Result of godaddy 7 day public auction with HOMEPAGE FEATURE

[Stormy Seas]

Love the comments Katherine. Thank you for bringing respectability back to this conversation. I really appreciate it even if I disagree with you. You don't have to report sales because you aren't a big name in the industry. I make alot of personal sales and I'm not at liberty to disclose those sales but if I was this big time domainer like Mike Mann then I think it would be important to back your statements up with a list of domains that you've sold.
The Real Estate / Mortgage industry is the only standard for comparison that we can use. Real Estate and Virtual Real Estate is similar in many ways. I understand its different but regulation in the real estate market has stopped ppl from over charging. For example regulation has made it public knowlegde for home sale prices , this has stopped price gouging where ppl charging $1million for a home in a neighborhood where other similar homes in the same neighborhood are being sold for only $500K. If regulated these BS domainers would fall to the way side just like many of these fraudulent mortgage brokers did giving ppl 15% ARM interest rates on a 30 years mortgage.
I used to be a mortgage broker, I've done this to home buyers many times. It was legal but I never really understood how wrong it was to give ppl a 4.5 percent interest rate which could balloon too 15%. Honestly we never even dreamed the economy would tank and ppl would be responsible and lose their homes based on it.
There is no benefit to going around bragging about your domain name sales but if you are a big name going around saying you sold ten's of millions of dollars in domains then you'd better provide a list of domains you've sold or I will say your a full of Sh** And this is what I"m seeing everywhere.

Here is the problem. A domain name like xyz.com is considered valuable.... but that is a completely useless domain unless your company was XYZ inc. But if any of us owned that domain , we are looking at a serious payday. When something that is considered valueable but in all reality is completely worthless.... that is called a bubble. There are a ton of worthless domains out there that most domainers consider valuable. Like these two character and one character domains. Domains shoujld be valued base on their location or rank or traffic, but that is unimportant to domainers. A homes value is based on many different attributes none more important than its location. Since we are dealing with Virtual Real Estate the only value of that real estate should be its location amongst the Search engines and the amount of traffic that site is getting. This isn't complex what I'm explaining and it makes alot of sense. Why aren't domains value based on their location in the search engines and the number of searches the keywords they are ranked for gets within those search engines? That way domainers value domains is ridiculous and needs to be changed. I can't believe this industry operates this way. Its illogical. Xyz.com is valueable but a domain ranked for a keywords that gets 40k exact searches is not considered as valuable.

 

[Jack Gordon]

Roger, the element you are talking about but not naming is speculation.

Domains that have rank (or, more specifically, revenue) do get valued highly and sell at reasonable multiples. The problem is, 98% of domainers probably have no idea how to rank domains - especially without real content. And so, as we see here and on the auction sites, you have resellers speculating on crap names, realizing they made a bad bet, then trying to dump those crap names with a fire sale aimed at... (wait for it...) other resellers.

Resellers selling crap to other resellers. That is the business model for many, and it is highly unprofitable and unsatisfying. Which is why the pool is constantly filling up with new disenfranchised resellers, with more and more crap to unload. A glance at a daily droplist will confirm that. What the hell were those people smoking?

Personally, I don't think there is much to blow open in this industry. Mostly pathetic basement dwellers trying their hand at domain investing without a clue, a few big names who play with equally big money, and a relatively small community of professionals, many of whom spend time here. As in any other business, it is easier to make money if you have it first, some smart people will figure out how to make money from nothing, and a bunch of people will fail and go on to The Next Big Thing.

I know a little something about government regulation. While I get your thinking on it, I think it would be overkill and not terribly useful. This market seems to be working about as it should

 

[amplify]

Watch out for a harder recession when the domaining industry fails because it's not regulated.

Back to topic, don't pay to sell your domains unless your "good" domains can be brokered if you fail to sell yourself.

List 5 of your "good" domains to see if they don't sell because they're pigeon shit and you'll have a better route to take: instead of spending your time crying, you can spend it by reading the information on this forum and EDUCATE yourself.

