When I visited Domaining.com yesterday, I saw the headline announcing the launch of Valuate.com, a sister website of Domaining.com and a domain valuation tool that is run using Estibot 2.0. Users are allowed to look up 50 domain names if they aren’t registered users of Domaining.com and 200 if they are logged in to their Domaining.com account. This is the Beta version of the site, with the full launch expected to come in December.
One of the easiest ways to do a comparison of domain values is to compare recent domain sales from DN Journal with the results from Valuate.com. Since a domain name’s actual value is derived from what someone would pay for a domain name, one can infer that the recent sales price is close to its valuation. I wanted to take the new site for a test drive to see the results, and I figured using recent sales would be the most fair way to compare.
Below are some recent sales along with their prices and the Valuate.com valuation. I also added a few of my domain names to see how they are valued.
Domain Name | Sales Price | Valuate.com Valuation
Resumes.com | $400,000 | $910,000
Candy.com | $3,000,000 | $3,080,000
Bubbler.com | $10,000 | $10,000
Exterminator.com | $600,000 | $620,000
Ticket.com | $1,535,000 | $2,600,000
Luck.com | $675,000 | $690,000
Voodoo.com | $300,000 | $320,000
Jets.com | $375,000 | $620,000
Christian.com | $600,000 | $1,300,000
ChinaTours.com | $200,000 | $210,000
800.com | $250,000 | $260,000
Physicians.com | $250,000 | $700,000
DiamondRings.com | $228,420 | $1,970,000
Brazil.com | $500,000 | $630,000
FreeQuotes.com | $210,000 | $220,000
Snowboards.net | $30,000 | $31,000
Science.org | $20,000 | $29,000
LMK.com | $58,500 | $60,000
Some of my companies’ investments:
Torah.com | N/A | $110,000
Burbank.com | N/A | $160,000
Lowell.com | $50,000 | $140,000
Dreidel.com | N/A | $25,000
AthensVacations.com | N/A | $15,000
DubrovnikVacations.com | N/A | $1,000
CabCompanies.com | N/A | $2,200
CatOwner.com | N/A | $1,200
Oenophiles.com | N/A | $4,100
TropicalBirds.com | N/A | $2,800
Overall, some of the values seem to be fairly on point, although I wouldn’t sell a few of them at close to the valuation (TropicalBirds.com for example). My domain names were private acquisitions (except for Lowell.com), so there probably isn’t an element of human intervention with these values.
One thing I disagree with is the disclaimer, “We DON’T valuate businesses, we DON’T valuate sites.” Although it may not provide valuation on websites, the value takes traffic and incoming links into consideration. By default, developed sites have more of these valuable attributes, which could cause the value to increase. One could argue that the domain name ElliotsBlog.com is worth a few hundred dollars to someone else named Elliot who wants a blog. However, Valuate.com gives ElliotsBlog.com a valuation of $9,200, presumably because of the traffic and site ranking.
One way to really test its accuracy will be to rate the values of pending domain auction names before and after. This will let you see how accurate the system is – and it will also tell you if there are human filters correcting errors.
Here are some Valuate.com valuations of domain names that are up for auction this week during the Traffic show:
40.com – $62,000
900.com – $12,000
Arbitration.com – $250,000
Bands.com - $520,000
Boy.com – $620,000
CigarBars.com – $6,200
DataCenters.com – $27,000
EuropeanVacation.com – $35,000
GolfClubs.com – $410,000
Hookahs.com - $15,000
Marketers.com – $2,000
OfficeSupply.com – $110,000
Penpals.com – $22,000
QB.com – $15,000
ScubaDiver.com – $9,700
SecondMortgage.com – $140,000
SkyDiver.com – $4,100
TreasuryBonds.com – $40,000
WineCellar.com – $56,000
Zimbabwe.com – $410,000
Clearly, some of these valuations are way off. I’m no baller, but I would buy Hookahs.com, Marketers.com, QB.com, 900.com, ScubaDiver.com, SkyDiver.com, and WineCellar.com at those prices right now without even thinking about it twice.
A while back, I discussed Estibot and how I don’t think you can ever rely on the results of an automated website to get accurate domain valuations. I still agree with this, but I think Valuate.com can provide an additional sanity check when buying a domain name.
Francois recently put Domaining.com up for sale with an asking price of $3,000,000. Valuate.com only pegs the value at $110,000. As we all know, the only real way to value a domain name is by offering it for sale and seeing what someone will pay for it!
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