Price Testing

In 2022, my wife and I decided our kids were ready for some big mountain skiing and we planned a trip to the Rocky Mountains. Prior to leaving, I spent some time researching new skis and narrowed it down to three pairs. I ended up picking the least expensive option. The ideal pair – the Volkl Kendo 88s were about $200 more expensive and I didn’t want to spend the additional money to buy them.

Since buying my skis, I’ve checked in on the Kendo 88 from time to time. Volkl has continued to improve them the last two years, and I had some regret about my decision. My current setup is fine, but I think I would have been better off with the other skis.

I continued to track price changes on the Kendo 88s and noted an end of season sale in late February and early March for the last 2 years. The sale amount was pretty consistent everywhere, with a 20% discount offered. Last year, the discount improved a bit as we moved into late Spring. As I considered buying them, my size sold out. If I wanted to get a new pair of skis at the best price, timing would be important.

When we went on a ski trip a couple of weeks ago, I demo’d the Kendo 88 skis for a day. They were perfect and will suit me well out west and here in New England. They skied so well for me, I didn’t even trade them in to test other skis. My wife encouraged me to buy them at the shop, and they’re arriving tomorrow.

I think many people look at domain names the same way I looked at skis. They compare pricing and balance their purchase budget with the expected utility of the domain name. Many people will end up buying the less expensive domain name and regret their purchase. Perhaps their business will suffer or they’ll realize how much an ideal domain name will help their business grow. These prospective buyers will keep their eye on the ideal domain name and check on the pricing from time to time.

One of the things I have been doing is price testing. When making changes, I am not looking at individual domain names as that would be too time consuming. I take a large swath of inventory-quality domain names and reprice the group. Last year, I repriced everything that had been in the $1k range and moved the pricing to just below $2k. It was always a “dang!” when I’d get a sale email and realize it was a $1k sale rather than a $10k sale. I fiddle with the LTO options, too.

A few days ago, I changed all of those prices again to just shy of $2,500. I’ll see how it goes for a bit and possibly push the prices down again depending on how things go. I don’t have a make offer option for names priced below $2,500 at the moment.

People who are keeping an eye on pricing may balk at the new $2,500 price. If a name they’ve been watching went from $1,000 to $2,000 and now $2,500, they may cross it off the list. They may also decide to jump on it ASAP before it goes up again. If I decided to lower the price in a month or two, they may jump on it after seeing the price fall back to where it was. Regardless of how they react or don’t, it shows that the name is being watched and isn’t languishing on the market at a set price for years.

I don’t have enough names to be able to share any worthwhile data, but it is something I am testing.