I don’t know think I personally know anyone who operates any of the various niche domain price guides, and I don’t think I’ve visited one in a couple of years, but do the owners/publishers own names in that niche? If they do, wouldn’t it be a bit biased to publish pricing material, where their financial holdings would be impacted by a change in price?
For example, if I own a whole bunch of names that begin with 123, and I start a price guide called “123Name Prices,” wouldn’t it be silly for others to read my price guide and consider it an authoritative source, when the value of my names could be impacted by what I publish? When it comes to domain values, I trust my gut and my own personal instinct. When I really need to look for comps, I look at the DNJournal Sales Report as well as DNSalePrice.com, which has an archive of most public sales dating back several years.
I am all for people building websites about smaller niches within the domain industry, but I think people should ask questions when looking at a niche price guide to ensure there is no bias whatsoever. Do the publishers own names in this niche? Do the publishers review all reported sales (looking at escrow/bank statements)? Are ALL public sales taken into consideration – even those that aren’t reported but occur on a public platform (forum, auction, aftermarket site)?
If there is any way a domain price guide could be biased, the person who is relying on it for accurate information should ask those questions before quoting the source.
