How do I find out a resonable price for a domain name?

Hosting
1

There is a domain name that I am interested in. I don’t want to post the domain name here, as I am interested it buying it. The domain name is for sale by one of those BuyDomainNames companies, which I think are a load of crap.

But anyway, they are trying to sell this domain name for over $2,000.00. The domain has been sitting there for 10 years unused, and to this day is unused, its just parked at BuyDomains.com.

I want to buy this domain, I know that I’m not paying $2,000.00 for it. But I don’t know how to find out a reasonable price to start bargining at. It seems they might be willing to lower the price, but they want an offer. I have no idea what kind of offer would be fair, to myself, and still keep them from ROFL at me.

I thought there was a free website in the past, that you could enter a domain name, it would consider several details (length, common words, meaning, easy to remember, etc) and give a very generic price for the domain. At least a starting point for me. But I can’t find any help with anything.

I contacted GoDaddy.com and they stated they could put the domain name on Backorder, but I’m not 100% sure that I would end up with the domain if they ever let it cancel.

I know that the domain isn’t work that much. They also had the .org version of this domain name for sale for $5,000. The domain name was set to expire a month ago, the domain expired, I searched and bought it today for $15.00. So I got a $5,000 domain for $15.00.

I’m hoping the company will let the .com version go as well. I’m not sure what I need to do to get a resonable price for the domain. I think its to my advantage that the domain has been forsale for 10 years, they may be eager to get rid of it, also that’s probably why they let the .org version go. Because it never sold.

But I’m not sure how these companies work.

2

Check out the whois data see if there is any contact info; if there is directly contact the owner.

3

As I’ve said I’ve already done that, the owner is listed as BuyDomains.com

4

Then I dont think you could do much about it other then making an offer to them.

I would not go for backorder. Since the domain been sitting there for years you are not likely to get it using that.

Best is move on with another domain.

5

I’m cerious though, as I plan to register a trademark with the domain name, because the domain name is the name of a software product we are developing, its going to be an open source product and we already own the .org version of the domain name.

I know that I cannot force them to give me the domain name but if I register a trademark to it, I’m wondering if that will stop anyone from using the domain name, and thereofore they wouldn’t be able to sell it anyway, so they might as well sell to me for cheaper.

Companies like this make me sick because they are just scamming people. They have over 800,000 domain names in their inventory and they are reselling them for thousands of dollars each. With the short supply of domain names in the world today, I think that companies like this should be banned. If they had their way they would register every domain name in the world, forcing people to pay thousands of dollars just to get a name, and creating a monopoly over the entire system. They didn’t do anything to create a product, they just registered something that was already created with no intention of every using it, causing over 800,000 domains to sit there unused forever because no one will ever pay those prices.

6

Just make them an offer. $20, $50, $100. They’ll probably take whatever they can get for it, unless someone makes them a counter offer (highly unlikely). It’s like spam, they register tons of domains hoping that just a handful will make them a profit.

Trademarks don’t apply to domain names and it won’t help “save” the domain if someone else wants it.

In a worst case scenario (someone else purchases the domain from them), you could make a case if someone buys the domain and pretends to represent your product/company and divert traffic and customers from you, but there’s not much you can do if someone is selling shoes with the same name as your software since they have as much right to the url as you do. Or in a slightly better scenario, you might be able to negotiate with the new owner more easily than with BuyDomains.com.

7

I can try. They told me that they would not take anything less then $1600.00 for the domain name. But I wonder what happens when they don’t sell a domain, because they registered this domain for 10 years back in 2000. Its set to expire in Aug 2010 and I wonder if they will just let it expire or if they will register it for another ten years. They must know that if the domain hasn’t sold in ten years, it probably wont sell.

They tried to tell me that the price was based off of the google ranking and traffic for the website. I looked on google the domain doesn’t even had a ranking and basically has no traffic. I told them this and they kind of studdered and were like “well whatever thats the price”.

I know now that the company is a scam, but I guess there is nothing I can do about it. I looked at their inventory and they have things like

Perfect For Blogging!
MikeSmith.com
MikeASmith.com
MikeBSmith.com
MikeCSmith.com
MikeDSmith.com
Starting at $8,000.00

I’m glad I registered my name as a domain name years so. Otherwise I would have to pay almost $10,000 to get it from the scammers now.

They just do that people they know people want their own email addresses/websites like Mike@MikeSmith.com and now they have to pay thousands just to get it.

Its one big scam in my opinion. I have a few more cool domain names in mind that are open, so I think I will play their game. I’ll register the .com/net/org version of my other domain name, which I’m starting to like better.

