closed Are we too conservative?

[namedancer]

Most of us are burnt out by the totally-ridiculous Afternic appraisal boards, but has the pendulum swung the other way? Are we now too conservative, especially on retail appraisals?

This is what brought this to mind-- remember that WebMagic name firesale that started about a year ago? This is what it looks like now: http://www.webmagic.com/firesale.html. Look at those "reduced" prices and sold names! Maybe we should all start our own firesales on our own name-selling sites

 

[namedancer]

Sorry, that link took the period and doesn't work. Again--

http://www.webmagic.com/firesale.html

 

[buddy]

I've seen their site before. I wonder how many of those bids are real? However, I have not doubt that they have the connections and clientele to prmote the names by themselver. They've been around for a very long time and belong to the top dogs when it comes to buying and selling domains. The problem of starting our own firesale would be that we would never obtain those prices, and I can't match their domain portfolio

 

webmagic have some fantasic names which is why they have sold so many, how many people here own names like that? It's all about quality in my opnion, like someone said the other day bad names will remain bad names; good names on the other hand get top dollar.

 

[namedancer]

They do have some fabulous names, some of which may even be bargains they are that good. But there are also some lesser coms and nets that if put up here for appraisal wouldn't get a fraction of what they ask. Of course, maybe that's why they haven't sold yet

 

[buddy]

Snoopy are you from Australia? If so, how is the market for domains down under?

 

[alldig]

webmagic could use some of his money to buy web design =) ...that site is in need of some serious renovation

 

[Edwin]

They have been VERY savvy with their sale - I've been tracking it most of this year...

At first, there were fewer high-quality names to get the sales flowing. As time has passed, they have gradually updated their "SOLD" list while adding what IMO are "lesser" names into the mix.

Because so many of the (excellent!) names have been sold and because knowledgeable buyers keep revisiting their page to see what's available and what this week's discounts have been, they're creating something of a market for the lesser names where in normal circumstances there wouldn't be one.

But they're getting closer to scraping the bottom of the name barrel with some of their recent listings, like the .US names. Not that they care - they've probably grossed over $1,000,000 total on the names sold to date!

 

[Edwin]

To answer the other point in this thread: you must be dreaming if you think the average DNForum-goer could hope to emulate the WebMagic success story!

I don't think more than 5-10 members here (if that) have domain portfolios worth even a tiny fraction of WebMagic's. Most members have portfolios that are worth less than $4-figures TOTAL if appraised objectively by an outsider - though this realisation comes slow and late in "domain life"!

 

[buddy]

Genki,

The figure is closer to over $30,000,000 at least!! In 1996 they sold Toys.com to EToys and beside cash they recieved stock options in the company. From which Web Magic later sold 1/3 of and got $22,000,000!! Read more here:http://ragingbull.lycos.com/cgi-bin/static.cgi/a=02-07-00.txt&d=articles/iposnapshot

 

on the subject of valuation I don't think valuations here are too low, I would say often its too high. Look through ebay and you'll get a fair idea of where reseller prices are, of the people who have put names up from here recently, how many have actually got bids/sales? Ebay is a very humbling experience in my view.

With retail prices its more difficult but the reason why there is such a big difference between ebay and reseller prices in my view is that ebay is a sure sale today, whereas end user sales seem to be few and far between for many.You can appraise a name for say $200 to a reseller and $4000 to an end user but what is the likelyhood of that name actually selling to an end user for $4000 in the nest year or so, 10%, 5% less?

 

[fizz]

kvinsencius, thanks for the link. Greg McLemore is one very smart domain expert.

 

Originally posted by kvinsencius
Snoopy are you from Australia? If so, how is the market for domains down under?

kvin,

not really sure as I'm not really into .com.au's much though I think the generic domain auctions been held at the moment are getting good prices, see http://auda.org.au . The more premium names are getting upwards of $20k aud from what I heard.

 

[buddy]

RE:
not really sure as I'm not really into .com.au's much though I think the generic domain auctions been held at the moment are getting good prices. The more premium names are getting upwards of $20k aud from what I heard.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting. I did not know that people were willing to pay that much there for their own country codes today. BTW how much is one aud in usd? I just assumed that they were worth almost equally, or am I totally off mark here?

 

kvin,

Yeah basically .com.au is used by most big businesses here, not really that many using .com, so the names they are auctioning off are seen as pretty desirable. One $1AUD = $0.55 us to $20k would be about $11k though I wouldn't be surprised if some are getting higher than that, final prices auctions aren't listed on their site.

 

[buddy]

The prices are not bad for a country code. Maybe you should start grabbing some of those good domains and make your fortune in aud instead of usd

 

some .co.uk's have sold well too - taste.co.uk and three.co.uk were both sold for in excess of $145,000 each

 

[fizz]

how long ago were those great sales safesys?

 

from memory, three was in the last 6-12 months - taste was 12-24mths ago

 

[buddy]

I guess there must be some big players that are willing to invest good money for domains in the UK. Bring some over here