I'v recently got an offer for one of my domains. But the person would like me to appraise my domain at a reputable appresial angency first.

Godaddy's tdname looks a little too much on the cheap side at 15$
SEDO's at 39$ looks better.

I'd like something reputable in the ~50$ price range

What would be my options?
and any oppinions on SEDO's appresials?

Hi Wojtek,

Be careful. Most of these offers are just scams to get you to use an over-priced appraisal service. Does the offer have initials after their name? like M.D. or Ph.D.? It's a sure sign it's a scam. You will find that they will reject all your suggested appraisal services and will suggest one of their own. Tell them to get their own appraisal if they need one. Your price is fixed at $xxxx :)

Oh.. and all appraisals are not worth the html they're written on. A real valuation is only what a buyer is prepared to pay.

Thanks for the tips stu,

The offer seems legetimate to me, not evident scam indications.
But I see where your thing is going. Basically its a person from XYZ Appresials Inc posing as a potential buyer and wanting me to appraise at XYZ.com

Smart scam :)


And I'v found Zetetic.com
A nice hosted pdf for 19$. Will be good enough.

I did a google search for the domain of the sender and 1st result in google:
"Domain Scam"

wow


I did tell him this morning we split 50/50 the domain apprasial fee. And since then he didnt reply. We'll see tomorow :)

Weird thing is I did make a search for the domain yesterday evening, but for some reason didnt read the results. too tired?

Thumbs up stu.

Post the email here. We'll all soon tell you if it's a scam or not. If a buyer wants to know the value of a domain, it's a scam. Pound to a penny it's a scam.

Tell him you're broke and to pay you the cost of the appraisal upfront and you'll deduct it from your selling price ;)

Tell him you're broke and to pay you the cost of the appraisal upfront and you'll deduct it from your selling price ;)

:roll2:Thats a good one, Stu! I'm gonna use that for sure....

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On 4/26/06, Opera Solutions <evensen@operaen.com> wrote:

Hello,

Please send me price for your domain.

We are very interested in this name.

Did you get offers from other people already?

Our company develops client-server systems (Delphi / Interbase), so
investing in domain names is not my main business.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Best regards,
Anthony Evensen
President
Opera Solutions Ltd.


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From: "Wojtek" < MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS>
To: "Opera Solutions" <evensen@operaen.com
Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: MY_DOMAIN_NAME for sale (sent 04-26-06)


Hello there Anthony,

Yes I did get some offers, but was not satisfied with them.
The Buy-It-Now price for MY_DOMAIN_NAME has been set at 399$.
But in your case, I might consider any reasonable offer above 199$.

Thanks again for your interest,
Wojtek


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On 4/26/06, Opera Engineering <evensen@operaen.com> wrote:

How about 400 USD? Ok?

Do you sell a web site or just the name? We are mostly interested in domain
names.

Do you have an appraisal certificate?

Domain name is an investment for me. In other words I'm going to sell your
name later and make a profit. If I overpay I won't be able to make a profit
in the future. It's very important for you and me to know the current market
value of your domain.

Of course, we must be sure that you are engaging a reputable appraisal
company. I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals.
I will only accept appraisals from independent sources I know and trust.

To avoid mistakes I asked domain experts about reputable appraisal companies
in a forum
http://domaintalk.ourplace.com/Archive/71048.htm

Juck check this posting.

If the appraisal comes higher you can adjust your asking price accordingly.
I also hope you can give me 10% - 15% discount of the appraised value.

After I get an appraisal from you we'll continue our negotiations.

How do you prefer to get paid: www.escrow.com, www.PayPal.com check or
wire?

Hope we can come to an agreement fast.

Looking forward to your reply.


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On 4/26/06, Wojtek <MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS> wrote:

Hello Anthony,

Originally I used one of those free online domain appraisals tools.
Which gave me an unrealistic 8000-12000 value. So the 399$ was my own
personal appraisal on the domain.

I'll gladly appraise the domain at the appraisal agency of your choice.
The only two ones that I know of is tdnam.com and sedo.com
Please tell me which one you would like to use. One of the above or
one that you personally use/would like me to use.

I will give you a rebate off the appraisal price. However I'll expect
you to pay 50% of appraisal price itself. You'll already have it appraised for the
future.

As for Payment, I would prefer PayPal. I think it's the cheapest
solution for both of us.
Escrow would charge about 25$ for the transaction and 40$ to wire me the money.
Right now that's about 15-20% of the total sale price. Just not worth
it for me. Unless you agree to pay 50% of the escrow fees.

Looking forward to your reply,
-Wojtek


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On 4/26/06, Wojtek <MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS> wrote:


Hello there Anthony.

I went ahead and bought an appraisal from Zetetic.com, an independent appraisal company.

http://www.zetetic.com/methodology/index.html

"Unbiased
While many appraisers claim to have large, fresh data samples, they often use data from one source or data from their own internal marketplace, exchange or brokerage service. This results in a provider who can potentially gain through the sale of a domain name, hence may have an incentive to artificially over-appraise a domain name. Zetetic is an unbiased service. Zetetic focuses only on domain name research. Zetetic has no interest in the financial gain or loss of a domain name sale and can provide a truly untainted view of domain values. "

I think this is what we both were looking for, an unbiased realistic appraisal.

I will email you the link to the appraisal as soon as I receive it. Within the next 48 hours.

In the meantime, get back to me on the payment method you would like to use.

Thank You


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So, how many red flags did you spot that I didnt? :D

I'm sure he won't reply. So I've wasted a whole day and 19 bucks on this.
But at least now im aware of such scams and I'll have a nice appraisal for the future haha

Wojtek, this is 100% SCAM!!!

