Group Domain Name Appraisals

I don’t like appraisals. I think they’re pretty much worthless, and I wouldn’t pay someone to do an appraisal for me because it’s just not possible for a third party to accurately value a domain name.

I believe domain name is worth what someone will pay for it at a given time. That goes for your names and my names. A domain name that I think has no value may have tremendous value to someone with the capital to buy it while a can’t lose domain name can languish in an owner’s portfolio for years.

That being said, I am welcoming you to submit one domain name for a group appraisal. Visitors to my blog are welcome to appraise domain names if they would like to participate.

Hit “reply” and type what you think the name is worth. If you have the time and desire, please offer some insight into why you think it’s worth what you said it’s worth. You could also simply click the “like” or “dislike” buttons to agree with an appraisal.

Whether the actual appraisals are on target or not, I do think it’s good to get a range of opinions.

I’ll kick things off asking for your appraisal of ChelseaRealEstate.com (it will be the first comment so people can reply).

Elliot Silver
Elliot Silver
About The Author: Elliot Silver is an Internet entrepreneur and publisher of DomainInvesting.com. Elliot is also the founder and President of Top Notch Domains, LLC, a company that has closed eight figures in deals. Please read the DomainInvesting.com Terms of Use page for additional information about the publisher, website comment policy, disclosures, and conflicts of interest. Reach out to Elliot: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn

276 COMMENTS

  1. I’ll start with ChelseaRealEstate.com.

    Chelsea is a high-end neighborhood in New York City and London with apartments ranging in price from mid to high $xxx,xxx all the way up to several million dollars and beyond. Chelsea is also a city in Massachusetts, with a population of around 35,000.

    • Awesome name Elliot. I could see this selling in the 15-20k range. Could even reach 30k+ since it’s a “multi-geo”. I’m probably way off, but theres my opinion.

    • One sale from this name even over 5 years at an avg selling price of 1 million would bring 30k in commissions. So at low end 30k high-end 100k.

      To brand your agency after this name would make you the pro in this area. To many agents in New York have real bad names.

      Half of the people searching for this term will be from out of the US. They will not be from New York.

      If an agent lives in this area and sells real estate in the same area it is a must for them to buy. But most them are not educated on why this would be a great name to own. So they will probably offer you a couple grand.

      Great name. Hope you sell for high 5 figures. Totally worth it.

    • IMO the value is two-fold:
      1. Branding
      2. Future earnings from a home sale.

      It likely has very little type in traffic, but as a brand – it is a category killer. When you see that domain on a billboard or in the search results (prior to clicking) you know *exactly* what it’s about. That’s a quality all unto itself.

      Search traffic for exact match domains is still a very real market. It’s the industry I compete in every day.

      I have a few real estate clients and all of them would *kill* to have this kind of domain for their areas… >>if they had the money to spend<<.

      This may be unpopular, but I think $5,000 to $10,000 based on the brand, future earnings, comps, current market conditions and the small US market.

    • Indeed, Chelsea is an affluent area of London, UK.
      However, since “real estate” is very much a US term, you’re immediately limited to the US property market and domainers thereof.

      Great name though, of course.

    • @ ChelseaRealEstate.com

      I’d say you could sell it to an agent/brokerage for around the $5k – $10k range.

      For the majority of agents, this would be a large expense and it isn’t going to be easy to sell them on the domain. Most agents look at branding as being their own name and it’s how they differentiate themselves from everyone else.

    • A city name plus realestate.com always commands a high price. Since Chelsea is an upscale area in Manhattan, this name is easily worth $50k to $100k or more to the right buyer.

      I would like to submit two names: pokergamme.com, pokergammes.com.
      Frank Schilling is presently selling gammes.com on DomainNameSales.com, and Frank is rating gammes.com as AAA1.

      • Maybe Frank is rating that based on traffic. If yours don’t receive traffic and earn revenue, I don’t see how they are worth anything (unless gammes means something in another language and isn’t a typo).

      • I trust Frank Schilling that the keyword “gammes” is both meaningful and valuable. Poker may soon become the hottest casino game on the Internet, and Zynga believes so and is betting on it by developing its own poker site.

        The keyword “gamme” receives 9,900 exact global monthly searches on the Google search engine. The keyword “gammes” receives 5,400 exact global monthly searches on the Google search engine. When you Google “poker gammes” you get 33,200,000 search results, and the search resolves to the main page for poker games.

        With proper SEO these domain names would develop just fine to provide online poker.

        • Frank has hundreds of thousands of domain names, and they aren’t all spectacular (many are of course). However, buying variations of Frank’s names simply because he owns them is probably not a great strategy. The exact match search volume for “poker gammes” locally is fewer than 10 and globally is 12.

