Any thoughts on sedo?

[beatz]

Originally posted by SedoCoUk



* Ordering a Showcase or an appraisal.

Matthew,

Not trying to start anything but why don't you give up the paid appraisals ?

It would add a lot of credibility to Sedo. In fact i think the appraisals take away a lot of Sedo's credibility to say the least.

Paid appraisals are sooo '90-ish "Let's fool a newbie"- style.

Nowadays everybody knows they're good for nothing.You may wanna reread the introduction to this forum's appraisal board - you know the one that says "Don't waste $50 for a "professional" appraisal on your domain.." to get the common opinion on that matter.

In fact the only ones that would pay for an appraisal are newbies and i just don't think it's any kind of professional behaviour from your side to still try make them believe there is anything like a "professional" appraisal.

 

[system0]

thats actually a good idea beatz

..but then again, we dont know how much money sedo makes through these appraisals

 

[beatz]

So making money on these appraisals justifies their existence?
I don't agree.
Scam is scam.
Especially unprofessionally for a platform that allegedly serves as "one of the leading marketplaces for trading domain names.."

 

[system0]

i agree with you 100%
i think its a scam too but we dont know the percentage of sedo's income this makes up

the appraisals could be a big money earner for sedo - i know that doesnt make that right but if it accounts for say 40% of earnings then dropping appraisals would require the revenue lost to be made up somewhere else

i do think they shgould drop them though

 

[debath]

Hi Guys,

After reading the posts regarding the Sedo domain appraisal service - perhaps a few points could be considered.

All because most of this forum's members are "oldies" with domain investment, doesn't mean they weren't all "newbies" once upon a time. AND, didn't some of those "newbies" pay for domain appraisals at the time, thinking it was a very worthwhile investment? Of all the "oldies" who paid for an appraisal, who regrets it now? Okay, they may not mean much to us, but, it's possible they do mean something to others.

As far as I can tell, Sedo is catering to the newbies and the oldies - the newbies are offered a paid appraisal service and the oldies are offered a good site to list their names at. I can't see anything in the user agreement when you sign up to say you HAVE to order a paid appraisal in order to be a member.

Thinking about it - it's like "if you don't like the program, change the channel" - "if you don't want an appraisal, don't get one".

I'm not trying to start anything - I just thought there might be a few ways to look at their reasons for offering paid appraisals on their site.

Have a great one ...

Debbie

 

[krisblade]

Reason to pay for a domain appraisal; you don´t know that DNForum.com exists

 

[beatz]

Debath,

the point is paid appraisals are a scam as there is no such thing as a professional appraisal - we all know it and we don't have different opinions on that i'd believe.
As for the newbies - especially for them it's kind of frustrating to pay for an appraisal to only find out later it's worth nothing; one of the things that don't give you a good start in domain business.
If i would ever had paid for an appraisal i indeed would regret it now and more important i would not trust the company that offered it at all.
So why should it be ok Sedo ripping off those newbies?
Point is, they don't get anything valuable for their bucks.
Except a bad experience to learn from.

 

[system0]

i have to agree
catering for newbies seems to mean ripping off new webmasters in this context

its the same as people who paid money for auto submission software a few years ago - now most of them get your site banned but still many of the large sites sell these products

 

[SedoCoUk]

Originally posted by beatz
the point is paid appraisals are a scam as there is no such thing as a professional appraisal - we all know it and we don't have different opinions on that i'd believe.

Hi Beatz,

I wish I could agree with you, because Appraisals are not a major portion of our revenue, but they are a big portion of what we spend our time on.

I think that you're making two mistakes:
1) Overestimating the average person's knowledge of domain names, and
2) Assuming that all appraisal firms are alike.

1) Most people don't even know that domain names can be sold, let alone for how much. If we had the time and resources to send appraisals to every seller that lists domains with us, and every buyer who makes a bid, we'd sell 10 times as many domains.

SELLERS: Sorry, but many sellers have not realized that the domain market has changed from the late '90s (outside the US, the change has been less dramatic)-- peruse the asking prices for domains on Great Domains, AN, eBay, whatever, and it is quite obvious that most sellers do not have a good idea of what their domain is worth.

BUYERS: As for the buyers, they usually don't know anything about type-ins, Overture searches, search engine optimization, branding, traffic diversion, and other factors that make domains valuable or not. Any seller who has tried to market to a company knows that all of these things must be explained before the company realizes that domain names are a profitable investment. As a third-party, recognized expert, SEDO is in a much better position to convince them than the seller.

2) I'll agree that many appraisals aren't worth anything. But you're attacking the wrong guys. Your energy is better expended attacking scam sites that just generate random values (eg, AllForDomains.com) or use automated appraising software (GD, AN, Nameboy, and an infinite number of small sites reselling...)

In contrast:

1. All Sedo appraisals are individually researched.
2. Our methodology is based on a year of empirical research for one of our founders' Master's thesis
3. Our database includes more _current_ sales values than anyone else.
4. Our international and foreign-language appraisals are always done by a native speaker and someone with experience in the local market.
5. Since appraisals are not the major part of our business, we can afford to hurt a few sellers' egos (and lose the repeat business), while appraisal-only companies inflate values to make sure that the customer comes back.
   [/list=1]
   
   Perhaps most importantly, a Sedo appraisal is not just a figure. It's a 3-4 (standard) or 6-10 (premium) page report explaining what goes into the domain's valuation. When appropriate, our premium appraisals will even recommend potential buyers, marketing strategies, potential TM conflicts, potential usagses, etc.
   
