debate Free domain appraisals are NOT useless.

[katerleonid]

Most people says free domain appraisals are useless.
So I tested them on a $2,000,000 sale - anything.com

Saw.com → $1,137,000
Atom → $1M+
GoDaddy → too high to estimate

The mistake people make is testing free appraisals on cheap domains.

 

[Miver]

asseenontv.com

5,000,000 USD

2000-01-01

Private

This seems to me that kind of Scenario you talk about in one of your free appraisal:
...when the seller finds his Unicorn...

 

[Eric Lyon]

Gemini took (=you allowed it to take) marketing copies at face value…

’Data-driven’ or ’decades of real-market sales data’ is pointless when the data is bad. And the data is bad when it doesn’t distinguish between end user and investor sales, or between normal aftermarket sales and expired auctions, or between ”it’s all in the name” and SEO/backlink purchases, for instance. Everything is lumped together and it is called ’sales data’.

^Agreed, which is why I don't use automated appraisal tools myself

I think we can’t use any of this data as the sale of those websites are public so a dumb bot could just look at public sales and “estimate” very close to reality. It’s not easy to compare as you’d need a way to have real sale prices and also not public.

Also more considerations: some websites are not sold for name but for SEO. I doubt they can figure it out especially if was in the past as SEO keeps changing.
Also domains names can have a lot of variation. Suppose 2 parallel universes, a startup is called obelix. In universe A they get 10b funding, in universe B they get 100k. In universe a might buy obelix.com for 1m, in universe b might be 1k.
Also imagine seller can be in a rush to sell or comfortable.
Too many variables that we can’t tell.

^Exactly, one of the reasons why I don't use automated appraisal tools myself

This seems to me that kind of Scenario you talk about in one of your free appraisal:
...when the seller finds his Unicorn...

^Yes! Unicorns are generally in the 6 to 7-figures. Many times 5-figures are as well, but occasionally a standard end-user will have the seed funding to invest into their brand with that level of value confidence and not be a unicorn.

 

[Nathan K]

Domain appraisal tools provide beginners with negative information. This makes them worse than worthless, as they are essentially misinformation rather than merely useless information.

 

[alcy]

Domain appraisal tools provide beginners with negative information. This makes them worse than worthless, as they are essentially misinformation rather than merely useless information.

so true.

obviously by law they are not illegal but by moral harm thry inflict via misguiding they should be illegal.

we saw few examples where they were used in malicious ways and intentionally so.