When Using Ebay to Sell Domain Names is a Smart Move

Ebay LogoI was once an active Ebay domain seller. This was before I knew about domain forums, and I knew relatively little about other domain sales venues such as Snapnames. I did fairly well selling inexpensive domain names on Ebay, although I haven’t done so in quite some time. I want to share one example of when using Ebay to sell domain names can be very smart.

I frequently hear about domain owners’ attempts to reach out to potential end user buyers to let them know a domain name is for sale at auction. Most of the time, the auctions are run on proprietary auction platforms managed by auction companies. In my opinion, this can be a big barrier for companies that aren’t familiar with domain auctions or the auction houses.

With tens of millions of accounts, Ebay is the most well known, and arguably most reliable online auction platform. They are trusted by buyers and sellers, and if a person hasn’t opened an account on Ebay, you can probably be sure they’ve heard of the company.

In lieu of listing a domain name for sale on a live auction, you might consider listing it on Ebay before contacting potential buyers. Buyers might trust Ebay more, and they will have more time to make a decision. I have not tried this method out yet, but I will do so and let you know how it goes.

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

7 COMMENTS

  1. Agreed. Actually I use eBay only to sell domains that haven’t received offer at Sedo for the last year or so. For buying there is a nifty ebay domain search engine at upname.com (select seller=ebay)

  2. I also used to sell domains on eBay, but it’s very much a buyer’s market these days. With few exceptions, prices stay low. I’ve been disappointed with the last 20-30 domains I’ve listed there; conversely, I’ve made some nice buys in recent months, getting good bang for the buck.

  3. Rashid,
    It annoys the hell out of me when I see people posting just to get SEO exposure. It makes people feel used.

    Obviously, you were hired by someone to promote his site.
    I see a couple of your postings everyday. I assume there are hundreds I don’t see.

    Someone should start a site that list the bad offenders similar to what Kevin did about spammers.

    Sorry, Elliot. It is one of my pet peeves.

    • @ SEO

      I agree… I noticed it a couple days ago on all the blogs. There have been a few comments that have been deleted. I also deleted the url he added to all of them,

  4. Hi,

    I can’t see an update on this technique but I’m about to try it myself so I’ll pass details back here.

    I bought the domain http://www.BoatWiFi.com for a marine WiFi reseller that has failed to get off the ground. I’ve tried the following thigs and will see if I can recoup my outlay.

    1. List on EBay after reviewing the adwords assessment on google for “boat wifi” making sure to include the search terms in my EBay listing.

    2. Set up domain forwarding on http://www.BoatWiFi.com to the EBay listing. This gives a really easy target address to point people to rather than a long EBay link.

    3. Contacted the top 51 competitors found on a google search (this is in progress), primarily those who haven’t made it to the first page or 2. I hope that websites like http://www.BobsUltimateWiFiSystemsForBoats.com (this is made up) will see the benefits of http://www.BoatWifi.com

    I’ll post the findings here.

    Regards
    Greg

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