DynaDot automated appraisals really high vs all of the others out there — why?

[Molly]

Hi guys. I get that automated appraisals are unreliable, and so I generally compare the estimations from 3-5 different sites & come to my own conclusions.

That said, DynaDot’s appraisals seem ridiculously high! It’s claiming at least 5 digit ($xx,xxx) estimates for several of my domains, and nothing else has come anywhere near that.

Is it a ruse of some sort? Have others tried it and have you noticed it’s always really high, or is it my lucky day? Thanks!

 

[equity78]

Hi guys. I get that automated appraisals are unreliable, and so I generally compare the estimations from 3-5 different sites & come to my own conclusions.

That said, DynaDot’s appraisals seem ridiculously high! It’s claiming at least 5 digit ($xx,xxx) estimates for several of my domains, and nothing else has come anywhere near that.

Is it a ruse of some sort? Have others tried it and have you noticed it’s always really high, or is it my lucky day? Thanks!

Whatever happens with an automated appraisal is not a lucky day or a bad day. No one in this industry takes them serious and only the most naive and untrained end user would ever care what value they put on a domain name.

 

[789.xyz]

Where is DynaDot's automatic assessment?

 

[Molly]

I don’t have it in front of me. Just Google dynadot appraisal. It’s free, but they seem to cap you at some number per day.

 

[Sutruk]

Hi guys. I get that automated appraisals are unreliable, and so I generally compare the estimations from 3-5 different sites & come to my own conclusions.

That said, DynaDot’s appraisals seem ridiculously high! It’s claiming at least 5 digit ($xx,xxx) estimates for several of my domains, and nothing else has come anywhere near that.

Is it a ruse of some sort? Have others tried it and have you noticed it’s always really high, or is it my lucky day? Thanks!

Maybe the problem is that other automated appraisals are diculously low.
And maybe you should thank Dynadot appraisal for appraising some of your domains for a more right price so you don't undersell them.

 

[NameGroove]

Whatever happens with an automated appraisal is not a lucky day or a bad day. No one in this industry takes them serious and only the most naive and untrained end user would ever care what value they put on a domain name.

This!!!

 

[SpareDomains]

Automated appraisals usually garbage but theirs actually doesn't look as bad compared to others on the small sample I did of 4 of my sales...

Estimate=$5739 Sold=$7500 (real estate)
Estimate=$10297 Sold=$16,000 (financial)
Estimate=$1935 Sold=$16,000 (financial)
Estimate=$9087 Sold=$8000 (boating)

 

[Molly]

Automated appraisals usually garbage but theirs actually doesn't look as bad compared to others on the small sample I did of 4 of my sales...

Estimate=$5739 Sold=$7500 (real estate)
Estimate=$10297 Sold=$16,000 (financial)
Estimate=$1935 Sold=$16,000 (financial)
Estimate=$9087 Sold=$8000 (boating)

Super cool of you to test it; I was hoping somebody would!

 

[Pierre Barnard]

https://www.dynadot.com/domain/appraisal

 

[MKA]

Appraisal services provided by registrars aren't meant to appraise the value of a domain, they're meant to condition you to use their services.

It follows the same pattern as GoDaddy. Overvalue low-value domains, and undervalue high-value domains. This way you're more likely to register low-value domains to list them for sale, or use their broker service to get your dream domain for a steal.

 

[DmytroK.]

For me Dynadot also shows first time historic registed dates of all my domains in 2010 year or all in January, why so? And also a lot of appraisals over 10k.

 

[NameGroove]

Automated appraisals usually garbage but theirs actually doesn't look as bad compared to others on the small sample I did of 4 of my sales...

Estimate=$5739 Sold=$7500 (real estate)
Estimate=$10297 Sold=$16,000 (financial)
Estimate=$1935 Sold=$16,000 (financial)
Estimate=$9087 Sold=$8000 (boating)

A sample of my last 5 sales... can't see any way to use Dynadot estimates to assist my sales. They would've undersold 3 of my names and 2 would still be sitting in my portfolio waiting for a sale (no way the $13768 estimate is even close to correct). Plus the Security name had been in my portfolio for 12 years before selling at the $2605 price... hard to see how I'd have gotten anywhere near $7k.

Dynadot undervalued
Estimate=$1421 Sold=$3000 (Saas)
Estimate=$867 Sold=$3300 (Health)
Estimate=$1983 Sold=$4000 (Non-Profit)

Dynadot overvalued
Estimate=$7387 Sold=$2600 (Security)
Estimate=$13768 Sold=$2000 (Career)

 

[VadimK]

I typically have two main issues with all appraisal systems:

1. I don't understand how they work.
2. I do understand how they work.

Here Dynadot seems to have trained an AI bot to evaluate domains based on certain parameters. However, the flaws in their system are the size of black holes. For example, 80% of hyphenated domains are higher in value (and by much!), than their non-hyphenated brothers. For example, "Drone-Racing" is valued at $10670, while "DroneRacing" is only valued at $6,650.

