Question about appraisals

[kwakkwak]

Hi people,

I have a question about appraisals. Usually i take a free appraisal on different sites like for example estibot.

Situation: I buy a domain trough an auction for 4$ and it's appraised at 70$. Can i for example sell it a 20$?

Is this possible and are the on-line appraisal right?

Give me your comments

regards

 

[hmcintyre]

Appraisals are almost never right.

You can sell a domain for what somebody wants to pay for that domain. Online estimations like estibot are usually very far off from the actual price at which you will sell a domain.

However, getting a person to do an appraisal, whether professional or in forums like these, will give you a better idea of what you can sell a domain for.

 

[deleted984054565403]

Don't ever trust automatic appraisals if you're wondering what your domain is worth. The value of the domain, as hmcintyre stated, is in the eyes of the potential buyer or end user. It doesn't matter if that's $4 or $70.

As for selling the name at $20, that's completely up to you. Just because your automated appraisal tells you it's worth $70 doesn't mean to change your asking price. If, for some reason, you think you'd feel more secure having an appraisal done, spend the $20 at a trustworthy site -- as it was mentioned, don't count on automated appraisals (not even Estibot, which is usually the most realistic) as a basis for your sale price, no matter the circumstance.

If you don't have the $20-$50 to hand over for a formal appraisal and you'd like to get a better idea of what your name is worth, stop by the Domain Appraisals forum.

 

[estibot.com]

Online estimations like estibot are usually very far off from the actual price at which you will sell a domain.

While I agree with most of what's been said in this thread, and emphasize that EstiBot is just a keyword and valuation tool to help you make your own valuation, I feel I must defend EstiBot against this particular attack.

I realize that there is extreme prejudice in domainer circles against automatic appraisals and I receive a lot of passionate messages from people who would like to see the site shut down.

I have always welcomed criticism and feedback. However, when people make harsh statements like this without providing any factual base for them, it's hardly fair treatment. Therefore I feel I am entitled to debate this here a bit.

EstiBot is not "usually very far off from the actual price". That's simply not true. So why state it here as fact?

EstiBot is often wrong about the final sale price. I don't claim otherwise. So are humans. EstiBot is sometimes very far off, but not that often. Humans are also very far off from time to time. Anyone who has browsed the appraisal boards has seen many examples.

In the majority of cases, however, EstiBot is in the right ballpark when compared to actual sale prices. It would definitely be an exaggeration to say it is "usually very far off".

NamePros appraisal forum is great (when you actually do get an appraisal) because you can instantly see if the appraiser is an experienced member here. I have also added a link from EstiBot to the NPr appraisal forum so the user can get a second opinion.

Inspired by this particular attack, I punched into EstiBot the latest 100 dotcom domain names that have been sold according to today's NameBio update. I wanted to see for myself once again whether EstiBot is far off or not.

Here's the result, the last 100 sales as reported by NameBio as compared to EstiBot appraisals of the same domain names. Nothing was left out.

If you want to compare your own skills to EstiBot, now is the time to cover the prices and estimates, and make a list of your own valuations, then compare them to EstiBot's appraisals, and see if you can do better (I can't).