BuyDomains.com has the .com version of this domain for sale for $2,000. I guess since I have the .org version I’ll just create a page saying Domain For Sale, and list the price as $2,000. I can play the game too :slight_smile:

They also denied they ever owned the .org version of the domain, but I have a screen shot from a year ago of the WHOIS database with BuyDomains.com listed as the owner and $5,000 as the sell price. LoL

Hey, you never know maybe someone will give me $2,000 for the .org name, lol.

8

It is unlikely since you’ve shown interest. It will also depend on how much you’re willing to pay, too. If you’re developing a product with the same name, it may be of high value to you and it may be worth it (it depends how much money you think you’ll be doing with tha product)

Also, when you launch yourproduct, the value of that domain will increase because you will promote it (even if you use the .org instead of the .com)

You could tell them that no way you’re paying $1600 but that you’re willing to pay $600. That would give them a nice revenue while you get your domain too.

If they say no (and probably they will say no), then you may think to brand your product differntly… if you don’t want the value of that domain to rise.

You may think it is a scam but it is a business. They bought it, and they can charge whatever they think you would pay. They probably have bought a lot of other silly domains, and have to maintain them every year… not everything will be profit.

9

Once you register the trademark then no one else will be able to use the domain for anything similar that can get confused with your product (unless they start using the domain for that purpose before you register).

It wouldn’t stop someone using the domain for something completely different though - as long as their site is different enough to not be confused with yours the trademark wouldn’t help any. So unless the name is only usable for your product and wouldn’t have any other meaning it probably will not affect the value of the domain to the current owner - except perhaps to increase what they might be able to ask you for since the domain would then have a greater value.

10

Even if it is for something different, the fact that they will be generating traffic for that particular concept will increase the value of the domain itself, as many people will head for the .com extension by mistake, me thinks, but I am not an expert on the field.

11

Yes, but I see anyone who buys a domain for $9.99 only so that they can resell it at thousands of dollars, is a scammer. They have domains as high as $100,000.00 on their webiste. That’s like a zillion % profit and it should be against the law, but that’s just my opinion I guess.

Now, if a person buys a domain, because they hope that it will bring them money in the future by selling it, I think thats ok. But when the person has over 800,000 domains for this reason, that needs to be stopped. There should be a maximum limit put on the number of parked domains someone can own. If you have 800,000 domains and they are all in service then that’s a different story.

But thanks for all then replies. I think I got it figured out now. I have the .org version and I have a second domain name that actually I’m liking better now. I think I’ll just use that one.

12

Yes, and in Internet Explorer if you just type domain and hit enter you are automatically directed to the .com extension, even if it doesn’t exist. So I think its a good idea to have the .com of anything. If domain.org eixsts, and domain.com doesn’t you still get directed to .com. So thats one customer lost if they don’t realize it.

Even if you aren’t using the .com for your product, you can just redirect the domain to your .org

13

I insist… they may be scammers but… how much is the name worth to you? that’s what really counts. If you think that it is worth it, then negotiate and pay. Not fair but the domain is theirs.

14

Unless you have some sort of rights to the name that date back to before they bought the domain then you have no claim on a particular name at all. Only where your use of the name pre-dates their obtaining the domain containing that name would you have any grounds for complaint since you should check for the availability of the domain at the time you choose the name in the first place and purchase it for yourself at that time. If the one you want is taken you just choose a different name that isn’t. Only where you were already using the name off the web and decided to create a web presence would there be a possibility that someone else had obtained the name you have been using.

So it mostly comes down to how far you planned in advance unless your brand name pre-dates the existence of the web.

Choosing a name that someone else already has means that you need to be prepared to pay whatever their asking price is for the domain that matches the name. It is no different from someone buying up waterfront land even though they have no intention of building on it because they know that someone will come along later prepared to pay a lot more money for their land due to its location (the domain equivalent is the desirability of the name itself).

Since domain names are only ever leased and never sold the current “owner” must have been paying the annual registration fee for the domain each year since they first obtained it. So someone with a 50,000 domain inventory is paying out about half a million a year just to hold those domains. They need to pay that ongoing annual charge out of what they make from the domains they manage to sell.

15

You could use dnscoop.com to find out how much they think the domain is worth. It is a free online tool. Yet, don’t rely very much on these type of tools. They calculate the approximate value of a name based on certain criteria such as how old the domain is, the number of possible visitors (people keying that particular name), possible revenue, etc. Yet, it doesn’t take into consideration how much it could be worth for you… the system can’t know that you have a product with the same name! :smiley:

So what I said before still stands… how much is it worth to you? which is related to how much money do you think that you will earn with your product, let’s say, in one year?. If you think that you’ll make $5000, then paying $1600 is not such a bad business and the second year everything will be revenue to you (at least, concerning the domain name :D)

16

I suppose the price should be the same you will be ale to sell that domain name in the future in case you when you will not be interested in such domain name anymore.

17

Hello,
Following link may help you determining the cost of a domain:

Good luck