I'm getting them all the time. Just ignore, or even better, say them to pay for the appraisal and you'll compensate them by deducting half of the fee from the selling price.

Good thing you've asked the question here, instead of paying these scam artists!!!

Besides, http://operaen.com looks like freemail provider for me... Sorry, I don't speek Norwegian, but the idea is quite clear...

It's a scam. Plain and simple. You offer him $199 and up. He agrees $400. What's that all about ;) The link he gives is just a front for the scam. You wasted your money and you'll never hear from him again.

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On 4/27/06, Opera Engineering <evensen@operaen.com> wrote:

Sorry, I cannot accept cheap appraisal from unknowen source. It's a big risk.

I thought about Afternic, but found their service inaccurate and automated.

I found the following info about Afternic at
http://www.igoldrush.com/links3.htm
"Capsule Review: After lots of complaints, Afternic is no longer a recommended service. We will re-review the service in the near future."

So Afternic.com is NOT acceptable.

Reading responses from experienced sellers I was impressed by one reply:
"Many Internet users are not smart enough and popular domain brokers are
using this fact to make money. They offer them cheap appraisal services. But
if their customers would have something in their heads they'd understand
experts could not make a professional research for $15-$20. These appraisals
are made by machines. Easy money for such appraisers as
http://www.Afternic.com and several other major brokers that offer cheap
auto-generated appraisals. In my eyes, all services under $50-$55 are not
manual and the results are generated by special scripts. I don't trust
auto-generated appraisals."
The same is true for GoDaddy and SEDO. Their services are not manual. They are just collecting money using their well-known names.

I heard many appraisal companies often overpriced domains. So I cannot
accept appraisal from each and every site.

To avoid mistakes I asked about reputable appraisers in a forum. Several
experts recommended me AllDomains' appraisal service -
http://www.allfordomains.com/appraise.asp as a fast, accurate and
non-expensive manual service.

I also trust the manual appraisal service from http://www.DomainMart.com but
it's very expensive - $200/hour. This service was also recommended by many
people but I thought it was too expensive. But if you can afford
DomainMart.com's fee it's ok with me.

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On 4/27/06, Opera Engineering <evensen@operaen.com> wrote:

Usually, people who are selling names or web sites, provide buyers with
appraisals. This is a common practice and I'm not going to change this rule
because it's the best way to protect an investment.

I heard many appraisal companies often made inaccurate appraisals. So I
cannot accept appraisal from each and every site. I will only accept
appraisals from independent appraisal companies I know and trust.

Reading responses from experienced sellers I was impressed by one reply:
"Many Internet users are not smart enough and popular domain brokers are
using this fact to make money. They offer them cheap appraisal services. But
if their customers would have something in their heads they'd understand
experts could not make a professional research for $15-$20. These appraisals
are made by machines. Easy money for such appraisers as
http://www.Afternic.com and several other major brokers that offer cheap
auto-generated appraisals. In my eyes, all services under $60-$65 are not
manual and the results are generated by special scripts. I don't trust
auto-generated appraisals."

The same is true for GoDaddy and SEDO. Their services are not manual. They
are just collecting money using their well-known names.

Thank you for understanding. I'm looking forward to do business with you.

Hope we can come to an agreement fast because I'll be on vacation soon.


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On 4/27/06, Wojtek <MY_EMAIL_ADDRESS> wrote:

Thanks for your replies Anthony.

After reading the stuff I absolutely agree with you on that.
There is lots of people trying to make a quick buck out of the average Joe, with those automated appraisal scripts.

I've spend 29$ on my appraisal at Zetetic, and I guess I shouldn't of had. I'm a few dollars short now of the 69$ appraisal price.
The only money I have left in my bank account is 60$ for tomorrow's grocery shopping. Have to feed the family.

Perhaps we could do it this way. PayPal me the money for the appraisal so I can appraise it at AllForDomains. I will then substract the 69$ from the purchase price if you decide to buy it. If however you decide not to buy it after the appraisal, I will gladly refund your money, but will keep the appraisal for myself. It's a win-win situation in both cases.

Perhaps you could give me your phone number so we can talk this over the phone?
Emails are so impersonal. And we could seal the deal faster before you leave on your trip.

Warm Regards
-Wojtek

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How Exciting, he replied!
I wonder if I should scare him a little? Report him? :D
And maybe he's talking about a trip to a jail cell haha

It's a SCAM. He want's you to buy an appraisal from one of his appraisers. WHAT? You offer to refund his money if he doesn't buy!!! So he get's his money and you out some more money!! IT'S A SCAM!. I won't tell you again.

I know I know. I knew this since post #4 in this thred :)

# Have some detective fun
[...]You can then share the experience with other online users to help people from falling into the same scam or use the evidence to help the police during the investigation.
http://www.123finder.com/

If he'd send me the money, I'd have some info on him.

If he'd send me the money

Some people are too naive, imo... :rofl:

I know I know. I knew this since post #4 in this thred :)
Just ignore him man, time is also an investment y'know. :)

I just got one of these emails, seemed suspicious.

I found some details on the company they claim to be:

http://www.192.com/search/details.cfm?action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

As that is quite close to where I live, I may even stop by :)

lol funny think i got one too from "Opera Solutions" <herosuki@operaen.com>
Hello,

Please send me price for your domain.

We are very interested in this name.

Did you get offers from other people already?

Our company develops client-server systems (Delphi / Interbase), so
investing in domain names is not my main business.

Looking forward to do business with you.

Best regards,
Masafumi Herosuki, Ph. D.
President
Opera Solutions Ltd.


lol i knew for sure when he asked me to get it appraised if you are an interested costumer and wanting to buy a domain name you already know the domains value its the value that you are willing to spend on it. the seller ether takes it or not.

lol yha i guess we should keep on a look out from this guyz.