Valuation tools are fun to play with and two of the most popular are Estibot and GoDaddy. I’m a big fan of flipping hand regs because there are still some great ones out there and there is a low barrier for entry to beginners. The problem is, you need to be able to tell what is going to sell and what isn’t. While valuation tools can “suggest” a value, there is no magic formula in the domain industry. In fact, it seems the pros have an intuition or a sixth sense as to what can sell and what it might sell for. Lets face it, some domains are clearly valuable but I have also seen names sell for astronomical amounts that I thought were nearly worthless. Sometimes it leaves me scratching my head.
Estibot has always been my “go to” that I would use for the initial sniff test. Then GoDaddy decided to begin offering free valuations. This makes sense as they have a strong premium and auction platform for domain sales. However, the two systems use vastly different algorithms, formulas, or black magic to come up with their valuations. Just for fun, I looked up 24 domains that are (or at least were) available for registration at the time of this writing. Check out the difference in valuations between Estibot and GoDaddy and draw your own conclusions.
There were a couple in this list that I was tempted to register, but I thought I would leave it up to you. You’re welcome to grab anything on the list if it’s still available, just leave a comment to let me know. I’d like to hear from you and follow up in the future to see how you do.
| Domain Name | Estibot | GoDaddy |
| artificial.systems | $1,400 | $234 |
| banana.uno | $2,400 | $1,073 |
| camcorder.la | $1,700 | $312 |
| certification.la | $1,200 | $299 |
| coasters.la | $1,300 | $112 |
| crazy.care | $2,900 | $2,679 |
| dating.farm | $1,500 | $4,436 |
|
diet.church
|
$1,200 | $3,186 |
| fit.ventures | $2,200 | $3,113 |
| halloween.fit | $5,100 | $2,131 |
| inquiry.tips | $1,100 | $424 |
| mess.media | $3,600 | $224 |
| mind.coffee | $2,700 | $3,335 |
| Mugs.beer | $1,600 | $882 |
| naked.care | $3,200 | $1,099 |
| naked.careers | $5,200 | $1,099 |
| naked.institute | $5,200 | $1,099 |
| naked.wedding | $1,200 | $1,099 |
| principle.money | $1,600 | $612 |
| printers.tips | $1,000 | $1,815 |
| questions.media | $1,100 | $1,209 |
| roast.recipes | $1,200 | $337 |
| ugly.football | $1,600 | $275 |
| videocamera.la | $1,200 | $173 |
| Total | $51,200 | $31,084 |
7 comments
Mike I don’t know why a lot of you guys insist on valuation tools. Domains are worth what the owner is willing to sell for and what the buyer is willing to pay for. I have sold countless domains with low or near registration valuations in estibot or godaddy for 5 figures. I doubt any domainer with experience cares at all about the valuation tools. I am looking at your list and I am blown away that anyone would register 90% of those domains. The list also tells me why most domainers are hostile to hand registrations given the lack of creativity most people have. And yet the best in the business will tell you that most of the valuable domains they have where hand registered.
@Bul – I’ve never based a purchase on a valuation tool. My intention was to show how different the tools are and that I mentioned experienced domaines have a sense for good domain. This is just a demonstration. If you take a look at some of my past posts you’ll see I never suggest that anyone rely on the tools in isolation and I have shown why. If I thought I could flip the list for $50k, I would have reg’d them.