 

[Stormy Seas]

Thanks Jack,
I think I agree with your comment. I remember what you explained to me the other day and I guess I don't want to believe it so I'm still digging. I just don't see how this industry can be real. With Katherine explaining about filtering information / miss information and you saying this is basically a dumping ground lol, this seems like a very paper thin industry, not worth investing in. I want to be wrong about this and would love to find some information to disprove my theory.
The route I take is to build , then rank, then you can use an auction site to sell but I'm telling you , none of my ranking sites are for sale. The effort it takes to rank a site makes it more valueable to me and to the potential buyer. I get emails all the time from ppl offering to buy one of my ranked sites, but none of mine are for sale. I'm trying to sell my domains that are not ranked. But it seems thru the vail only ranked domains are truely valuable. This domain industry is BS or using a better word ... paper thin.

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See this was starting to be an interesting conversation once again until Mr. Walker commented. I really hope you all that are contributing see how this last comment was unnecessary and doesn't contribute in the least bit and was made in ignorance. Obviously this guy hasn't read the fact that I've explained that i sell domains fairly regularly and this conversation is not from a person that is angry about not being able to sell domains.
I deal with this kind of crap often and all I can do is call it out for what it is. Ignorance.

 

[amplify]

Then what's the point of this thread? You got your answer about paying to sell names, got critiqued on government regulations, vented about Rick Schwartz, complained overall even to positive feedback.

Am I the one who's ignorant?

 

[katherine]

When something that is considered valueable but in all reality is completely worthless.... that is called a bubble. There are a ton of worthless domains out there that most domainers consider valuable. Like these two character and one character domains. Domains shoujld be valued base on their location or rank or traffic, but that is unimportant to domainers. A homes value is based on many different attributes none more important than its location. Since we are dealing with Virtual Real Estate the only value of that real estate should be its location amongst the Search engines and the amount of traffic that site is getting. This isn't complex what I'm explaining and it makes alot of sense. Why aren't domains value based on their location in the search engines and the number of searches the keywords they are ranked for gets within those search engines? That way domainers value domains is ridiculous and needs to be changed. I can't believe this industry operates this way. Its illogical. Xyz.com is valueable but a domain ranked for a keywords that gets 40k exact searches is not considered as valuable.

There is a logic, that you are not getting yet But it is true that even among domainers, few truly understand what makes a domain valuable...

You are only seeing part of the picture, due to your professional background I suppose. There are so many factors involved in domain sales, many of which are subjective. Brandability for example.
That's why domain appraisal is more art than science. It's not like in real estate.
You cannot compare domain names with real estate.
Each domain name is unique. A domain name is like a unique piece of art.
In real estate, there is a structured and regulated market, pretty much any home or plot of land has built-in value. But few domain names have built-in value. The vast majority are in fact utterly worthless because nobody wants to buy them.
Domain sales are unpredictable, and the demand for domain names is limited. The market for domain names is fundamentally illiquid.
Yet there is money to be made. But I think the potential is overestimated by domainers (like the value of the domains they own).

 

[Stormy Seas]

I get your point Katherine but domain names should be treated like real estate. That's my opinion and I think it makes sense. Virtual Real Estate.
Listen, many times I've sold domains to end users and then they've realized how inexpensively I obtained the domain and sometimes they get buyers remorse. So its a public knowledge / perception thing... but ppl catch on quick. That's a bubble. .... it pops. Its too simple... buy a domain for 8 bux sell it for 80k. I haven't had sales that large but I regulary sell domains. I simply don't see how that can last. I really shouldn't be complaining but I think there needs to be some kind of serious regulation imposed onto the domain name industry. Too much BS. Feels like some Bernie Madoff type of stuff going on.

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I don't know why David Walker wants to fight but I'm not swinging anymore. This is the last response I will make to your BS David. Kindly go take a nap.

 

[Stormy Seas]

I'm pretty sure before they regulated the home building industry it was difficult to determine the value of a home even if that home was on the same block of another home. Until they regulated the market I'm pretty sure home sale prices were very different.