Selling a domain name

Do I have to have an appraisel cert?

[lowfaresmaster]

I just posted a name for sale on afternic to see wou;d it gather any interest.
I've been approached but I'm being asked for an appraisel cert to prove the value and also my asking price by the interested party.
Is this the way it works? Do i need to supply an appraisel cert before I sell? I think not?

[ogletree]

No you don't. Most the time those are people that own appraisel companies who have no intention of buying your site. Complete waste of time. Anybody buying domains knows what they are worth. It is worth what people are willing to pay for it.

[Webwork]

Ogletree nails it for many appraisals, especially buyer initiated appraisals. There is a well known history of scamming surrounding that practice.

For most purposes, when it comes to hooking up a deal with "active buyers", a large part of that "buyer's market" bases their decisions on verifiable/reliable traffic stats - paying some multiple of the traffic earnings.

I'm not voting in favor of the traffic stats model of valuation, as I don't believe it represents full and fair value in many cases, but appraisals that are not based upon traffic data will get you little more than scornful replies in most domaining forums where active buyers hunt for bargains.

[ogletree]

Everybody is looking for a bargin. If you have a domain to sell and you don't have people beating down your door expect to get offers way way less than you think you will get. Domain buyers have the upper hand unless you have something that is extremly compelling. I know people with 4 letter decent .coms that have been holding out for big money for years and still are. It has to be something special if you want to get more than $1000 for it. And even at $1000 you won't have many bites. I know people that got into the market by paying a $1000 or $2000 for a domain thinking they had a big bargin that they could sell for a lot more and nobody wanted the domain for what they were asking. Everybody thinks they have the next business.com deal. Unless you have an extremly viable business to sell with the domain forget it. Domains are a dime a dozzen. I can always go find another domain for less. Very few names have will sell for much.

[lowfaresmaster]

ogletree - you were correct. The intersted party was a fraud. Thanks

[joeking]

Appraisals are simply someone's valuation of a domain. The buyer will have his own value in mind. So will you. We are all in the appraisal business, certificates or not. If the buyer is that concerned, they can pay for a second opinion.

[Kahless]

No you don't. Most the time those are people that own appraisel companies who have no intention of buying your site. Complete waste of time. Anybody buying domains knows what they are worth. It is worth what people are willing to pay for it.

There is also the consideration that the appraisal company may appraise it low in hopes they or one of thier buddies can buy it from you and then resell it.

I tried a major auction sites top appraisal package a fews years back and it was a total waste of money. The 10 points they provided was from a standard template with nothing changed in it to reflect my domain. All just generalizations that could be applied to any domain.

As I was reading I remember thinking how I could not believe I paid for this garbage and how much more valuable the information posted in threads at webmasterworld is in accessing a domains value.

[Rollo]

I would go so far to say that the entire domain appraisal industry is a bit of a farce. There is no reasonable way to value domains themselves (not to confuse "domains" with websites which can be valued like any other business) as there is for say real estate.

Valuation of domains is based on pure speculation. The guess of an "expert" is often little better informed that the guess of a lay person. The pruchaser typically has the best idea of the value as they are the only ones who know what they're going to put under the hood.