    • I think the best way to come up with an appraisal is to use comparables from past sales plus typical data. If someone is searching for a place in chelsea new york I don’t think they would search using Chelsea, I think they would search using Manhattan. Chelsea I believe is to unknown to be known on its own such as Soho so when someone is searching for Chelsea real estate I think the exact search data is pertaining to Michigan or Massachusetts. If you type in Chelsea real estate the majority are from these states.

      If you look at the data below I think it will make it much easier to come up with a realistic price. the majority of these names sold in the past couple of years. Looking at exact searches, average listing price and prices that the domains sold at I think it is clear that this name is worth between 1500-2500 using this data alone. If you were to add in brand value because New York City is the greatest city in the world I think you could add on an additional 1000-2000 for branding purposes for a realty company in NYC bringing the total value to 2500-4500.

      chelsea-realestate.com is in use and it pertains to Michigan.

      As home values increase, exact searches increase, domain sales price increases. Simple pattern to come up with realistic pricing of your name.

      chelsea real estate
      207k average home listing price (combined MI and MA)
      5 exact searches
      chelsearealestate.com for sale

      homestead real estate
      212k average home listing price
      14 exact searches
      homesteadrealestate.com sold $2,500

      saint louis real estate
      220k average home listing price
      7 exact searches
      saintlouisrealestate.com sold $1,600

      pompano beach real estate
      358k average home listing price
      18 exact searches
      pompanobeachrealestate.com sold $5,100

      langley real estate
      512k average home listing price
      1 exact searches
      langleyrealestate.com sold $6,300

      huntington beach real estate
      730k average home listing price
      60 exact searches
      huntingtonbeachrealestate.com sold $20,000

      park city real estate
      1.6 million average home listing price
      102 exact searches
      parkcityrealestate.com sold $60,000

    • Looks like most people (as always) were way off with their valuations. The market has spoken – ChelseaRealestate sold for $1908.

      The buyer probably wasn´t an end user, but that doesn´t really matter.

  2. ChelseaRealEstate.com is okay. It is an average domain because it’s too long to type-in for most folks. It will virtually depend on search in for traffic. So, I wouldn’t pay more than registration for it.

    • Your comment is showing 26 dislikes so far. Not sure if that is really accurate or if there is an issue with the button. Far more people than that have visited, but I don’t really know if that many people actually took the time to hit dislike.

    • When Galileo said the earth orbited the sun, he was jailed and ex-communicated by the church. The whole world was wrong and he was right. I don’t care if everyone disagrees with me. You can correct me if I’m right.

    • ChelseaRealEstate.org is available for hand registration at $6.99

      I submit that any valuable domain will have all 3 major TLDs taken. That’s just my opinion.

      For instance Sex.com is the most valuable, but Sex.org will not be available for hand registration.

    • I don’t want to make this a “debate” thread but I will just say that Sex.org certainly could be used by a non profit or other organization that focuses on sex health and awareness.

      Chelsea real estate keywords are purely commercial and don’t lend themselves to the .org.

      Additionally, I bought the .org of another real estate name I sold for quite a bit of money when it was available, so its availability isn’t indicative of a low value.

    • Unfortunately, I don’t see much value in the name. There aren’t many advertisers for the “3d home modeling” term and it looks like there are only a couple of companies who offer that software. Search volume is also low, so not many people looking for that specifically.

    • The search volumes for ‘3d home modeling’ and even just ‘home modeling’ are low. ‘Home models’ seems to be the more used term. The PPC amounts are not bad and there is a decent number of advertisers.

      Even though I am a bit nervous of the DISLIKE button I will say – $200 to $400.

  3. Just throwing an idea out there,

    An interesting appraisal would be to email an arbitrary group of potential target buyers (not all of which will “get it”) and not try to sell it to them but ask them what they think it is worth. At the end of they day it is the buyers that set the price if you are looking to sell.

    If you ask domainers what it is worth you could get all kind of answers but like people brought up with the Valuate.com thing, none of them will likely buy it for even a percentage of what they appraise it at themselves.

    • I’d rather pitch them then ask their opinion. Wouldn’t want to losew a sale by sending a weird “appraisal” email to an end user. However, this also could create interest, but certainly wouldnt be my approach. Although I don’t agree, this would be a great way to get a better grasp on the value of your domain.

    • I like that idea quite a bit, but I think you’ll end up with more people that don’t have any idea about valuation and it will likely be depressing.

      It just takes one buyer to have an idea of its value and the capital to buy it.

    • Yes it would probably be depressing but a harsh reality check that might benefit some. And regarding looking at it as a pitch, over thinking it there. If someone wants to buy it then they will make an offer to do just that. If you have to convince them to buy it you’ve already wasted your time, just my opinion. Good offers come from folks who “get it” unless you are only looking for $xxx.

