Ask HN: Best way to sell domain names?
8 comments
As others have said, don't expect too much. I did have success selling domains on NamePros, but that was almost a decade ago and truthfully I'm not sure if they're as active anymore. I'm sure you can find other domain communities as well.
Quick tip: Don't just post the domain name. Explain why you bought that domain in the first place -- it tends to get more inquiries in my experience. For example, let's say I wanted to sell the domain "bagfullofshit.com" -- Disregarding the novelty aspect, you could explain that you were planning on starting a service that sends pranks to your friends and that you wouldn't be actually sending bags of shit. It gets them to think.
Quick tip: Don't just post the domain name. Explain why you bought that domain in the first place -- it tends to get more inquiries in my experience. For example, let's say I wanted to sell the domain "bagfullofshit.com" -- Disregarding the novelty aspect, you could explain that you were planning on starting a service that sends pranks to your friends and that you wouldn't be actually sending bags of shit. It gets them to think.
Realistically, most of your domains are likely to be worthless (to others). They may be great names, but are they names that have a resale market?
NewYorkBagels.com for example would be something a real business would want to buy. Something "brandable" like bagelo.io is much less likely to find a buyer (apart from anything else, who would be looking for it?).
If I've made the wrong assumption, and your names are in fact good one to three word generic .coms for products that people buy, then there's flippa.com (has good free escrow included, and both paid auctions and free listings). If your name is really good, there's also sedo.com, who charge higher fees. Over the past year I've sold way more on Flippa than Sedo.
Don't be surprised if very few of your names get any offers, that's just the way the market is, very illiquid. It can take a decade or so to find the right buyer.
NewYorkBagels.com for example would be something a real business would want to buy. Something "brandable" like bagelo.io is much less likely to find a buyer (apart from anything else, who would be looking for it?).
If I've made the wrong assumption, and your names are in fact good one to three word generic .coms for products that people buy, then there's flippa.com (has good free escrow included, and both paid auctions and free listings). If your name is really good, there's also sedo.com, who charge higher fees. Over the past year I've sold way more on Flippa than Sedo.
Don't be surprised if very few of your names get any offers, that's just the way the market is, very illiquid. It can take a decade or so to find the right buyer.
Steps to sell your domain names at major marketplaces:
Organize your domain names for sale
Set pricing for your domain names, Hang a for sale sign
Select the right marketplaces
GoDaddy.com
Flippa.com
Sedo.com
DomainNameSales.com
Afternic.com
Is it allowable to list your domain at more than one marketplace?
Make sure your whois contact info is up to date, not whois guarded and works. The majority of domains I've sold privately, when the buyer directly seeks me out. Haven't had much luck in marketplaces.
http://domainnamesales.com/ is one of the best resources online and is what many professional domainers use.
two middle fingers way in the air
I've accumulated some domain names over the last two years for projects that I started, but never got off the ground.
Instead of just letting the domains expire, what is the best way to sell them (and at least recover some of the cost of having them)?
Doing a search for domain valuations and auction sites comes up with plenty of hits, but if I'm only going to do this once, it would be nice to do it right.
What are my fellow HNers preferred ways of dealing with unused domain names?
Thank you, as always, for your advice :)