Wanted: Domain Appraisal Are Sedo appraisals worth it?

[wb]

Just looking on Sedo's website at the 'premium domain appraisal' section. The description of it looks alright, however has anyone here had one done before? If so...

1. Are they any good?
2. How accurate are they?
3. Has anyone got a sample premium report to view?

Cheers

 

[GreyWing]

Nope stay away from paying for any appraisal in my opinion. You will get better advice on here for free.

 

[wb]

Thought that might be the case. Forgot to mention in my post, if any experienced members don't mind giving their opinion it would be greatly appreciated

Let me know and I'll PM you (prefer not to post domain here)

 

[bb99]

Are they worth it - it depends on why you get one. They can be useful in a negotiation for sale.

Let's say you want to pay £500 for my domain and I want you to pay £1000 for it...

I get a Sedo appraisal on it. If the appraisal comes out at more than £1000 then I can send you a copy and give you reassurance that you're getting a good deal.

If it comes out at £100 then I can not tell you I've had one done and consider selling it for less because maybe I've overvalued it .

There is a lot of hot air in the appraisals when all that really matters is the number they put at the end - and even then you have to take them with a pinch of salt. But they can have some value sometimes...

 

[Frog]

I get a Sedo appraisal on it. If the appraisal comes out at more than £1000 then I can send you a copy and give you reassurance that you're getting a good deal.

If I was the buyer and you sent me a Sedo appraisal for assurance, the only thing you'd just have assured me of is that you have more money than sense

The only thing you can even come close to using as proof of value, is previous similar sales, or verifiable offers that you have already had. Some random number from a party who is neither the buyer or the seller, isn't worth the paper its printed on. It sounds like a total scam to be honest, like their domain broker service where they approach domain owners on your behalf... selling something that is worth nothing.

 

[bb99]

If I was the buyer and you sent me a Sedo appraisal for assurance, the only thing you'd just have assured me of is that you have more money than sense

Likewise, if you did it to me I'd think the same (or worse)! But for a buyer not in the industry a 3rd party appraisal from a company like Sedo can be genuinely useful and have credibility.

 

[ScottJ]

I had one done a couple of years ago out of interest which will give you an idea of the layout etc.

 

[wb]

I had one done a couple of years ago out of interest which will give you an idea of the layout etc.

Funnily enough I was just reading that post on your website about half an hour ago shows how far out they were when it sold for £51k.

 

[Takwa]

No No and again No

 

[Frog]

I had one done a couple of years ago out of interest which will give you an idea of the layout etc.

Thanks, just had a quick look. Pretty much confirmed my "worthless" line of thought.

with.co.uk 17.625 £
covers.co.uk 10.000 £
tip.co.uk 10.501 £
college.co.uk 27.500 $US

What exactly do those valuations have to do with tvs.co.uk? There would be just as much relevance in him going to Subway and telling you how much he just seen someone paying for a foot long BLT...

The other nonsense about domain length was a waste of time too. Yes in general shorter domains (that aren't a word) are worth more than longer ones. But you didn't pay for an over view of the domain market, you paid for a specific appraisal.

Making generalisations like "Our research has shown that shorter domain names (from 2-7 letters) tend to be the most valuable, while domain names over 10 letters long are worth slightly less." is completely pointless. I don't think you'll find many people who'd rather have box.co.uk than paydayloans.co.uk. I know thats an extreme example, but it was so worthless it shouldn't even have been included...

 

[Bailey]

I agree with all the negative comments, it's just another cash-cow for any firm that offers them.

The wording used is standard template stuff (insert term here) with some added historical sales data that you could easily pull in yourself.

 

[Edwin]

Worthless. Maps.co.uk was appraised by Sedo in June last year for US$45,000. "Comparable sales" they used in the appraisal document they sent me included walkmaps.co.uk £150, londonmap.co.uk 600 EUR, and ukmap.co.uk £1350...

That's like valuing a flawless diamond by comparing it to the sales price of some glass beads!

 

[wb]

Worthless. Maps.co.uk was appraised by Sedo in June last year for US$45,000. "Comparable sales" they used in the appraisal document they sent me included walkmaps.co.uk £150, londonmap.co.uk 600 EUR, and ukmap.co.uk £1350...

Ha, that is actually quite a funny comparison of previous sales.

All of the above comments have confirmed my doubts so will avoid using their appraisal service.

