Average Sales Figures from Members

[vcr330]

I joined this forum after quite a bit of lurking and soaking up the information members provided. Then, I went away to look for more stuff (and, with a lot of the excitement, registered a few more names I strongly suspect are nearly worthless--or worse, ). I found Rick's Blog, Elliot's Blog (now DomainInvesting), DNJournal, and NameBio to name a few.

It's great to learn from all of these domain kings who have been in the business since it started.

But I'm interested in the daily experience of those reaching for the crown. So, with that in mind, I ask:

Of those of you who have been in this business for at least the last 3 years, what is the average domain selling price (not income) you've received in the last 3 years from your inventory of all extensions?

Thanks!

Vivian

 

[amplify]

I don't think anyone on this forum would give you an answer to your question.

Would a doctor tell you if you asked them their average salary over the past 3 years? Maybe some would if you were pursuing a PhD, M.D., but other than that, most likely in a casual conversation, they wouldn't. I know you didn't state salary, but it alludes to their overall earnings for the year with a little research (previous whois information * domains transferred out at average price).

If anyone does post it, I'd be amazed.

 

[Jack Gordon]

I am not trying to be snarky, but what was the average price of a house sold in the last 3 years?

Even if there was an answer, it would be utterly meaningless.

There are many houses, neighborhoods, beachfronts, ghettos, shacks, mansions, etc.

The average selling price of all those won't tell you anything worth knowing, without more data attached which nobody is going to share outside of what is already published and publicly available elsewhere.

 

[vcr330]

I am not trying to be snarky, but what was the average price of a house sold in the last 3 years?

Even if there was an answer, it would be utterly meaningless.

There are many houses, neighborhoods, beachfronts, ghettos, shacks, mansions, etc.

The average selling price of all those won't tell you anything worth knowing, without more data attached which nobody is going to share outside of what is already published and publicly available elsewhere.

Hi Jack. I don't take your comment to be snarky--what would be the point of asking for answers if I'm going to approach things that way.

However, the analogy is not applicable inasmuch as a realtor, wherever they are, can tell you an average sale number. The point, to continue the analogy, is to get an idea generally of sales, not what a property is worth.. Example: http://www.statisticbrain.com/home-sales-average-price/ for 2012 per month. Where these properties are located is not an issue for purposes of getting a ballpark idea what is selling..Now, it is meaningless in terms of houses or domains or whatever if you are trying to use the information to price your domains.

 

[vcr330]

Hey David..you're right, I didn't ask for salary, income or whatever. I have been looking at the historical sales but I don't believe I can tell whether anyone is a domainer as opposed to someone who bought a domain and end it up selling only because they were approached, not because they are domainers. I think the allusion would be to a sale, not to salary since there are enough names (with their corresponding extension combinations) that may sell for peanuts as opposed to the higher earning ones. And you can't extrapolate from such a mixed bag, which is why I made it so general.

Still, if no one posts that is fine.

Thanks!

 

[Biggie]

I joined this forum after quite a bit of lurking and soaking up the information members provided. Then, I went away to look for more stuff (and, with a lot of the excitement, registered a few more names I strongly suspect are nearly worthless--or worse, ). I found Rick's Blog, Elliot's Blog (now DomainInvesting), DNJournal, and NameBio to name a few.

It's great to learn from all of these domain kings who have been in the business since it started.

But I'm interested in the daily experience of those reaching for the crown. So, with that in mind, I ask:

Of those of you who have been in this business for at least the last 3 years, what is the average domain selling price (not income) you've received in the last 3 years from your inventory of all extensions?

Thanks!

Vivian

Hi Vivian,

Glad you joined the forum in the first place....and that you have stopped lurking.

when you "read" about "domain kings", do you really learn, or just get inspired and motivated to get in the biz of domaining?

have you read about how each of those personas'/entities you mentioned started......about their losses and not just the successes or what they started with?

when you ask, "what is average selling price"?


that average, is not or will not, be reflective of overall domain values.

why?


because selling price or price domain sold for, is not always determined by the amount (averages)....but by the "experience of the seller or buyer".


this is why... you will always see domains being sold for higher prices than expected, and domains being sold for lower prices than expected.

still, averages or averaging, are too often used to draw lines on budgets in the reseller "market".


and reaching the "crown" may not be the objective for all...as the "crown" is a vague symbolism,
sometimes it's a "self-anointed" crown or sometimes it's placed on heads by idolizers.

on occasion, being "crowned" in the eye of the impressionable, makes it's easier to "sell it" to the subjective.


owning a LLL.com can be one's "crown of achievement", then they move on

what you come in the game with, and what you can take out....whenever, can be one's measure.

and of course, there are those who are content to live outside the castle,

just sowing and reaping, tilling their land, tools in hand,

reaping rewards on the low.


depends on which direction you go.





imo....

