 - 5 years... it's how its done... end users take time to come out of the wood work but if your the mug who flipped the name for $25 dollars 6 months before the end user did a Whois to start his buying process that doesn't make you look too smart does it?

Put it this way, I don't imagine Rick Schwartz ever getting all excited over $25 flips somehow

 

[akcampbell]

Very weird thread. A domain is worth what people are willing to pay and what an owner is willing to sell for. That could be $1 or $1m.

Somebody could decide their domains are worth $500+ each, be completely deluded, hold them for the next 20 years, and then technology might change rendering them worthless. 5 domains flipped at $100 each is the same as 1 sold at $500.

Pile'em high and sell'em cheap for $50, or sit on your hands and wait for a single sale each year to cover your reg fee with some profit, just 2 different selling strategies, the former suited to bucket class quality domains, the second to quality .coms but neither is right or wrong.

 

[snoop]

so if I buy 10 names for $25 each = $250 & sell 20% of those for $500 = $4,000

This is where the argument falls apart, you tell us these names are worth $500 yet you can only sell 20% of them for that price? Do you know why that it? It is because they are not all worth $500.

Somebody could decide their domains are worth $500+ each, be completely deluded, hold them for the next 20 years, and then technology might change rendering them worthless. 5 domains flipped at $100 each is the same as 1 sold at $500.

Pile'em high and sell'em cheap for $50, or sit on your hands and wait for a single sale each year to cover your reg fee with some profit, just 2 different selling strategies, the former suited to bucket class quality domains, the second to quality .coms but neither is right or wrong.

Well said Sir.

 

[newdomainer.mobi]

This is where the argument falls apart, you tell us these names are worth $500 yet you can only sell 20% of them for that price? Do you know why that it? It is because they are not all worth $500.



Well said Sir.

Snoop, respectfully I would say you are a bit of a pratt

If I sell 20% of them that is (as I thought I'd explained) because there are not buyers for all the names at the same time...

I'm talking end-user sales not inter domain sales... the same is true for many things outside of domaining...

The other 80% are still worth their money but you have to find a buyer... when that buyer is found the price will be $500 +

Over a prolonged period of time the number of names in my portfolio will probably grow because I will be buying names cheap & selling 20% of them to end users... the 20% rule is a rule of thumb that applies to much in life, take these forums for example; 80% of the money will be made by 20% of the members, for 20% of the names they collectively hold...
I find that 80% of the collective intelligence is held by 20% of the members - I get 80% of the valuable information from 20% of the posts, as tempting as it is, I won't stoop so low as to pursue my 80/20 rule in a more personal manner

Don't let me persuade you either way... I know what my game plan is & domaining is just a sideline to my other businesses so if I get it wrong it's just my problem & no one elses isn't it..

An earlier post said that 5x $100 flips is worth a $500 sale... well that is very true & if you have enough names in your portfolio that you can sell for $100 & make $50,000 a year thats great... but that's 550 names to flip every year to make $50,000 & thats assuming that you only paid an average of $10 each for your names... then of course you have to hold maybe 3 or 4 times that amount in order to get your sales... unless by some miracle you happen to sell 100% of the names that you put up for sale?

Now, that in itself tells me something... you can answer this yourself; if someone is selling widgets & consistently sells 100% of his/her stock what does that tell you? - That they are either genius sales people (not so likley) or they are selling far too cheap (more likely).

To make $50,000 a year you actually need 750 sales per annum at $110 (assuming a base cost of $10) that covers the 2,500 names that you would have to hold in order to achieve that level of sales...

If you can sell 2 domains every day of the year on this basis I take my hat off to you... in fact you can come & work for me!

Then of course you have to do the same again next year etc etc... each year the pool of good & affordable names gets smaller... hand regs get harder... so whether you can get saleable names for $10 is doubtful...

I'll stick to my 2% to 5% target if its all the same to you... I can't be doing with all that rushing around just for $50,000 a year.. I'm in for the longer term & to just slice a few % off each year... until domains are usurped by something new...

Good luck, whatever your Modus Operandi

Gary

 

[snoop]

If I sell 20% of them that is (as I thought I'd explained) because there are not buyers for all the names at the same time...

I'm talking end-user sales not inter domain sales... the same is true for many things outside of domaining...

The other 80% are still worth their money but you have to find a buyer... when that buyer is found the price will be $500 +

Understand that if you can't find a buyer at $500 in a short timeframe the name is not worth $500. You have a different model, selling small amounts of stock at higher prices, that doesn't make the domains either worth $0 or $500. That is your selling price ($500 or nothing), not the value of the names.

