discuss Estibot is a failure, why do domainers insist on using it?

[jamesosix]

Seriously, its such a flawed piece of software and yet all i see in domain circles is "estibot this" and "estibot that"

Why do domainers insist on telling other domainers what esitbot apprises something at? It is actually starting to make me question whether a particular domainer is serious or not.

I'm going to start saying "my folks appraised this at xxxxxxxxxx value, because they probably have a better insight to a domains value versus estibot!!

Is it just me that feels this way?

I say we should start considering NOT using estibot EVER because it is full of s***.

Discuss.

 

[distlej]

My motto...

Use it when it helps you...trying to sell that dog to an end-user at $x,xxx
Ignore it when it doesn't

 

[cocaseco]

It's flawed of course but whether a seller used it to validate a sales price or a buyer used it to justify a purchase price, you can be sure that it has contributed to a significant number of deals being done over the years.

@Paully is right on. I know I am guilty of making assumptions that buyers use all of the same tools and have the same knowledge as I do. The fact is that many people, perhaps most, don't really know and will see value in Estibot or other online estimators. If you are working in a large organization and are spending someone else money you often don't do as much research as if it was your own. If you manage a product and had budgeted $20K for a domain and the domain you found is listed at $20K, that may be the end of the research. The fact that the domain might have been only worth $6K doesnt even factor in. I have people submitting specific requisitions to my department all day and we don't shop around. If the buyer says buy xyz from this domain we do it. There is a tremendous amount of waste in most medium and large size corporations.

 

[JB Lions]

I've never used it myself to sell and it wouldn't move me to buy. When somebody mentions Estibot numbers, I feel the same way when somebody mentions Alexa numbers, they must be new.

Having said that, I do use it as one of the filters in Dropping.com. If you look at the obvious good names in let's say Namejet, the ones that have bids, most of them will be over 1k. Of the 8 in my Watchlist, 7 are over 1k. So it does bring the better domains to the front. But it's just one of many filters I use. Looks like about 1.4% of NJ names are over 1k.

Also, while I'm not impressed by the numbers and most experienced domainers aren't, maybe your end user is. Most probably aren't.

But, I still probably won't ever use it myself.

 

[djum]

Esbibot is not perfect, but it has place on the market. Don't forget though that the only correct domain price estimation comes from buyer. I wouldn't halt negotiations with someone using Estibot, they can after all say that this estimate come from his dog's best friend (I had a guy told me that once), so I'd rather deal with computer program, that human coded, then animals)

 

[djum]

when somebody mentions Alexa numbers, they must be new.

What's wrong with Alexa numbers?
I've seen many time people use Alexa traffic estimations or SimilarWeb to analyze traffic, even in professional startup media, like Techcrunch. Do you think this companies provide incorrect numbers? Why someone would use their services then?

 

[JB Lions]

What's wrong with Alexa numbers?
I've seen many time people use Alexa traffic estimations or SimilarWeb to analyze traffic, even in professional startup media, like Techcrunch. Do you think this companies provide incorrect numbers? Why someone would use their services then?

They've always been a joke for a few reasons. For me, I live in America. Most Alexa users don't. I've never met a civilian that has an Alexa bar, it's usually people with websites. Also, it's very easy to manipulate the numbers, hence it being a joke. I've seen people use Alexa numbers to talk about their traffic, well how about actual numbers. You know, uniques, page views etc. that's not something you have to guess it. Those are real numbers.

 

[djum]

If we start digging on traffic sources and manipulation the outcome will be ugly. 60-70% of the world traffic is generated by bots. The same can be said about Facebook and twitter users. And these companies are publicly traded. But you can easily buy accounts, tweets, likes, pins, etc.. at fiverr or other resources. I would say fake/true ration is about 1:2,5 and it's present and already counted in the price. When Alexa calculates the traffic their top 25 mln. includes many sites with fake traffic. I agree that sources of traffic are very important and everyone need to do their due diligence, but overall Alexa number is true too, it's just you can inflate it with bots, many people do it.

 

[kemjika11]

Also, some of you need to be fair! people always bitch about when estibot priced a name "too high", but tbh, ive searched some names i bought recently, or was about to reg or buy and the estibot price was often close to what i believe an end user to pay. i'm talking about LLL.ins.

Lets not only complain when estibot is off. what about the times when it was close? yea....humans love to dwell on the bad.

@ shane- tbh i am dissapointed you didnt counter offer. you acted emotionally which to me means you were not really serious about buying the name. Imo, ANYONE WHO IS SERIOUS OFFERS OR COUNTER OFFERS.do u wanna win or be right? you didnt like his initial answer? well guess what? its called being "professional"- u suck it up.we all deal with low ballers everyday but we still have to see whats possible. ur a pro, so keep being a pro.