    • You shouldn’t have to “pitch” your domain, if you have to put that much time into it then you are wasting time. A pitch is if you are looking for $xxx and doing it in volume. I see no harm in this, if you ask for an evaluation and someone wants to buy it then they will offer to do just that.

    • When I “pitch” a domain it generally looks like this:

      Hi my name is Name and I own and am selling domain.com. Please contact me if you are interested.

      Name
      Position

    • @Elliot, I wrote a few comments but not all of them made it on here for some reason. I did it by hitting reply. Not sure if this one will make it on either.

  4. You have part of reason in your speech if we are talking about end user sales. Now for the reseller market there is some concensus and it’s possible to have a reasonable appraisal, Estibot/Valuate gives a fair reseller value generally (if you divide it by 20).

    • you mean divide by 2 surely…

      I agree that the appraised value often looks quite fair. The world would be a better place if no domain could be sold for more than twice its estibot appraisal.

    • Estibot valuated ChelseaRealEstate.com at $800

      So, you are saying that number should be divided by 20:

      800 divided by 20 = $40

      I’ll go with that. I agree.

      • The name I sold and discussed above is valued by Valuate at significantly lower than what I sold it for.

        Anyway, feel free to submit one of your names as your opinion has already been given.

    • ANYONE using Estibot for valuation purposes should share whatever it is they smoke while valuing their domains through that channel. Estibot offers great end user and stat tools, but the value algorithim used is simply flawed and shouldn’t be taken seriously. Hopefully, we all know that. I didn’t coming into the industry and it cost me a cool grand or so on domains I dropped upon renewal.

  5. SplitTesting.com

    Split testing, AB Testing or multivariate testing are all part of conversion rate optimization. It’s a decent PPC keyword and I used to generate business from it before I gave up trying to keep the code up to date. I still do a ton of behavioral marketing, but I use other tools…

    • It’s a solid marketing and web development name. I could see a developer buying it for a start up to offer the ability for website owners to do split testing on layout, colors, graphics, offers, products…etc.

      I think it’s a $5,000 – $8,000 name.

    • I think that’s a fair price for the name.

      Personally, if I was actively looking to sell, I would change the landing page to make sure others know it’s available for sale and not being used.

    • Yeah, changing the page would be good, but I still get a fair amount of valuable traffic from it. Maybe a ‘for sale’ sign…

    • I love this name Shane. Great name for a sports website, sports bar, ESPN show etc……Alot of extensions available with this name which hurts the value some and a little long. Its definitely a fun brand name but I see the value at around 5-10k to an end user if you are willing to sit a while on it. I would shoot an email to ESPN marketing department with a nice sales pitch.

    • Two of my favorite websites are Deadspin.com and BarstoolSports.com, and they show videos of unsportsmanlike conduct at sporting events throughout the world. I agree that it could be an easy buildout, and the value is more in the brand than the actual name. I’d say $2-4k but could be more if someone really wants to get it.

    • My thoughts… I think the value here is the branding quality of the domain. The PPC amounts are at the minimum level for the exact keywords making up this domain and there are no real Adwords advertisers. There is not much to sell or promote based upon the name itself. But, as a brand – it’s an obvious sports winner. Immediately I think of football and that kind of mental link can be worth a lot to the right buyer.

      $1000 to $2000 for the right buyer.

  6. Hosted.org

    I figured i throw a curve ball with a non dot com. A perfect name for a website devoted to the review and critique of web hosting companies. As a .org, this is a perfect potential use that could generate an immense amount of traffic and participation, as EVERY website in the entire world is Hosted!!!

    • I’m not sure the .org does work here really. Host or Hosting obviously is the optimal word in the .com. Regarding hosted.org, I would estimate the value at $xxx – low $x,xxx.
      I’ve noticed alot of awesome dictionary words with “ed” or “ing” thrown at the end of it and then being overpriced. Not saying this is the case here.

    • My thoughts… High PPC, good exact match traffic, real advertisers on Google. This is a good mix. Unfortunately, it’s an ORG so the type-in traffic will be very low. If your Kung Fu is solid, SEO will be able to push this domain to the 1st page for it’s exact match term fairly easy (it may take time).

      I think it would be an easy brand for a hosting company, but it would also be easy to make a mistake and have this site look more like a high end MFA site if it was covered in Ads.

      I think – $4000 to $8000.

    • Don’t like the past tense (or the .org for this type of name), but I am sure someone would pay a few hundred for it because of the high CPC.

      The big problem is getting it to rank because it’s a competitive term and not exact match.

    • Yes, but I believe it could be easily brand-able. Like I hold a huge portfolio of such domains like say productnext.com / propertynext.com and so on. I believe maybe as a lot they could be developed. Maybe asking off track from the main topic, but my belief is that they could be easily made in to a brand and developed.

  7. “A domain name is worth what someone will pay for it at a given time.”

