advice Are Your Domain Name Prices Just Freaking Crazy?

[Omar Negron]

Got inspired to write this post after getting a somewhat crazy counter offer. Made me think of how most of us probably over price our domain names for some reason or another.

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[sbweb]

Like you said, it's greed, but as business people we want to maximize profit. Also, starting off at a higher price allows for some wiggle room during negotiations.

Although many times sellers have unrealistic price tags.

 

[Domain Lead Finder]

Horribly over-pricing a domain name is insulting to the customer IMO...

 

[Name Trader]

It's all part of the full spectrum of domaining. I get the same reactions from people over $1k domains which are worth at least $5k. No 2 people seem to have the same opinion about a domains pricing, mostly depending upon their own financial circumstances. Well, at least until the price is agreed. But it is mostly a dog-eat-dog world out there that we voluntarily participate in.

Ignoring the Chinese buying frenzy, I have been getting better buying prices overall from end-users, in the last 3 months. I have generally priced in the 20% brokerage fees. Brokerage is no longer an expense for me. If this trend continues, I'm going to be a happy camper, rather than a struggling domainer.

 

[alcy]

remove buynow prices. then negotiate. yes yuou may lose few clients looking for buynows, but will you not gain even more buyers by not displaying some exaggerated buynow price to begin with.

lke'ts face it.. 90% of buyers will use make offer even if there is buynow.. so based on that, what would you rather do:

1- make best offer if you see buynow price of $250,000
or
2- make offer if you see no buynow price and min offer of say $50 or $100.

 

[Omar Negron]

Like you said, it's greed, but as business people we want to maximize profit. Also, starting off at a higher price allows for some wiggle room during negotiations.

Although many times sellers have unrealistic price tags.

Yeah, totally agree with your statement. we ALL want to maximize our profit. I think this is more geared to what you said at the end, the "unrealistic price tags".

Horribly over-pricing a domain name is insulting to the customer IMO...

Yes! Agreed.

It's all part of the full spectrum of domaining. I get the same reactions from people over $1k domains which are worth at least $5k. No 2 people seem to have the same opinion about a domains pricing, mostly depending upon their own financial circumstances. Well, at least until the price is agreed. But it is mostly a dog-eat-dog world out there that we voluntarily participate in.

Ignoring the Chinese buying frenzy, I have been getting better buying prices overall from end-users, in the last 3 months. I have generally priced in the 20% brokerage fees. Brokerage is no longer an expense for me. If this trend continues, I'm going to be a happy camper, rather than a struggling domainer.

Congrats on your success Stub!

remove buynow prices. then negotiate. yes yuou may lose few clients looking for buynows, but will you not gain even more buyers by not displaying some exaggerated buynow price to begin with.

lke'ts face it.. 90% of buyers will use make offer even if there is buynow.. so based on that, what would you rather do:

1- make best offer if you see buynow price of $250,000
or
2- make offer if you see no buynow price and min offer of say $50 or $100.

That depends. Option 1 or 2 may work but for a 250K price tag for a name, it's got to be a good name. The issue is NOT the price. Like I said, there ARE names worth those prices and MORE. It's more about taming wild expectations and understanding domain name values and not just throwing up any price in the hopes of landing a huge deal. Anything is possible though, I guess....

 

[alcy]

yes. agree Omar. but I think we are all talking here abotu sellers who ask for more than their domain is worth.

of course there are domains worth 250k out there. it's just that most of us do not own them. so most of sellers ask 250k for domains worth 1k.

so its for scenario that I was suggesting removing buynow altogether.. and leave it up for negotiations.

cheers.