winningideas.com 1,100 >> 3,000
naughtytees.com 414 >> 350
mobilemarketer 644 >> 3,300
oneattorney.com 192 >> 500
regarder.tv 4,400 >> 11,438
a1-credit.com 339 >> 293
interpret.com 30,000 >> 17,789
cardlovers.com 980 >> 600
onlineparalegal.com 5,000 >> 500
bestedge.com 1,065 >> 850
earthweaver.com 70 >> 1,350
fotorescue.com 170 >> 800
spinrock.com 309 >> 3,250
stregthex.com 20 >> 200
augment.com 27,000 >> 3,000
0bv.com 764 >> 164
boatingtrip.com 3,000 >> 410
freeonlinecasinos.com 17,000 >> 11,500
carbonbuyer.com 60 >> 210
qik.com 4,000 >> 5,500
mobilevision.com 5,000 >> 3,300
egoto.com 529 >> 1,064
bulkbait.com 200 >> 300
scottishbusiness.com 2,200 >> 850
casinogreen.com 1,101 >> 220
7o8.com 475 >> 125
1gz.com 986 >> 510
carzaar.com 100 >> 110
kist.com 13,000 >> 2,100
lanmei.com 750 >> 573
leaderprice.com 3,400 >> 6,916
9gg.com 726 >> 430
supertired.com 1,100 >> 85
phpext.com 240 >> 600
download32.com 8,700 >> 16,758
supergrouper.com 456 >> 70
local365.com 130 >> 510
absolutemobile.com 270 >> 888
framester.com 580 >> 535
organicmethod.com 681 >> 600
steeped.com 5,900 >> 1,200
sexamazon.com 140 >> 110
f7j.com 457 >> 133
abspritzen.com 8,500 >> 1,796
doomwarez.com 4,400 >> 310
roomee.com 233 >> 260
0-7.com 1,780 >> 931
3-4.com 4,155 >> 1,131
landgraphics.com 386 >> 2,000
dentalconsults.com 153 >> 1,005
w8m8.com Reg Fee >> 50
fromgoodhands.com Reg Fee >> 106
fabulousnewyork.com 70 >> 1,250
faceframe.com 2,400 >> 600
findcounselling.com 598 >> 1,800
ultraclothes.com 200 >> 495
guamphotos.com 2,300 >> 785
2t1.com 1,100 >> 230
bargainnewyork.com 845 >> 2,500
citrusweb.com 512 >> 500
drpu.com 80 >> 150
illuminized.com 230 >> 360
eweo.com 150 >> 460
gamezone13.com 1,600 >> 460
netza.com 1,000 >> 600
9z6.com 502 >> 173
computersgames.com 4,200 >> 1,050
fyle.com 1,100 >> 1,064
badcreditmortgagecompanies.com 1,600 >> 100
badcreditmortgagecompany.com 150 >> 250
locurax.com 5,300 >> 279
travelability.com 490 >> 757
moneybackguaranteed.com 2,400 >> 399
dreamflasher.com 425 >> 185
fealty.com 4,800 >> 700
247bingo.com 50 >> 1,064
seniors.com 440,000 >> 1,800,000
greenhouse.com 540,000 >> 500,000
text.com 230,000 >> 300,000
locals.com 28,000 >> 250,000
clock.com 1,700,000 >> 175,000
pottery.com 470,000 >> 150,000
charters.com 690,000 >> 140,000
treatmentcenters.com 230,000 >> 100,000
zn.com 85,000 >> 95,000
fountain.com 720,000 >> 95,000
pimple.com 12,000 >> 82,500
pit.com 130,000 >> 60,000
discountinsurance.com 2,900 >> 60,000
fees.com 110,000 >> 55,000
subways.com 78,000 >> 50,000
documentaries.com 10,000 >> 48,000
sellstuff.com 3,600 >> 30,055
equityfund.com 24,000 >> 30,000
growthfund.com 29,000 >> 25,000
cantaloupe.com 73,000 >> 25,000
homemart.com 2,700 >> 22,472
wineworld.com 3,700 >> 20,000
incomefund.com 43,000 >> 20,000
-------------------------------------------

Is EstiBot always right? Of course not. Does it make significant overvaluations or undervaluations? With some domains, yes it does. Is it "usually very far off"? No, it is not.

Most significant variation between EstiBot appraisal and final sale price is seen in the higher end domains, as seen above. EstiBot is optimized for the lower end domains. This is because higher end domains are even more unpredictable as to their final sale price, and also because a tool like this is most useful for the majority of domainers doing research on lower end domains.

EstiBot does have significant limitations: 1) it's in BETA testing, 2) it's optimized for the .com tld, the other tld's are under development and ccTLD's are lacking previous sales data so the estimates can be off as they are based on statistical analysis of previous sales data, 3) you may need to use capitalization when estibot's auto keyword detection system interprets the keywords wrong, 4) domain name sale prices can never be consistently and accurately predicted by any appraisal due to the unpredictability of the market, and 5) doesn't have squishware

I agree that absolutely the best way to get an appraisal is to talk to an experienced domainer and get his/her input. Better still, talk to several. Also you can get a good human (paid) appraisal at SEDO or Moniker (for instance).

EstiBot is an automatic, instant ballpark valuator, and foremost a keyword and domainer tool. As such, it can help the user in working out their own valuation. It cannot and is not intended to replace an appraisal by a skilled human.

I do not encourage and have never encouraged setting sale prices or making purchases according to EstiBot valuations - it's not made for that purpose. I discourage that use.

These limitations are also discussed in the Guide and About pages on the website, for anyone that can be bothered to read them.

A common way to put down the EstiBot service is to publish some individual valuations that were off - and leave out the ones that were spot on. I like to publish both the good and the bad valuations, and let the reader make their own judgement. Anyone with even a rudimentary grasp of statistics knows that the less cases published, the more unreliable the publication.

Estibot is a tool, it can give you an indication of some potential value in your domain, and some relevant keyword data. The rest is left to your brain.

Josh