Over a prolonged period of time the number of names in my portfolio will probably grow because I will be buying names cheap & selling 20% of them to end users... the 20% rule is a rule of thumb that applies to much in life, take these forums for example; 80% of the money will be made by 20% of the members, for 20% of the names they collectively hold...
I find that 80% of the collective intelligence is held by 20% of the members - I get 80% of the valuable information from 20% of the posts, as tempting as it is, I won't stoop so low as to pursue my 80/20 rule in a more personal manner

Totally unrealistic. The very best sellers/portfolio owners like buydomains and dotcomagency sell 1-3% of stock per year, this is something that has been noted by sellers of fairly good quality domains over a long period of time. For the average .mobi portfolio I'm guessing it is going to be a small fraction of that figure. If the average .mobi portfolio yielded even half a percent per year in enduser sales at prices well above liquid value, I'd be surprised.

Now, that in itself tells me something... you can answer this yourself; if someone is selling widgets & consistently sells 100% of his/her stock what does that tell you? - That they are either genius sales people (not so likley) or they are selling far too cheap (more likely).

It is just a different model, most businesses do actually sell pretty much all of their stock. The stuff that doesn't sell they reduce to the point that it will sell. The domain business is fairly unique in terms of some sellers (who target endusers) having an inventory turnover of 30-100 years+

To make $50,000 a year you actually need 750 sales per annum at $110 (assuming a base cost of $10) that covers the 2,500 names that you would have to hold in order to achieve that level of sales...

You are big on mathematic calulations but where are they actually coming from? Unless it is based on real world sales stats then it is just meaningless banter.

 

[Steven]

I agree with Snoop.

$500 or nothing is your asking price as Snoop has pointed out.
I can set the pricing of my domains on sale to $1,000,000 or nothing.
If the domain is not that very attractive, it may get a few offers here or there, but with my wishful thinking of $1,000,000 or nothing, I may end up renewing it for year and years and end up with no sale (forever).

I like to think optimistically with my .mobi and .tv and other speculative extensions, but it's best to stick to the facts and examine the status of the market and try to buy and sell accordingly.
Sometimes luck does play in hand, but to rely on that solely would be as good as pure gambling.

Best wishes

 

[newdomainer.mobi]

I agree with Snoop.

$500 or nothing is your selling price as Snoop has pointed out.
I can set the pricing of my domains on sale to $1,000,000 or nothing.
If the domain is not that very attractive, it may get a few offers here or there, but with my wishful thinking of $1,000,000 or nothing, I may end up renewing it for year and years and end up with no sale (forever).

I like to think optimistically with my .mobi and .tv and other speculative extensions, but it's best to stick to the facts and examine the status of the market and try to buy and sell accordingly.
Sometimes luck does play in hand, but to rely on that solely would be as good as pure gambling.

Best wishes

One quick comment before I hit my pit tonight...

I set my price at $500 or nothing because I do not consider $500 to be great deal of money to expect an end user to pay for a name they want..

You can set the figure at $300 if you're more comfortable with that but the point I'm making is that the minimum value has got be $300 - $500
How can you say that any name that is worth $100 isn't actually worth $300

The maths I quoted above aren't pointless banter - its about doing your sums, given a very low % turnover - lets use snoops 1-3% historic average - that makes it all the more important to achieve the $500 benchmark when you sell something; you must do this just to break even on the other 97% you're renewing.. as it happens I have sold about 0.5% on an annualised basis but thats without marketing anything yet so I expect that to increase to around 5% - if I fall short it's no matter; they'll be here again next year.

The business model that states you must sell high then sell middle then sell low in order to shift all your stock is a flawed model... why do shops sell slow shifting stock off cheap? because it goes out of date, out of style or starts to depreciate for one reason or another... this could be true for some domains; I expect someones got floppydisks.ws for example - past its sell by date for sure
But by & large domains don't go off, they mature like a good cheese - no need to discount your stock to get rid... it'll be perfectly good this year, next year or the year after..

The sticking point is how do I justify my minimum valuation?

Lets say I chose $1 as my selling price?
It's not hard to spot the flaw in that business model is it?
- selling below cost = loss.

lets say I choose $1,000,000 as was suggested above
Again, not hard to spot the flaws... too high, will deter any potential buyers (unless of course you have a $1,000,000 name) but as abench mark value that is too high.

Now lets say its between $1 & $500
Lets accept that only 3 to 5% of your names will sell during any given year (although I think that is too low a %)
Lets say you pay $12 per name at cost + $12 renewals
Lets play with some numbers... Snoop doesn't like numbers but then again it appears that 80% of domainers don't run their numbers so he's not alone!

