Domain auctions are an important part of acquiring domains for several reasons. Maybe you’re looking to buy a new domain, or you could be making a business out of selling domains. Either way, having the information compiled in this simple reference guide will be helpful for navigating the wealth of information available.
Buying Domains at Auction
First of all, look around at domain auction websites to find available domains, such as:
AfterNic.com
Sedo.com
SnapNames.com
NameJet.com
Flippa.com – Listing fees start at $9. They charge a 15% sale commission, capped at $2,000. Flippa also has entire websites for sale.
eBay
GoDaddy Auctions
DomainLore – Recommended site for buying .uk domains. In the case that you don’t have a particular topic in mind, just browse around the listings. If you’re looking for a specific domain topic, key in a related keyword in the search box.
Tip: Premium domains have short, aged, memorable, & popular keywords
Examples:
Sandwich.com: recently placed up for auction by Yahoo
Reserve Price Range: $50,000 to $99,999
Estibot Appraisal: $178,000
Final selling price: $137,500
Crackers.com: recently placed up for auction by Yahoo
Reserve Price Range: $25,000 to $49,999
Estibot Appraisal: $65,000
Santa.com
Reserve pricing information is not available.
Estibot Appraisal: $650,000
Harddrive.com
Reserve Price Range: $25,000 – $49,999
Estibot Appraisal: $241,000
Pleasure.com
Reserve pricing information is not available.
Estibot Appraisal: $152,000
Expired domains: Old domains that have expired under the prior owner.
Reasons why the previous owner left it to expire.
- Owner felt it wasn’t worth renewing. Chances are if it wasn’t worth anything to them, it won’t be worth much to you
- Registrant has left the company. Could be valuable for you
- Invalid email address, no longer receiving emails about expiration of the domain. Could be valuable for you
- Prior owner forgot they owned the domain. Could be valuable for you
- Legal reasons. Probably not worth looking into
- Banned by Google. Not valuable, Google won’t rank it. Using it my compromise your PBN
Placing your bid on Auctions
Tools such as NameBio.com and DNSalePrice.com can be used to compare the sales prices of previous domains.
.COM regularly sells higher than other TLDs.
If you win the bid:
The seller will most likely contact you to prepare the transfer.
You can find resources on how to do this in many marketplaces.
If the domain is an expired domain auction at GoDaddy, the domain will be transferred to your account in two weeks as long as the original owner does not renew it
WHOIS records will help you find info on the owner of the domain.
Browse the website, see what you’ll find.
A fully developed site – Not likely to be available for purchase at a reasonable price.
No website at all. This could mean the website is dead, or maybe the owner never ended up putting up a website on the domain.
Site with a sales price, but little content.
If a site lists the sales price, you may negotiate with the owner.
Don’t start out by asking about the price – they will be turned off from the sale.
A parked website.
In these cases, the owner is just using advertising to make money.
Find out how much traffic it is currently getting through the Alexa rank.
Try negotiating a sensible price.
Site reroutes to another site full of ads.
Check the Alexa rank.
Contact the owner to negotiate a sale.
Tips for Selling Domains at Auction
- Use a valuation tool to price your domain.
- Premium domains will have a higher price attached.
- Older domains tend to be worth more
- Domains with traffic tend to be worth more.
- Domains that are currently earning money are more valuable.
- Pitch your buyers.
- In your sales listing include things like: Income earnings, Traffic volume, Age and expiration date
- Use Escrow. This will protect both you and the buyer by putting the buyer’s money into an account, then releasing the money to you once the transfer has been completed.
- Each domain registrar will have their own process for transferring the domain to the buyer. In the event you need help, contact the domain registrar.