discuss What is the logic behind high-price-enduser sales

[topdom]

Domain sold
how much I would pay to register
if I accidentally own it, asking price
sold price

Ampli.ca
0
50
50,000

TheLocal.fi
0
10
22,040

LivingOnLight.com
5
100
15,000
.net available

I mean, why would anyone register such names to sell.
And when there is a buyer, why ask 5 figures instead of 3 figures. Don't you know you can't find any
other buyer if you wait for 1000 years.

At least half of my domains is much beter than each of these, but receive no offers, not even $1 offer.
.....
I email someone to "suggest" that they should buy my domain, without mentioning such a thing.
I can prove to them that I'm actually willing to sell the domain for 1 percent of what it is worth. And still it won't work.

I go further, and I find a dropped domain, which would be worth buying for them even for 5 figures, but instead of registering it, I tell them, (are you c razy) why don't you register this domain, it is available, and it would be a great purchase for your company. I wait a week, domain still available.

 

[kite26]

Domaining is highly unpredictable, but there is another factor: Possibilities
You want to play with the odds to your side. That is how you can achieve profit.

 

[topdom]

My response to those who says your domain should speak for itself, and you don't need to do anything.
...
Who would get more girls more easily: a nice handsome guy, or an ugly rock star.
...
What happens in real life: Someone checks a domain, they see it is not available, so they look for an alternative, not consider backordering. But if they knew it was available but at a higher price they would consider buying if they also realize it is not a scam. Contacting potential buyers means waking up such people. This doesn't work most of the time either, I think, because of timing.
People wouldn't necessarily buy something just because it is on sale. But if it is on sale, plus it is a good investment, then there are more reasons to buy.

I hate concvincing people. I give a logical proof. I prefer that people understand that proof, or they give a logical counterargument.

 

[BrandPlease]

IMO... business is business and they all (fundamentally) follow the same rules and play the same game.

Yes, business is a game and best players are the CEOs and other Cs and especially Sales People - they even get to tell developers who have skills way beyond theirs - in many respects - what to do and build.

But, big companies who regularly spend big money - do it where they feel safe and dont mind paying a premium to do so. If you want to use Mike as a comparison, if Big Corp A's marketing team is doing research and find 2 good names - 1 killer and one good but with a seller they trust, guess which one is bought. So, Mike is selling more names because he has created an amazing and reputable business that big companies can safely spend big money on. His business and the reputation he and his team created allows for his amazing track record.(among many other skills I dont have hahaha)

As good as a name is, if there is even a thought of scam or a possible fraud, it's on to choice B.Most people, marketing executives included, are not deep into the domain world and are more worried about explaining to the CFO how they got ripped off than getting high fives for the "great" deal they got.

Just good to keep that in mind when reaching potential buyers, especially if your name quality puts you in competition with the industry leaders.

Good Luck always!!!

 

[Kate]

Ok, I can evaluate domains myself, but a potential buyer can't.

Do they have to ? End users usually have a budget. So they will try to find a suitable name for their budget and they usually have choice. Sometimes they need one particular domain and then the owner can ask what he/she wants. He doesn't care what estibot is saying.
Looking at comparable sales is a better guide but even for liquid names like LLL.com the price range is quite broad.

Estibot acts as an unbiased third party, and I suspect people would take it seriously.

How can you claim that it's not biased ? Have you seen the source code ? Plus, I doubt that it could see the beauty in brandables or names in foreign languages.

But they have this fineprint:
The dollar valuation is not to be taken literally - it may change, and it is only an aggregate of the various metrics. Do not make a purchase or sale decisions based on this appraisal.
In other words, it's for entertainment purposes. Again, why should end users even consider it for the purpose of buying a domain .

My response to those who says your domain should speak for itself, and you don't need to do anything.

The domain has to speak for itself, because you can't sell stuff that nobody wants. You need to have a buyer in front of you to discuss pricing.
Domain names don't sell because they have nice appraisals, they sell because someone needs them and will pay to acquire them. Estibot will not bring a buyer to you if your name sucks.

I have a question for you, do you buy names based on estibot appraisal ? I hope not.

 

[frank-germany]

Estibot is better than it used to be. I consider it as accurate up to a factor of 10.

that is utter nonsense

 

[poweredbyme]

You can't know the price of a domain. However most domains are sold for 3 figures, about $200 - 800. So, you can renew a domain for 20 years (20 years x $10) until it's sold for $200 , if it's not sold you may want renew it for another 20 years, up to 80 years in total . I am kidding. But this is another strategy for your unsold domains. Some 4+ figures domains are sold after 10+ years renewal.

This is called "time utility" in economics jargon. Time utility is the he biggest utility that a domainer can create. Biggest utility = highest price. 1 year old wine is cheaper than 10 years old wine. Domains are not exactly the same but very similar to wine industry in pricing.