 

[ulterios]

Also, some of you need to be fair! people always bitch about when estibot priced a name "too high", but tbh, ive searched some names i bought recently, or was about to reg or buy and the estibot price was often close to what i believe an end user to pay. i'm talking about LLL.ins.

Lets not only complain when estibot is off. what about the times when it was close? yea....humans love to dwell on the bad.

@ shane- tbh i am dissapointed you didnt counter offer. you acted emotionally which to me means you were not really serious about buying the name. Imo, ANYONE WHO IS SERIOUS OFFERS OR COUNTER OFFERS.do u wanna win or be right? you didnt like his initial answer? well guess what? its called being "professional"- u suck it up.we all deal with low ballers everyday but we still have to see whats possible. ur a pro, so keep being a pro.

You are absolutely right, in that you MUST NOT let emotions get in the way of acquiring or selling a domain. You must just separate emotions from business. I also agree with what you said "ANYONE WHO IS SERIOUS OFFERS OR COUNTER OFFERS", this is one factor that I take into consideration when buying or selling a name.

However, I understand how Shane felt and I have done the same thing myself. Sometimes it's hard to deal with people when right away they start doing things like quoting estibot. That taken with some other things they may have included in the conversation can really lead a person to question if their is a realistic chance of getting a name you want at a fair price.

I think most domainers at one time or another have let emotion dictate how and if we respond. Anything from paying more for a domain than what it's worth because we really like the name ourselves, to feeling insulted by offers that some people give us. I was upset once last year when a buyer offered me $50 (what I paid) for a name I know was easily worth 4 figures. I took a couple of hours to think how and if I was going to respond. I did respond and eventually sold the name for $2500 to the same buyer. If I had let emotions get the better of me then I would have missed the sale.

Anyway, as to the OP's topic, to most domainers (that aren't new or haven't acquired more knowledge yet) estibot is a joke for the most part. It can be useful as a sales tool though when dealing with an end user who doesn't know better though, especially when they have been dealing with other sellers that have been using it as a sales pitch.

Do I think it's values are accurate? Hell no, I have never seen an accurate estimate ever. There may be some that are, I have just never seen any.

Can it be a useful tool? Yes, when dealing with people who do think it holds value.

 

[Name Trader]

@ulterios - You thought the domain was worth easily 5 figures but you sell it for only $2500? Why did you sell it so cheap? Did that have anything to do with the lowball initial offer?

 

[ulterios]

@ulterios - You thought the domain was worth easily 5 figures but you sell it for only $2500? Why did you sell it so cheap? Did that have anything to do with the lowball initial offer?

Thanks Stub for pointing that out, I meant 4 figures. My brain isn't operating all full capacity yet and typing with one hand is screwing up some of my posts.

The price was lower than what I wanted but since I only paid $50 for it I was happy about the deal. I am sure I could have gotten more if I held out but I got a price I was happy with and could re-invest the $.

I haven't had enough caffeine yet after sleeping only 2 hours because of the neighbors dog barking all night/morning. LOL

 

[Name Trader]

@ulterios -Happens to all of us, from time to time At least it shows I am actually reading the messages

 

[NameVerve]

Lets not only complain when Estibot is off. what about the times when it was close? yea....humans love to dwell on the bad.

An estimation tool should either work or not, Estibot doesn't. How are you meant to ascertain when it is close? Close to what? ...I could write a program that would generate random $ figures for domains and it would be "close" to my expectations sometimes but that doesn't mean it has any inherent value.

As others have stated above, it can not be used to evaluate a domains value, period. It can however be used as part of a marketing pitch to an end user who may not be as well informed as the majority of us and may be working for a mid/large company.

Is that the morally right thing to do...that's a whole different thread..

 

[accelerator]

Inexperienced domainers will like quoting Estibot if it gives them false hope. Anything that gives unrealistically high appraisals will be popular.

 

[Name Trader]

@accelerator - What does the inexperienced domainer do when the valuation is too low.

 

[ulterios]

@accelerator - What does the inexperienced domainer do when the valuation is too low.

Come here, post an appraisal in the forum. THEN, create a couple of new accounts and say how great it is and quote an unrealistic price!

 

[dbdomains]

I have sold domains for both more and less than their estibot appraisals. In some cases, 20% of the estibot value and in some cases up to several hundred times the estibot value. Estibot is just a tool. There are others I like better. Personally, if I like the domain, I will keep negotiating. All that matters to me is what the domain is worth to me.

 

[Name Trader]

@dbdomains - What valuation tools do you like better?

 

[NameVerve]

@dbdomains
How is Estibot a tool?...I still don't understand...yes it can be a tool with regards to marketing to an end user who doesn't know any better but it is not a tool in it's own right! If you have sold for 20% of it's valuation to several hundred times then it's obviously worthless for the job it is intended for.

Please explain in just one example how it has assisted you through it's valuation in either pricing/valuing or selling a domain in any way other than to an uninitiated end user whose spending his/her companies money.

 

[NameVerve]