Bad Names
Do bad names selling for good money trap a lot of domain investors? I think it does, that along with not everyone having the proper perspective on a sale.
Domain investors that don’t know the whole story on a name like Gambling-law-us.com selling for $57,000, see it as a joke. Domainers who don’t know or learn about names outside their native language think a name was a stupid made up brandable.
Domain names sell at auction for inflated prices due to certain games being played. Without tracking the whole story some see average names sell for big money that were rolled back. There are a lot of false signals out there.
Those that have a limited scope tend to think their bad names are good because they see other “bad” names sell and hold on to bad names for a longer period of time. Or they ask for unrealistic prices when they get an offer.
Appraisal Wars
One of the most heated areas on a domain forum is the domain appraisal section. It becomes a duel back and forth between the thread starter and the appraisers. It is also one of the most popular and busiest sections on the forum.
Of course the quality of names runs the gamut from the very bad to the very good. A lot of times newer domainers use the appraisal section to list each new handreg they have made in the past week.
When bad domains are listed for appraisal they usually get $0 or reg fee replies. A lot of the time the person who started the thread gets nasty with the appraiser. The question you need to ask yourself is “Do I want an honest opinion of my domain ?” or “I just really want someone to agree with my valuation so I feel better about the purchase”
Its understandable and human nature to want someone to agree with you and your value of your asset. It is not what an appraisal section should be about.
First thing when starting an appraisal thread is give your own appraisal. Why did you buy this name ? What are the metrics you used to support the purchase ? What do you believe the domain is worth ? How did you come to the value ? Who are the end users for the domain ?
If you cannot do this then you got a fun name you like that probably has little value to anyone else.
Secondly do not battle back and forth with appraisers, they should be respectful and only give an appraisal if they have the time and effort to put into it. One or two word answers like $0 or reg fee, do not do anyone any good.
What you should do as the thread starter is look at the background and rep on the forum of the appraiser. Do they understand the language ? Do they tend to give thought out replies or short smart alec replies ? You need to always consider the source of who is appraising your domain.
Ronald Smith says
Very true, appraisal threads just get ugly fast. It’s like you asked for the appraisal.
Good article, thx.
Randall says
They should be looking at it as the domain is worth refer because they already registered and paid for it. Appraisals are good but not always 100%. What they should be doing is ready and figuring out a sales pitch and potential buyers instead of getting heated.
I have never used the appraisal forums on any forum and I’m not good at offering appraisals maybe I could work on the area to understand why and how the appraisal came to that. Maybe threadstarter should also focus on that.