How do I sell an adult domain without getting screwed?

December 27, 2007 10:56 AM

I've owned a domain name for quite a while that was intended for an "adult novelty" online store. I believe it to be an excellent name for that and now I'd like to sell it. How do I valuate that and how do I sell it without going to huge amounts of effort?

FWIW, it expires 01-15-2009, so I've got time to get this done. The one thing I don't have is available effort. With a small kid and a job that takes me out of town a lot, I'm a busy guy.

posted by Kickstart70 to computers & internet (7 comments total)

1) Godaddy has a sell your domains service here. It appears to have an auction component.

2) ebay may work as well. I'd set a pretty high reserve for the first trip through, to validate your assumptions that it's valuable.

Good luck!

Tim
posted by jenkinsEar at 11:22 AM on December 27, 2007

you might see if you can get a broker to sell it for you. There are a bunch of them out there.
posted by bkeene12 at 11:22 AM on December 27, 2007

Afternic

Great Domains

Sedo

Impressive Domains

eBay (If you do this, don't do it as an auction - set a price you want)
posted by Gerard Sorme at 11:30 AM on December 27, 2007

Appraisal of registered but unused domains is always difficult because of the lack of data. Have you had any offers at all? Do you have any web stats?

There are some companies that offer domain appraisal as a service, but (a) it will cost you (b) while the appraisals can be extensive, they are based on standard metrics and tests (c) and I seriously doubt that they can offer you a good true understanding on just how much a real person is willing to pay for your unique domain. You can also DIY. In the end, it's all about how much you are willing to sell the domain for and how much someone is willing to pay. What these figures will actually end up being, can be quite surprising and completely different than what an appraisal might suggest.

You should start by creating a simply page stating that the domain is for sale and how you can be reached. To put the domain on auction, try: sedo.com, afternic.com, greatdomains.com or moniker.com, and see what people are ready to pay by setting the price as "make offer".
posted by Foci for Analysis at 11:46 AM on December 27, 2007

Very interesting, thank you all.

I went through the links above and sought out comparative domains, and it appears (perhaps, pessimistically) to be worth between $2000 and $5000, though some very similar domains are listed as high as $10,000. I agree that the best place to start is to put a webpage up announcing it for sale, so I'll do that today.

Then I'll take some time to look at those domain auction sites, I guess. Though I wonder what percentage of domains actually sell through those, compared to the total number listed.
posted by Kickstart70 at 12:04 PM on December 27, 2007

Kickstart70 - you may wish to try out something like NameBio.com to review actual sales.

In terms of your follow up query - not many. If your name is not uber generic in it's terms you'll likely not find a great mark up on it. If your name is generic from a keyword perspective then you may find a premium.

As has been mentioned, an undeveloped name without traffic is harder to sell.

"make offer" strategies are ill recommended because you will get a crap load of $60-100 offers. I get them all the time on my own as well as my corporate portfolio.

If you'd like to talk about the value of your name, avenues for sale and possible brokerage, please feel free to contact me.
posted by FlamingBore at 12:51 PM on December 27, 2007

I did sedo for my domain name, which I finally sold not via them a couple of weeks ago.

My experience suggests that if you are not getting offers for the domain out of the blue, even silly low offers, don't bet too much on it being lucrative. My domain was appraised at $85,000 by sedo and I sold it for a bit less than half that.

Hanging it on sedo requires no effort and no expense, and you can even park it and see if you get any action. The two main things which seem to drive price are type-in traffic and how short and easy the domain are. If the domain is not a "com" address it won't be worth as much, either.

Not an expert, but tried for a long time to sell.
posted by maxwelton at 7:06 PM on December 27, 2007