 

[frank-germany]

But this is another strategy for your unsold domains. Some 4+ figures domains are sold after 10+ years renewal.

perfectly true

nearly all my 4 plus figure inbound sales are for domain I hold 5 to 10 years or more
( handregs )

 

[Bla2e]

Its all about perception!

A domain might have 0 value in my eyes but can be worth for $10k for others. So its all about the need in the eyes of the end users.

Sometimes you can even "develop" a perception and sell your domain name.

 

[Vinod R]

I guess you should first change your attitude, you are sounding like that you yourself do not value what you have. What's the difference between a Toyota and an Audi they both do the same thing, but Audi is positioned itself in a way that the buyer feels its worth buying for at a premium?

If you do not value your asset and you are ready to discount your asset value that too by saying that directly to your customer then who would feel to buy?

People should feel that its valuable all the names that you pointed out had value to someone's purse.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I agree to some degree with those arguing on "both" sides of this. I think that we must be able to effectively promote the domain, but ultimately the potential end user will have their own ideas re what they want and how much they will be willing to spend for it. While one can offer additional insights, it is never wise marketing to tell the end user that they are wrong! Ever.

Perhaps obvious, but I think that the marketing approach depends on who you are marketing to. If willing to sell at discount prices, you should market to those who are seeking great value or have very limited resources (like single person companies and NGOs). If marketing to big brand firms, probably uniqueness of name or audience statistics is what to stress. If marketing to a blue chip major organization that is conservative, then they are likely to only consider .com and country code, or possibly .org in certain niches, so promote that. If marketing to avant guard PR firms, then I think there is potential in domain name phrases and some of the new gTLDs.

I probably have not said anything unique to many other than me in this post, so thank you to those who read it! The ideas are somewhat new to me , and audience of one!

 

[Sissa Quinn]

How can more than one person (buyer and seller) see the
same beauty (which doesn't exist).

Open your mind. A seller has to be able to find beauty, or at least lie about it.

Think about real estate business. You may hate the neighborhood, and everything about the open house that you are selling, but you will receive everyone as if it is a potential buyer, and will show them all the beauty about this place that you dislike so much.

There is always someone that will like/want this particular domain. Some domains just need a little "glitter" so that ppl can see that they want them.

 

[Max1000]

Not saying your jealous. Sometimes people want that exact domain. I sold a .com for 10k a little while back .net org and .co were avail. He tried to haggle I played hard ball plus showed some comps and scored. If i was the enduser I wouldnt settle for the .net .io or whatever I want .com but that's me.

Just curious @imadoer, as you were negotiating a 10K .com deal if you thought of regging the .net org and .co and offering as part of the '.com package'?

 

[imadoer]

NOPE

He emailed me for the .com he wanted the .com if he wants all that other junk he can buy it

 

[toughdomains]

domains are like art people buy and pay what they like.

 

[topdom]

I consider Estibot price/10 as bottom price and this is what I care about. You can sell a domain for 100 times its Estibot price and it can be fair. If you plan to sell your domain this way, then you just don't mention Estibot when selling. I can buy a domain for 10, and its Estibot price is 1000, and if I can sell for 100 quickly this is great, but not just for one domain, this has to happen consistently.

I say Estibot is unbiased because it doesn't favor buyers or sellers. But its owner may have lots of .pro domains and show higher values for .pro, but in the big picture this has ignorable effect.


I don't consider aging as something which increases value. Let's say there is a keyword .net or .org which was registered in 1999 and dropped recently and grabbed by me, and probably its previous owner spent 500 usd or more for it until now, and most domainers will consider it as worthless because it is new. This is wrong logic.

.com is not a must. There is a company which has .net , .org, .biz, .info and more of a keyword and uses it as its site address but doesn't buy .com. But of course if you are inventing new keywords you must buy .com for sure.
All brandable keywords I tried to buy were gone long time ago, but I didn't work hard on it. If I like such a keyword, and it is available, I wouldn't care about Estibot price. But if Estibot price is low, I may suspect there might be a typo, and check it again.

 

[lock]

You do realise people sell themselves names for high prices to show a sale or to try to jump up bidding. This may not be the case but I would be skeptical of many names sold and where the domain will point after sale one week , one month and one year.

 

[frank-germany]

You do realise people sell themselves names for high prices to show a sale or to try to jump up bidding. This may not be the case but I would be skeptical of many names sold and where the domain will point after sale one week , one month and one year.

it's always good to be skeptical

when a robot is part of the equasion
it's always good to ask yourself
how that robots might get his data
and how it would be good to program it

often you may find the data is at least questionable

for estibot
you will not find a domainer
that will make a decision based on estibot
at least not based on their validation

that's pure BS