discuss When Good-Looking Names Sell Cheap

[DomainGemsAI]

I've been comparing a couple of small batches of auction sales lately. The most recent one had 45 names.One of them, batotoo.com, ranked highly when I looked only at the name itself. It sold for $2,511.At the same time, several descriptive local names, including restaurant and service domains, sold well above what I would have expected from the names alone. An IPTV domain reached $7,988, despite having little in the string itself that suggested that outcome.
I'm beginning to wonder whether this is simply how lower-value auctions behave, or whether I'm comparing two different things: a framework built to assess a domain's structure against prices shaped by auction dynamics, history, and buyer-specific demand. Has anyone else compared auction results this way? I'd be interested to know whether you've seen the same pattern, or whether I'm reading too much into a couple of small samples.

 

[Eric Lyon]

The only way to get close to what you're looking to do is to be using more comparable domains in auction that are not only in the same niche, but very similar in combination as well.

The two examples you gave:

• batotoo = Typo of Batoto - a plural noun meaning "children" in Swahili and Bantu.
• IPTV = Internet Protocol Television.

Those are completely different niches, different types of assets, different types of combinations, etc... So there really isn't any way to compare the two to get a common denominator.

if your 45 name batch is mix and matched like the above, the data may not be very helpful you get from it.

Do you have a sample with similar/comparable domains the sold at auction within a 60 day window of each other to compare?

 

[cactusfly]

@DomainGemsAI Good viewpoints

 

[biggie]

At the same time, several descriptive local names, including restaurant and service domains, sold well above what I would have expected from the names alone. An IPTV domain reached $7,988, despite having little in the string itself that suggested that outcome.

Hi

you can’t make your expectations apply to what random sales price should be for a domain

whether I'm reading too much into a couple of small samples.

Hi

yes, it seems like you try to make something out of nothing

imo…

 

[DomainGemsAI]

The only way to get close to what you're looking to do is to be using more comparable domains in auction that are not only in the same niche, but very similar in combination as well.

The two examples you gave:

• batotoo = Typo of Batoto - a plural noun meaning "children" in Swahili and Bantu.
• IPTV = Internet Protocol Television.

Those are completely different niches, different types of assets, different types of combinations, etc... So there really isn't any way to compare the two to get a common denominator.

if your 45 name batch is mix and matched like the above, the data may not be very helpful you get from it.

Do you have a sample with similar/comparable domains the sold at auction within a 60 day window of each other to compare?

Good catch on batotoo — I hadn't looked into that. If it's a Bantu/Swahili word for "children," that's a real find, and it actually fits something I've been noticing elsewhere: names that read as meaningless invented strings sometimes turn out to carry meaning I just don't have visibility into. Worth remembering.


You're right that batotoo and the IPTV domain aren't really comparable — different asset class, different buyer logic entirely. I don't currently have a same-niche, tight-window sample built the way you're describing. That's a fair gap.


I'll pull a batch that holds the category constant — same structural class, similar combination, close sale dates — and see if the pattern holds or falls apart. Worth doing properly rather than mixing categories again.

 

[TonnyDomains]

Good catch on batotoo — I hadn't looked into that. If it's a Bantu/Swahili word for "children," that's a real find, and it actually fits something I've been noticing elsewhere: names that read as meaningless invented strings sometimes turn out to carry meaning I just don't have visibility into. Worth remembering.


You're right that batotoo and the IPTV domain aren't really comparable — different asset class, different buyer logic entirely. I don't currently have a same-niche, tight-window sample built the way you're describing. That's a fair gap.


I'll pull a batch that holds the category constant — same structural class, similar combination, close sale dates — and see if the pattern holds or falls apart. Worth doing properly rather than mixing categories again.

Thank you for the advise not to mix categories.

 

[nicenic]

Some names look clean but have no clear buyer waiting.

Others look average, but one buyer sees the exact use case and the auction price jumps....