How likely is a Brandbucket-published domain to be sold?

[Ted Levy]

I'm a relatively new domainer. I began accumulating brandable domains about ten weeks ago and I now own 30 BrandBucket published domains with listing prices ranging from about $900 to $4,000. As of now, none have been sold. From what I read here, BB has perhaps 15,000 domains listed and perhaps 2,000 annually are sold. I may be way off with these numbers.

I'm trying to develop a business plan to guide my domaining efforts in the near future. I would like to answer a simple question... how likely is a BB published domain to be sold? To quantify this so that I can collect some good information from those of you experienced domainers who wish to contribute to this thread, let me make the question more precise:

A randomly selected BB domain with a list price of 2,000 is published on January 1. How likely is it that it will be sold by December 31, one year later? How does that likelihood vary if the price is lower or higher? I assume that all similarly priced domains are more or less equally likely to sell, which is the same as saying that I roughly trust that BB knows its market.

Can anybody refine the numbers of BB-listed domains and BB-sold domains? Also, I have read suggestions that BB favors "its own" listings over those of other submitters? Is that true? If so, how do they favor them? Is it by pricing them better (cheaper? more expensive?), by featuring them somehow more prominently? By "pushing" them in discussions with propective buyers?

I really like the concept of a market directed to end-users that theoretically allows bridging the wholesale-to-retail (end-user) pricing gap--a marketing channel--but I don't want to devote too much money and energy to a concept that doesn't really work.

Any commentary would be greatly appreciated.

- Ted

 

[namerav]

Based on the thread details following conclusion can be made: Brandbucket rate of Sucess is 10-13% of their inventory.
So if you own say 100 domains and they are expected to be of on par with other domains listed than you can sell around 12 domains/year.
I think that's good investment strategy.

 

[Ted Levy]

Not sure my numbers listed/sold are right though. Plus more come on than go off so total listed tends to increase.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

No offense but I'm of the Do It Yourself mentality. I can see why Brandbucket might seem like the ticket to success but your posts have the ANSWER to your QUESTION. Brandbucket like all other "marketplace" overwhelms the user/potential buyer with too much content to it's own detriment. When there is so much to choose from it's kinda like sensory overload. Let me guess. I bet they try to sell you on all the "bells and whistles" just to get your domain sold right?not exactly sure but do you have to provide the logo yourself? or do they force you to pay them to get one made? and bottomline? what's the vig? I mean the commission for them if sold? if your domains are really good? contact me. I have an "idea" how to get buyers quickly. let's talk off thread. PM ME.

 

[jamesau]

I did a calculation on this a while back: https://www.namepros.com/threads/brandbucket-experience.793278/page-135#post-4975634

 

[bonanza]

This is my 5th year as a domain owner at Brandbucket with 15 published, 4 removed and 4 sold. It's a much smaller scale than what you have obviously, but I've done one a year ($1500-2000/ea) so far.

 

[Genius327]

BrandBucket should cut their inventory to 3k domains.

 

[namerav]

Current BB inventory is around 24k

 

[Ted Levy]

This is my 5th year as a domain owner at Brandbucket with 15 published, 4 removed and 4 sold. It's a much smaller scale than what you have obviously, but I've done one a year ($1500-2000/ea) so far.

I would be happy with comparable results

 

[Ted Levy]

BrandBucket should cut their inventory to 3k domains.

This would obviously be of benefit to the owners of BB-listed domains, but I can understand that the value of BB to its customers is greater the more domains they can offer. So why would they want to do this?

 

[disaac81]

I am not a BB user, but from what I know, selling around 1.5% - 3% of your portfolio would seem to be in the normal range as an individual. Obviously we are talking a general standard of names too and the luck factor.

If you have better names that might likely cost more to acquire, your sell rates could increase to over 5 - 8% a year.

 

[Ted Levy]

I did a calculation on this a while back: https://www.namepros.com/threads/brandbucket-experience.793278/page-135#post-4975634

Very interesting. So perhaps the answer to my question is 2-4% (chance of a random domain selling in a year.) Some have had far greater success evidently, though I would be reluctant to attribute that to having better names; better names if properly priced (higher) wouldn't necessarily sell more readily (if so the price is too low.)