    I’d like to see that sentence banned. It states the obvious, but is really trying to sneak in the viewpoint that ‘fair value for a domain name is what someone will pay’.

    If I’m dying of thirst, one would surely not wish to argue that a glass of water should be priced according to what I’m willing to pay.

    A better estimation of fair value must be the price that just beats the second best bid.

    • If the owner of that one glass of water paid a lot of money for it because it’s the only glass of water, it is worth what you will pay for it. Perhaps the owner of that glass of water is himself thirsty, and the expense for him to go out and acquire another glass of water would be great.

    • The owner of the water owns a home in the Australian outback and gets his water for a few cents a glass. I turn up at his door on the brink of death. I’d be willing to give all my worldly possessions in exchange for some water. Would seem harsh to ask me to do so.

      The problem with saying that ‘a domain name is worth what someone will pay’ is that the statement ‘a fair price for X is what someone will pay’ is not always true.

      It’s not true for example where the owner of X holds a monopoly, and the owner of a .com holds a pretty good monopoly. If a business desires a particular .com eg. because it exactly matches the business name, no alternative domain is anywhere near as satisfactory.

      So the statement ‘a fair price for X is what someone will pay’ must end with ‘in my opinion’. It’s far from a fact, and highly objectionable.

    • I get this a lot of times, my staple answer is that a product isn’t worth what someone is willing to pay for it, if that were true we’d all be driving a Ferrari.

      Also, the owner of the Ferrari showroom would laugh you off the lot if you asked him to ‘justify the asking price’.

      A domain is worth at least one year of marketing costs for that exact term via Adwords, it could be more depending on availability.

    • I think it’s worth under $500. I don’t see many people in the domain space actively buying or using .pro domain names. The only advantage to a name like that is there aren’t many exact keywords for this industry in the most commonly used extensions.

    • I would put a price tag of $50, tops. Unless it has some hidden value I’m unaware of in a very specific market segment or corner of the world.

      Generally the dot pro domains are for individuals (and organizations comprised of individuals) who consider themselves a ‘professional’ – such as doctors, lawyers, etc.

      I don’t see any connection with “domaining” with any profession.

  8. Okay Elliot, I will submit one for appraisal. It is a non.COM. It has been developed, and it is actually having kids signing up now, and it is making good money. You can even tune into it right now and enjoy as you read Elliot’s blog. The name is, drum roll…

    http://www.SOUL.FM

  9. I have domains that over time for the same
    domain Estibot had appraised for $200k, $90k, $121k, $28k, $18k, and most recently $200+k again. Estibot has a use and is a valuable tool but I wouldn’t really say that a domain is worth whatever number it spits out. Honestly a think a more realistic appraisal tool would just rate a domain with stars (1-5 stars). With more stars being that it is a more valuable domain and no stars = no value.

  10. did you ever sell bloomfield hills realestate.com, probably a similar type of high end market, with the exception that NY and London are both very rare/high end markets, the biggest problem you have with any real estate domain is finding the end user agent, it a tough nut to crack.

    • Only if there is such a thing as 3d copying. If there are no 3d copiers and there isn’t 3d copying, then it’s not really worth anything.

      I don’t really follow along with 3d advances or products.

  11. Hi guys,
    I came across this forum via domain search and its great.
    I am very very new to buying domains but it intrigues me. Am I too late for this business? I’ve only got about 40 so far.
    Ian

    • ‘People were asking the same thing when I started in late 2002’
      The most efficient reply of the day! Short and simple yet says a lot.

      A very interesting post by the way Elliot, you are like an interaction ‘catalyst’ always writing very engaging posts and encouraging hundreds to participate in constructive discussions.
      Thanks once again and best wishes.

  12. *

    Washlight.com

    Whenever you go to rock concert or live drama performance, washlights are used to create those great lighting effects.

    Also could be the name of a theater group or business having to do with lighting.

    Niche 16-year-old domain.

    *

    • Low monthly searches for the exact keywords. PPC amounts are also low. There are limited advertisers for the better variations of the keywords, but most of the PPC amounts are low. I don’t see a strong play for an Ad generated website. This would best sell to someone wanting an e-commerce site. The ORG and NET versions are not registered.

      I think you may be able to get $50 to $200 to the right end user.

    • *

      GAKT for Wash light:

      [wash light] = 260 Global, medium competition

      “Wash light” = 2,900 Global, medium competition

      Wash light = 33,100, medium competition

      I don’t think that’s too awful.

      *

    • As a keyword name, I don’t think it’s worth all that much. The age does increase value but I don’t see why it would be worth all that much unless there are companies that sell washlights. There are a few advertisers for that term, so I would peg it at $500-1k.

    • LOL – I agree. The value is somewhere between those figures.

