crazy valuations!?!?

[johnellis]

Anyone want to tell me, how do you value your domains?

I contacted someone recently about a .com domain, two words with no relevance or meaning to anything, which has no value in terms of revenue, keyword match etc., I offered him $150, later he got back to me and said the domain is valued at $18,500. Are you !?!?!?

 

[Admin]

It's very subjective. Take a look at Domain Prices if you want an idea what .UK domains sell for.

Admin

 

[foz]

Anyone want to tell me, how do you value your domains?

I contacted someone recently about a .com domain, two words with no relevance or meaning to anything, which has no value in terms of revenue, keyword match etc., I offered him $150, later he got back to me and said the domain is valued at $18,500. Are you !?!?!?

It's their property and they can ask what they like. Whether they will ever get it is another thing.

 

[Blossom]

I had a similar thing happen.

Contacted the guy, he said he wanted $250k for it (2 word, not generic, not searched for). I'd just bought the .co.uk and another domain for £250 total.

6 months down the line there's a parking page for it accepting offers above $20k.

I'm still waiting

 

[websaway]

Anyone want to tell me, how do you value your domains?

I contacted someone recently about a .com domain, two words with no relevance or meaning to anything, which has no value in terms of revenue, keyword match etc., I offered him $150, later he got back to me and said the domain is valued at $18,500. Are you !?!?!?

Your clearly miles apart. What intrigues me is, if it has no relevance or meaning or revenue why did you want to buy it ?

 

[Edwin]

See "The Art of Negotiating a Domain Name Purchase" here...
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/04/finding-and-buying-a-domain-name.html#comment-193649096

Starting at $150 is a mega-lame move. To quote the above blog post: "People that are sitting on domain names don't keep paying the registration fees every year for fun, even if they aren't using the name. They know it has value. So don't insult their intelligence making them think they should do you a favor by letting you have their unused domain."

 

[Blossom]

See "The Art of Negotiating a Domain Name Purchase" here...
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/04/finding-and-buying-a-domain-name.html#comment-193649096

Starting at $150 is a mega-lame move. To quote the above blog post: "People that are sitting on domain names don't keep paying the registration fees every year for fun, even if they aren't using the name. They know it has value. So don't insult their intelligence making them think they should do you a favor by letting you have their unused domain."

I assume you know what the name is?

 

[Edwin]

I assume you know what the name is?

Nope. Don't need to. $150 is not an "attention getter", period. Most .com domainers I know would just delete an email like that immediately, the OP is lucky that he received a reply of any kind.

It's impossible to overstate the number of ridiculous low offers that never go anywhere you receive if you have a .com portfolio of any size or commercial value. I turned off the "make offer" facility on our .com parking pages because I got tired of the several spam a day we would receive, none of which EVER turned into materially interesting sales.

 

[Blossom]

Nope. Don't need to. $150 is not an "attention getter", period. Most .com domainers I know would just delete an email like that immediately, the OP is lucky that he received a reply of any kind.

It's not stated anywhere that the owner is a domainer

 

[BREWSTERS]

See "The Art of Negotiating a Domain Name Purchase" here...
http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/04/finding-and-buying-a-domain-name.html#comment-193649096

Starting at $150 is a mega-lame move. To quote the above blog post: "People that are sitting on domain names don't keep paying the registration fees every year for fun, even if they aren't using the name. They know it has value. So don't insult their intelligence making them think they should do you a favor by letting you have their unused domain."

The flip side of that coin, is the plethora of crap multi word domains you see on Ebay that aren't worth reg fee but have a BIN price into eight figures.

As Blossom noted, without knowing the domain in question you can't know if $150 is $145 more than it was ever worth.

 

[Edwin]

As Blossom noted, without knowing the domain in question you can't know if $150 is $145 more than it was ever worth.

I have 2 pieces of data to go on:
A) Somebody registered the domain name
B) Somebody else cared enough to make an unsolicited offer on it (i.e. it has commercial value to 2 separate parties, the original registrant and the offerer)

That's all I need to know to tell me that it's "worth" more than $150 when it comes to a sale.

 

[sdsinc]

Anyone want to tell me, how do you value your domains?

Pricing is subjective. You can use reported sales of comparable domains as a guide.
Basically you can ask what you want, but regardless of budget buyers will only pay what they think the name is worth in their eyes.

I offered him $150, later he got back to me and said the domain is valued at $18,500. Are you !?!?!?

