The Art of Domain Sales

[sasquatch]

Since I got into habit of reading reported domain sales, my head hurts every week from so much shaking at some of the reported sales, because a good number of them make no sense to me at all.

Reading the reported sales reports from the world renowed DNjournal, as well as Afternic, one can conclude that there are no rules in the world of domain sales. Especially when you read so many iremarkable, to all the way downright sucky domains, being sold for some amazing prices.

What's not logical even to the most average person, might be the perfect fit for someone else? We all know that. But still, there's something called "reasonable logic". And we all know what that is. And even the most imaginative logic often is defied and its wisdom exceeded in these sales. And for me that is the hardest concept to grasp. For example, how in the world could I ever expect PokerMillionaire com to sell for $9,200?? To me this domain is so plain vanilla and mundanely generic that I wouldn't even bother to register it for a regular fee, let alone expect so much money off of it. Same thing goes for other domains that I wouldn't bother to register for a regular fee at all:

Revitalize com (sold for $12,480)
The1 net (sold for $7,200) Jesus!!
DemoStation com (sold for $5,700)
SoftwareBay com (sold for $5,700)
PartnershipForms com (sold for $4,000)
RacingSilks com (sold for $1,288)
GetLinked com (sold for $6,000)
DemoStation com (sold for $5,700)
LiquidDragon com (sold for $1,220)
Made-In-Germany info $ (sold for $1,216)

and many many other similar examples of successful great sales of subpar domains. And even if I had these domains by any chance, I'd get rid of them with the first $25-$50 that came my way.

And then we have examples of domain like Paintings.co.uk. Now, we all know that to be a classic example of a very nice, generic, and potentially interesting domain even in ccTLD. But, who would expect $10,000 for it??? If I had this domain, I would have sold it for a first $1-2k tops.

So in that knowledge, or lack thereof, lays my dilemma and my question: How can I sell irremarcable or a crappy domain for a very high price? I mean, how in the hell do you get to negotiate crappy domains and get thousands from it??? And in the cases when I do have a meaningful domain, how can I prevent myself not to undersell it?

In other words, is domain selling an Art, or Craft, or Skill, or Plain Luck. Or all of the above? And if it is an art, how come some sellers appear "more artsy" then the others? And if it is a craft, how come some sellers appear "more crafty" then the others? And if it is a skill, how come some sellers appear "more skillful" then the others? And if it is a luck, how come some sellers appear "more lucky" then the others?

Oh the great Buddha, shine your wisdom light upon me...

 

[mole]

Ever heard of insider trading, cap? That's when so-called friends agree to hand money to another party who then hands them back the money, after sufficient publicity has been generated for the $xxx,xxxx sale.

Price inflation tricks are very popular in this industry

 

[nicpal]

From my limited experience, I'd have to say it is luck of the draw or impulse buys. The buyer must have a set domain that he/she wants to buy and if you have it...you strike gold. That is why it pains me to sell off domains to other brokers when I need cash, cause I'd be PO'ed if they topped the charts at DNJournal, and I sold it to them for next to nothing. Out of thousands of domains that I've owned my highest sale was a .ws, so this is why I believe that consumers are looking for a particular domain...if they are serious about their business they'll go after it.

 

[Ed30]

Is domain selling an Art, or Craft, or Skill, or Plain Luck? - it is all of these.

Racingsilks.com - great name - manufacturers or retailers of this type of sports clothing would love this name - I thought it went cheaply.

PartnershipForms com - there is a massive market in selling company forms, law forms etc...on the net as people can simply print them off once they have purchased them - instant customer satisfaction.

Paintings.co.uk - I would have thought it would have sold for a little more - it's a fabulous name. Any quality art dealer or auction house would love to own it.

SoftwareBay com - Extremely brandable - great and memorable name for a software retailer.

 

[Nameable]

I have to disagree with nicpal - no one drops 5 figures on a domain as an impulse buy.

A lot of the names you see on DNJournal are drops (sold through pool, enom, etc), so it's usually other bullish speculators picking them up.

The rest comes down to patience... you may never get someone to pay mercury.com prices for any of your names, but then maybe you will.

 

[Anthony Ng]

no one drops 5 figures on a domain as an impulse buy.

Depending on how wealthy one is. It's all relativity.