 

[vcr330]

Hi Biggie..glad you joined the discussion. I tried to post a question without getting too wordy.

So in response to your post, I offer this:

depends on which direction you go.

Totally agree. Personally, I am not into "reaching for the crown" myself; and do prefer reaping rewards on the low, and "just sowing and reaping, tilling their land, tools in hand." Besides, I did coming late into the game, and without much, lol.

that average, is not or will not, be reflective of overall domain values.

In posing the question I was curious as to whether it is still a viable business, not about the domain value; as I'm learning, value in the domain world is no different than in any other area...subjective, and lots of moving parts. That said, it's more curiosity than anything as I find it a rather interested (and very speculative) business, hobby or however we want to call it when we don't do it full time.

When reading about "domain kings" I get inspired and motivated to read more--every day I seem to discover yet another "king" talked about/referenced in many places. Part of what takes me so long to come back into this forum is reading through whatever blogs or mentions they have out there in trying to get to their history (not the lore that may have now become their modern history, but the "as you go" kind of stuff that might be out there). Because in seeing that history I am not blinded by whatever successes they may be having now and chasing fool's gold. Unfortunately this way of thinking has not dampened the tendency to register "pidgeon $h!t" as someone over at Elliot's Blog/DomainInvesting call worthless (or near worthless) names; pruning really hurts!


I got inspired (rather late, lol) to get into this business because I've been having some success using EMDs--some combined with small PPC campaigns and others without--to grow my business. I realize this may not be scalable but you never know. I don't think of this domaining thing as a business until I get a sale. Until I started looking at this earlier this year, I had no idea that they were a lot like real property, where I did have some successes while in undergrad and later,before the tanking in 2008.

Thanks for your observations.

 

[Theo]

How long is a piece of string?

 

[Biggie]

Vivian


you appear to have deep thoughts, and pondering is a good thing, because it often prevents hasty moves


when trying to track back, to see how the kings got to be


many of them started here, on dnforum and moved on in their own directions, or creating their own paths.

the creative and the idealists make brands, which in turn help make kings,

and domainers in general, rely on those brands to feed and service them.

at least that's how I see it.


but to your basic question, i'd say there is still room for one more.





imo....

 

[chipmeade]

How long is a piece of string?

Twice as long as half of it....Always!

 

[vcr330]

Biggie,

thank you for the encouraging feedback and perspective!

 

[ImageAuthors]

Hi, Vivian

Welcome to the forum!

About average sales prices ... It's a good question, and answers do exist. But nobody here can give a truly meaningful answer. Wholesale and retail numbers are both in the mix. The number of monthly sales for a particular domainer is typically too small to be statistically significant. Multiple different sales strategies are involved. So are multiple different types of domains. One domain might be a profit if sold at $200, whereas another domain might constitute a loss even if sold at $50,000. One domainer might sell 10 domains per month at $200, while another domainer might sell one domain per year at $50,000. Many domainers never sell anything at all.

Personally, I track my own portfolio according to various rates -- e.g. net income per penny spent per day owned, classified according to language and extension. So I have lots of data for my own portfolio. But that only applies to my acquisitions and sales habits, and it's skewed based on the particular domains I own in particular categories and the actual sales I happen to get for, say, Spanish .ORGs or English .NETs.

