domain MotionPictures.com

[pdcom]

This is a premium domain in a leading industry. Single owner since 1996.

My partner and I are planning to sell MotionPictures.com to a person or entity in the motion pictures industry, such as a movie actor/actress, director, or film studio. We have a trip scheduled to Hollywood and Beverly Hills to begin marketing the domain.

We have been discussing what our asking price should be in order to make a quick sale without leaving a lot of cash on the table. Our asking price will include a 10% finder's fee.

We would like to get some input from other experienced domainers on the asking price. Keep in mind the target market for the sale, the comps for other high-value domains in leading industries, and our desire for a quick sale without selling the domain too far below its value.

The domain was appraised in 1999 at $1.6 million. We are looking at comparable domain sales from sites like http://www.zetetic.com/domain-name-sales.html and http://dnsaleprice.com (.com domains selling at > $1M).

Please, we only want serious replies from experienced domainers. An explanation of your appraisal would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

[webcom]

Fabulous domain. I don't know if it's worth $1.6 million (unless you find the perfect end user for it) but it's definitely worth $xxx,xxx. The market will tell exactly how much.

 

[peaches017]

As domains get into the level that yours is, it become's increasingly difficult to give an accurate value because you will be selling to an end user, and every end user will pay a different amount.

However, do NOT sell at 1.6 million. I would approach all of the major production companies with a personal and comprehensive pitch.

-Peter

 

[legend2]

If no trademark issues exist, this can go for high xxx,xxx to someone in the industry.

 

[pdcom]

However, do NOT sell at 1.6 million. I would approach all of the major production companies with a personal and comprehensive pitch.

Do you mean we may be leaving money on the table by having a set price?

 

[RJ]

Great name of course. Have you had any offers on it since getting it appraised in '99?

This is a tough one to valuate because most of the prime end users (the movie studios) would probably prefer branding their own company name instead of using something as generic as this. (mgm.com sonypictures.com etc) And Peter mentioned, every end user may have a different price that they're willing to pay. I would give a guestimate value of ~$350k on the open market.

 

[briman1970]

IMO, it is absolutely worth at least 1-2 million to someone in the market for the name. The problem with selling it to the large media corporations is that they have already spent loads on marketing their corporate sites and probably won't invest in such a generic name, unless you can show them that it gets a very large amount of traffic. It has surprisingly low Overture scores with the ext, so I doubt that it gets enough traffic to wow them. As large corporations, they will move very slowly as well.

Actors would probably not have any idea that such a name would be worth that much IMO. Most of them are psychologically detached from the real world and a great many don't even own the .com of their own name. Tom Cruise just won his name this year (!) from the original owner who had it since 1996! Actors are apparently not used to acquiring their names through the use of large amounts of money. They mostly just take them away from the squatters.

I would focus on producers and directors. Those guys know their stuff. They will know what a name like this is worth because they've had to directly or indirectly acquire a movie title .com from a speculator. A good thing about meeting with a big director or producer is that they can tell you where to go if they aren't interested, and they can get you in the door once you get there. Motion picture is kind of developing into an old-school way to say movie, so I'd wager Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard or George Lucas (among others) would love this name (good luck tracking them down). In fact, you may have luck setting up a meeting with Lucas in Marin County before you hit Hollywood.

On the other side of the coin, the movie industry has a crappy record when it comes down to acquiring good .coms for their movies. That could be an indication that they are cheap or it could be that the squatters of those names are shooting for the moon. Who knows. But regardless of that, this name is worth between 1-2 million IMO. It all comes down to how enlightened the person in the other chair is about the importance of the name, the domain industry and the internet in general. Your main job is to make sure that you're meeting with saavy people and you have an awesome pitch prepared to promote this incredible name.

 

[floatingworld]

You need an agent in Hollywood. I would recommend that you contact the Academy of Motion Pictures for some advice and organise a press release once the strategy is in place. You need trade exposure eg Variety etc and a 10% donation to a motion picture charity would also help. Make the sale an 'event'. Offer it at a headline starting price of $1million and take sealed bids. Good luck.

 

[000]

This is unarguably a fantastic domain that you have, however in my opinion $1.6 million might be a bit overly optimistic. As was pointed out earlier, "motion pictures" is very generic and most studios would likely prefer a domain that fits their specific studio better. Also, it's not a highly searched for term.

But yes, you may be able to fetch $1.6 million if you're patient enough to find the right buyer.

 

[pdcom]

Great name of course. Have you had any offers on it since getting it appraised in '99?

Yes, including an offer from Time-Warner. All offers were turned down because we weren't ready to sell until now.

 

[Broker]

You need an agent in Hollywood. I would recommend that you contact the Academy of Motion Pictures for some advice and organise a press release once the strategy is in place. You need trade exposure eg Variety etc and a 10% donation to a motion picture charity would also help. Make the sale an 'event'. Offer it at a headline starting price of $1million and take sealed bids. Good luck.

