- Impact
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Gather around, children. I'm going to tell you a tale of utter and absolute horror beyond your wildest dreams, incubus that'll forever terrify you and make you perpetually sleep with one eye open.
But if you've survived the Green Lantern movie, I'm sure this won't be a bad read.
I've heard of Flippa appraisals in hushed tones. Given, I just recently started to sell on the platform and have never stopped to look at much else there aside from their sales listings. But after learning of their appraisals, I was intrigued to test one of my domains out. No, my story has nothing to do with my domain. In fact, it’s irrelevant to the story. The issue is quite honestly, with another domain.
Before I go on, let me say this up-front: I do not own the domain in question and my intent is not to belittle the owner or the domain in any way. This is a short, cautionary piece of writing, and it isn’t aimed at the owner of the domain or even the name itself. That said, moving on.
I love poker, namely Holdem. I seldom ever play it anymore but when I do, it’s always for money. The reason is simple: if there are no real stakes, the players feel free to do the dumbest things (seasoned players don’t play every hand, and most rounds never hit the river--sometimes, not even the turn). The quality of games is so much different when there is something on the table, a real “something” to win/lose.
The Internet is full of things like this: If there is nothing to gain or lose, people will absentmindedly venture into anything. But if there IS something to win or lose, actual thought goes into one’s decisions.
So in a way, Flippa is a better solution for a guy like me, yet the game is even better. See, you needn’t put in any chips to play at Flippa. No, there are no antes or blinds. And guess what? Every player beats the house, every time.
With Flippa, users can get a free domain listing--valued at nine bucks American--for “appraising” fifteen domains. Double-quotes are used to imply that the item within them isn’t truly what is stated. This is the case: people do not give real appraisals of a sound contemplation. The concept is simple. Spit out fifteen comments (about 250 words or less) and slap a price on it. VOILA! You’d be 1/15th of the way to a free listing. With less than 30 minutes, you could *ahem* “earn” (see the quotes again?) a free listing.
There is no thought to the appraisals. Well, otherwise that is the case or the concept of speculation is stretching a little too far. The results are an outlandish embarrassment, a travesty to the industry of domain investment.
I got looking through a list of domains open for appraisals. The stats for each are hidden unless you leave an appraisal of your own. “vpn.surf looks worthless,” I told myself. “I wonder what the community perceives it as.” I warn you right now: if you have a weak heart, stop reading this now. NP and I both are in no responsible for any seizures or heart failures that reading the below can (and likely will) cause. You’ve been warned.
I went to the page https://flippa.com/domain-appraisals/12373-vpn-surf and filled out the short form. My appraisal? $0. It could be argued to be regfee, but I think $0 is more applicable. It’s just another LLL domain (again, you could argue it has a few decent acronyms) in a new/pointless extension. Speculation, perhaps, but I see very little commercial usage for .surf. I’ve posted what I felt and clicked submit. Ha, turns out I couldn’t leave a plain $0 valuation. I instead posted a $1. After this, I was able to see the appraisals left for it. I expected to see many similar appraisals. What I found was shocking (yet not all the way unexpected). From 26 appraisals:
The mean: $1,332 (is that cardiac arrest I see from your end?); median $500 highest $5k. And this is with 26 appraisals. Sure, I’m aware that domaining is speculative. But after reading these gems, you’d be speculating too--whether or not the appraisers spent more than 3 seconds to determine a value:
“very known word vpn. extension is also good.”
Value: $999
“nice! you can cut expenses on advertising with this kind of domain.”
Value: $3,000
“Great domain name! Short, easy to remember and perfect for a vpn site”
Value: $5,000
“nice 3 letter domain both vpn and surf get lots of searches good for seo id start at 5k +”
Value: $5,000
“What a ugly name! What is vpn? What is surf? However, I like this name, it's really special!”
Value: $3,000
“name is really good, both the word and tld fits together. VPN surf
awesome name”
Value: $3,500
Let me note that EVERYONE mentioned above is a new Flippa user. Only two others, aside from me, appraised this @ under $100. One of the two has a feedback score.
Domaining is all speculation. But really, does ANY of the above make sense? No: these were left for the purpose of inching toward a free listing. There is no value into them. I don’t think I want to appraise any more on this site unless I feel like leaving a trail of meaningless fluff to get that nifty $9 listing for free. They are forfeiting money by allowing these charades to continue. We, the users, are forfeiting our time reading through this rubbish--and worse, Flippa’s allowing for the unwarranted raising of a noob’s hopes. Perchance this is by design. After all, people would be more inclined to list their domain for sale there if he/she is given a pipedream appraisal. But isn’t quality still over quantity? If a few thousand worthless pieces of trash are listed for sale there, that would merely water down their marketplace, making them an expensive BIDO. And how would these listings be made? Likely, these people--who are too cheap to buy an appraisal--will simply attempt to appraise their way to a free domain listing. Forget free-play Holdem. The game of Flippa Appraisals has something to gain: One free appraisal, just 1/15th at a time. Flippa should RETURN quality and usability by increasing this to 100 or more. 15 is too easy to achieve, thus gaming the system isn’t even a challenge. HEY FLIPPA, I hope you heed to this. Your practice will make your site as worthless as eBay. And no serious domainer ever uses the site.
