Selling domains on eBay

[mtford]

I've been reading some articles recently about optimizing domain sales on eBay, for example this one. Many articles suggest that the presentation of the listing is really important for attracting bids - e.g. a snazzy HTML-formatted listing will attract more bids than a plain text one. Is this really true? Surely most of the people browsing domain listings at eBay are experienced domainers (unless you've specifically publicized the listing to end-users), and a domainer shouldn't care about the appearance of the listing. A domainer needs to see a domain name, a price, maybe some traffic stats, and that should be enough to make his mind up.

What's your experience with this? Is it worth taking the time to create a nice listing?

 

[mibworld]

You are right, in general. As you said, the most important part of your listing is the info related to the name, like registrar, expiring date, creation date, valuation (if available), traffic (if any). You don't need a top design for your listing, but it's important that all the info is clear and easy to read. With all the competition from other domainers at ebay, a professional look can certainly help to improve your chances.

 

[Coopey]

Not really.

My suggestions for eBay listings:

1- Put the full and correct name in the listing title.

2- Don't put SCORE.com when you're offering sc0re.com or scòre.com

3- Don't put the title "PREMIUM 4 LETTER DOMAIN NAME 2, 3, 4 .com .net .org" when you're offering Q3WJ.net

4- Don't use a stolen picture of a half-naked woman as the item picture. I find the best pictures are simple .gifs with the domain written out.

I never look at a listing without the name in the title or that has a lewd picture trying to get my attention. If I'm suckered in by a name that turns out to have to have numbers in it when the title uses letters or the name is a faux-IDN I don't look at any of that user's further listings. I'd happily buy a name if the listing title was just the domain name, there was no picture and the listing consisted of "***.com, registered at ****.com until 2009-08-20" as long as it was a good name. Unfortunately, eBay is full of rubbish names, so I rarely visit there anymore.

 

[Greg]

a professional look can certainly help to improve your chances.

A professional look is certainly going to keep my attention more than just the name. The key is to keep them on your page and to ultimately commit to bid or at least place a watch on your item.

Put the full and correct name in the listing title.

Exactly! Don't try to deceive people by alluding to another name then disappointing them when they open your listing. Also don't make them guess as to what the name is because most of the time they won't open your listing to see what the name is.

I watch over 250 names a week just to see what the end price will be and ultimately it's the good names that command the highest price and not the flashiest design.

 

[metronome]

I hate it the most when I read the title like:"LLLL.com" "LLL.org" etc but when I open it, it is different inside. Ebay should really do something about this, but I doubt they will?:P. So please don't do this when you put something on sale on ebay.

About flashy design....I don't think it really matters. People will either just look at the title and search for the best name.

 

[werty]

I started selling Domain Names on Ebay and I can say that the article is telling the truth. Although I use plain text in my auctions I have been seeing more bids with people who use the fancy html format. And I have compared with Various Domain Names and in many cases. So it's not just the Domain Name. I am plan to start doing better auctions soon but it's just that it takes much more time. But if the results are worth the extra time then there are no complaints.

 

[mibworld]

Yes, that's a real problem at ebay. Lots of names that use wrong descriptions, like LLLL when the domain has nothing to do with that, supposedly to attract more visitors. Hopefully some day ebay will realize the importance of the domain market for them and improve their classification, and enforce their rules regarding keyword stuffing.

I hate it the most when I read the title like:"LLLL.com" "LLL.org" etc but when I open it, it is different inside. Ebay should really do something about this, but I doubt they will?:P. So please don't do this when you put something on sale on ebay.

About flashy design....I don't think it really matters. People will either just look at the title and search for the best name.

 

[Domainace]

I agree with everyone about using llll.com when it isn't.

Also, even if your domain is not good, don't try to mislead people by saying "Great frenchfood.com domain name," when the name is 247french-food.com.

I can't at all understand why many people don't put the domain clearly in the title. I normally skip over those listings because they are normally junk. But even junk sometimes finds buyers. If it's worth listing, there's no reason not to put it in the title.

 

[godinu]

yes be as accurate as possible. since there are so many domains on ebay (most of them junk), what often makes me open one over another is if the url is in the image file -- just a simple "image" of the name, need not be fancy. then i know right away if it's something worth looking at.

 

[mtford]

I watch over 250 names a week just to see what the end price will be and ultimately it's the good names that command the highest price and not the flashiest design.

So that's why I get 10x more watchers than bidders

I also wish eBay would put an end to sniping, by extending auctions to 5 minutes after the last bid (like Snapnames and TDNAM do). I've seen so many eBay auctions won by a sniper who added $2 to the highest bid during the last 30 seconds, without giving the previous bidder any chance to increase. Real auctions are supposed to end when only one bidder is left in the auction - not just as the bidding is starting to hot up.

 

[woolwit]

Ebay Domain Sales Experiment

I experimented with domain sales on Ebay for a few months. My take-away was that buyers are looking for a steal. My sense is that it's not a great way to connect to end users. I wrote up my experience in a lengthy blog post in case anyone is interested in the details.

