They’re all a little bit different.
I mostly invest in domain names that sell in the sub-$10,000 range. There are people who are very successful at buying domains for five figures and selling them for six or more. That’s not my game, and I suspect that’s the case with most domain investors. (I’m in awe of some of the risks people take and how they work hard to make the risks pay off.)
Given that most investors don’t have a lot of six-figure domains to sell, I thought I’d run through the three domain sales I’ve made over the past three weeks. Three is a small sample size, but I think these anecdotal data points might be interesting and more typical of the experiences readers have had.
As a general practice, I don’t say what domains I sold out of respect to the buyers. I’m comfortable mentioning the price without the domain.
Sale 1: A three-word .com domain.
I acquired this domain as a closeout on GoDaddy Auctions in March of this year. It was originally registered in 2003. I had a buy now price of $7,275 on the domain at Afternic. A Canadia company bought it through the network and it required a manual transfer.
Sale 2: A .Work domain name
I registered about a dozen .work domain names when they first became available in early 2015. They only cost about $5 to register and renew so I figured it was worth the risk. I thought I had sold one .work name last year through Afternic but the buyer never paid. I had a $995 buy now price on another .work domain and it sold through Afternic this month. It sold through the network and required a manual transfer. To date, my only new TLD sales are .cloud and .work, and none for more than $2,000.
Sale 3: A domain I hand registered in 2005.
My third sale was for a domain I hand registered in 2005. This inquiry came directly via email from someone who looked me up in Whois. (That’s one of the reasons I like having domains at GoDaddy since you can make your Whois public.) We negotiated over a couple of days and settled on $4,000. The person chose to wire the money to me directly rather than use an escrow service.
Of course, during this time I have also rejected offers. Some of them were crazy low and others were close, but not quite close enough.
Michel says
3 letter or 3 character .com ?
Andrew Allemann says
Three words
Michael says
Why the number 7,275? Why not 7,000, 7,500, or 7,499 etc. Any particular method to your madness there?
Andrew Allemann says
I wish I could say there was a method to the madness. I’m not sure why I picked that number. I always try to envision who a potential buyer would be and think about how much they can afford. But the difference between 7,275 and 7,175…no idea.
I generally try to avoid buy now prices that are an exact ‘000, although I don’t have any data to back up what works.
Steve says
Your domain strategy is pretty similar to mine. & most of my domain sales are in the mid 5 figure range. I’ve had only a few 6 figure sales. And none this year.
What irks me is receiving a lowball offer from a multi-billion dollar telecom company which happened last week. An offer that was one third of what I paid for it in 2008. I received a higher offer today from the company— albeit still not even 1/4 of its valuation, with the comment: “This is our highest offer”
I’m just grateful I do not rely on domain sales to pay for my daughters university tuitions and other bills.
Andrew Allemann says
I wouldn’t take it personally when you get a low ball offer like that. Lots of times it’s a division within a company that has a limited budget. You always have the power to say ‘no’.
John says
It seems everyone’s a stubborn lowballer these days no matter how rich they are and no matter how valuable the domain is. What far too many “domainers” won’t do, however, is give thanks where a large % of the thanks is due for that: the various “appraisal tools.” And their own drinking and redistributing the Kool-Aid about proper real world valuations.
When they are like that, just refer them to that great video:
En Vogue – My Lovin’ (You’re Never Gonna Get It) (1992) – YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xpugp6DIb3I
Patricia Kaehler says
It’s rare for me to sell a five figure… most of mid 4…
I get a giggle out of lowball offers… I don’t respond.
The song John mention “You’re Never Gonna Get It” (under 5fig) will now accompany my giggles on the lowballers…
The ones I’ve had the biggest giggles on the past 90 days are KashPay.com BreezePay.com KPays.com Payeez.com (mostly interest being shown by fin. in fla. )