Flippa and Yahoo! Games should partner up.
But if you've survived the Green Lantern movie, I'm sure this won't be a bad read.
I've heard of Flippa appraisals in hushed tones. Given, I just recently started to sell on the platform and have never stopped to look at much else there aside from their sales listings. But after learning of their appraisals, I was intrigued to test one of my domains out. No, my story has nothing to do with my domain. In fact, it’s irrelevant to the story. The issue is quite honestly, with another domain.
Before I go on, let me say this up-front: I do not own the domain in question and my intent is not to belittle the owner or the domain in any way. This is a short, cautionary piece of writing, and it isn’t aimed at the owner of the domain or even the name itself. That said, moving on.
I love poker, namely Holdem. I seldom ever play it anymore but when I do, it’s always for money. The reason is simple: if there are no real stakes, the players feel free to do the dumbest things (seasoned players don’t play every hand, and most rounds never hit the river--sometimes, not even the turn). The quality of games is so much different when there is something on the table, a real “something” to win/lose.
The Internet is full of things like this: If there is nothing to gain or lose, people will absentmindedly venture into anything. But if there IS something to win or lose, actual thought goes into one’s decisions.
So in a way, Flippa is a better solution for a guy like me, yet the game is even better. See, you needn’t put in any chips to play at Flippa. No, there are no antes or blinds. And guess what? Every player beats the house, every time.
With Flippa, users can get a free domain listing--valued at nine bucks American--for “appraising” fifteen domains. Double-quotes are used to imply that the item within them isn’t truly what is stated. This is the case: people do not give real appraisals of a sound contemplation. The concept is simple. Spit out fifteen comments (about 250 words or less) and slap a price on it. VOILA! You’d be 1/15th of the way to a free listing. With less than 30 minutes, you could *ahem* “earn” (see the quotes again?) a free listing.
There is no thought to the appraisals. Well, otherwise that is the case or the concept of speculation is stretching a little too far. The results are an outlandish embarrassment, a travesty to the industry of domain investment.
I got looking through a list of domains open for appraisals. The stats for each are hidden unless you leave an appraisal of your own. “vpn.surf looks worthless,” I told myself. “I wonder what the community perceives it as.” I warn you right now: if you have a weak heart, stop reading this now. NP and I both are in no responsible for any seizures or heart failures that reading the below can (and likely will) cause. You’ve been warned.
I went to the page https://flippa.com/domain-appraisals/12373-vpn-surf and filled out the short form. My appraisal? $0. It could be argued to be regfee, but I think $0 is more applicable. It’s just another LLL domain (again, you could argue it has a few decent acronyms) in a new/pointless extension. Speculation, perhaps, but I see very little commercial usage for .surf. I’ve posted what I felt and clicked submit. Ha, turns out I couldn’t leave a plain $0 valuation. I instead posted a $1. After this, I was able to see the appraisals left for it. I expected to see many similar appraisals. What I found was shocking (yet not all the way unexpected). From 26 appraisals:
The mean: $1,332 (is that cardiac arrest I see from your end?); median $500 highest $5k. And this is with 26 appraisals. Sure, I’m aware that domaining is speculative. But after reading these gems, you’d be speculating too--whether or not the appraisers spent more than 3 seconds to determine a value:
“very known word vpn. extension is also good.”
Value: $999
“nice! you can cut expenses on advertising with this kind of domain.”
Value: $3,000
“Great domain name! Short, easy to remember and perfect for a vpn site”
Value: $5,000
“nice 3 letter domain both vpn and surf get lots of searches good for seo id start at 5k +”
Value: $5,000
“What a ugly name! What is vpn? What is surf? However, I like this name, it's really special!”
Value: $3,000
“name is really good, both the word and tld fits together. VPN surf
awesome name”Value: $3,500
Let me note that EVERYONE mentioned above is a new Flippa user. Only two others, aside from me, appraised this @ under $100. One of the two has a feedback score.
Domaining is all speculation. But really, does ANY of the above make sense? No: these were left for the purpose of inching toward a free listing. There is no value into them. I don’t think I want to appraise any more on this site unless I feel like leaving a trail of meaningless fluff to get that nifty $9 listing for free. They are forfeiting money by allowing these charades to continue. We, the users, are forfeiting our time reading through this rubbish--and worse, Flippa’s allowing for the unwarranted raising of a noob’s hopes. Perchance this is by design. After all, people would be more inclined to list their domain for sale there if he/she is given a pipedream appraisal. But isn’t quality still over quantity? If a few thousand worthless pieces of trash are listed for sale there, that would merely water down their marketplace, making them an expensive BIDO. And how would these listings be made? Likely, these people--who are too cheap to buy an appraisal--will simply attempt to appraise their way to a free domain listing. Forget free-play Holdem. The game of Flippa Appraisals has something to gain: One free appraisal, just 1/15th at a time. Flippa should RETURN quality and usability by increasing this to 100 or more. 15 is too easy to achieve, thus gaming the system isn’t even a challenge. HEY FLIPPA, I hope you heed to this. Your practice will make your site as worthless as eBay. And no serious domainer ever uses the site.
Flippa and Yahoo! Games should partner up.