You can do what you like with the figures but you will sharp see that you need to raise your game, unless of course you like spending hours domaining pushing the same dollar bill back & forth with nowt to take out by way of profit...

A domain falls into 2 categories - worthless & $benchmark Plus
In my case I aim for $500 minimum (thats not to say I don't sell below depending on the circumstances)

I am still waiting for someone to find me a domain that has a viable use - i.e. would be ideal for an end user... but can only qualify for a $100 valuation..

I mean what kind of commercial purpose can be served by a domain that is only worth $100? - even an ice cream man with an ice cream round on one of those bicycles will take more than $100 in a good hour or 2 at most.

If he fancied posting his daily whereabouts on his mobi website (tuesdays he's at the beach house, fridays at the soccer etc.. then even our modest little ice cream man on a bicycle will probably cough up $500 for a decent domain - especially if he's got one of those Italian names that grace a 1,000 restaurants.. because there'll be competition for the name.

Again, don't think I'm talking about crap names with maybe one potential end user at best, these have little or no value... for the sake of argument I consider anything less than $50 to be worthless anyway... again, do the maths - if you hold it 3 years & sell for $50 who the hell makes any money? especially as you probably have another 3 or 4 worthless names that you also held for 3 years but didn't sell - probably ended up on here for $8 - $12 each.. in this industry $50 is as good as nowt.

Of course I'm not suggesting that you throw out all your money with a face value of less than $50 (I still stop to pick up pennies
But if you do the maths you will see that you are pretty much wasting your time on these low value deals, I'm sure that some of you understand perfectly; others will never listen.......... as long as everyone is happy in what they do, who am I to criticise..

G'nite.

Gary

 

[snoop]

I set my price at $500 or nothing because I do not consider $500 to be great deal of money to expect an end user to pay for a name they want..

...as it happens I have sold about 0.5% on an annualised basis but thats without marketing anything yet so I expect that to increase to around 5% - if I fall short it's no matter; they'll be here again next year.

Here is some real basic maths, if you say you are selling 0.5% of your inventory for $500 per year then that is an average sale of $2.5 per name, ie a loss of about $6 per name after reg fees.

 

[RegFee]

[

Question: Explain what a "hand reg" is please?

Yes, forgive me for my redundancy. You're probably one of those people that flip out when they hear someone say "RBI's" or "VIN Number". To be honest, since you chose to "dissect" my choice of words right off the bat, I just stopped paying attention to you. It's always hard to tell with people who write extremely long posts whether they are being passionate about the topic or if they just recognize that the more they write, the less people will stop caring and will therefore stop arguing with them.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that it is really easy to come out and say "Everything you are doing is wrong. We need Change!" What we really need, however, is proof that that change is actually good change and that it can work. (are we still talking about domaining?!? ) I wish you the best of luck and hope you can come back to us in a year time with a report of success.

 

[Steven]

It's always hard to tell with people who write extremely long posts whether they are being passionate about the topic or if they just recognize that the more they write, the less people will stop caring and will therefore stop arguing with them.

It can be neural linguistic programming for suggestive minds.
When you read the words mobi and success and related words/meaning constantly and repeatdly throughout the long paragraphs, your mind will tell you that mobi = success, and thereby believing that regging .mobi is good.

.
.
.
.
.

Just teasing :hehe:

 

[binaryman]

I have a different stance to many on valuations; it is my opinion that if a domain has a purpose then it has a minimum value of $500.00

The domain industry is on 2 levels.... domainers who think nothing of trading domains for $10 and dealers who sell to end users (or 3rd party brokers) for $500 +

If a domain has any value at all then IMHO it is worth $500 - how can anyone justify anything lower?

Seriously; if a domain is worth squat it's got to be worth $500... It's a unique address - it's an important part of anyones web presence - be they a business or just a small scale social site..

So a domainer to domainer trade should be $200+ even allowing for renewals etc.. over a 2 year period prior to resale..

Ask yourself a question; if you cannot see why a domain is worth $500 (to someone) then should you reg it at all? - Certainly if you own it, why are you selling for a few $'s?

Domains aren't cigarette cards they are business assets (generally) & should be traded as such... why sell a $500 asset for $50 or less?

In a domainers market it can be fun to trade - I don't deny that.... if $25 flips are your thing then don't let me criticise you - I'm sure you make regular money & I can't deny that it's a lot of fun... but SEDO won't even consider an auction until you've got a $70 bid & thats just to start...