      My opinion – decent traffic for the exact keywords. Kind of low PPC. Low number of advertisers. I think the potential for running a site that generates income from Ads is limited by the number of advertisers and the lower end PPC amounts. Still, the traffic *potential* is pretty good. I think an e-commerce site could do well with this domain – provided they could source a huge variety of pens. The competition is mostly large, established, trusted companies.

      The domain is obviously a great brand for the products.

      IMO: $6,000 – $9,000 for an e-commerce play.

    • I like it. It can be difficult to sell a domain name to a dentist or orthodontist on a cold call, but I could see someone paying up to $5k for the name for branding purposes. You might even get more if a motivated buyer wants it.

      Braces, teeth whitening, and veneers are all big businesses. The only issue is getting professionals to spend the money to buy the name.

    • I have done a lot of marketing for dentists over the years as well as sold them many domains. They are heavily into online marketing as compared to most other professionals.

      IMO – $4,000

      I agree with Elliot that a motivated dentist could go higher. The highest price I have personally seen a dentist pay was $6k – it was a [local]dentist.com name.

  13. I would love to know what this worth. It has become a really hot market with gas prices where they are at and most states are starting to legalize golf carts for certain roads.

    StreetLegalGolfCarts.com

    I also have StreetLegalGolfCars.com
    and StreetLegalGolfCar.com for typo reasons.

  14. I have an aviation related domain,

    CompositeAircraft (dot) com

    Light sport aviation is becoming increasingly more popular. Increase in fuel prices makes these aircraft more lighter and more efficient.

    Thanks
    Nick

    • For what it’s worth,

      I like aviation domains 🙂 and your insight is probably correct.

      You may need some ‘luck’ to find a buyer.
      Could be an aircraft seller or a specialized maintenance shop. Keep in mind that profit margins in many aviation niches are narrow.

      I’ve sold some aviation related domains in the $xxx range this year, however I don’t feel qualified to put an appraisal value on yours.

    • I think the .ORG will go better with this name. In any case, I’ll assign it an interval estimation rather than a point one:

      Between $1000 and $1500

    • Who knew there was decent traffic for mobile home supplies? So, you have decent traffic possibilities (exact match local = 1900 per month), but – the PPC amount is pretty low AND there are not many real advertisers. Fewer advertisers often means the true PPC bid amounts can be lower than what is shown. Also, the low bid amount may indicate a low conversion rate for e-commerce sites. The NET and ORG versions are registered, but they are not in use.

      Because of the low number of advertisers my opinion is $750 to $1500… with the right buyer.

  15. The value of one sale. He is not selling paper clips here. These are 30 to 100k commissions for one sale.

    The conversion rates will be higher on this name because it is more geo-specific. People who type this in know what they want. It’s not like they are typing in New york real estate. Way to broad.

    Donny

  16. Here’s mine.

    JusticeofThePeace,com

    I’m more interested in what it would be worth as a developed site rather than just the name.

    • I don’t think it’s really possible to value it based on development. It would be worth a lot more if there were 500 advertisers paying $50/year than 20 advertisers paying $10/year.

      I do think it’s a $2-5k name as is.

    • On names like these, fall into three categories: 1. Could Sell if domainer is Lucky 2. May not sell if domainer is unlucky 3. Definitely useless

      So, I assign MarketingConsultancy.Org number 2 above: May not sell if domainer is unlucky.

    • Good to know.

      Guess Elliot doesn’t think much of it or he just missed it among all these comments.

      Even if this post is just for the traffic, it’s great, I know most blogs wouldn’t even get 30 comments on similar threads (mine included).

    • Srry for the delay… Ive replied 40x or more so far and haven’t gotten to them all. In the process of negotiating 3 contracts and have a bunch of non-biz happenings at the moment.

      I don’t think the name works all that well as a .org. Some names do, but some commercial names don’t really and this would be the case in my opinion.

      I think it’s probably a $500-$1k name possibly if a marketing company really wants it.

    • *

      This is a typo. Should be GolfCourse.

      Also, the word “coarse” has a negative connotation, so I don’t see it as a good brandable.

      The only use I can see is a spoof site about bawdy behavior on and off the golf course.

      *

  17. I would submit WhatiLike.com

    Not much traffic to it right now, but it has a lot of tie in’s to Facebook, etc…and I have a trademark to go with it.

  18. Alright, I’ll bite. But only because I want to help Elliot have a record month for comments on his blog.

    I own PatentTroll.com and PatentTrolls.com.

    Have at it 🙂

    • I don’t think “patent trolls” like the name 🙂

      Maybe you could get a few hundred or more from one of the companies fighting a patent troll. I think Bodog was fighting a patent troll for a while and the CEO hated that guy. He might have spent $x,xxx for fun to put up a site.

    • I don’t think PatentTrolls.com has any real value. I’d drop it if I owned it. I should know, I have many such names. And I do drop them.

