posted on October 23, 2000 01:01:39 PM
OK, this is only tangentially eBay related, but this seemed like a good place to ask.
I have a domain name which I registered with the intention of creating an eBay ID and associated business with. I never did that, and the domain has languished unused for over a year. I no longer intend to create a business, eBay-based or otherwise, with that name, and I've considered selling the domain.
This morning I received an email from someone who asked if I'd be interested in transferring the domain. I'm interested, but I'm not sure how to go about it. I don't know what the domain is worth, and I don't know how to begin negotiating its sale. I mean, it seems silly to give it away for free, but I don't want to try to overvalue it, either.
Has anyone sold and/or transferred a domain name? How much did you sell it for (if anything)? What negotiating was involved?
posted on October 23, 2000 01:08:39 PM
Kind of a vague question. It's like "Have you ever sold a house? What did you get for it?"
The value of a domain name can only be judged by the person who wants it. Altavista.com sold for something like 3 million dollars because altavista wanted it and someone else had it. rainybear.com won't have the same demand. I wanted to get yisgood.com but the person who had it played hard-to-get, so I just gave up and got another name. It's up to you and the other party to decide what a fair price would be.
posted on October 23, 2000 01:17:14 PM
How to... depends where it lives. If the registrar of the name is Register.com, they have a registrant transfer form on their web site that's self-explanatory and makes it easy.
Only you can determine what you will let it go for. How long is it? Is it catchy. It must have some attributes since someione is interested in it -- but as izzy said, the potential buyer can probably get another, un-taken, name cheaply, so you can't ask too much.
I bought a few for resale, and if I got $100 I'd be happy, that's 3X what I paid to register them.
posted on October 23, 2000 01:56:07 PMThis morning I received an email from someone who asked if I'd be interested in transferring the domain
Was it an offer to buy the name, or a soliticitation to use a registrar service? There are now countless domain registrars who operate as resellers for the 50 or so "ICANN accredited" registrars. Some of these services are engaging in the dubious practice of spamming domain holders to solicit them to transfer the name to their registration service.
While you can usually save some money if you registered through Network Solutions and you intend to keep the name, any company that markets their services through spam is not trustworthy, in my opinion.
As for valuation, there are, again, hundreds of new "domain appraisal" services. They are all pretty much worthless. Well, not exactly worthless. A lot of people use these "appraisals" to market domain names in an attempt to get outrageous prices. But the appriasals themselves are grossly inflated, or so broad ($0-$5,000) as to be worthless.
To get a general idea of what domains sell for, take a look at Afternic http://www.afternic.com and Great Domains http://www.greatdomains.com. But ignore the asking prices. 99% are vastly inflated. But take a look at some of the names that have actually sold, and you can probably get a ballpark figure of what your name is worth.
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[ edited by amalgamated2000 on Oct 23, 2000 01:58 PM ]
