It's good that you're here asking questions. First part of your selling strategy is 'don't sell blind'! Nice to see you educating yourself about domains. Many people - and even large companies - just let their domains expire, when they no longer need them. Many have had their domains since the 'old days', maybe registering their domain for a project or company, and getting the domain for registration fee back then. And when their company or project shuts down, they - since they aren't involved in the domain industry - don't realize their domain may now be worth a lot of money (or they don't care). Not EVERY old expiring domain is worth serious money, but some are. You've had yours since '95... and yes, it's a domain that is worth serious money. So I'm glad to see you're canny enough to not just let it expire, but rather you are here asking for input so you don't sell it blind.
Ignore the very first appraisal. It's by a 'member' who has almost no idea of domain values, constantly puts ridiculous reseller domain valuations here, and does zero research to back up their valuations. Valuations which, incidentally, are not even accurate for 'reseller prices'. As a reseller, if I were making an offer for your domain in order to profit from it down the road, I'd likely pay into the $5K range. Some resellers would pay more, some less, but that gives you my rough estimate of reseller value. If your domain has lots of backlinks and traffic from your old business days with it, many domain buyers are developers and they would pay a premium, over the domain value, in order to mine more income from your old traffic. I did not look at Wayback Machine to see how you had this previously developed. I do notice that you now have a blank lander on it.
Let's get to some info to help you with selling this domain:
As
@Kyle Tully above noted, this term is registered in 84 extensions. You can check this using DotDB (dot com), just input your term there (as a single word, no spaces). Your word is also in the domain string of a couple hundred other domains, which you'll see by scrolling down the results on DotDB. Many of those other domains are developed by large companies.
Also, put the term into DotDB using a hyphen, so it's 'uni-pack'. You'll see it's taken in another 16 extensions, plus other domain strings, with the hyphen.
This shows you just how desirable and attractive this term is, when so many people and companies are using it in their main website name!
Member
@Future Sensors above already told you about OpenCorporates, and you now see just how many other companies, large companies, are using this as their primary business name. Shows you it's VERY desirable and attractive to those businesses.
Another resource is to search
trademarks via the WIPO site. Not just for the US, but for around the world. Input your term as a single word first, in the field 'brand name'. After you see those worldwide result for it as a single word, back up and edit it to two words (uni pack), and you'll get even more results. When so many companies want to register trademarks on this term, this is a third indicator that you have a valuable domain. (First is how many extensions and domain strings it's registered in, second is how many companies actually develop businesses/services/products around this term, third is how many of them feel strongly enough to want to brand it.)
Use those as indicators of your domain's value. Don't use automated domain appraisals to find value. Every automated appraisal tool uses a one-size-fits-all algorithm to appraise each domain; and each of those auto-appraisal bots creates their own algorithm and appraisal method; and each one gives you a very different appraisal! One can say 'less than $100', while another might say '$25,000 - $75,000', while another might say '$3,892', etc etc... all for the same domain! So... ignore their valuations. They can be fun, and exciting to newbies, but they can also be the bane of serious domainers' existence. Potential domain buyers, who have no idea how to value a domain, can go to the bots... and once they see a 'bot evaluation on your domain, they swear by that number... even though we domain traders know that number may be nonsense.
There are other tools, but too many to list here. We've given you some of the best ones with OpenCorporates for seeing company usage, DotDB to see other extensions and domains, and WIPO for trademarks. Google you already know about, and it is arguably the best tool, with the others being more specific to round out your knowledge about certain aspects of your domain.
You do need to be careful about approaching other companies. Even though you've had this since '95 (I'm making the assumption you are telling the truth, so I didn't bother to investigate that there have been no other owners) and that your registration pre-dates most of those other companies, and even predates your 'easily discovering the existence of companies and trademarks' that may have already existed when you got the domain... you can still be hit with a UDRP by someone if you approach them with your domain for sale.