  19. Ok, I’ll throw one in. Would love to get your input on where to start with pricing for a quick (end user) sale.

    FrenchRivieraHomes.com

    10 year old name. The term itself doesn’t get a whole lot of exact searches, but there are plenty of relevant end users with bilingual sites, many of whom own multiple variations (longtails, hyphens, etc.) on similar real estate/rental names in the area.

    • I think this is a pretty solid $1-3k name. Although it’s probably not searched all that much and it’s not the right language for locals looking to buy there, I do think someone would be willing to take a chance to target English speaking home buyers. The one thing to keep in mind is that most of the major geo area (outside the US) homes names (Paris, London, Tuscany…etc) aren’t owned by home developers or real estate companies, so they probably haven’t had the interest in buying them or wouldn’t pay much.

    • Thanks so much for the input, Elliot. I had no idea where to start because I have a little more experience dealing with people who’ve approached me first. I would have started lower than that, but it’s really helpful to know what sort of ballpark you’d place the name in.

    • I haven’t had much luck selling names overseas, so take what I said with a grain of salt.

      You might want to reach out to Fred Mercaldo who is managing FrenchRiviera.com on behalf of the owner.

    • Good point, and thanks for the suggestion. I noticed that several of the real estate agencies and rental companies own a lot of different names and keyword combinations, so that’s at least promising, if multiple domains are part of their strategy. I don’t have unrealistic expectations for this one – I have experience with German buyers, but not French. Anyway, we’ll see – thanks again for the input!

    • There are many people of different nationality living in that area and there are several real estate and tourist magazines with ads in dual language (French and English) so that may be to your advantage. I have limited experience but would say that it is a very brandable name that fits a niche.

  20. If I owned this name, I will take any offer for it, starting from registration cover to infinity. I do own one similar to it, tho not as good, SouthernRiviera.com. I have it for sale at $450 but will consider offers from registration fee and up.

  21. Some great feedback here.

    I think it just goes to show how much there is to learn in this game. Thinking of switching my strategy entirely away from D2D sales and expiring auctions and focus solely on premium auctions, brokers and such. Otherwise it’s just too much of a waste if time crapshoot with not enough return for time you spend sifting through the shit.

  22. Elliot did you read Acro.net where apparently according to Theo and no surprise the guy from estibot you are missing something. Appraisals are valuable if from an expert.

    I think you are spot on and appraisals are worthless. Getting the opinions of a bunch of domainers who are not going to pay you what you want for your domain means what ?

  23. Nice thread Elliot.

    I think the first thing people should look at is that when someone is appraising a domain, what it could be developed into means nothing. That is a website. Google was developed into something nice, Google.com appraised in 1998 would have been reg fee.

    Domain Appraisals are about that domain standing all alone by itself.

    Forex.com does not need to be developed into anything to be a great domain.

    I tend to agree with you Elliot that appraisals have little value.

    I have done this on forums over the years, get a domain appraised at $2000 and then offer it to the full time domainer who appraised it for $200.

    I have had $500 offered for $50, $10,000 offered for $1000.

    Never one sale, the only asset class in the world where you offer someone the asset at 10 % of their price not mine and they are not interested.

    But when you want to have real fun, ask for appraisals on domains you already sold, get the reg fee, $50 appraisals for names you sold from $2500 to xx,xxx and then you see how hysterical domain appraisals really are.

  24. Nice thread Elliot.

    I think the first thing people should look at is that when someone is appraising a domain, what it could be developed into means nothing. That is a website. Google was developed into something nice, Google.com appraised in 1998 would have been reg fee.

    Domain Appraisals are about that domain standing all alone by itself.

    Forex.com does not need to be developed into anything to be a great domain.

    I tend to agree with you Elliot that appraisals have little value.

    I have done this on forums over the years, get a domain appraised at $2000 and then offer it to the full time domainer who appraised it for $200.

    I have had $500 offered for $50, $10,000 offered for $1000.

    Never one sale, the only asset class in the world where you offer someone the asset at 10 % of their price not mine and they are not interested.

    But when you want to have real fun, ask for appraisals on domains you already sold, get the reg fee, $50 appraisals for names you sold from $2500 to high five figures and then you see how hysterical domain appraisals really are.

  25. Appraisals have no value? Seriously?

    Then how do less experienced domain name owners even arrive at a starting point if they want to sell a domain? Sure, appraisals are NOT 100% – or often even close – but a hand evaluation can provide a critical starting point.

    Art appraisals come to mind as a good comparison. Usually, they are in the ballpark, but there is often a large swing in either direction when it comes to actually selling the artwork.

    Honest hand evaluations can even help experienced domainers with a reality check. None of us have ever thought too highly about one of our names, right? Asked too much, held on a little too long?

    For me, this little exercise was a nice sounding board for a domain that I want to sell. It was a very nice confirmation to hear that Elliot’s *personal* views on the value of my domain matched up with what I was thinking.

