Domain appraisal firm releases sales analysis

Domain appraisal firm Zetetic has released analysis of the 2005 domain sales market.

As stated by Zetetic the median selling price in 2005 was $900, a 24% increase over 2004. Zetetic collects its sales data from a number of resale sources. In addition to the big names like Sedo, Afternic, and GoDaddy, Zetetic collects sales data from dozens of other sources.

It is unclear if Zetetic’s data incorporates all sales at GoDaddy’s TDNAM or if it excludes expiring domain sales. My guess is that it considers the “Recent Sales” category, which includes some of the higher sales values for both expiring and resale domains. If Zetetic’s data included sales at forums like DNForum, it’s median price would probably be a lot lower. Most domain names trade hands on the reseller market for under a few hundred dollars. But tracking this investor market is difficult.

Zetetic points out that sales posted at DNJournal are only the highest noted sales of the week. They do no include the low value domain sales nor do they include a number of private sales. Zetetic analyst Keith Pieper stated:

“Domain name sellers often get glazed over by reading the sale prices posted at industry trade sites like DNJournal and the many press releases that are distributed each month,” Pieper stated. “In reality, most domain name sales are much lower than what domain name brokers tend to reveal. Due to the commission based resale structure, domain brokers and exchanges are inherently incentivized to inflate market valuations and tend to publicly note only their top sales.”

This is true, but DNJournal points this out in its sales chart. It’s a top sales chart, not a complete sales chart. DNJournal includes the following disclaimer with its sales notes:

These are not average selling prices – these are top selling domains. One of the biggest impediments to making sales is pricing domains at unrealistic levels. For most of us, pricing domains at the levels achieved on the Top Ten chart will leave us waiting a long time to make a sale! We hope you will use the information presented here as a measuring stick that will help you price your domains at levels that will put more money in your pocket more often!