There is another consideration though... there appears to be a de facto secondary market for BB-published names where the price is roughly 2-4% of valuation (excepting 4L.coms) so theoretically one could "rent" a BB-name (buying on 1/1 and selling on 12/31) at little cost beyond the cost of money and a one year renewal. OF course if the inventory continues to grow and sales do not keep pace proportionally (why would they?) then BB_accepted domains will become more available as owners decide to go elsewhere and the even money buy/sell will disappear.

 

[frank-germany]

I did sell only 1 domain in 1 year at BB
but buyer didn't pay

---
Member for 1 year 17 week

Domains
Submitted: 381
Rejected: 328
Published: 24
Sold: 0
Pending: 2
Accepted but not funded: 27


most expensive: ycht.com $9995

 

[DonDraper]

Rejected: 0

Thats impressive

 

[frank-germany]

Thats impressive

yeah you are right
that would be impressive
but actually its not the case
I copied that information from their site
but its is wrong

they in fact rejected nearly all my submissions

rejected beautyfull names like:

cokku.com
josoh.com
ristli.com
filvi.com
xemmo.com
fl1rt.com

and many other

 

[frank-germany]

update

meanwhile brandbucket sold 2 of my names

thank you brandbucket

Domains
Submitted: 504
Rejected: 419 (few pending)
Published: 54
Sold: 2

my cost so far
504*$9 USD = $4.536 USD

54*$10 USD bb fees = $540 USD

cost $5.036 USD

payments recieved $2.590 USD


now what I personally don't like is
that I needed to wait for payment
until the domain was finally in the posession of the buyer

means BB had been paid
and had recieved the domain
but still didn't pay me until the buyer
woke up and took over the domain

I personally hate it

 

[Keith DeBoer]

update

meanwhile brandbucket sold 2 of my names

thank you brandbucket

Domains
Submitted: 504
Rejected: 419 (few pending)
Published: 54
Sold: 2

my cost so far
504*$9 USD = $4.536 USD

54*$10 USD bb fees = $540 USD

cost $5.036 USD

payments recieved $2.590 USD


now what I personally don't like is
that I needed to wait for payment
until the domain was finally in the posession of the buyer

means BB had been paid
and had recieved the domain
but still didn't pay me until the buyer
woke up and took over the domain

I personally hate it

I agree, the waiting for payment is really hard. I experience the same thing.

But BB is acting as the broker and they won't release funds until the domain has been successfully transferred to the buyer. This is in case the buyer should change his mind before he/she receives the domain. Just like an escrow company that doesn't release funds to the seller until the domain the transaction is complete, BB won't pay the seller until the buyer has taken possession of the name.

 

[Michael]

I got an email newsletter from Brand Bucket a few days ago saying that in 2015 they sold 801 domains for a total of $2.4 million with an average of around $3,000 per domain.

I looked at Archive.org and in January 2015 their home page said 8440 domains in inventory. March said 9212, May said 10910, and July said 15738. I jumped ahead to the end of December and it was 23077. If we just make life easy and average the first and last months we could say they had 15758 domains in inventory over the course of the year. Current inventory stands at 29267.

801 / 15758 * 100 = 5% chance of selling

Obviously the quality of your domains impacts that number as well as how aggressively they are priced. But like you said, assuming they know their market and you trust what they accept and the prices they suggest, you could in theory see around the same results. Normal STR on a portfolio is 1-2% with passive selling (i.e. no outbound) so they seem to be doing pretty well on the surface.

They didn't mention what their average duration of a sold listing was in the newsletter, meaning the period from listing to sale. So if your goal was to do $50k/yr in BrandBucket sales you'd probably need almost 350 names approved. I don't know overall, but from the people who posted in this thread it seems 10% approval rate is pretty good, so you'd have to own 3500 domains to get 350 approved. Carrying costs on 3500 domains even with good bulk pricing is nearly $30k/yr. Even if all the domains were hand registrations it is pretty bleak.

Whether or not most of those sales are house names that may or may not be given special treatment isn't possible for me to say. There was a fairly recent thread here on NP about BrandBucket that I think mentioned how many house names they sell but I'm having trouble finding it, maybe the guy that runs DNBolt will chime in.

 

[Michael]

To add, I just saw in the newsletter that they reviewed the 150 sellers on the platform with the best sell-through rate, and this is what they found:

The top 50 sellers have a sell-through rate of 17% or better.
The next 50 sellers have a sell-through rate of 10%-17%.
The next 50 sellers have a sell-through rate of 8%-10%.

