Originally Posted by Hershon2000

I personally think the Appraisals on Godaddy both certified and Express are a joke as they don't consider the imprtance of the noun. IE, my BeerandAlcohol.com was only appraised for $360 tops. Conversely, I think you'll find for your short name, services overstating it. What I would do if I were you is, come up with a figure, forgetting appraisal that you would be happy with right now. Use that figure as a beginning negotiation amount. Good luck Just remember 25% of something is worth more then 100% of Nothing.

That's true, something is better than nothing. If I sell I don't think I'd use the GoDaddy after market auctions. Are there other really good alternatives? Maybe a private broker or something?

Did you ever wind up selling your name? I read quite a few blogger articles on how bad GoDaddy appraisals were, that plus your post convinced me not to use them.

Right now, I'm just totally bewildered about everything & that probably played a bit of a part in my initial reaction to your post, sorry. I'm a Leo and have a very creative and addictive (thank God I never tried drinking or drugs) personality along with an MBA & I got hooked the past 2 weeks playing & coming out with domain names that to me seem better then the next one. My strategy was that all I need is 1 hit and everything will pay for itself. Unfortunately right now, I have some great names that my gut feeling are totally wasted on Godaddys Auctions & I placed a few of these on some other boards where people seem to buy crap like say a zhkd.com or c-asinos.com or other BS and they don't give me the time of day. Ebay I'm finding out is also useless. I did just spend $255 for a 3 issue 1" classified ad in the Hollywood Reporter,a daily movie industry trade, trying to sell LAFilmIndustry.com (I also have a monoply on the other domain prefixes for it) & that's coming out next week. Amongst names I got, which I was surprised were available were 2008Software.com, 2009Gifts.com, 1Dylan.com, 1Marilyn.com & 1Ann.com amongst others. No Offers! I bought 50 domain names at the minimum cost on Godaddy and at this point just don't have the cash to go further. I will keep renewing these names though. My basic attitude is, I'm not going to be greedy with a first sale as long as it gives me enough money to buy plenty of other domain names & perhaps develop a site with 1 or 2 of them. If you know anyone who would be interested in doing 2008Software.com for a % of everything, let me know. It's all really discouraging & like in most things in life, people keep hidden ways to do things successfully. The main thing is, come up with a figure that is of use to you, even if it is undervalued to an appraised value or one people say is the going rate. Just because something is valued at something, doesn't mean it will sell at that. Actually, what I'd try, ignore what I said earlier but don't do if you're not familiar with Ebay is list your domain name on Ebay but make it a 10 day auction & if by the 8th or 9th day, the bidding isn't high enough, just cancel the auction altogether which you can do I'm pretty sure as long as its more then 12 hours before the end of an auction. The chances are some of the cancelled bidders will then contact you privately with offers. Whatever you do, don't sell yourself short especially if you can't use the money right away. Also, maybe you could sell your friends a % of the name, i.e., someone would pay $2500 or so for a % of your eventual sales price. Good luck to you. While I've had pretty good good luck on things most of my life, I was just a bit incredulous of you at first, as it just seemed like you struck gold. Me, 20 years ago, I knew (but never asked out) Tia Carere before she became a movie actress made and she hated my guts! If she saw me today, she'd still remember me and tell me to go to hell! Anyway, you hit the lottery so cash in!

Thanks for telling your story, it's helpful to hear about other people's experiences doing this kind of thing. Good luck selling your domain names. I'm going to figure out what to do next once I get the appraisal. I can let you know what they say though if you're interested.

AND this isn't concrete proof for you since they emailed me and all I can do is cut and paste that email here, but I emailed Network Solutions yesterday who I orignially reg'ed my domain with to ask them how much I paid for it and this is what they replied. I can't believe how cheap TWO years was back when I got it! I guess I did register it for more than one year at the time.

----------------

Thank you for contacting Network Solutions Customer Service Department. We are committed to creating the best Customer experience possible. One of the first ways we can demonstrate our commitment to this goal is to quickly and efficiently handle your recent request.

Please be advised that the domain name MAYBE.COM was initially registered for 2 years for $35 on March 2, 1997.
We hope this update has been helpful. However, if you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Service Department.

Please do not respond to this E-mail. If you have any additional questions, you can reach us via e-mail by completing our online form at http://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/help/service-request.jhtml or by phone at 1-888-642-9675 and provide Service Request # 1-316436187.

Thank you for choosing Network Solutions.


Sincerely,

AL007
Network Solutions Technical Support Specialist

(c) Copyright 2007 Network Solutions, LLC. All rights reserved.

Originally Posted by Hershon2000

If it is truly hers and she paid minimum registration cost for it, good for her and she's the first person I know to win the lottery. Having said that she ought to have known it would bring her a huge amount by now- I can't understand why she hasn't sold this & at worst gotten a lawyer or someone to sell it for her. If she didn't list the other appraisal place on here, I probably would not have made a comment. I honestly though do not care one way or the other. Too me though its like someone living in a nice house in Beverly Hills and wondering if its worth any money as they bought it for $50,000 20 years ago. But each to their own.

I know several people who bought good domains and have sat on them for years with NetSol hitting their cards year in and year out without them realizing the value of their domains.

Originally Posted by Hershon2000

I personally think the Appraisals on Godaddy both certified and Express are a joke as they don't consider the imprtance of the noun. IE, my BeerandAlcohol.com was only appraised for $360 tops. Conversely, I think you'll find for your short name, services overstating it. What I would do if I were you is, come up with a figure, forgetting appraisal that you would be happy with right now. Use that figure as a beginning negotiation amount. Good luck Just remember 25% of something is worth more then 100% of Nothing.

So I got my appraisal and it was A LOT lower than I thought it would be. Now I'm wondering is it really only worth that much or is it appraisals are just a joke. I looked at the metrics they measured it by and some of them just don't seem applicable since I'm not generating a lot of traffic through there right now etc. I'm just not sure what to think of it....

Personaly I dont realy like these appraisals. The domains value can sky rocket, its all about the traffic it recieves

When they come to you and ask if you'd sell, never name the price first. Let them make an offer. This is selling 101.

I do that and the problem is these people then never get back to you!

thats a fantastic domain name, u can earn a 5 digit figure paycheck easily

Violet02,
That is a very nice name you have and as an experienced domaineer myself who watches the prices of many names every year i can say this one is worth a lot. Those appraisal services are almost all completely worthless. The best way is to look at other similar sales and feel the market out first.
I would say as a reseller its worth less but if you market it right or find an end user you can get far more.
PM or email me if you want me to give you some more pointers on where to go to sell it. Many of the comments in this thread are quite harsh and not very helpful.
Either way good luck with your domain.

So I'm back again and ready to actually sell my domain name now since I finally could use the money. The problem is I went to a big domain name broker type and they appraised it for even less than the last two did. That's all well and good but they attach that appraisal to the listing. I don't want to be greedy but I don't want to sell myself short either. I'm not even sure what a fair asking price is anymore if I disregard the lame appraisals. I seem some pretty silly names that are priced very high, I'm sure those never sell... maybe all the big ones sell fast and that's why I don't see them listed?

Anyways I'm in a quandry as to what the best way to sell and price this is at this point. If I could move it quickly that would be nice too but no guarantees.