 

[David G]

....So in that knowledge, or lack thereof, lays my dilemma and my question: How can I sell irremarcable or a crappy domain for a very high price? I mean, how in the hell do you get to negotiate crappy domains and get thousands from it???...

That also bothers me immensely, especially the odd terms and non-popular multi-keyword ones for big bucks. I find it amazing why the buyers are willing to pay so much for them and yet so little for seemingly more valuable ones.

Made-in-Germany.info sale as reported in DNJ is perhaps the most surprising high priced sale I have seen, what with the double hyphenated 3 word name and its dot-info ext. The dot-info isn't worth a reg fee IMO, and even the com would seem to have low value.

It makes you wonder why a great domain like Certificates.com only sold for a reported $2000 or so (from what I recall) not too long ago, and then was resold for 10 times that, but even then was still low priced vs made-in-germany.info.

Perhaps the incredible prices for the 3rd rate domains are based almost entirely on luck and a buyer coming across the name who for unknown reasons simply fell in love with the name and is willing to pay almost anything for it over and above what makes sense to most of us who are otherwise real good at name appraisal and valuation.

 

[sasquatch]

...if they are serious about their business they'll go after it.

Yeah, but how do you know what is their top buying point? And how do you know that they are very serious and want your domain so badly?

None of them ever say right off the bat, "Oh I'll give you 9000 dollars for your crappy domain". They usually start with $100 or thereabouts, which is more than I think I should get anyway. So, I'm thinking "cool. I am getting rid of crap" - so how can I then, in my right mind, ever conceive the notion that this buyer might be willing to spend not only 100 bucks, but $9000 for it?? And how do I know that the buyer is not one of those "testers" that are willing to pay 100-200 per domain, but if you don't sell it quickly, they will go on the next name and will never come back to you. And then there are those passing "hot headed" impulse buyers who are very volatile, and who might offer you certain amount of good money today, but if you try to negotiate for more and/or don't act quickly they will lose interest, and will not buy it later from you, even if you go down in price which they already offered. Those are the worst to figure out, as they do one thing today, and another tomorrow. Probably after they get back to their senses after a good night sleep.

Sometimes, I think I am "too smart for my own good".

 

[actnow]

Sometimes, I think I am "too smart for my own good".

I agree with you. I sometimes over analyze domain names. And, then,
Made-In-Germany.info sells for $ 1,200.

Especially, when I am sitting with names I think are worth as much and I can't
give away for $ 10.

For now on, I am only selling my grappy names for $ 100.
(Where's Blink when you need him?) :-D

 

[David G]

....None of them ever say right off the bat, "Oh I'll give you 9000 dollars for your crappy domain". They usually start with $100 or thereabouts, which is more than I think I should get anyway. So, I'm thinking "cool. I am getting rid of crap" - so how can I then, in my right mind, ever conceive the notion that this buyer might be willing to spend not only 100 bucks, but $9000 for it??.....

Very good point. Even though I do not sell domains (as I am more of a buyer and developer) I still get unsolicited offers and they are almost always for $100 (no matter how good the name really is), which seems to be the number used by most everyone, i.e. the famous Blink/Yakov recent bulk email offers for top quality names.

So as Cap say's, the obvious question is if you have a 3rd rate name or semi-worthless or perhaps near a reg fee value, and get the normal $100 offer, how do they perform a miracle? How does the seller manage to get the buyer to go up to 4 or 5 digits (and get listed in DNJ) all the way from the likely $100 original offering and your low expected price where you would feel fortunate to get say $200?

 

[Duke]

Yeah, but how do you know what is their top buying point? And how do you know that they are very serious and want your domain so badly?

I sure wish I had the answer to that one too. That has always been the mystifying thing to me. How does the seller ever decide to put such a high price tag on apparently lame names - and then hold out for it? Seems you would have to price everything you have too high across the board (and not move much off those price points), in which case I would think you would kill any chance of selling anything except those one in a million shots this thread is about.

 

[David G]

I sure wish I had the answer to that one too. That has always been the mystifying thing to me. How does the seller ever decide to put such a high price tag on apparently lame names - and then hold out for it? Seems you would have to price everything you have too high across the board (and not move much off those price points), in which case I would think you would kill any chance of selling anything except those one in a million shots this thread is about.

