Domain Value

GoneShootin

How does one properly asses the value of a domain ?

For example, I approached the ownder of mitchelstown.com to see if he will be renewing it. It expires in June this year.

He said he would be renewing, and would only sell it to me for minimum of $5000.

Now, it IS his domain, so Im not trying to rob it from him. What I am wondering though is how did he come to that figure ?

Fergal C

GoneShootin,

I suppose the value of a domin for sale is like the value of anything else. It's what someone is prepared to pay for it.

Prices have come down substantially with the dot com crash etc. There are domain valuation sites on the net which give extremely high values for domains. That's great but I don't think it will be too easy to find a buyer.

I've bought a couple of domains recently that I thought were pretty good for less that $10. I couldn't have registered them for much less.

Fergal

mneylon

It depends on how much they are worth to you.
One of our clients wanted us to buy a domain for them and were willing to pay a low four figure sum to do so, however the current domain holders were not interested in parting with it, as they were using it. If we had been able to offer them a higher figure they may have been tempted.
In your case it may seem attractive to acquire the .com, but the question you have to ask yourself is quite simple. Would you stand to gain enough in having that domain to justify the initial capital outlay that its acquisition entails?

dahamsta

Celtic.com are serious squatters, they must have thousands of domains. I'm surprised they even answered you.

adam

jmcc

Originally posted by dahamsta
Celtic.com are serious squatters, they must have thousands of domains. I'm surprised they even answered you.

Celtic.com now seem to be gearing more towards the vanity e-mail business. However it does have hundreds of Irish placename domains registered.

Though it is not as bad as those Ultimate Search - one of the most recognised squatters. It has about 97,000 squatted domains.

Regards...jmcc

dahamsta

How many has Celtic.com John? I remember searching for placenames years ago and seeing their ugly great Oirish logo every time.

adam

mneylon

Adam

Celtic.com may have bought up an inordinate number of Irish placename domains, but they actually use them. Although you may not like how they are using the domains you cannot really classify them as "squatters"
Ultimate Search, on the other hand, are the worst type of squatter imaginable.

dahamsta

Originally posted by blacknight
you cannot really classify them as "squatters"

Well, yes I can. My definition of "squatter" simply differs from yours.

adam

jmcc

Originally posted by dahamsta
How many has Celtic.com John? I remember searching for placenames years ago and seeing their ugly great Oirish logo every time.

Definitely a few thousand Adam,
They make their business from selling branded e-mail and other Oirish offerings. Basically they went and got a pile of Irish domains before anyone else. It was rather a good move. However as Michele said, they do use the domains. Ultimate Search on the other hand are surplus to the requirements of humanity. :>

Regards...jmcc

buddy

I've seen them about alright, they obviously have valued it at that price as they may have people using email on that domain etc and want to be paid for any inconvenience of informing customers that their mail service is to be changed etc.

dahamsta

Originally posted by jmcc
Ultimate Search on the other hand are surplus to the requirements of humanity.

Ah that's true, yeah, they're definitely worse than Celtic.com. I still think of Celtic.com as squatters though -- yes, they use many of the domain names, but their land-grab prevented a lot of people from setting up legitimate sites with an affordable domain.

Are they public I wonder? Love to see their books.

adam

jmcc

Originally posted by dahamsta
Are they public I wonder? Love to see their books.

Nope - private operation. But I regularly generate a list of their domains and run it against the Dmoz listings and delete any hits. Celtic.com are trickier to find as they are not as clearly identifiable.

Regards...jmcc

sceptre

I suspect the squatter/domain hoarder places a particularly high value on this one as www.mitchelstown.ie is a Dairygold site. Far higher in value compared to the .com equivalents of mallow.ie and fermoy.ie (to pick some towns close to Mitchelstown) which appear to be run on behalf of the UDCs or local business communities in general.

buddy

Speaking of which, how did Dairygold get the .ie domain - doesn't seem fair to give a place name to a private company.

dahamsta

Mitchelstown is a registered trade mark. However, and I'm open to correction on this, it shouldn't have been allowed in earlier years (when it was in fact registered) because placenames were specifically disallowed. Moot though, since the IEDR has always applied the rules according to whim and perceived power of the registrant, not in any logical, structured way.

adam

jmcc

Originally posted by dahamsta
Mitchelstown is a registered trade mark. However, and I'm open to correction on this, it shouldn't have been allowed in earlier years (when it was in fact registered) because placenames were specifically disallowed.

Waterford.ie was one of the first though Waterford is a registered trademark of Waterford Crystal. I own a few Waterford .com/net/orgs (waterfordireland, waterfordcity, waterfordcounty, waterfordshops etc) and Waterford Crystal's US lawyers even sent me a letter wondering what I was doing with them all. It also depends a lot on where the trademark was registered. I think that challenges and appeals are going to become more prevalent with IEDR and .ie domains.

Moot though, since the IEDR has always applied the rules according to whim and perceived power of the registrant, not in any logical, structured way.

Yeah it has no concept of intellectual property as it applies to domain names. It even allowed Wal Mart to spam the .ie zone with over 200 variants and dubious versions of walmart related domains last week. IEDR is supposed to be a managed registry however the management is completely unqualified for domain operations as is the board.

Regards...jmcc