Great idea imho.

nice domain!

 

[snoop]

Great name, I would say about 20-30k. However this name is definately not worth 6, let alone 7 figures, it is a good name, but nowhere near that kind of level.

The main thing about the name is that is a popular but not huge term, also it is a somewhat dated kind of term. The main time I hear it used is in regards to long established comapines and asscoiations that decided on their company name many decades ago, I can't imagine endusers chasing this name very hard.

 

[rzpvile]

I can see this going for $xxx,xxx easily at an auction type format. I think your best bet would be to promote it and then let offers come in. Take your time though selling it because I am sure higher offers will keep comming in. Best of luck with your trip to Hollywood hopefully you will meet someone famous like Lucas and sell for $x,xxx,xxx+!!

 

[Heman maximus]

You need an agent in Hollywood. I would recommend that you contact the Academy of Motion Pictures for some advice and organise a press release once the strategy is in place. You need trade exposure eg Variety etc and a 10% donation to a motion picture charity would also help. Make the sale an 'event'. Offer it at a headline starting price of $1million and take sealed bids. Good luck.

Thats a best idea. But, i wouldnt start the bidding at $1 million, Start it with a mid 6 figure price. As we all know, as low the auction starts, more people tend to get involved in the auction. Good luck.

 

[BidNo]

Certainly it all depends but I don't think it'll go quite that high. The only two word domain publicly sold in that range was CreditCards.com which went for $2.75M in early 2005. Here are some recent two-word sales in the over $100k range:

Domain TLD SalePrice SaleDate SaleThru
WebSite com $750,000 Jul 05 Sedo
MyBlog com $400,000 Dec 05 Private
WirelessPhone com $355,000 Jun 06 Afternic
FunGames com $350,000 Oct 06 Private
ShoppingCart com $285,000 Aug 05 Moniker/Domain Systems
FlashGames com $226,950 Jan 06 Moniker/Domain Systems
SatellitePhone com $201,600 Jul 06 Afternic
CheapGas com $150,000 Jun 05 Private

Cheers,
BidNo

 

[-ET-]

If you are serious about selling this domain in the price range you wish.i suggest you to do the following thing's.(but u'll have to shed money)

1)First catch-up with some newspaper,television reporters and make a deal with him to promote this domain and making news that there will be many bigshots taking part.
2)You can arrange a middle person or some event organisers to manage the auction.
3)Make sure you send a invitation to every person related to this domain name.
4)If you can catch-up with some charity organisation and give some percentage of money.this can raise the bid much higher than expected.
5)Make sure its in news before a month of auction.
6)You can also tie-up with EBAY for the open-auction.

Hope this will help.
Good Luck with your sale.

 

[dgridley]

I pretty much agree with Snoop.. an end user may be willing to part with 7 figures but I highly doubt it as the term is too generic and, as Snoop already said, somewhat dated. I see it as high xx,xxx or very low to mid xxx,xxx, at best. OVT is only 3600+ w/o extension. (By contrast, I own movietrailer.at.. movie trailer has an OVT of 100,000+ w/o extension.)

Great name, I would say about 20-30k. However this name is definately not worth 6, let alone 7 figures, it is a good name, but nowhere near that kind of level.

The main thing about the name is that is a popular but not huge term, also it is a somewhat dated kind of term. The main time I hear it used is in regards to long established comapines and asscoiations that decided on their company name many decades ago, I can't imagine endusers chasing this name very hard.

 

[evermore2000]

I agree. Unless you can find the perfect end user then I cant see it going for anywhere near £1.6 mil

Great name but - who uses the term 'Motion Picture' anymore? I cant see a massive amount of people (not $1.6mil worth) typing it in on google. People would tend to use 'Movie' , 'Film' (in the UK) , Television or TV, much more modern well used words. Ask yourself when was the last time you used it in a conversation? "Oh, Have you seen that new Motion Picture with whats his name in?"

Good luck with the journey and I hope im wrong and you get top dollar for it. Keep us posted.

Rob

 

[estibot.com]

Just wanted to say I meant no ill with my joke and I do sincerely wish you the very best of luck with this fantastic domain!

 

[dmblea]

Solid name. Glad to see it's owned by a fellow Arizonian. $1.6 million might be a little high, unless of course you can spark a bidding war between the likes of The Motion Picture Association of America and Paramount Studios.

Like yoshiwara said, I would contact various talent agents at the big agencies (William Morris Agency, Creative Artists Agency, Endeavor and ICM). They have relationships in Hollywood that domain brokers just simply don't have.

The value that I would place on this domain to an end-user $200,000 - $300,000. Best of luck with the name!