• TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
    Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
    Join free Log in
    Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.

What's a domain worth?

#21
Joe Nerve said:
Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone here :). Yes. You understand.

To those that don't, let's say the band is a Pink Floyd tribute and I own themachine.com. Or a Stones tribute and I own stickyfingers.com or hotrocks.com. Although those tributes are very established, lets just imagine they're only a couple of years into it and currently using stickyfingerstribute, or themachinetribute as their url. To say the most those domains would be worth minus the "tribute" are $150 is... well.... You get it. Especially when I have already that much invested in the years I owned it.

And as you said, finding the "right" customer is the issue here. My customers probably come down to possibly 10 people (50 if you include band members in the decisions), who I can easily access by just searching out the band name (there are a handful going by the name), and emailing them. My OP and question is, how would you guys go about doing that, and what do you think it's worth?

Let's make believe we're all evil, money hungry, cut throat capitalists for a moment. What do you honestly think is the worth (the most your average joe would be willing to pay), of a name comparable to the 3 mentioned above, and what (if you've ever done this) actually gets done in order to do the transfer? How does the exchange actually take place? I'm clueless on this. It's not like I can say paypal me x amount of dollars, and then just send them my password.
Click to expand...

I would suggest reaching out to each of the band's domain asministrators. Do a whois search on each to get their email addesses. Then compose an email to all of the bands email addresses, CC'ing all of them (designed to show opportunity and create competition)

State plainly that you are a fellow musician who owns this particular domain and would like to sell it at a fair price to one of these groups. 'If interested, email an offer in the next 7 days (or whatever).'

One of these might jump at the chance to drop tribute or band from their url for $500 to $1,000.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Joe Nerve
#22
GuiTuber said:
Let's say the band IS Pink Floyd or the Stones. If they want the domain name bad enough, they'll pay for it.
Click to expand...

Precisely. And if they were willing to give me $2,000,000 for it and I took it, would that make me "not cool"? I don't think so. On the flip side if I said, "Hey, I'm a cool dude, you can have it for $200," I'd be an absolute idiot."

I'm not going to offer something for nothing when there's potential to earn some money.

I bought a 76 P bass about 10 years ago for $100. I sold it for $200. I was an idiot. I'm not doing that again.
 
#25
I don't think domains have a value other than what the purchaser puts on them (outside of established businesses attached to domains, like Amazon)

You are assuming these people actually want to buy said domain. For all you know they could care less. They seem to be getting by just fine without the domain in question so would it really be a worthwhile investment for them? Probably not, especially if they already have a well traveled domain.
 
#27
The value is on who wants it. I know a guy that had a name and a very large company was coming out with a product of the same name so they wanted it and gave him $100 grand for it. That was in their budget. Then my buddy had a name and a punk band wanted it, so they contact him and offer $50 dollars, when he asked for a little more they say, "but you are not using it", that was what they wanted to spend.
Let them know it is up for sale and see what happens.
 
#28
S-Bigbottom said:
The value is on who wants it. I know a guy that had a name and a very large company was coming out with a product of the same name so they wanted it and gave him $100 grand for it. That was in their budget. Then my buddy had a name and a punk band wanted it, so they contact him and offer $50 dollars, when he asked for a little more they say, "but you are not using it", that was what they wanted to spend.
Let them know it is up for sale and see what happens.
Click to expand...
That's what I think I'm going to do. Wish me luck guys :).
 
#29
#31
48thStreetCustom said:
Sure there is: Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The law was designed to thwart “cybersquatters” who register Internet domain names containing trademarks with no intention of creating a legitimate web site, but instead plan to sell the domain name to the trademark owner or a third party."
Click to expand...
So the most he should profit is a dinner's worth of money? Nothing more? A little bit more? Who decides?

And this:
Joe Nerve said:
Well, that's not what I did or am doing and I have a band demo to prove it. :)
Click to expand...
 
#32
#33
  • Like
Reactions: S-Bigbottom
#34
Gorn said:
So the most he should profit is a dinner's worth of money? Nothing more? A little bit more? Who decides?

And this:
Click to expand...

Look, I don't know how it work, but there is a law against it. It's not black and white. Springsteen lost a cybersquatting case but Trump won his. I don't know what the difference was and I'm not saying that these bands are going to sue the OP. But cybersquatting is federal crime. Buying domains for a profit can be illegal.
 
#35
48thStreetCustom said:
Look, I don't know how it work, but there is a law against it. It's not black and white. Springsteen lost a cybersquatting case but Trump won his. I don't know what the difference was and I'm not saying that these bands are going to sue the OP. But cybersquatting is federal crime. Buying domains for a profit can be illegal.
Click to expand...
The man explained he didn't buy the domain in the hopes that one day he could sell it. It was his band's website. The band is no more. The website lives on. It's not cybersquatting.
 
#36
neckdive said:
That doesn't apply here. Reread the very first post.
Click to expand...
Gorn said:
The man explained he didn't buy the domain in the hopes that one day he could sell it. It was his band's website. The band is no more. The website lives on. It's not cybersquatting.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about his specific details. I'm saying your blanket statement of "There's no good reason not to make a substantial profit if you can" isn't true. Cybersquatting is a crime if you can prove it.
 
#37
48thStreetCustom said:
I'm not talking about his specific details. I'm saying your blanket statement of "There's no good reason not to make a substantial profit if you can" isn't true. Cybersquatting is a crime if you can prove it.
Click to expand...
It may or may not be, counselor. The point is I think we can all agree that Joe Nerve is
not cybersquatting. Since he's done nothing wrong, there's no good reason he shouldn't profit as much as he can. He said there are a few bands with the name. If one band is willing to pay one amount and another band is willing to pay more, should he accept the smaller amount? Should he tell the low bidder he can pay less? No. He should profit as much as he can.
 
#38
OP, I hope you make as much as possible. Those 'what's your domain worth' sites are completely useless and in fact probably do more harm than good. (They're just set up to bring in ad an affiliate money)

They set people up to think that their 4 or 5 letter .com is 10's of thousands or dollars then get ornery when someone offers them $1,000 for it.

Since your potential customers for this particular domain may be limited to tribute bands, just know they're likely to be broke.

Now if it was something like 'stickyfingers.com' you aren't constrained to bands but sell it to Pillsbury for example.

Actually, you should post the name in this thread. Why? Because TB is a well travelled and oft-visited site by searchbots. The more you post the domain in a legitimate context, the more it becomes 'findable' in searches, therefore increasing its value.

Thiink about it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: btmpancake
#39
Gorn said:
It may or may not be, counselor. The point is I think we can all agree that Joe Nerve is
not cybersquatting. Since he's done nothing wrong, there's no good reason he shouldn't profit as much as he can. He said there are a few bands with the name. If one band is willing to pay one amount and another band is willing to pay more, should he accept the smaller amount? Should he tell the low bidder he can pay less? No. He should profit as much as he can.
Click to expand...

I don't agree agree that he's not cybersquatting. I agree that he's not criminally cybersquatting. But in the strict definition of the term, he is cybersquatting.
 

Latest posts

Top Bottom
Back