There is a range of criteria, some clear and some vague, for establishing trademark rights. The good news is that you have tons of end users who would want to purchase your domain. The bad news is that it may potentially get you into hot water if you email them and offer your domain for sale! As is the case with many domains that have trademarked terms and terms which are highly used in their particular fields... the very people who make up your buyer pool... are the people who are the most dangerous for you to outbound to!!! It's a vicious paradox, but there you have it
You might try outbounding to them, but do it with open eyes. Just realize that many of them might like to go ahead and buy the domain and not bother with, you know, starting a UDRP against you and making it a legal battle; but, conversely, some of them might decide to have a lawyer look into their UDRP rights... and see if they have a case to take the domain from you via UDRP, which would be a lot cheaper than outright buying the domain from you.
So 'eyes open' means that simply by your registering your domain and having it since '95, and using it for your business (I'm assuming you did), and even having your own trademark on it (I'm assuming you may have)... these do not all add up to being safe to outbound emails to all those companies. You might send out 300 emails and sell the domain for a great price and never receive a UDRP... or you might receive one after your very first email. Kind of gambling with doing outbound.
Best news is: you have a very desirable domain. It's also evidenced by the fact that you mentioned you've received interest/offers over the years. That means the buyers are coming to YOU. Always a good thing. Puts you in the driver's seat in those negotiations.
You can start by revisiting those old leads; maybe one/all of them are still interested?
Considering the huge number of businesses, and LARGE businesses, who desire this domain, and considering that you have the 'category killer' (that is, of those hundreds of domains, websites, and businesses that all revolve around this term, you have the BEST domain in the world for the term)... I'd estimate its value to be a minimum of $50K.
You can sell it cheaper and faster, if you want cash now and if you want to take the educated gamble of doing outbound emails. Probably a lot of those companies would gladly pay in the 10K - 20K range immediately.
But if you're not in a hurry, I think that, with time and some haggling skills, and professionalism and politeness, you may get somewhere in the 50K +++ range. Personally, if I owned it, I'd have it listed either for 'make offer' (to see what kinds of offers float in blind), or I'd put a very high BIN (buy-it-now) price on it, like $150K, and then I'd take the best I could negotiate that is over 50K. If using a BIN price, note that it's pretty common to set a very high BIN because when domain buyers (I'm talking about end users) buy premium domains, they don't just hit the BIN button and pay full price. You know, they don't see a domain listed at $5million and go, "Yeah, we'll just hit the button and buy it for that!" When dealing with big numbers, they're going to start with lower numbers, and negotiate. If you list a BIN of 50K, you're going to get offers starting at 2K, ha ha. But if you list at a higher BIN, usually the offers will start higher. You can also set 'floor price' and 'minimum offer' prices with most of the marketplaces and landing pages you set up for the domain, if you don't want to haggle with buyers who start off with super-lowball offers. Set your minimum offer to 15K or 25K or whatever you feel you want as a very minimum.
I don't want to get into a long discussion here about where/how to list your domain for sale, you can maybe look into the reviews category down lower on this forum, and check out the 'marketplaces'. Just scroll down the main page.
You can read all over this forum about what is happening with marketplaces and landing pages. Just to get you started with a few of the most popular, you can look into Godaddy/Afternic landers and listings; Namepros landing pages (our very own!); Sedo.com landers and marketplace; Atom.com seems to be doing very well and might be a great venue for you to list on... I do not list there myself, but they have a fantastic 'premium domains' category and yours would definitely qualify. Something you can look into at least, submit your domain and see what value they would suggest to list it at.
I can say another ten thousand things, but I hope I've given you a few more things to help with your domain education. You're in a nice position: though you're not a domain trader, you have a valuable domain, and you're canny enough to educate yourself about its value and about how to go about selling it. Nice! Read around the forum some more, ask a lot of questions, start any new threads if you can't find some info you're looking for.
Welcome to Namepros. And good luck