Agree with the opinion to never rely on any online appraisal, unless you decide to create your own and fully understand what's behind.

These days, you don't trust anyone online. But you can definitely trust me through, no doubt about it.

 

[Molly]

But you can definitely trust me through, no doubt about it.

Lol! Thanks!

 

[Recons.Com]

They might have read the thread here threatening to sue GD over valuations going too low. This will make sure the owners are happy.

 

[Molly]

Hi guys. I get that automated appraisals are unreliable, and so I generally compare the estimations from 3-5 different sites & come to my own conclusions.

That said, DynaDot’s appraisals seem ridiculously high! It’s claiming at least 5 digit ($xx,xxx) estimates for several of my domains, and nothing else has come anywhere near that.

Is it a ruse of some sort? Have others tried it and have you noticed it’s always really high, or is it my lucky day? Thanks!

Case in point. Here are multiple different automated valuations. Notice how Dynadot towers above the rest. Thoughts?

All USD $	Godaddy	Estibot	Brandpa	Dynadot
ag/a/i/n/s/t/a/w/a/l/l.com			50	3341
f/l/o/p/a/b/o/u/t.com			1245	12338
i/h/o/p/y/.com	219	980	995	4437
p/e/a/s/t/o/y/o/u/.com			50	5782
w/h/e/n/g/o/d/w/h/e/n.com		110	50	665
w/h/e/n/g/o/d/w/i/n/s/.com			50	9734
w/h/e/n/he/w/i/n/s/.com			50	11170
w/i/n/g/o/d/w/i/n.com			50	4276

 

[Kyle Tully]

Case in point. Here are multiple different automated valuations. Notice how Dynadot towers above the rest. Thoughts?

All USD $	Godaddy	Estibot	Brandpa	Dynadot
a/g/a/i/n/s/t/a/w/a/l/l/.com			50	3341
f/l/o/p/a/b/o/u/t/.com			1245	12338
i/h/o/p/y/./com	219	980	995	4437
p/e/a/s/t/o/y/o/u.com			50	5782
w/h/e/n/g/o/d/w/h/e/n.com		110	50	665
w/h/e/n/g/o/d/w/i/n/s.com			50	9734
w/h/e/n/h/e/w/i/n/s.com			50	11170
w/i/n/g/o/d/w/i/n.com			50	4276

Stop using automated appraisals.

Problem solved.

 

[Samer]

Estibot gives you 1 free lookup daily.

appraised aged (2006) LLLL.com “less than $100”

There’s one that’s too low.

 

[karmaco]

Generated Appraisals are all seriously flawed. Just because word plus capital sold for $1500 on an expired auction doesn't tell you its actual worth. It tells you its wholesale price that day.

Or someone sells a name for 50K doesn't mean every domain with that keyword can garner 50K. There are alot of extenuating circumstances that make domains become more valuable, less valuable or remain same value.

None of the auto appraisals can predict anything. They just collect data on (to a large extent) wholesale transactions.

Ignore them and learn how to price your domains yourself.

 

[Molly]

Case in point. Here are multiple different automated valuations. Notice how Dynadot towers above the rest. Thoughts?

All USD $	Godaddy	Estibot	Brandpa	Dynadot
ag/a/i/n/s/t/a/w/a/l/l.com			50	3341
f/l/o/p/a/b/o/u/t.com			1245	12338
i/h/o/p/y/.com	219	980	995	4437
p/e/a/s/t//o/y/ou.com			50	5782
w/h/e/n/g/o/d/w/h/e/n.com		110	50	665
w/h/e/n/g/o/d/w/i/n/s/.com			50	9734
w/h/e/n/h/e/w/i/n/s.com			50	11170
w/i/n/g/o/d/w/i/n.com			50	4276

Thanks to all who’ve contributed so far. I’ve gotten a few “stops” & “don’ts” to my various NP posts, and I appreciate the words caution. However, I challenge you to tell me how to appraise domains without automation as a newbie.

That is, I understand what the problem is, but have you got a solution to share? Otherwise, which end of the spectrum do you think is most realistic in these examples? Thanks.

 

[Kyle Tully]

I challenge you to tell me how to appraise domains without automation as a newbie.