Difficult to tell without knowing the domain. Maybe it's worth that, but where does that valuation come from ?
If the owner used an automated appraisal tool like estibot then he's a total noob. He has no clue about the value of domains really.

Like most domain owners I get plenty of $60 offers at Sedo. Given that the minimum commission is $50 it leaves you with a net profit of $10. Why give away a great aged domain at this price ?
Perhaps you're feeling generous but for many people $150 is not worth the time and effort, regardless of the quality of the domain name.

As said above, $150 is not an "attention getter"

 

[BREWSTERS]

I have 2 pieces of data to go on:
A) Somebody registered the domain name
B) Somebody else cared enough to make an unsolicited offer on it (i.e. it has commercial value to 2 separate parties, the original registrant and the offerer)

That's all I need to know to tell me that it's "worth" more than $150 when it comes to a sale.

Answer to:

A) - There are tens of thousands of domains drop each day because whoever registered them realised they were worthless.
B) - The person making the unsolicited offer didn't value it above $150.

Those two pieces of data can produce just about whatever you need to back up whatever your initial stance might be. Without knowing the name you cannot say what its worth.

 

[PoshTiger]

The domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it...

You can get a ballpark with a generic that has exacts - but a brandable?

I agree with the OP - Most people that own domains attach a figure far higher than the domain is worth.

I once made an offer of £150 for a domain that had 200 exacts, .50p CPC and pretty much zero clicks per day... £2,000 was the counter offer.

Reality check needed methinks...

 

[websaway]

The domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it...

You can get a ballpark with a generic that has exacts - but a brandable?

I agree with the OP - Most people that own domains attach a figure far higher than the domain is worth.

I once made an offer of £150 for a domain that had 200 exacts, .50p CPC and pretty much zero clicks per day... £2,000 was the counter offer.

Reality check needed methinks...

"The domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it"

I think this is misleading and too simple an analogy to use about domain values.
For instance If someone earns £3000 a year from a domain name then that yield gives the domain a value to the owner.
And the analogy suggests that just because a name hasn't been bought, it can be valued on that basis, and that's silly.

 

[PoshTiger]

OK - put it another way...

If someone values a domain at $1000 and puts it up for sale but no-one is prepared to pay that price (and hence don't agree with the valuation) is the domain worth $1000?

If a domain that doesn't rank, has no exacts and has a parking page with 'domain for sale' on it - do you think it's going to be earning £3,000 per year?

 

[cc976a]

Interested to know why the OP valued at $150 and why the interest if it doesn't seemingly have a lot going for it

Are you only likely to get back $150 first year return for all the effort put in - and if not is it worth more because the domain will help you achieve more money more than another or FTR?

From a seller point of view there are too many jokers on Sedo agreed, but I'm sure from a sellers point of view they believe there are as many waste-of-time buyers

I get totally p*ssdd off with sellers on Sedo and stupid prices. I think I put in a bid on freefamilydaysout.co.uk (or something similar i can 't remrnet now) as a compliment to a family days out site I ran. Itself would have been difficult to monetise as the people searching are not looking to spend money.

Difficult to judge the numbers alone but they slapped me with a counter offer of around £25,000 you can imagine my reply and why so many damn names are sitting around idle

Have lots of similar experiences that I generally avoid even bidding for names on Sedo and immediately look elsewhere for an alternative.

 

[websaway]

OK - put it another way...

If someone values a domain at $1000 and puts it up for sale but no-one is prepared to pay that price (and hence don't agree with the valuation) is the domain worth $1000?

If a domain that doesn't rank, has no exacts and has a parking page with 'domain for sale' on it - do you think it's going to be earning £3,000 per year?

Put another way is better and more accurate.

What I'm saying is the over used term "The domain is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it" is misleading and too simple.
The whole process of valuing domains is complex.


I would go as far as to say that if this phrase is used at all, it should say "a domain is worth a minimum of what someone is willing to pay for it"

 

[Sound]

I am often surprised at how lazy domain portfolio owners are at valuing their domains giving the identical price to hundreds if not thousands of domains,do they really all have the same value?

 

[BREWSTERS]

This needs saying; the selling is the one who decides a value, not the (potential) buyer.

Todays buyer may value it a lot less than next months buyer. But only the seller decides if a deal will take place. The seller has the power in a deal - the buyer has the option to meet the sellers valuation....that's when a deal is done.

A buyer cannot make a deal happen - a seller can.