When I started regging .pros, everything I tried in the WHOIS was registered so I started to look for keywords with a UK flavour because very few people in the UK were registering .pro. In the UK switch is a well used comparison site keyword because of sites like uSwitch.com, SimplySwitch.com, SwitchWithWitch.co.uk. These are big well known sites, I use uSwitch.com to get the best deal on my domestic electricity and gas but I also call them for commercial utilities because I work in finance. I certainly didn't consider its usefulness to a lighting designer and engineer.
The negotiations on this sale took about 7 weeks. Initially, the buyer contacted me expressing an interest, he offered $250, I did some research on the buyer from his email address and found the link to Lighting.co.jp, and countered at $5,000. He then slowly edged up to $500, then $1,000, I came down to $2,500, then we had a stand off for several weeks. He emailed me to say he was still interested in the domain, normally that means he's good for the $2,500 otherwise he wouldn't have emailed back. He offered $1,800 which I thought was my cue to counter at $2,000 to seal the deal, he then surprised me and said he needed to think about it so another 2 weeks passed. I emailed back to see if he was still interested, flagged the 3 DNJournal .pro sales, and said I would hold the $2,000 price until the end of the week. He emailed back the following day and agreed to buy it at $2,000.
I think $2,000 was a fair price, I like the sound of Switch.pro, at the time I registered it in 2007 I also regged Move.pro which is another commercial "action" .pro. I picked up Compare.pro at SnapNames at few months back with the same logic. Commercial actions win business so they work well as a .pro brand for professionals advertising their services.
Interesting point about email addresses. Although being able to identify the guy at the outset led me counter relatively high at $5,000 because I could see the value of the domain to a lighting contractor, it also made me cut the price sharply to avoid losing the sale because I like to see a .pro go to somebody who is in a position to develop it. If people lowball me anonymously, I still tend to counter high, but I am less inclined to reduce the price or put alot of effort into the negotiations because it's usually a domainer and inevitably I will value the domains more highly than they do or need the money less than they do. Developers are more likely to offer a more realistic price at the outset so if I get a decent bid from an anoynmous email address, I take it more seriously.
I'd be interested to know how other people's .pro sales have played out and what their strategy is. My main selling goal is to cover my ongoing costs initially, then maybe start to claw back my original investment costs, ending up with just my best .pros in 10-15 years paid for, by which time they will hopefully be more developable, valuable, and coveted. I've been dropping alot of domains in 2009, mainly defensive registrations for the handful of .coms I bought on the aftermarket, weak .infos I bought for $10-$20 on NP, and my weakest .pros keywords.
From that list of .pros Microguy would drop, I would keep short brandables like Guard.pro and Pack.pro but drop two worders like Marketplace.pro, CreditUnion.pro, and MoneyMarket.pro that Microguy was on the fence with. For me, .pros have to be one word. You might sell two worders in they are search for phrases but the natural market for those words are minisite developers and they won't pay much.
