DomainNameWire.com just reported the sale of Soci.al for $50,000. Back in June of this year, the registrant of Soci.al opened a thread in the appraisal section at NamePros.com after learning of the possibility of the multi million dollar sale of Social.com. Following a few responses to the thread, registrant (NP member “indam”) mentioned that he had already turned down a $5k offer. The majority of responders to the thread felt the $5k offer was tops he would ever receive for the domain. Many even considered the registrant crazy for not taking the offer immediately.
Most responses (even from long time members, who are also established domainers) priced the name at low $x,xxx, citing that domain hacks are not very easy for the general public to remember and are tough sells to end users. Indam said more than once in the appraisal thread that he was very comfortable rejecting the initial offer. He did have some support in the thread with a couple members saying they didn’t feel he passed up a once in a lifetime opportunity and it may be a gamble that pays off. This ‘cracks’ me up, in a response on the appraisal thread one NP’er said a $xx,xxx sale was attainable to which another member responded:
WTF?? You are smoking crack right!!??
take one of those x’s off and you may be right.(low to mid)
Sorry “Firefly” you opened yourself up for that one. 😉 My point is that domain appraisals are pretty much pointless. You’ve heard it a million times and I’ll repeat it again – a domain is worth what a buyer is willing to pay. Open up the DNJournal sales archive – you’ll see thousands of domains that have sold for $x,xxx over the years that if appraised either by a ‘professional appraisal’ company or on a forum would have received a very low or ‘worthless’ appraisal.
As a pure play domainer your job is not only to find domains you think are valuable but when offers come in you need to be able to gauge the purse size and value that the name has to the company making the offer. If you’re into flipping domains for quick profit than counter offering is risky but if you’re buying names for the long term and higher payouts you need to be comfortable turning down offers, asking questions, counter offering with a high price or not even responding to initial inquiries.
Congrats to the seller of Soci.al. He had his mind set that he would not consider anything below $20k, he also shared a few tips at the end of the thread on how he went about marketing the name after receiving the initial $5k offer. Interesting to note, the seller of Soci.al also owns the domain hack Port.al.
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Actually, not just Port.al, but also sport.al, norm.al, aur.al and some more hacks for sale 🙂
Mike thank you for the initial support in the namepros appraisal section, it was a great help for the morale in that moment!
@indam – Hello, I did not post in that thread but I am glad you went with your gut and stuck to your guns. Congrats on a well deserved sale!
Congratulations! Some potential buyers may try to use ‘appraisals’ to get a lower price from sellers. It’s important not to rely on such appraisals when you know you have a gem. Many domain sellers don’t think like an end user and they don’t have a big idea for a business startup. That’s why it’s hard for them to get 5-figure and higher offers. To have a breakthrough, must do your best to achieve minimum one 5-figure sale in your domaining 🙂 All the best.
Congrats on the sale Indam!
BTW Indam, I would remove the hack Payp.al you have listed in your signature at NP’s. That’s just asking for trouble IMO.
Agree with Jamie, probably better to just delete that one from your account altogether.
Namepros fails again
I still haven’t been brave enough to join in with the Hacks buying. Looks like that would definitely be a premium for that type of market. Nice job…
i don’t believe that story is true but i could be wrong.
no matter how bad my opinion of the others gets… there’s always somebody around to lower the bar.
Rathead – the sale is verified
Jamie thanks for the advice. I removed the domain you mentioned and it is not mine actually. Just thought of doing a favor to the owner who happens to be some person I know.
By the way, xona informs that the .al extension is the second largest domain hack (after .ng). http://xona.com/domainhacks/suggest/ You guys might still find some good hacks in the .al zone.
Hey nice deal and congrats Indam, I have also registered a few new domains gamercommute.com, bareng.com (bareng-“with” in Indonesian), meditative.net and sociables.net and getting good offers on them ($x,xxx) especially on gamercommute because gamer commute is a hit on youtube, but I declined all offers on them, I can keep them for long and don’t want a fast deal for less price so waiting for a $xx,xxx for them,please let me know about your thoughts on these domains…
I once posted a private jet domain for sale on NP and people said reg fee it made me laugh because i class my self as a domain expert and i know whats reg free and what has value, how ever 3 days later i done a quick flip for $3,500 and 1 week after i sold it i got a email offering me $5k. I usto post domains for a appraisal regulary when i first started domaining but right now i never post domains for appraisal even names were i have had $70k offers and pronouncible LLL.com names i have. Some times posting in a appraisal thread can do you more harm than good but wise people will learn this once they become sucessful at domaining.
50k is a lot higher that what I would have asked for it.
Though I did mention four figures ‘at the very least’ in the appraisal thread.
Considering the seller expected 20k I wonder where the 50k figure came from.
Great sale though, I’m still not completely sold on hacks.
That’s what I love about this business, the ROI is simply unmatchable.
Soci.al is a terrific hack…
Hacks can be great…When you think about some of the strange terms that have become icons on the net, then, a good hack is just as possible, imo.
I own the hack: Ma.am.
…I just like that one 🙂
Finally owners of domains .al have the possibility to earn some money .
Congratulation indam great job.
Good article!
I hope to get a similar success with my aldri.ch
Thank you.
he laid about the soci.al . he sell a shit of 50 k.
Another such .al domain, RIY.AL which is a currency is found in sedo.
Lets watch and see how the trend is going.