Guy asks for $3,400 for a simple domain name!!!

In his defense, you were the one asking to buy the domain name, so it must have had some value, yes?

But I do get your overall point. I think it comes down to the internet still being relatively new to a lot of the people who use it. Maybe they hear, "hey, all you have to do is buy domain names for $10 and you can turn around and sell them for $5,000!"

Maybe they sell a few at the inflated prices, or maybe the hold onto them for too long and eventually bring the price down. Either way, as you yourself seaid, there are plenty of .coms still out there.

All the best,
Michael

They have the domain so they can set the price. They only need $9 in ad revenue a year to break even on the domain.

It all really depends on the name. You won't find a decent 5 letter dictionary .com for under 10k.

Someone sold 'business . com' for 175 mil in '96. So must be some money in it?

Every time I see this girl I violently slam my head against the desk.



I wonder if she has ever been recognized in public...

no they don't add value at all to online marketing and make it much more difficult for us to come as credible and not rip offs or scams.

people should always remember if it sounds too good to be true it probable is.

regards

colleen

I have paid more than $3400 for a domain name because it suited the exact branding that I was after. I later sold the business (and the brand) for $100k.

The idea that someone would actually want $$$ for what is theirs lol... I mean, really. The nerve!

I had someone else me about two weeks ago and wanted to buy one of my best domains, one that makes me the most money. I quoted him a price of $80,000 and told him to email me back if he was still interested. I didn't hear back lol... his idea of me selling this domain to him was to hand it over for $300. I wouldn't have sold it for $3,000, nor even $30,000.

My domain, my business, my choice.

My point is... when the domain belongs to said person, said person is the one who sets the price and if the wanna be buyer isn't happy with the price, who cares?

In the past, I have bought domains for the sole purpose of flipping them and often sold them cheap. After all, I had less than $8 tied up in each domain and anything above that was pure profit. But the domains I use for business (and this guy knew this), there's NO way I would sell cheap.

Bottom line... do what is right for YOU, not what the wanna be buyer wants.

Cindy



Cindy

I bought a domain name once and within a year got an offer for it. I told the buyer to set a price over $10 and paypal me. He paypaled me $100.

I've sold several URLs for $30 and would gladly take $100k for any one of mine.

I don't see what the "problem on principle is." When a buyer and seller make a deal and both are happy whose business is it.

Believe me when a buyer shells out thousands for a domain that costs $10 sometimes the seller turns out to be "the poor sucker."

What Michael said..... I asked a guy once if he wanted to sell his truck he said "I'll take $3,000 for it. I said that's too much." He said, I'm not looking to sell my truck you are looking to buy it. Point well taken.

I regulary pay $5 for a starbucks brew that probably costs them 30 cents. The dogs.

George Wright

Quite the opposite. Great domains are limited which lends to the term virtual real estate

You could even say that domains are more valuable than real estate. You can find plenty of houses with a great ocean view but there is only 1 business.com, only 1 health.com and the list goes on.

Yeah, you can find plenty of betterhealthforseniors.com's (nevermind, bad example, it's taken) and other long-tail domains but they don't have anywhere near the value of a great one or two word keyword domain. If branding is important to your business a great domain is even more important.

I wish I'd had the foresight to buy up domains ten years ago. Even domains that aren't that great like pencil.com still sell in the six figures. Check out this list

DNJournal has a list of domain names sold in recent years.

@Cindy - If he wants the name bad enough then he'll be back. Some people try to test the grounds first before buying. I wouldn't mind you pm the name I may have a buyer if good enough.

Many domains carry subjective value, and in many cases there's really no way to value them objectively, especially in the case of a "brandable" type domain. This is a private transaction between two parties, and it is up to them to agree on the price. If they don't, then nothing happens.

Since the value is pretty subjective, I feel that it is impossible to put an objective, definite value on these domains. Therefore you cannot say something is too "high" or too "low", as this is something for the domain marketplace to decide, not you.

Paul

Winstars - you need to learn the ropes first before you start to swing. Then when you have your swinging down pack, you become Tarzan. Then when you become Tarzan you get the power. .... well you know the rest. lol ... (I can't get al Pacino out of my mind)

Domaining is an open playing field. To you it might be worth $3400 but to him its worth only $300. You either hold or sell ... like the stocks, maybe even better. Don't let it bother you as there's tons of domain names to be reg'd.

It would be interesting just to see this domain name that you speak of.

Thats the domain industry. I know many people who invest 10s of thousands of dollars every month into new domain names, they park them and wait for some poor sucker who wants it so badly and sells them at higher prices. And trust me they even sell many to local business who have no idea in the industry, well until recently when godaddy started advertising . But still people are making a killing with domain flipping and parking!

There are domains that are worth that kind of money and much more. Obviously, you were interested in the domain or you wouldn't have found his offer.

Selling domains is a profitable and ethical business model. Don't like the prices, just find your own domain name. If someone feels that they can make their money back plus more from a particular domain, then it is a good buy. At least with a domain name, you know exactly what you are buying. No flashy headlines, no fake testimonials, no fake income claims. Here's the domain, here's the price. Buy it if you want it, if not, no sweat.

SIGH.....we as domainers here this argument all the time. Frankly, it the domain name is to much just move on. There is no rule that says people have to sell things you want at a price you can afford. Sorry, but getting mad at a high domain name is lilk getting high at a home you want. Cant afford it? Move on to the next OR try to raise capital to GET what you want. PERIOD!