The reason that domains are so under-valued is because there are quite simply not enough end-users yet... there's a stock-pile of domains globally which deflates the values of our portfolios... I would suggest that maybe 80% of names will never be developed (certainly not inside of 10 years); unfortunately that even applies to many of the good names we all have; they may never be developed - again; certainly not within the next 10years..... but when you have a name that an end user needs a $500 minimum price isn't going to make them go elsewhere - after all its $500 not a $million..

Grab those $500+ sales when you can because most domainers lose money... why do they lose money? They lose it because per 100 names that cost them $1,000 to reg & renew each year, they sell 15 names for $25.00 & the rest they hold... next year the 85 left (per 100) cost them $800 to hold but they sold the best 15 last year & only sell 10 this year... you get the picture, it's a tale of diminishing returns.

The 1st 10 (i.e. your best 10) sales out of every 100 names you hold need to be $500 sales... if you can't sell 10, settle for 3... you've made $500 gp year-on-year & you still have 97 names left.. next year you still have some good names & the market is likely to improve.. you could sell 5 or 6 for $2,500 to $3,000 (or more)...

80/20 rule = 20% of what you do earns 80% of your money... don't sell that 20% for pin money or you won't even break even!

So my 2 cents worth is that a name falls into one of 2 value groups

$nil or

$500+

Anyone care to take me on for my views on this?

I go along with your thinking but a popular online domain value estimator called Estibot does not.

 

[newdomainer.mobi]

I can assure you that I am not being hostile nor meaning to offend; I just don't care for over zealous dimplomacy so I can be taken for being rude when I'm just playing devils advocate or just speaking my mind.. Lively debate brings about real ideas; mumbling doesn't catch peoples attention!

To illustrate the point; I heard a good story last week when a right wing MP was being interviewed by a young Leftie who looked a bit nervous on arrival at the TV studio - the right wing MP took him to one side & said 'don't worry -it's easy really "just go for it"... the leftie took his advice & ripped into the MP during the interview... afterwards he felt awkward for the way he had treated the MP so he kept away.. But the MP saw him & marched up alongside him & said;-

"There you are dear chap, that wasn't so bad was it?... I think we deserve a beer after all that hard work don't you..."

The Leftie... stunned... accepted the offer & went for the drink..

This is a true Story, the Leftie was Mark Steele (From UK Tv) the MP I can't recall..

The Moral was that if you hold your head above the trenches you're going to get shot at... but no reason not to go for a drink with your opoponent afterwards; he was only doing his job... (unlike when some ar*e mugs you in the street.... that's not in the rule book


Regards

Gary

P.S I still don't have a definition for a hand reg? - will you elucidate for me please... seriously I would love to know how you define a hand reg & what you call regs that aren't hand regs?

Yes, forgive me for my redundancy. You're probably one of those people that flip out when they hear someone say "RBI's" or "VIN Number". To be honest, since you chose to "dissect" my choice of words right off the bat, I just stopped paying attention to you. It's always hard to tell with people who write extremely long posts whether they are being passionate about the topic or if they just recognize that the more they write, the less people will stop caring and will therefore stop arguing with them.

Anyway, I just wanted to say that it is really easy to come out and say "Everything you are doing is wrong. We need Change!" What we really need, however, is proof that that change is actually good change and that it can work. (are we still talking about domaining?!? ) I wish you the best of luck and hope you can come back to us in a year time with a report of success.

 

[VisionEdger]

Snoop; I have over 3,000 domains, many of them I have bought for $10 or thereabouts... because I see $500 value in them...

As I said earlier.... who's the mug in this game? if you want to reg some names & I see value in them I will be more than happy to pay you $25 each for them - the 80/20 rule which does apply to most things dictates that however good your names - 80% of the return will arise from 20% of your names... so if I buy 10 names for $25 each = $250 & sell 20% of those for $500 = $4,000

Minus renewals over 2 - 5 years... it's how its done... end users take time to come out of the wood work but if your the mug who flipped the name for $25 dollars 6 months before the end user did a Whois to start his buying process that doesn't make you look too smart does it?

Put it this way, I don't imagine Rick Schwartz ever getting all excited over $25 flips somehow

Uh , sorry ND but your math is WRONG here.

you say "80% of the return will arise from 20% of your names... so if I buy 10 names for $25 each = $250 & sell 20% of those for $500 = $4,000 "

It should be this:

10 names @ $25 ea = $250 cost correct
Now you want to sell 20% of those 10 names = 2 names.
2 Names sold @ $500 ea = $1000 minus your cost of buying the 10 domains initially to start your system @ $250 leaves you with a Grand NET total of $750.00 NOT $4000!

I suggest you rework your idea there. $3250 is a big accounting error if you are going to follow this rule of thumb.

Just trying to help!