So my guess is probably pretty accurate for an average seller, if some of the best of the best experience 8%.

They also said that in April 60% of sales were keyword and 40% were invented, so you could increase your odds by having a portfolio of keyword domains. They also listed the top searched words on their platform, focusing on these verticals could also improve your odds:

Health (9%)
Food (9%)
Fashion (8%)
Software (7%)
Marketing (7%)
Technology (6%)
Tech (6%)
Social (6%)
Travel (6%)
Event (6%)
Design (6%)
Real Estate (5%)
Drone (5%)
Shop (5%)
Cloud (5%)

 

[frank-germany]

I agree, the waiting for payment is really hard. I experience the same thing.

But BB is acting as the broker and they won't release funds until the domain has been successfully transferred to the buyer. This is in case the buyer should change his mind before he/she receives the domain. Just like an escrow company that doesn't release funds to the seller until the domain the transaction is complete, BB won't pay the seller until the buyer has taken possession of the name.

I look at it this way

buyer agreed to a contract
he paid
deal finished

seller agreed to a contract
he gave away the domain
( 60 day log period restarts )

deal done

if the buyer doens't take ownership of the domain
that really neither is my nor Brandbuckets problem

 

[Keith DeBoer]

Hey @Michael, You've raised some good points. Certainly acquisition and renewal costs play a big role in a BB sellers profitability (or loss). One point to note is that according to BB their avg acceptance rate is 20% and can go as high as 80% for some very experienced sellers who get the BB formula really dialed in. Success at BB, like any new venture, depends on two things. How good you are at what you do and how you manage your overhead. A weakness in either one can kill the business model. Domaining has the reputation of being easy money. But we both know that's not true. The harsh reality is that the majority of new business ventures fail. The failure rate for domaining is as high or higher as any other industry in my opinion.

 

[Keith DeBoer]

I look at it this way

buyer agreed to a contract
he paid
deal finished

seller agreed to a contract
he gave away the domain
( 60 day log period restarts )

deal done

if the buyer doens't take ownership of the domain
that really neither is my nor Brandbuckets problem

I understand your position but most successful businesses don't take such a hard line with their customers. There's an old saying: It ain't over till it's over.

I hope you get your payment soon.
Cheers!

Keith

 

[namerav]

Based on the thread details following conclusion can be made: Brandbucket rate of Sucess is 10-13% of their inventory.
So if you own say 100 domains and they are expected to be of on par with other domains listed than you can sell around 12 domains/year.
I think that's good investment strategy.

Now I think success rate is around 3%

 

[Brandworthy]

Now I think success rate is around 3%

45K names listed and still doing roughly 100 sales per month. My guess is they are doing 2.5% max, but that they are selling more higher priced names, so increasing revenues nicely. Smaller sellers might be better off selling via landers and hoping that lower sales rate is offset by not paying 35% commissions. Who knows?

 

[Rajnish Prasad]

No offense but I'm of the Do It Yourself mentality. I can see why Brandbucket might seem like the ticket to success but your posts have the ANSWER to your QUESTION. Brandbucket like all other "marketplace" overwhelms the user/potential buyer with too much content to it's own detriment. When there is so much to choose from it's kinda like sensory overload. Let me guess. I bet they try to sell you on all the "bells and whistles" just to get your domain sold right?not exactly sure but do you have to provide the logo yourself? or do they force you to pay them to get one made? and bottomline? what's the vig? I mean the commission for them if sold? if your domains are really good? contact me. I have an "idea" how to get buyers quickly. let's talk off thread. PM ME.

It seems NP is hounded with BB Advertisers...I wonder people looking here for BB Published..BB This..BB That...!!!!
If u are madly looking for BB Published then its better to find out on the BB Website rather Advertising for BB ..It does not make any sense at all. Every or the other Posts on NP chasing for BB Published..

When you make some a Hype then it converts to a Scam and starts looking pretty odd sometimes..

I am not against BB but yes pls choose the right platform...

Tomorrow someone may start looking for Godaddy registered/ SEDO Regisered Bla bla on NP which is just merely and clearly looks like an Advertising campaign..

No offence to any BB Lovers