   And they are accurate... (see my next post)

 

[SedoCoUk]

With enough experience in buying and selling domain names, and enough information about a domain, it's history, traffic, potential buyers, and the seller (all stuff that we take into account, but other services (or DNForum appraisals) do not) -- then it is possible to come up with a good estimation of price.

Here are some recent examples of sales that were appraised, and then shortly after, sold for an amount quite similar:

Fitness.de
Appraised: 24,000 euros.
Sold for: 26,000 euros (this price was negotiated without Sedo's knowledge, before the seller received the appraisal)

BadDrug.com
Appraised: $1,200
Sold: $1,200 (Again, price negotiated without knowledge of the appraisal, and the buyer's budget was 10 times higher).

Adder.com
Appraised: $9,000
Sold: $13,000 with Adder.co.uk and Adder.net

DJ.net plus assets
Appraised: $45,000
Sold: $45,000

These are just off the top of my head; there are many more similar examples.

I thought it might also be relevant to share a few of the comments of happy customers of this "scam" (these are unsolicited comments from our appraisal customers):

"Thanks for your appraisal, I thought it was very
realistic, given the current market conditions."
~Mad.tv

"I also wanted to let you know that I was very pleased with the
quality of your recent appraisal. In addition to applying your
standard model, I was impressed to see that the appraiser
seemed familiar with the domain's target market and used
PPC engines to help gauge demand. The Comparable
Transactions were also quite useful. I will certainly use
your service in the future!"
~PCEdge.com

"I had a feeling your [Domain Appraisal] service would be more accurate, and I was right."
~Sound-systems.com

"Vielen Dank fuer die schnelle Bearbeitung des Wertgutachtens.
Ich bin sehr beeindruckt wie nah Ihr Schaetzwert und der aktuelle Marktwert beieinander liegen. Ihr Gutachten bestaetigt mich die Domain zu kaufen. Ich werde dem Besitzer empfehlen die Abwicklung ueber Sedo laufen zu lassen. Mit dem Kauf und der Abwicklung von joggen.de und workout.de ueber Sedo war ich ebenfalls sehr zufrieden."

"Thanks for sending me the appraisal for hilder.com... Again, you have provided me with useful information. The domainguru one
was pretty much a figure value with an indication of points for various factors. Nothing really to learn from it except the actual value."
~Hilder.com

"Gracias, realmente es una excelente valoracion. Me devuelve la confianza en las valoraciones."
~Brida.com

Beatz, I'm also going to send you an example appraisal for your reference. I think that once you see what we're sending out, you will be better able to see it's value (I am among those people who do not believe in criticizing something that they do not know).

~Matthew

 

[dvdrip]

Matthew,
can you send me an example as well?
Nice work there.
Thank you

 

[yesonline]

I have purchased an appraisal service from sedo few weeks ago, and I think it was a fair appraisal though the price is under my expectation

 

[beatz]

Matthew.

What is your point?

Of course newbie domainers will give you a happy feedback if you give them positive appraisals for their names.

As for the names being appraised and then shortly after sold for that amount: Well maybe it was 2 newbies (buyer AND seller) so the whole deal based only on the appraisal?

Even if so, that doesn't make it better.

Would you ever give someone a REALLY negative appraisal like "worth nothing" or similar?

I doubt it.

To give your clients a up to 10 pages appraisal report is unprofessional in itself because it sure makes your client think
he receives something valuable for his money when in fact you could have summarized it in 4 sentences.

Would you give your premium appraisal client a 10 page report if you had to appraise it negatively?

I bet you would. Just to give him the impression he got a "professional" appraisal - when in fact it's not.

You know it's not about the happy feedback you get from your customers NOW - they just don't know better.

It's the negative you get LATER when they have learned.

Btw - what makes your company experts on appraisals?

Sure not the experience coming from sale/ asking prices on Sedo -
they're as unrealistic as can be.

If Sedo REALLY would be experts, they would quit the appraisals and tell the truth - especially to newbies.

In other words:

BEHAVE like experts.


Still as easy as this:

Paid appraisals are rubbish.

 

[fizz]

Originally posted by beatz
Of course newbie domainers will give you a happy feedback if you give them positive appraisals for their names

I found some excellent points in Matthew's posts, including one that answers your question above:

Originally posted by SedoCoUk
Since appraisals are not the major part of our business, we can afford to hurt a few sellers' egos (and lose the repeat business), while appraisal-only companies inflate values to make sure that the customer comes back

...which is independently backed up by:

Originally posted by yesonline
I have purchased an appraisal service from sedo few weeks ago, and I think it was a fair appraisal though the price is under my expectation

 

[buddy]

I think Sedo can do fairly accurate appraisals for domains based on the sales they have had. I think it is important to look at what the market is willing to pay for similar domains. I know that most large domain sellers (some members on this forum), base a lot of their valuations on past sales for domains in the similar area.

Of course there are more factors to be considered when determining a domain's value. But when you have other sales to compare it with, it will give you a fairly good indication of what the price range might be.

 

[fizz]

Congrats Deb on the 1.200 $US sale of itoons.com at sedo.

 

[GiantDomains]

Moved to MISC.