 

[Name Trader]

@Omar Negron - I don't have any $250k names to my knowledge I have some sympathy for the argument, if you don't ask, you won't get. The different responses to a 250k asking price and a $5k asking price, is that you don't get any offers on the first, and you get abused on the last

@alcy - I never list my domains with buynow prices, despite what all the auction houses suggest because it's just too much a pain in the butt when the market changes. I think the reason the auction houses recommend this is because sellers forget about their listings and don't raise prices. Hence the disproportionate sale of buynow priced domains

 

[DOMAIN ILLUMINATI]

A domain name - price is always relative.
If our expectation is 'realistic' (which is of course relative too) then no price is 'overpriced'.
'Realistic' means that you have deep 'reasons' (relative a third time) for it.
Of course it would be an advantage, but no one needs to understand those (your own) reasons.
That means, while the seller of the domain name has (a) reason(s) for his price, the buyer often can't see (or dont want to see) this (as) reason(s).
So from the other side of the same sheet, 'overpriced' could simply be seen as 'underrated'.
The seller sets the price - but in many cases it ends up with the fact that the buyer makes the price

For example:
I own THE MOST EXPENSIVE DOMAIN NAME IN THE WORLD while I don't care about others estimates.
The (hidden) price of this domain name is just made for billionaires and I have deep reasons for it.

 

[Name Trader]

@kingof.top - Yes I can see that your signature would make you King of .Top

 

[equity78]

Outrageous pricing lies in the eye of the beholder and in the need of the seller to sell. I write posts all the time about sales Mike Berkens has made that are far from one word generics or short LL/NN/LLL/NNN.coms and people always comment on how does he do it and he's the man. Some may say he is asking outrageous pricing, but Mike has always asked for big numbers look what he turned down on 667777.com, would have been the highest 6N.com sale of all time.

Then there are names where the seller likes the name, they are only going to swing for the fences because the name means something to them. Someone may own their last name and a fair offer, heck a great offer is $5,000 but they are going to ask for $100,000 because they don't want to sell unless the price is unrealistic.

Thirdly, sometimes you see names sell for crazy prices and people say "Why can't that be me?" They may not know the whole story like Ausitm.Rocks for $100,000 or DuDu.com for $1,000,000 or CamRoulette.com for $151,000. Everyone wants an outlier. Not a solid way to run a business but for $8 a year people will take a few chances.

 

[DnEbook]

Check out Godaddy's listings for some of the numerics ! ......Wow
~
I don't mind as it makes mine more appealing

 

[D. Wells]

"Case and point: If you price your domain names to sell, you put yourself in a good position to…um…sell them. Not rocket science right?"

What is priced to sell?

There is one problem with your logic. A domain name is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. There are only min/max prices on the reseller market. Some domainers wait for end users and some are happy quick flipping. Different strokes for different folks.

So "priced to sell" is highly subjective.

 

[WatchDogue]

Oh yeah, some of my domain name prices were ( ! ) just Freaking Crazy !

My prices were based on then contemporary comps when the names were acquired many years ago.

A few big ticket comp sales (many years back) skewered my pricing which I have just recently adjusted, downward, downward and, way down to the world of price / market reality.

Now I look at comps just from the past couple years, add a percentage for negotiating, fees etc and offer 'em again to the world of end users.

 

[Omar Negron]

I don't have any $250k names to my knowledge I have some sympathy for the argument, if you don't ask, you won't get. The different responses to a 250k asking price and a $5k asking price, is that you don't get any offers on the first, and you get abused on the last

Not looking for sympathy! haha just different opinions.

A domain name - price is always relative.
If our expectation is 'realistic' (which is of course relative too) then no price is 'overpriced'.
'Realistic' means that you have deep 'reasons' (relative a third time) for it.
Of course it would be an advantage, but no one needs to understand those (your own) reasons.
That means, while the seller of the domain name has (a) reason(s) for his price, the buyer often can't see (or dont want to see) this (as) reason(s).
So from the other side of the same sheet, 'overpriced' could simply be seen as 'underrated'.
The seller sets the price - but in many cases it ends up with the fact that the buyer makes the price

For example:
I own THE MOST EXPENSIVE DOMAIN NAME IN THE WORLD while I don't care about others estimates.
The (hidden) price of this domain name is just made for billionaires and I have deep reasons for it.

