Domain Name Valuation – Part II
Yesterday I covered some domain tools that provide a price valuation (some call it an “appraisal,” but I think of an appraisal as coming from a real person doing an evaluation) and perhaps some extra keyword data thrown in, like Estibot does. To update, I have not heard a response from Domain Valuation, but it hasn’t been 24 hours. I did get a response from Nameboy with a link to my domain results in the e-mail. There’s a lot of standard explanation of what goes into the appraisal. The bottom line is they priced it finally at the end:
Appraisal Value of organicbakeries.com
- Dollar Value is $3086
It was almost 3X what my domain sold for, and I would say it’s in line with previous sales of secondary quality names – what I mean by that is there are other 2-word .com organic names that are definitely top tier, like OrganicFarm.com or OrganicFood.com,etc.
I think testing a few more domains at Nameboy is worth a shot, and depending on those results, I would take their price estimates into consideration along with other factors. I don’t know if the metrics Nameboy uses is based on the current pricing market in the domain industry, which is reported down an estimated 15%, or not.
Let’s move down the list to the next item:
3. Previous Sales Prices: This type of valuation is one that is used in Real Estate (comps) and in selling antiques (price guides) as a tangible method to obtain a reasonable estimate of value. It doesn’t rely on mystery metrics, or gut feeling, but sales history which is documented information. I like to use DN Sale Price to check sales prices, but there’s also NameBio which is connected with Snap. For UK domains, Acorn Domains has a similar tool with sales prices listed and a search feature.
The pro is that you can get a good idea on recent and past values, which is nice to determine an overall value for a domain. I like that the values are compiled into one database from various sources, including live auctions or online auction sales. If yo u have a name in a particular vertical or industry, looking at similar names with similar characteristics (2 word, 3 word, .com .net etc) help give an overall idea on value as well.
The con is that using previous sales prices like this may or may not reflect a true up-to-the-minute value. You have to guess who the buyer was (another domainer, an end user, an online marketer?) which can have a big effect on a final sales price. I sold a domain a couple years ago to an end user for a good amount of money that Estibot gave a value of $30, and nothing close shows up to this name in previous sales. You also need to take into account the economic condition of the domain industry. Prices are down right now, but also the market is more flooded with domains for sale than ever, and that has a definite effect on many names.
I am sure that many human appraisal services also use a database like these sites, that incudes previous sales prices as one metric they take into consideration in doing an appraisal.
If Domain Valuation comes back with a response today, I will update this post, otherwise I’ll be back for Part III tomorrow.
Teeth Whitener | April 1st, 2009 at 8:02 pm #
This is a very interesting and informative post. I’m just starting to learn about domain trading and this site is very helpful.