To average out all these factors, you'd want to look at data from the larger market places. There the numbers are high enough to smooth out the noise, and the sales approach is somewhat standardized. Here are numbers that I've gathered from Sedo:

Extension / Year / Median / Mean

.AT 2010 513 1000
.AT 2011 645 1177
.AT 2012 640 1993
.BIZ 2010 407 879
.BIZ 2011 424 1285
.BIZ 2012 392 879
.CO.UK 2010 580 2008
.CO.UK 2011 624 1273
.CO.UK 2012 553 1919
.COM 2010 550 3185
.COM 2011 650 2775
.COM 2012 642 2148
.DE 2010 439 1514
.DE 2011 412 1530
.DE 2012 387 1293
.ES 2010 652 1425
.ES 2011 832 2366
.ES 2012 400 1884
.EU 2010 203 706
.EU 2011 375 1169
.EU 2012 850 1212
.FR 2010 806 6768
.FR 2011 1075 2386
.FR 2012 986 1833
.INFO 2010 416 795
.INFO 2011 480 990
.INFO 2012 395 896
.NET 2010 590 1599
.NET 2011 555 1602
.NET 2012 510 1880
.ORG 2010 591 2217
.ORG 2011 510 1289
.ORG 2012 500 1315

 

[vcr330]

Hello ImageAuthor

Wow, that is an impressive data set; and useful accompanying observations, thank you for sharing it.

I've been (obsessively) combing Namebio for historical sales on my particular niche; before I learned of that site, I was combing DNJournal report. For some reason Sedo loads really slow for me and is exasperating sometimes.

You also have Spanish-lang. domain names. I have 4 or 5 domains that I don't really use at the moment, but I'm thinking of putting those out too. I want to look into the .es domains, although on a recent trip to southern Spain I noticed a lot of the .com extension in use.

The number of monthly sales for a particular domainer is typically too small to be statistically significant.

I figure as much from what I don't see from the majority of comments, some here but mostly elsewhere.

Personally, I track my own portfolio according to various rates -- e.g. net income per penny spent per day owned, classified according to language and extension.

This sounds like a good idea, even if I get a headache just thinking about it. I imagine that, as Biggie mentioned regarding services for domainers, there is a program out there for that (if you have an affiliate link for something along those lines, I'd be happy to use it, if you pm me with it).

As for sales strategy, that's another thing that I've been slowly working on to see which one I want to start testing first.

Thanks again for posting (yours and Biggies are re-reading material).

 

[frankburns]

Dont think about prices. Just research trends.

Sometimes your gut will direct you. Single words lll and nnnn cant go wrong

 

[ImageAuthors]

I imagine that, as Biggie mentioned regarding services for domainers, there is a program out there for that (if you have an affiliate link for something along those lines, I'd be happy to use it, if you pm me with it).

Unfortunately, I don't have any affiliate link to share. As a data addict, I coded a special system for tracking and analyzing my portfolio. So I don't actually know what services are out there for domainers in terms of portfolio management, since I never looked into any.

Spanish domains are an overlooked market. I sell them and get offers regularly. In fact, my first domain sale was a .ES domain -- although that one was admittedly a bit of a fluke.

 

[vcr330]

Hi Frank,

Sometimes your gut will direct you.

But I'm thinking I have to train my gut with research, as you suggest

Single words lll and nnnn cant go wrong

yeah, that seem to be the mantra; and I hope to be able to get one if and when I find something I like.

 

[vcr330]

Image,

Spanish domains are an overlooked market.

That's what I've been thinking.

As for a system, I might take a look--there's only so much I can do with a spreadsheet(!).

 

[Daniel Levi]

Are most of your .es extension sales in English (ex: friend.es) or are they in Spanish (ex: amigo.es)? This extension definitely sounds like it has potential, but I'm not sure what is worth investing in.

Unfortunately, I don't have any affiliate link to share. As a data addict, I coded a special system for tracking and analyzing my portfolio. So I don't actually know what services are out there for domainers in terms of portfolio management, since I never looked into any.

Spanish domains are an overlooked market. I sell them and get offers regularly. In fact, my first domain sale was a .ES domain -- although that one was admittedly a bit of a fluke.

 

[Biggie]

if you just wanna play around and read some domain sales statistics:



http://sedo.com/us/sedo/idnx-the-domain-name-price-index-from-sedo-key-findings-interactive-graphs/



http://sedo.com/us/resources/market-trends/


all Free!

 

[vcr330]

if you just wanna play around and read some domain sales statistics:



http://sedo.com/us/sedo/idnx-the-domain-name-price-index-from-sedo-key-findings-interactive-graphs/



http://sedo.com/us/resources/market-trends/


all Free!

I do...thanks!

Now see, those averages are interesting for me (perhaps they are old news to "old-timers")...Lol, I probably would not have posted the question if I'd found that. Thanks again!