3k... childs play.

somebody buy me this one gothic.com $200,000

I sold saveoursouls.info some years ago for over $1,000 on Sedo. It all depends on why a person wants it and what they are willing to pay.

I find it incredible that people will pay so much for domain names, I wish I'd know this at the start of the internet and I'd be sooooo rich by now!!

Yeah this kinda irritates me too. A bunch of people who think they are smart.

some interesting history for ya....

Yeah, they picked a winner considering...

I thought it was interesting stuff. If I only knew then what I know now.

One of the main things I've learned about domain names is this and it happens with most domainers that we tend to get emotionally attached to our domain names that we forget its only business but treat it like a pet or something.

It's not they're smart, they take action. They research the keywords first and check datas then buy. Again its like stocks you need to do your research first or you'll be picking grapes off an apple tree.

So, you're basically saying I don't add value to the web cause I have top domains I bought years ago and I want to sell them properly for the value I think it's fair?

Do you realize Top Domains are Webs (finest) Real Estate?

I buy webs real estate - I invest in it to sell later with PROFIT.

It's just business, investments.

60% of the time, it works every time.

Forget cyber squatting, 99% of business done on the net doesn't add value to the net, but adds value to the owners pockets instead.

The exceptions maybe say Google and Wikipedia etc.

The question is .... so what?

It's his domain, he sets the price. Plus you contacted him.

Quite simple really.

http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm
http://www.dnjournal.com/ytd-sales-charts.htm

Some of the sold domains are naturally generic, but some aren't brilliant and sell for a heck of a lot more than $3.4k.

Heck, I picked a domain at random from that first link: get7online.com sold for $4,455 and gets 0 exact monthly searches.

In-short, I honestly don't see the basis for your argument?

You're right, it's not like real estate. It's usually more profitable (in % terms). In real estate a two figure ROI% would be good. In domaining I've seen (and experienced) 4 figure ROIs%.

Sort of off-topic, but most people have a spare bedroom in their house. So even if they have 1 house, most people could still take in someone off the streets?

Ah, the age-old "he won't sell it for a price I'm willing to pay so he's a greedy pig," or "he's not doing anything with it so he should sell it to me (cheap)" argument. And of course, someone has to throw out the word "cybersquatter," which in most forums is defined as someone else owning a domain name you want.

As someone who owns a lot of domain names, I can tell you domain name owners hear this day in and day out. It's as annoying as the guy who knocks on my door, asking to buy one of the classic muscle cars I own, then offering me a fraction of what they're worth.

It's like complaining that an acre of land in the Hamptons doesn't cost the same as an acre of land in Wyoming. It's all just land, right?

Nothing in this world has intrinsic value; value is what someone is willing to pay for it.

The price of a domain is worth as much as someone is willing to pay.
I have bought mid xx domains during the years and all except 5 or so, will settle with about 50% of the price they started with.

Just keep it cool when bidding on a domain name.

Give him a price, he will reply with a number. Now you wait 2-3 days without replying and he will drop the price. Just keep in mind that some of the people have been waiting years with no bids on some of the domains and they would like to sell it, as long the price is not stupidly low (they want to get something out of it too).

Don't bother contacting domain owners if you don't want to pay more than the registration fee.

I normally pay 150-500 per domain, depends on the quality.

Currently I'm developing a new service and saving up for the domain.
The owner want $12.000 for it, which is cheap considering the quality of his domain (two word domain, 74k exact per month).

A good name will make it MUCH easier for you to start a business from ground, but it comes with a price of cause.

But yes, sometimes you come across some retards that want ten times as much for a domain that it's worth. You can't to much about it, just look for a new one.

I agree with mr Oska here. It may not be worth $3400 to you but it might be worth even more than that to someone else. r

and I see no problem in him wanting to buy a domain just for the example of flipping it. Why not? dont people do it with real estate all the time? Buy a piece of land a little far away from the city for cheap. The city grows in perhaps 10 years and now you could sell it for 50x or something. Point is, its a business model and a pretty good one at that.

You pay only what you want to, its your money. He will accept only what he wants to, its his domain. If you have a deal, great. If not, move on...

Not sure what the issue is. If someone wants more for their domain name than you are willing to pay, don't buy it. Simple, really.

You don't know how someone evaluated their domain name. They may have used one of those silly evaluation services out there, that often come up with ridiculous values that have no basis in anything.

Or, maybe they have a good reason for wanting a certain price. Or maybe they are just nuts. But, that's their option.

I have domain names that I wouldn't sell for paltry amounts. I buy domains because I intend to use them in some fashion. And, if you come up with a good domain name, you have to grab it before someone else does, even if you're not ready to put up a site. That's just the way it works. If you were required to have a website ready to go in order to own a domain name, there'd certainly be a greater number of worthless websites out there because people would just throw together a quick and dirty site for the sake of having a site.

I have undeveloped domains. What are they worth? Well, if I think I can make $1 a day in AdSense with a site, why would I want to sell that domain name for less than $365? If I think I could earn $10 a day on it, why would I want to sell the domain name for less than $3,650? How much does the domain name factor into it? Maybe not much, in some cases, but if I already own the domain, why should I sell it for next to nothing and cross my fingers that I can find an equally good domain name later on, when I can just hold on to the domain I already have?

It's a pity but making money from suckers is how the majority of people make money from the net especially with domain names, they can twist and spin the story line with site abc.com went for several hundred thousand Dollars there site babc.com should go something close to that

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We all live and learn so no need bashing heads over little things. Let me remind you we are all human, an unperfect species of nature.

@derekwong28 - that ebay seller is wasting his time and fees.