name shopping Archives – We're Fusible

Many of us hope to develop our best domains, but when an irresistible deal comes along, the odds are you might just sell the name you had big plans for. Have you ever wondered what really happens to these domains? In the case of Eric Borgos, one of our favorite domainers we enjoy covering who has been highly successful at both domaining and development, has sold a number of quality names that have gone on to be very successful web sites. Eric also sold Bored.com and several related properties for over $4 million.

His domain marketplace at NameShopping.com offers domain shoppers a little bit of everything, including great domains and bargain-basement prices in some cases – like his sale of TrueRomance.com for $1,000. Or one of his earlier sales: Cookies.com for $5,000.

Here are some quicky stats from just 2 domains that Eric Borgos has sold that will make you think about your own domains. And who knows, you might think twice the next time you get an offer on one of your own domains that you know has lots of potential — especially if you only own a very small handful, like us.

InsuranceQuotes.com

Eric sold InsuranceQuotes.com for $85,000. Many times names that even sell at this price, still end up parked. But not InsuranceQuotes.com. Type in “insurance quotes” into Google, and it’s the #2 result on Page 1 just below Progressive.com. The site gets over 10,000 unique visitors per month.

TotalPorn.com

TotalPorn.com was sold for $11,000. While it might not sound like such a great name to you, the owners who purchased the name saw its potential. Since launching, traffic to the web site has climbed quickly to over 30,000 visitors per month. While much of the traffic might not be organic, the new owners are onto something.

Eric’s NameShopping.com is definitely worth looking over. There are thousands of names listed and you might find your diamond in the rough.

Even if you watch the domain sales over at Sedo and other sales reported on NameBio, it’s always interesting to see what sales Big Time Domainers like millionaire Eric Borgos, a domainer who’s done it all, ends up selling his names for. Eric might have sold internet properties in the millions, but he doesn’t hide the fact that several of his names sell in the $X,XXX and even lower.

I stacked up Eric’s most recent sales to Valuate.com (powered by Estibot 2.0) and Estibot 1.0 (head-to-head) and Valuate (in our opinion) did a better job of squaring up the sales based on the actual sales price.

While this might sound a bit confusing, Valuate is POWERED by Estibot’s 2.0 Beta Engine – so the results are different when Valuate’s appraisals are compared to Estibot’s 1.0 Engine that is currently public. So I thought looking at the varying appraisals would be worthwhile.

I’ve decided to provide a little more clarification to this story thanks to one of our readers; since the versions of the Appraisal engines are different when you use the current version of Valuate.com up against the current version of Estibot.com.

While Estibot 1.0 can certainly make you feel better about your names, you might not always find a buyer willing to pay their appraisal values. If you’re patient, it’ll pay off if you can land that buyer. And who’s to say, with the right end user, you might even get more…

Everyone has their own way of dealing with things. Some use Estibot’s 1.0 appraisal tool. Some use Valuate.com (which for clarification, is powered by Estibot’s 2.0 Engine that is currently available at http://beta.estibot.com/). Some even use fee-based appraisal sites (which we don’t recommend). Others use their own market research. And of course, there’s always your gut instinct.

But if you’re looking to make a sale that might attract more interest and close quicker, chances are the Valuate.com apraisal will fall more in line with market price — which ultimately is based on Estibot’s new BETA Appraisal engine. Looks like Estibot has made improvements to their appraisal engine in v2.0, so the prices look more realistic for those looking to liquidate.

Here’s How Eric’s Latest Sales Stacked Up Against Valuate and Estibot 1.0

CelebGossip.com – $5000
Valuate.com Price: $9,500
Estibot Price: $42,000

FixErrors.com – $2000
Valuate.com Price: $2,600
Estibot Price: $6,500

MoneyListings.com – $1100
Valuate.com Price: $1,100
Estibot Price: $890

BeautyExpert.com – $3750
Valuate.com Price: $4,700
Estibot Price: $4,000

ResourceHome.com – $1000
Valuate.com Price: $85
Estibot Price: $2,400

TowersCasino.com – $350
Valuate.com Price: $0
Estibot Price: $260

NYCStudent.com – $250
Valuate.com Price: $220
Estibot Price: USD reg fee

FindRates.com $5500
Valuate.com Price: $570
Estibot Price: $2,700

TeenDays.com – $250
Valuate.com Price: $2,000
Estibot Price: $670

AutoWizards.com – $750
Valuate.com Price: $160
Estibot Price: $40

SportsFishermen.com – $1000
Valuate.com Price: $460
Estibot Price: $250

OxymoronList.com – $2500
Valuate.com Price: $380
Estibot Price: $110

4Mags.com – $750
Valuate.com Price: $530
Estibot Price: $90

ParentSavings.com – $1000
Valuate.com Price: $170
Estibot Price: $1,100

BroadwayStage.com – $2000
Valuate.com Price: $1,900
Estibot Price: $3,700

WickedLingerie.com – $1000
Valuate.com Price: $1,100
Estibot Price: $7,000

CarInsuranceLeads.com – $1000
Valuate.com Price: $1,300
Estibot Price: $1,900

SecureDating.com – $2500
Valuate.com Price: $2,600
Estibot Price: $1,800

Other Related Tidbits

According to Eric, all the reported domains he sold he owned personally and most occurred after people looked up registrant information, then contacted him.

At the time of this posting, SecureDating.net and BroadwayStage.org are available for hand-registration. BroadwayStage.net is a Premium name for sale at GoDaddy listed for $1,888.