 

[Greg]

I watch so many names so that I can determine what names sell on Ebay for what amount. On the average I notice that a good name that is listed at 99 cents will get bid up to $25-$50 but the same name listed at $19.99 won't even get a single bid. I have had more than 1 name that I listed at $19.99 that didn't sell so I re-listed it at $0.99 only for it to be bid up to $50. Don't ask me why. I guess it is the competition or the undisciplined approach of the buyer.

It is very interesting to see the amount of snipe bids in the last minute. I have had more than 1 domain go from .99 to over $15 in the last minute. I was in an auction the other day and I was going to sleep so I increased the bid from $25 to $50 only to find that the item sold for $125.

My conclusion...I use Ebay for a quick flip on names that I recently registered and generally get 2 times the amount I pay (minus fees) for something that I only owned for 2 weeks. I know that the names I sell would be worth considerably more in the future but I have 6 kids to feed today so every penny counts. When I buy a name I place it into the immediate flip pile or the save pile. The save pile will eventually be marketed to the true end users.

I hope this helps someone!

 

[versu23]

I had 3 domains old 1 month agi at Ebay. For 2 of them the auction started from 14.95$ and for the last one 0.99$. The last one reached a higher price than the other 2 even if the domain was not as good as the first 2.

 

[popcorn32]

selling domains on ebay

Hello. I have sold a lot of domains on ebay. Especially the LLLL.com sets. I recently sold 800 of the LLLL.com's. I would say that you need to have a nice design, the value of the domains(estimated), the traffic if there is any traffic, pagerank if there is any, and most definitely the expiration date of each domain name that you are selling on ebay. The title of the listing is also extremely important, be creative, put the best possible description for the listing and throw in the value if the value is strong in dollars. This works well. Maybe even the subject matter of the domains, like I had a group of dental domains, I included the word dental and dentist in the title, it drew a lot of folks. Also the word Premium does work quite well, many domain seekers type that word in on ebay. So anyway I hope these tips help, thanks.

 

[Billy2009]

Yes, I have 4 domains on ebay. Made some changes after I read the above. Unfortunately, can not change the title which does not include the domain names. I'll know for next time though. Thank you for your comments about advertising on ebay.

 

[onewordonly]

I think you might find a lot of the general public on Ebay looking for domains to buy, more so than on a domain forum or even Sedo, nearly everyone uses Ebay...

 

[bbrez1]

I watch so many names so that I can determine what names sell on Ebay for what amount. On the average I notice that a good name that is listed at 99 cents will get bid up to $25-$50 but the same name listed at $19.99 won't even get a single bid. I have had more than 1 name that I listed at $19.99 that didn't sell so I re-listed it at $0.99 only for it to be bid up to $50. Don't ask me why. I guess it is the competition or the undisciplined approach of the buyer.

It is very interesting to see the amount of snipe bids in the last minute. I have had more than 1 domain go from .99 to over $15 in the last minute. I was in an auction the other day and I was going to sleep so I increased the bid from $25 to $50 only to find that the item sold for $125.

My conclusion...I use Ebay for a quick flip on names that I recently registered and generally get 2 times the amount I pay (minus fees) for something that I only owned for 2 weeks. I know that the names I sell would be worth considerably more in the future but I have 6 kids to feed today so every penny counts. When I buy a name I place it into the immediate flip pile or the save pile. The save pile will eventually be marketed to the true end users.

I hope this helps someone!

Great post, thanks, gave rep I don't use ebay for my domains but still this is good information :great:

 

[Domainace]

Grina's advice is spot on. You can safely start your llll.com domains at one penny just to attract early bidders (don't try that with other domains, though).

When it comes to keyword domains, I've listed some that couldn't get the initial 99cent bid, then a couple weeks later sold for $50 on the relisting.

 

[mtford]

Grina's advice is spot on. You can safely start your llll.com domains at one penny just to attract early bidders (don't try that with other domains, though).

When it comes to keyword domains, I've listed some that couldn't get the initial 99cent bid, then a couple weeks later sold for $50 on the relisting.

So what's the best way to sell a keyword domain - i.e. a TwoWord.com that I picked up for reg fee? If I list it at $19.99, it probably won't get bids, so I lose my listing fee. But if I list it at $0.99, I risk selling below reg fee.

When I first started selling on ebay, I spent a lot of time contacting end users about the listings. My first listing (QualityEnvelopes*com) was for $99. I got one bid shortly after I contacted the end users, but then it was sniped by a domainer for $102. Another one, KingdomGifts*com was listed at $149, also sniped by a domainer. After that I gave up contacting end users, because I was getting very little interest for my hard work. Last month I listed 16 domains, mostly at $49 and some at $99, but only one domain sold (earning $49 minus $25 in fees). What should I do? Risk listing at 99 cents? Abandon ebay altogether?