Study domain sales and keywords/trends. Learn how to research past comparable sales for names you are looking at. That's really the only way to learn for yourself.

All the appraisal tools are flawed in different ways and while one might give an OK estimation for one name, it will be wildly off for many others. And unless you can tell the difference then you'll always be at the mercy of a tool you don't understand... either selling names way too cheaply or sitting on appraised "good" names that will never sell because they're overpriced and/or just garbage.

For example, if you don't know how to do the basic research of figuring out approximately what whenhewins.com is worth and need someone to tell you if it's closer to $50 or $11,000 then you're probably not ready to be investing in names.

 

[JB Lions]

Thanks to all who’ve contributed so far. I’ve gotten a few “stops” & “don’ts” to my various NP posts, and I appreciate the words caution. However, I challenge you to tell me how to appraise domains without automation as a newbie.

That is, I understand what the problem is, but have you got a solution to share? Otherwise, which end of the spectrum do you think is most realistic in these examples? Thanks.

They're going to be more accurate for generic type terms where there is a history of sales, not brandables and such.

Most of these appraisal sites use past sales as a foundation for their algo, which most people would actually agree is a good idea, comparables. I think GoDaddy is actually pretty decent for generic type domains that have a good sales history/comparables.

Sometimes they could be all over the place, sometimes pretty close. I tried a recent generic and:

Godaddy - 2324

Estibot - 2231

Rosener Equation - 2600

I felt good at putting a Buy Now price of $2,500 on that one, priced to sell. Besides doing some other basic checks.

 

[inforg]

I challenge you to tell me how to appraise domains without automation as a newbie.

You have to start by putting yourself in the shoes of your potential customers. The first thing you need to determine when evaluating a name is "How could someone make money or advance a cause by owning this domain?" What would they sell on this website, or how could they monetize it? If you can't see a way to make money developing the name, it is probably not worth much, if anything.

If I have a good idea of how my potential customer might use this domain to make money, then I can look at what market segment it is in and what the average costs of this product or service are. For instance, DiamondJewelry.com has a much higher price point than KeyChains.com.

I would also look at comparable sales on Namebio and see what domains in that niche have sold for. There is nothing wrong with using automated appraisals as part of the process. I use several and have a formula that incorporates those, with my other metrics, to give me a suggested price. But I still have to use my common sense and knowledge when figuring a price or deciding whether to buy or drop a name.

Other metrics you might consider are age, length, number of words, extensions already registered, traffic, parking revenue, domain history, DA, Google search volume, and Google search results. In the end, there are no automated means to find sellable domains. If there was, someone would have already developed an algorithm and owned all the sellable domains.

Using your list above, I just don't see anything with a demand.

Ihopy - who wants to own a name that makes you think about pancakes?

3 word when he wins, when god when, etc. may make OK personal blogs, but people have tons of options in 3-word domains and are not going to pay much beyond reg fee

Peas to you? A 3-word with a mis-spelling? Nah.

FlopAbout and AgainstAWall don't bring any monetization ideas to mind. Maybe they have a place as something cute and cheap in a larger portfolio, but I would have passed on both.

Little to no search volume for any of these, I assume they are all hand-regs without any history, age, or traffic.

Instead of asking everyone for some silver bullet to domain selection, maybe you would be better served by spending the time going over sales reports, watching GoDaddy expired auctions, etc. to get a feel for value.

 

[VadimK]

Just average across all the appraisals you can use.

Truth is - past sales indeed. NameBio, reports from Afternic and Sedo (reported on NP), reports on NamePros itself... Try to find a correlation between the price and popularity of the keyword.

 

[Sutruk]

However, I challenge you to tell me how to appraise domains without automation as a newbie.

That is, I understand what the problem is, but have you got a solution to share? Otherwise, which end of the spectrum do you think is most realistic in these examples? Thanks.

It's a mix of the following:
1. Your experience/time looking at domain sales/weekly domain reports at Namebio/Sedo/NP...
2. Your own experience dealing with buyers will give you also a valuable hint about it. Nothing will teach you more than your own experience.
3. Points (1) and (2) will give you an overview of what's the "sweet spot" on domain sales.
4. Just in case, to not let an unexpected gem slide through your fingers, check its appraisal at GD appraisal, or the number of extensions registered at dotdb.com
If the appraisal is above $5K, watch out! you can get a gem in your hands. If it's above $10K, seriously, keep an eye on that gem. (Note: Beware, this is on average. You can also have a gem with a $2K GD value and not many extensions registered).
5. You can see and hear many advices, but until you enter the game and start experiencing, you really won't learn about it. And mostly because each of us may have a different view, after years of experience, about how to price a domain name.