I have a .com domain which I have been sitting on for a few years with the idea that I would develop it for personal use. Out of the blue I received an email from South Africa (I am in Australia) asking how much I wanted for the domain. I was surprised given that the domain is not developed and has no "business" value. All extensions of the domain except .com are available for registration.

Other than being careful the enquiry is not a scam, what do forum members think I should ask for the domain?

Thanks,

Jeff

Without knowing the name, it's hard to gauge what is fair for it. Did they happen to say that you'd need to get it appraised and by chance offered a link to do so? (scam)

No, the email certainly looks fairdinkum. They enclosed a copy of the query re purchase they had made to the Registrar (mydomain.com) and MyDomain's reply giving my registration contact details.

The domain is fabspot.

Domain may not have any business value for you or for others. But for some one it may be having. We can not predict this. And well, if they have enclosed details like their query to registrar and registrar's reply... I don't think it will be a scam.

And amount, it totally depends on you how much do you need. Appraisal may give you some amount but that is based on few algorithms. But ultimate is, what do you want to leave the domain!!

Hello,
You asked price, we give you price starting $0.01 - $xxxk

There are also domains sold for millions of dollars, for example Vodka.com sold for $3million (http://www.namenexus.net/post/vodka-com-sells-for-cool-3-million-usd.html).

It really depends on the domain name you have, as bear said, we can't tell you (appraise your domain) if we do not know the name. There are services (and even forums) that could appraise your domain name.

Hope we were helpful.

You could get an appraisal from your peers at DNForum. That might help.

Hello Jeff,

The value of a domain depends on the buyer and seller. Whatever appraisal we give you isn't worth much. Even if you appraise it on Sedo for example, it doesn't guarantee anything, and you will loose that money.
Don't give a price for it. Insist that you are open to offers. With a number in mind, you'll be able to have a better idea.

I guess the domain is fabspot.com (post #3).

Yep. Doesn't sound so great to me. But then I'm always getting opportunities/valuations wrong. Which is why I suggested DNF.

LOL yeah what are you selling air wheres the name LOL

Thanks for your help. I have established why the enquirer wants the domain and we are negotiating a price.

websites4sale, what do you mean "... yeah what are you selling air wheres the name... (sic)"?

Jeff

JeffK. I'd be very interested to know how you established why the enquirer wants the domain. I've always found it extremely difficult to get ANY information from the buyer which might help me establish how much they might, or are willing to pay for a domain.

you asked how much to sell it for, now let me tell you i have these AWSOME names for my sites but i dont quite know how much to ask for them, how much do you say i charge for them

I don't think my experience will be very helpful.

FWIW I knew the enquirer's name from the email they sent and the email came from an address of a business. On visiting the website I noticed that the home page was designed by "fabspot". Armed with this information I was able to go further and estabish the "nickname" fabspot had been coincidentally chosen by the enquirer for parts of their web presence. However I doubt that the transaction will go through as the enquiry seems to be more a casual one which probably won't support the price I would accept to lose the domain. I'm waiting to hear back from the enquirer now.

Jeff

you asked how much to sell it for, now let me tell you i have these AWSOME names for my sites but i dont quite know how much to ask for them, how much do you say i charge for them

FWIW I went to leapfish.com and used their "domain appraisal" service which came up with $US225. I doubled it, took it up to the next highest $100 and ask for $500. However I don't think the enquirer will pay this but we will see.

Jeff

Hey that Leapfish site was fun. According to them my just under 100 name portfolio is worth over $70,000! Go ME! :rolleyes:

Seriously, it seems to appraise names at about twice what they've recently sold for. It really underpriced un.com though - just $160! LOL. Oh yeah, vodka.com was about $700k. Name.com is worth over a million.

Anyway, I wanted to say that I think Jeff should develop some cool content for FabSpot.com and it will be worth a lot more. IMHO FabSpot has a nice ring to it.

VODKA.COM SOLD FOR 3MILLION and leap fish IS GARBAGE I HATE THAT SITE ITS CROOKED AS H E double hockey STICKS

An alternative to all these is to ask the buyer the price is willing to pay
Of course he will suggest low but even this will give you a hint how to proceed