I get what your saying. What I am trying to get across is the more common sense side of things. Everyone can price THEIR domain names at any price point they want. It's just more likely that when people are trying to sell a 4 word .com for thousands (yes, it could be done I know), you odds are a lot lower.

Outrageous pricing lies in the eye of the beholder and in the need of the seller to sell. I write posts all the time about sales Mike Berkens has made that are far from one word generics or short LL/NN/LLL/NNN.coms and people always comment on how does he do it and he's the man. Some may say he is asking outrageous pricing, but Mike has always asked for big numbers look what he turned down on 667777.com, would have been the highest 6N.com sale of all time.

Then there are names where the seller likes the name, they are only going to swing for the fences because the name means something to them. Someone may own their last name and a fair offer, heck a great offer is $5,000 but they are going to ask for $100,000 because they don't want to sell unless the price is unrealistic.

Thirdly, sometimes you see names sell for crazy prices and people say "Why can't that be me?" They may not know the whole story like Ausitm.Rocks for $100,000 or DuDu.com for $1,000,000 or CamRoulette.com for $151,000. Everyone wants an outlier. Not a solid way to run a business but for $8 a year people will take a few chances.

Thanks for the input!

There is one problem with your logic. A domain name is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. There are only min/max prices on the reseller market. Some domainers wait for end users and some are happy quick flipping. Different strokes for different folks.

So "priced to sell" is highly subjective.

Yeap, only what someone is willing to pay for it. That's right. And maybe, a lot of times we over price our domains since we get seduced by the names topping the sales charts. I am ALL FOR selling domain names at the highest price possible but there is also a point when asking prices could be out of this world. Or maybe I am the delusial one? lol.

Oh yeah, some of my domain name prices were ( ! ) just Freaking Crazy !

My prices were based on then contemporary comps when the names were acquired many years ago.

A few big ticket comp sales (many years back) skewered my pricing which I have just recently adjusted, downward, downward and, way down to the world of price / market reality.

Now I look at comps just from the past couple years, add a percentage for negotiating, fees etc and offer 'em again to the world of end users.

Nice...thanks for the idea!

 

[equity78]

Look I have always priced on the side of reality sometimes under, because for the most part I want to be in and out, I could have never been Rick, I don't trust in anything especially technology. I could have never had a 20 year plan he is a far better man than I.

Pricing realistically is such a subjective thing, I have names priced at $599, and one name priced at that has had 10 offers and everyone was $50 or lower, a guy increasing his offer to $100 he thought he was paying me a fortune, when I would not sell he could not believe it, "these things cost you $10" I said yeah and it is 13 years old, do the math.

On the flipside I screwed up on a sale this year, it was an interesting situation, someone was looking for a name for a client so told a bunch of people submit a name that meets the criteria, budget $20,000. I submit one name, he comes back and says your name is one of 7 they are considering to purchase, give me a price please. I say $2,500 because the name cost me .99, it was my brand, I named it, not an emd so I am acting more from a branding aspect, than a valuable domain that holds intrinsic value.

They picked my name, the buyer in an email turned my "Great good sale" into "I fucking suck" He says in the email your name is the only name that everyone here was in complete agreement with, we were looking for four months.So this was not one guy making a decision but a group effort of a whole division. The only name and I sold for $2,500 with a $20,000 budget.

The funny thing about the name when I registered it I did the opposite of this post, I said I love this brand I am pricing it at $18,000 and put it on Go Daddy premium listings there for a few months. I then said to myself this is not what you do and you are too enthusiastic about the domain, lowered it to like $3,000.

When I told Mike Berkens about the sale, and the budget, he told me I should have asked for $80,000, I was like what ? The budget was $20,000. Mike says, "Raymond they always have more" I said I am pissed I did not ask $7,000 you are saying $80,000.

So it is the craziest business in the world and you never know what something will sell for and what is reasonable.