    • The thing that bothers me most with respect to appraisals is when I try to buy or sell a name and the opposing party tells me they have an appraisal and that’s I should buy or sell based on what a company said it is worth.

    • Very true, but to think there is zero value in an appraisal is, I think, not considering all angles. I think part of the problem is there is not a recognized authority. There are experienced hands, but someone new to domains will not know where to go. Art appraisal, while part voodoo, is an established profession.

      Also – My way of evaluating may be much different than someone with a different background. I don’t mind highly competitive search terms and have close to 10 years experience in e-commerce. So, I may see something different than maybe someone who has only dealt with domain names or doesn’t know the difficulties of selling jewelry online. That is why, when evaluating some domains mentioned above, I tried to provide my reasoning.

      Of course another reason we don’t like domain appraisals is because it may not match the value we think it’s worth.

  26. Seriously.

    The fact of thinking too highly about a name is universal. Like the piece Domainnamewire wrote, most people and most domains are not worth what people think.

    You thought it was nice because Elliot matched up, would you have felt nice if he said reg fee ?

    • No, I would not have liked it if he said, “reg fee”.

      I did not know Elliot would respond to my domain. If I did know – I would have also known that it was NOT possible for an honest appraisal of the domain I mentioned to be reg fee.

  27. What would be classic is who were the three people who liked the comment of ChelseaRealEstate.com for reg fee ?

    You might not value it where Elliot does, but reg fee ?

    • It seems that there are many people who enjoy making others feel bad 🙂

      I am sure my wife (a psychologist) could delve more into that subject, but I think it’s quite obvious that CRE is not reg fee. I would bet a lot of money that if I put it up for sale for $1,000 even, I would sell it in minutes. Point being that it’s not worth “reg fee.”

    • People who visit my blog enjoy talking about their names, and companies that advertise like having people see their banners.

      Is there another domain venue that has a post/thread today with almost 200 replies? Advertisers are getting their money’s worth this month!!!! 🙂

      Kidding aside, people do like others to know what domain names they have and others like giving their opinions on valuations. Leads to an interesting discussion.

  28. ok… a post for traffic then.

    this is kinda silly imo.. its your blog elliot.

    good luck and let other domainers value your own assets.

    all my names are worth 1 million.

  29. You’re awesome Elliot. Fun thread. If I may …

    KnotBook .com

    I’ve received 5 offers for it this year, but all low ball. Curious what this expert crowd thinks of it.

  30. Louise,

    I consider you a friend, and I also like new tech names, however, I have to be fair in my appraisal:

    These types of names, tho appealing, are completely useless in the after-market. Their use is limited to private portfolio cluster, and perhaps a mini-site for the occasional $.20 to $3 ad sense revenue. I recommend you drop it, and all such names. And don’t register anymore of those.

    • @ Uzoma, Thanx for positive feedback and honest reply. Looking through my portfolio, I see I am not a domainer at all, but influenced by domaining to select domains for my development projects! At least, BestSmartTvs is dot com! That much I learned, to prefer the dot com. The highest search ones, QRReader (org), 3DDesignSoftware (com), HardtopConvertibles (net), DualScreenLaptop (org), are very nichy. But, I’m happy with them; they’re in development, and have risen in Google with the recent updates by process of elimination, because they don’t violate Google’s Quality Guidelines. For instance, HardtopConvertibles is page 1, but I don’t think I could get more than mid x,xxx. It would be more useful as a business to me, just like the other domains. Again, thanx for your opinion!

  31. I am submitting BabyImprints.com for appraisal.

    Baby Imprints is a established business in almost all parts of the America.Imprints are great way to keep memories of child. These imprints can be made of clay, bronze, silver or gold. Depending on the price factor.
    Appraise it please.

  32. Hi Elliot,

    I picked up cellulite.me from namejet last week at starting bid price and would lie to get people’s appraisals I realise this is a cctld but I think it has some potential.

    Thanks for the tips and advice by the way really helpful,

    JW

  33. FlexDisplay.Me

    Paperless tech interest.
    Has 18,100 Google keyword types. (General)
    But not asking a great deal, as usual – I try to accommodate most folk.

    Elliot, with this thread and the submit a domain/price, your system must be on overload 🙂

    • Thank you Elliot- mine is also priced under $1000- Have you had any success in selling a comparable name? Would you ever develop something like this?

      • Interesting because I thought that maybe this being such a specific domain it might bear building out. I want to find a domain I can actually work at building a business. Im being inspired right now by reading another great blog, MorganLinton.com who is putting his energies into FashionMetric.com It seems a step away from a generic domain name and more an idea, a business and a brandable domain to build on.

        Rambling Im sure here but I’ll finish with this:

        Elliot, would you like to buy my domain, IndonesiaHoneymoon.com ?

