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.