Joe said:
Since there is no "kelly blue book" for domains, the value of any domain name is exactly equivalent to what Joe Schmuckaroo buyer is willing to pay for that domain name.
I think that is only partially true, because I think that the value of QUALITY name is actually NOT ALWAYS equivalent what the buyer is willing to pay. I believe, that is a wildly inaccurate myth, widely distributed by those heavy on simplistic explanations. And again, I am talking about those obious high quality .COM names, and not the weak names.
Instead, value of a domain name depends on so many different factors that is simply not possible to make any real rule or definition. A lot of it has to do with people's (both buyers' and sellers') mood swings, emotions, insight, level of desperation, future plans, financial situation... i
But ultimately, IMHO, domain value is more likely to be dictated by the seller, than the buyer. Especially, by the seller who posses quality domains and who are not strapped for cash, and who are set financially. Those types of sellers will simply settle not what buyer offer them, but what their own life situation dictates to them. I have examples of tones of different names which have still not gotten sold since they were first snapped in 1995-1996... Those sellers have waited for eight years, and will continue to wait another eight years, and another eight... despite receiving tons of offers, and that is only because the buyers' offers don't match their perceived value in their own sellers' heads.
But luckily, not all are like that. A lot of them start with that notion, but give up along the way, and do sell the name for less than they thought they could get. So, it all depends, and there are no hard rules in this.
If anything, the only two meaningful factors are:
1. How much money the buyer CAN spend, and how badly does he wants it?
2. How badly the seller needs the money being offered.
Ultimately though, I still believe that the sellers are the ones who control the value of quality domain names, and not the buyers. Especially, when it comes to quality domain names that the big businesses might be interested. If anything, we learn that big American corporations deal with their problems by throwing money at them. In other words, the big U.S. businesses are less likely to buy the names for their true "market price," and more likely to pay the "extortion fees" to the sellers - because we know that the 'time is money' and if they really want the name badly, they really have no time to wait and play the games with the seller, especially when they are backed by big, corporate budgets.
So, I guess, it could be said that weak names are, indeed, dictated by the buyers, but the quality names are dictated by the sellers.