 

[Edwin]

BTW, there's something extremely fishy about Sedo's appraisal service.

Basically, it looks to me as if they try to tailor it based on whether you're the buyer or the seller.

They appraise low if you're the seller and high if you're the buyer.

In August 2004, I had a "real" appraisal done i.e. I logged in through my Sedo control panel and ordered the appraisal. The result? 8,000 Euro.

I then had maps.co.uk appraised in June 2005 at £75,000 - yes, more than double what it was appraised for just last year (!) and 10x what it was appraised for 10 months earlier, in the first appraisal. Call it a "hunch" - I was curious to see if it made a difference. And boy did it!

Here's the kicker: it wasn't me who ordered the appraisal. Instead, I got a friend to go through the process as if they were a "buyer" and order an appraisal as the first step of using their assisted buying process.

It's also worth noting that aside from the comparables (junk for mine, top sales for the "buyer" appraisal) and some differences in wording (references to sales vs to acquisition) the 2 appraisals were practically word for word identical! The ONLY difference was the target audience...

So the evolution of the appraised value of maps.co.uk looks like this:-

August 2004 - seller's appraisal - 8,000 Euro
June 2005 - buyer's appraisal - £75,000
June 2009 - seller's appraisal - US$45,000

I think that makes the problem stand out like a sore thumb, but if you want to test this for yourself and have the appraisal fee to burn, get someone to go in as a "buyer" on a name you recently had appraised, and see for yourself what difference that makes.

After all, if you think about it, Sedo only makes money when SALES happen. So they need sellers to pitch names low, and buyers to pitch budgets high to get the maximum chance of having the 2 meet in the middle and a sale to take place.

 

[Pred]

and to add to what Edwin said, sedo keep on about adding fixed price to domains as more sell that way. fair enough
but you can't add a fixed price or minimum offer of more than 10k, wait for it, unless you pay to have one of their appraisals done by the resident sedo monkey
no thanks

i'm just thinking for top domains it would be useful to add a fixed price but with that current model, impossible

to answer the o/p NEVER waste money on a sedo appraisal or any other come to that

 

[wb]

Thanks all for the comments.

Edwin - that's a very good point and certainly a conflict of interest. On a side note, I noticed you have sold some similar domains to the one I'm looking to value (advertised on another forum last year and the WHOIS has changed to an end-user since). Would you mind if I PM'd you it for your opinion?

 

[namealot]

The only person who benefits from a sedo valuations is sedo... Do banks, institutions etc lend against there valuation... If they don't hold them with any form credibility etc then what worth do they have…

 

[shoedog20]

The only appraisal that counts is what someone is willing to pay and what the seller will accept. My point is we just don't know "who" is after our domain.
An example would be DotXxx.com which was acquired from a "Korean Domainer" by ICM Registry for a paultry $US25K (15505 GBP) This will be
the name that thousands of people will type in their browsers to register the new .XXX extension whick looks like it will gain final approval by ICANN in early 2011.
The man in charge of the sceme, Stewart Lawley, has spent over 6 million
dollars in legal fees alone trying to get this extension approved and it looks
like he is going to win. The bottom line: ICM Registry says its position as the sole purveyor of dot-xxx addresses may bring it $200 million in sales per year.

Had this domainer from Korea knew the purpose of what it was to be used for
I am sure he would have held out for a better price......and what would Sedo
told him? The Estibot value is listed at US$2500, in five years it could be worth a hundred times that. Now if we could only find out who is after our
domain and its purpose.................

 

[Frog]

Had this domainer from Korea knew the purpose of what it was to be used for
I am sure he would have held out for a better price......and what would Sedo
told him? The Estibot value is listed at US$2500, in five years it could be worth a hundred times that. Now if we could only find out who is after our
domain and its purpose.................

But in 5 years it would be worth hundreds of times that because of the service that the owner put on it, not particularly because its a good domain.

I don't agree that people are going to go to dotxxx.com to register a .xxx domain - anyone trying to buy a domain in the first place knows where to do so, if they don't they'll go to Google and search it. I don't think dotxxx.com is a great/valuable domain at all.

 

[newly listed!]

its just a way for sedo to make money out of you if your paying for one.. if its a free one you could try valuate dot com or estibot dot com.. there all pretty much shots in the dark.. just dont pay for any!