        Thanks for this interesting thread- quite a few comments 🙂

    • I like it. The following domain name appraisal is an estimate on the domain worth of newmommy.com:

      Domain Age: 8 Years, 100 Days
      Top Level Domain: GREAT
      Undesirable Characters: GREAT (0 Total)
      Overall Length: GOOD (8 Length)

      Therefore, I appraise it for $14,000

    • Don’t think it’s worth much. I think Health Insurance is the actual term, and I don’t know if advertisers can use “discount” when it comes to selling insurance. When I was at AIG, we couldn’t put “discounts” in marketing materials.

      I also see it was recently created and no other companies have other TLD.

  34. BSEE(.)com Stands for Bachelor of Science in Electrical engineering – Just bought it on Sedo a few weeks back.

    2 years ago I sold MSEE.com which stands for Master in Electrical Engineering on Sedo for 16.5k

    Thanks in advance for your input.

  35. Elliot,

    I’ve been watching you. I’m watching to see if you really know what to do with traffic. Here you are inundated with comments and traffic from domainers, but you keep trying to run away from it, and post an elitist list of ostentatious domain names, in a second tier, because I guess the posters here have “inferior” domains. Make no mistake about it, if you screw this thing up, most of us will desert your blog and you can have your 5 or 6 elite domainers. Again, I encourage you to take this format seriously. Combine those “brokers” with this format. Unify the market. Stop trying to separate an imaginary elite sellers.

    • Remember when you said you weren’t going to visit my blog or comment any more?? Traffic was just fine and advertisers continued to renew. You can make all the threats you want, but I’ll decide what I post and what I don’t post. If you don’t come back, so be it. My blog survived just fine without your presence.

    • Traffic was NOT fine, not like you’re having it now.

      Alright, very well Elliot, I’m done. I will not participate in your blogs anymore, goodbye!

      • Traffic on this blog was always good.

        You use terms like we, most people who read blogs are not on your side, you have this inflated self worth that comes from who knows where. You are someone who talks a big game then tells a guy who has a big game “We will desert you” You run your mouth, this is not a team, domainers are individuals, some get along, some don’t but this is no team. No one is deserting Elliot.

    • How childish. Uzoma, your comments don’t have the weight and perspective required to enter an adults arena anyway, sorry.

    • Aaron:

      If that is the spelling, then zero – it is BargAin.

      Even if it is with the A, I’m not overly sure what or who to sell it to – are you selling businesses at bargain prices or bargains to businesses and if so, what?

      I am not any sort of guru or insider so maybe I am way off base… I have more than my share of these that I thought made sense at the time…

  36. Very interesting post.

    Based on other names sold I would say ChelseaRealEstate.com should be between 8 and 10 K.

    Here is one I own. What do you all think.

    ShanghaiDeals.com

    Thanks.

  37. TechNewz.com – would make a good name for a technology news site or blog.
    Curious how much y’all think it’s worth.
    Thanks.

    • When using GA keywords stats the standard is to use LOCAL search at EXACT match. The local numbers are closer to reality. Using the correct setup we get 1000 exact matches for “AAA Rating” – note the space.

      1000 exact match searches is not bad. Unfortunately, the PPC amount on the low end, but worse than that – there are 0/1 real world Ads showing for “AAA rating”. This usually means the PPC amount will almost always be very low and businesses have not found a way to make money from that phrase. There are a few public sales with similar keywords, but different meanings.

      I think it would be a hard play to make a lot money from this site by running Ads. I do think it could make a decent brand for the right company.

      IMO – $2500 to $4000 for the right company.

  38. How about BrazilRio.com?

    Brazil.com was sold for $500,000

    “Brazil Rio” gets 1,900 Global and 720 US exact searches

    Brazil Rio is one of the most popular places to visit in Brazil.

    • I can’t see much value in a name that doesn’t really make sense. RioBrazil.com might make sense, but not the search backwards.

      Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is a popular place to visit 🙂

      “Brazil Rio” is not one of the most popular places to visit in Brazil, just like United States Las Vegas isn’t a place.

    • That makes sense your right about that as “Rio Brazil” gets 5,400 Exact searches, much more then “Brazil Rio”. I wasn’t sure about it thats why I asked. I have a couple friends from Brazil as they say “Rio” using “Rio” as a short term for “Rio de Janeiro”. So I though it would be worth something. Thanks for your opinion Elliot.

  39. I own these two domains since about 2004.

    overcomecancer.com
    overcomecancer.org

    How much do think I could get for them if i sold them together as a pair and low balled the price to unload them fast in about a week?

    • Thanks for the number, Gabe. Its an interesting number – lower than what I thought when it came to certain strategic acquisitors’ perspective, and higher than I might have expected in general.

      Do you see the value coming more from the institutional side or from the consumer side, if I may ask?

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