My company owns two fruit .com domain names that regularly receive inquiries and offers. It seems like most people who submit an offer or make a purchase inquiry don’t know a whole lot about the value of domain names. To help them understand how much similar domain names sell for, I send them a list of publicly reported comparable fruit and vegetable .com domain name sales.
I thought I would share my findings publicly, like I did when I wrote about color .com domain name sales. I know of a few other privately reported sales, but when I am using the data to illustrate the value of one of my domain names, I would prefer to only share public sales recorded on NameBio. If you know of other fruit .com domain name sales, I invite you to share them in the comment section.
Publicly reported fruit .com domain name sales:
- Kiwi.com – $800,000 – source
- Carrot.com – $600,000 – source
- Strawberry.com – $160,000- source
- Fruits.com – $160,000- source
- Tangerine.com – $100,000- source
- Raspberry.com – $27,500- source
- Plums.com – $26,000- source
- Cantaloupe.com – $25,000- source
It can be difficult to convince anyone the value of any type of domain name. There are many factors to setting an asking price and agreeing to a sale price. Sharing publicly reported comparable sales is one way to actually prove the value of a somewhat similar domain name.
Although these sale prices may not help pinpoint the exact value of the domain name my company owns, it will help show that a $100 or $1,000 offer for my domain name is far too low to even be considered serious. Sharing comparable sales like this is a good way to at least provide some understanding for why I have set the price at the level it was set without getting into a multi-email argument about domain name values.
Those prices are not a good indicator of value without qualifying that the 6-figure sales were to end users while the 5-figures were most likely wholesale, ie, to investors. Bottom line, be prepared to spend 6-figures minimum.
True, but it can help make someone realize that their $100 offer is absurd and not close to reality.
You are onto the truth, Tony. Good to see.
That is certainly so, Elliot, but it happens that I have been thinking of this very topic lately. This is an area in which people have been making a big mistake in domain valuation, including yourself I’m sorry to say. Even King David was temporarily blinded by his own error, a story I’m sure you are quite familiar with, and even the famous luminaries in the domain industry can make this mistake. It’s all about the great and popular “real estate” analogy and how it gets used. More below…
Elliot, I’m not sure providing the comps of other fruit domains would be that relevant.
I’d point out the big picture: the potential branding of a product or company such as Apple, Blackberry, Orange
But you’re the expert. I’m an amateur in domaining.
I think doing both is important.
For most brands, having an exact match domain name is important, but a brand can be built without the EMD.
Showing actual sales of similar types of domain names can help a prospect understand that the price given wasn’t just pulled out of thin air.
Great post, Steve. You too are onto the true and it’s great to see. You guys have certainly saved me a lot of trouble today.
I’d love it if someone would go head to head with Apple using the Orange brand… lol
that makes no sense. It’s apples and oranges.
LOL
Double LOL
I’ll have more to say later. This has turned into a very important thread. Need to tend to other things right now…
Before I get to that, however, think of Disney’s $4 billion purchase of LucasFilm a while ago. What does that have to do with anything here? You’ll find out…
In a world of branding adding a color can also create interest
Looks like I may be pretty tied up till tomorrow eve, but stay tuned to this small corner of cyberspace for more on this important topic that concerns us all. In the meantime, you would also do well to check out Konstantinos’s coverage of the latest from Rick S. over here: https://onlinedomain.com/2017/08/09/domain-name-news/rick-schwartzs-rules-domaining/
This post per fruit comps could provide a nice lesson in pricing, negotiating, branding and creating a vision, albeit only if you know for certain the potential buyer is NOT in the fruit industry. But even then, there are so many variables: the length of the domain, the popularity of the word/fruit, its name recognition across borders, even the sound.
As someone wittily remarked above, you can’t compare oranges and apples. & you can’t compare blueberries and mangoes.
I believe comps work in certain verticals: cloud, insurance, health, crypto (for these days), coin, but there’s more art than science in pricing a fruit domain (you need to present a narrative/vision/story)
Or just contact Rick or Michael Mann and have them sell your fruit domain for 7 figures — these guys are brilliant negotiators. & of course you know this.
I hope you get a bucket of bitcoins for your fruit domain, Elliot. Best luck 🙂
End users who could and should own such domains as mentioned above, unfortunately, seem to get along just fine without. One reason might be that some prices are just too high. Moreover, the fact that there is 800+ extension to choose from does not help either. It certainly does not make the $800.000 .com Kiwi very tempting. Sellers of plums and cantaloupes may not know what they are missing; these prices are a giveaway.
Well I’m not still tied up now, but I’ve lost the spark of motivation I had yesterday. Plus there is certainly plenty else to tend to. Will save the wisdom for another day perhaps… You can certainly do well with the latest from Rick S. covered by Konstantinos though… 🙂
I’ll see what I can find for you fruit related…
What’s the link to the article / research you did on the keyword: color
Have you done one (or can you do one) on the keyword: senior
and — who is the person behind the commentor above with the screenname “john”
~Patricia