Selling domains on ebay

lesurf · Aug 9, 2005

I have been considering selling one of my better names on ebay for a while now. However, I have been put off due to previous experiences that I have had with ebay whilst selling computer equipment, mobiles etc.

My main concern with selling a domain is that the buyer drops out. If, say, I listed a domain on ebay and it was bid up to £1,000 and the buyer failed to complete on the sale would I still have to pay the fees to ebay for the sale?

I know in the past when this has happened to me when selling mobiles on ebay, I have generally got the fees back straight away (if the winning bidder is "no longer a registered user") or got the fees back after a while provided the buyer agreed that the sale was not completed.

I know ebay is not the best route to sell domains but with this particular domain I think it could prompt my prefered buyer into action.

What is the experience of other users selling domains on ebay and do other people have similar concerns?

bb99 · Aug 9, 2005

With eBay sales, if the sale does not complete (for whatever reason) you can always get the fees back.

It's maybe worth putting in your auction listing that you want a £250 (or whatever) deposit within 48 hours of the auction closing as that will help to separate the serious bidders from the "idiots"!

lesurf · Aug 9, 2005

thanks for that, I was pretty sure that this was the case. However I had heard a horror story from a colleague whose colleague listed a domain that finished at £3K but the sale never completed. He had to pay the fees as the buyer did not respond to verify that the sale did not complete. I guess this is the only way that you could lose out?

I suppose to avoid this you could put other safeguards in place like only accepting bids from users with a feedback rating of over x or only allowing bids from those with paypal a/c's?

Does anyone else have any experience of selling domains on ebay (good or bad)?

Edwin · Aug 9, 2005

I would say that 99.95% of all domains listed on eBay are "junk" - probably 99.5% not worth the reg fee and the other .45% not worth more than about 30 quid. The problem comes because once in a blue moon there is a genuine BARGAIN so although it's not unlike rummaging through a virtual cess-pit, I feel compelled to check the listings every couple of weeks or so in case I happen spot that elusive bargain.

So eBay is probably the least credible venue you could choose to sell a name (in the eyes of domain insiders), but it's the only one where normal non-domainers might stumble across it...

lesurf · Aug 9, 2005

Thanks for your input Edwin, much appreciated.

I'm with you on ebay being a less than credible route to market. With the domain that I am thinking about putting on ebay though, I think throwing it open to the public might force the hand of my prefered buyer who up until now has been silent.

Also, what do I really have to lose aside from a listing fee?

I know this is slightly outside of the realms of my original thread but what methods have other people used to pro-actively market their generic domains. I tried some good old fashioned telemarketing a while back with mixed results.

Anyone had any joy with anything else?

aquanuke · Aug 9, 2005

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/ia/non_paying_bidder_policy.html

Ive filled a number, never had any problems.

lesurf · Aug 10, 2005

Thanks again, my fears are gone now about listing the domain on ebay, although I am still dubious as to whether it will be worthwhile or not.

For those with good generic names what is this best way of actively marketing domains? Sending out an e-mail to people who may be interested, sending a letter? Or even picking up the phone?

aquanuke · Aug 10, 2005

Well pop.co.uk sold for a very respectable figure couple of weeks ago. Check the completed auctions page if you didnt see it.

Trouble with an auction is it only runs a short while and domain names are quite selective. So theres an element of luck if you can find two or more bidders who will get the price up.

Still ebay keeps putting the fees up .. which really kills profits.

bb99 · Aug 10, 2005

You could use Google adwords to advertise the name for sale.

Firstly you could just have an advert linking to your ebay auction or sale page that comes up when related keywords are used.

Secondly you could look at who is paying to advertise on Google (etc) under the key words related to your domain and then email them to let them know about your auction/sale.

I think I originally read that tip on here though so I'm just repeating what someone else has said. Never tried it myself.

lesurf · Aug 10, 2005

Regardless of whether it's been said before it's a good tip as I'm guessing if someone is bought into the marketing power of the net enough to pay for Adwords they would see the value in a decent domain.

Also, I guess they would also be likely to see your "for sale" Ad as they if they are using Adwords they would also be looking to see what other listings were around from their competitors for their keyword.

My only problem is my keyword that relates to my generic domain costs £5.73 pc if I want position number one on Adwords!

I have been trying different techniques of late to proactively market. I have used the technique of e-mailing but with no joy. My feeling, as with all such marketing, is it needs to be targeted.

For example, if I was to send an e-mail to sales@ or marketing@ I would be far less likely to get a response than if I sent the e-mail to joe.bloggs@ (providing Joe Bloggs is the man who makes or influences the purchasing decision). Getting these contacts takes time though but I think it would pay off?

Perhaps it would be best to get these targeted contacts by phone and then send a professional letter inviting offers?

domainleases.co.uk · Dec 2, 2005

eBay poor market place

I've tried a number of times to sell domains (and websites) on eBay and haven't had much luck. Domain names are very hard to sell it seems due to the reason pointed out by Edwin, there's just so much junk there that genuine buyers either can't be bothered to wade through it looking for the hidden gems or they no longer consider eBay a serious marketplace for domains.

I did sell idnetuk.com for £1,700 on eBay a few years ago which wasn't bad, but that had a website with it and some pretty reasonable traffic stats.

Since then I've tried a few times to sell quality generic domains and you can't even give them away! Even with low starting prices theres zero interest so my conclusion is that the buyers simply arent there. Another thing, eBay seems like a cheap place to sell, but if you're listing a lot of domains you'll find the costs soon mount up, even if you don't sell a single domain you'll face a hefty bill. So my advice is to list one or two of your domains and test the water, don't go crazy and list your entire portfolio!

Selling websites on eBay is a different story, if you have a half way decent website that's commercially viable (preferably with stats/revenue) you can do quite well on eBay. I've seen sales in the past do 5 figures on occasion.

While on the subject of eBay, we have setup a user group for anyone wanting to sell domains through eBay. It's primarily to share experiences and gather information, but also for sellers to share tips and advice etc. Anyone here is welcome to join and just nose around etc.

I've been giving some thought to how we might use eBay collectively to sell more effectively and cheaply, by using single listings and then driving buyers to them. I'm sure eBay could be a good market place again if it's used properly.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

eBay Domain Name Marketplace
http://groups.ebay.co.uk/forum.jspa?forumID=300002638