Right, but since you Duke are the world's number-one domain journalist and guru on domain sales can you please at least make an educated guess on this as this issue drives me crazy!

 

[seeker]

Well as I see it:

Since 'they' bothered to send you an offer, they are already interested.
That, is an established fact, unless they are in the business of wasting times and emailing offers for domains. The Big question, as I see it, is how much they are interested.

Here, good research and gut feeling in combination can make a great difference.
If the domain really really sux to you, and they are offering $100, fo gor it. If they sell it for much more, (and assuming you got it for less), you still lost nothing, and they obviously had a conection that you didnt have in the future, so it would not have made a difference anyway.
If your research/and gut feeling tell you otherwise, then bargain!
It is a thin line, but the line is there.
If someone emails you about a forgotten domain, they probably want it for their own personal reason, and $100 might be the right price.
If it is something you 'feel' is worth more (and not because suddenly you received an offer for it), then stand up and fight, for your right, to sell! (inspired by the song)

 

[Duke]

please at least make an educated guess on this as this issue drives me crazy!

I'm afraid I still need to be educated myself on how people pull this off. I have always sold at prices that are a little (to a lot) lower than most others look for. I am pushing prices up now because decent domains in all extensions are harder to find. Before I could easily replace the ones sold, but that's not so easy any more. Still, I'm a long away from sticking a $1200 price tag on a double hyphenated .info.

 

[mikess]

This is a topic which has also mystified me on how the seller gets such prices for these names? Maybe these are just names out of the thousands sold that get noticed because of the high sale prices and might not be more than just a combination of random luck, a good offer from a buyer and a good counter offer that the seller made by accidently typing in an extra zero in the price?

The only way that these answers will come close to being answered is by the actuall sellers of these names giving us a step by step picture of how the sale happend from the first offer to the last. Perhaps dnjournal can contact the previous sellers of some of these names and ask how this all played out.

 

[nicpal]

I am pushing prices up now because decent domains in all extensions are harder to find. Before I could easily replace the ones sold, but that's not so easy any more.

This is what we all need to do to help drive the market up. I constantly get "How can you charge so much for a domain when it cost $10 to register?" or "Why are your prices so when so and so is selling domains for $XXX cheaper?".

Time to start following the BuyDomains example....and list comparable prices....

 

[Duke]

I constantly get "How can you charge so much for a domain when it cost $10 to register?" or "Why are your prices so when so and so is selling domains for $XXX cheaper?".

Should be easy to counter that now. Just bookmark some of the more exorbitant sales documented at DNJournal.com and send them there to show them comparable prices to back you up. If I had any double hyphenated .infos to sell you can bet I would have the URL to the Made-in-Germany.info sale news handy at all times.

 

[wolfis.com]

nice thread !!

here are some of my thoughts:

i believe personal motives (need money to pay bills ..ect.) overshadow many of the dealers when asked for a price.

if you are in a lucky position to have money form your 'dayjob' , former high end domainsale or monthly domain income (ppc) , you are more likely to say " no , thank you" than if your bills are keeping you awake at night.


learn how to read between the lines or just say no and hope they will want it bad enough so that they come back with an higher offer.

learn how to say no (and its really hard to do).
you will loose many sales , but instead of having 10 sales a month which are totalling $1000 compined, you will have 1 sale every 3 month of $ 20.000 .

then,you just have to learn to not spend all that dough in one month ,because your next sale maybe far away...

however i haven't really tried this , but maybe this would work.

 

[Steen]

And even if I had these domains by any chance, I'd get rid of them with the first $25-$50 that came my way.
But, who would expect $10,000 for it??? If I had this domain, I would have sold it for a first $1-2k tops.

Maybe this is (your) the problem, or maybe it's the sellers greed and luck.

It can always be quite hard to determine the buyers cap price, that's why you WANT them to make the first offer, to get a feel, although they rarely do, and many times lowball.


In the last few months though, I am getting quite tired of inquirees from @hotmail.com/@yahoo.com, as I know many others are as well.

 

[peekaboo]

i think cases like these are extreme and happen once in a blue moon, especially to the same seller, which means we shouldn't hope for much more than what we think or believe or know that our domains are worth. otherwise we will certainly wait in vain for that 2 happen to us.

don't u know kids? crazy-good stuff always happens 2 other ppl