The Value of a Domain Name

[tracourt]

Thanks for the needed clarification. Joe's right, now the ball is in your court because that's such a generic name.

houstonchevydealer.com ?

I can't find a houston (blank) dealer dot com that is first in google anymore.

That's twice you misread the original post, I didn't say first place, but first page.

 

[mikeelmore]

Personally, I would want to protect my Rep and good name and take the high road to keep Karma on my side and offer them a deal they can't refuse so when they can "prove" you services in their budget you'd be back in the fold as a Trusted Vendor, one who truly works for the Customer and their best interest....Or perhaps you'd not like to take them back and then put it out on the market and see how the chips fall?

Good Luck!:thumbup:

 

[Jarrett]

We joke about everything on our lots as being for sale... If the price is right. This is not any different. To put a price on this you need to get bids. Bids come from interested parties. Interested parties would be the most likely to profit from the traffic driven by "your" domain name. Start an auction? I, like you have a domain that another dealer wanted. This other dealer took me to the ICANN arbitration board to try and regain the name. They lost.

As far as Karma's is concerned, he with the gold rules.

 

[ghen]

That's twice you misread the original post, I didn't say first place, but first page.

You know what, whatever. just tell us what the name is :P Don't get all pissy with me because you said "their brand here" which in my mind sounds like they own the name.

 

[tracourt]

Not getting pissy, just asking you to read the posts better before firing off replies that are way off target. Simple request.

 

[Mitch Gallant]

You must have a decent relationship if you're still wanting to rent to them?

In you're situation I would set the prices at $2500 and sell it to them... yeah you're not gonna get that much but it's a starting place. It's such an ambiguous market for domains that you really need to test the waters. They'll likely be willing to distance themselves from you and purchase. Prepare yourself with some value statements and like others have suggested, get some interest from other dealers as a way to support your demands.

 

[Patrick80639]

First make sure they are even allowed to own a domain like that, I believe some franchise agreements prohibit domains such as yours. Do you know how many car deals are generally produced from your domain per month? If you know that, then you should use that info to generate a price. Traditionally one can expect to pay a year's worth of profit when buying a business, so apply that principle to your site.

I don't think you need to give it away or undersell it for any reason. You own something with value, it's no different than Autotrader, cars.com, etc. The concept of expecting a profit as being something undesirable is a disturbing trend nowadays, I'm frankly surpised to hear similar attitudes coming from some car guys here.

 

[tracourt]

I'm frankly surpised to hear similar attitudes coming from some car guys here.

Me too.

 

[KoreyB]

I'm with @Mitch Gallant. A few $k would be reasonable. Doesn't help that you've got a *possible* legal question of who owns the domain hanging over it. Regional market, most likely a 3 word domain. I don't see it being worth much more than that. But...it is an open market, depends how well you can pitch it. Good luck!

 

[Jeff Kershner]

I'll share a personal story...

When I was on the floor selling at Sharrett Volkswagen, I built out and branded my own Volkswagen Sales website -- vwrep.com (volkswagen) and selling 10 plus cars from the site a month (this was in 2001).


A few years later, I decided it was time to move on to better things (by now I'd have 2 other people working for me selling 50 - 60 cars a month ). Before I left, the owner asked me what I wanted for the site. I said $3,200! I still believe the site was worth it ... brand, name, optimized site ... he made me an offer that at the time was not equal to the pride I had invested in the site. I figured for the price offered, I would let it stand and see if someone else would buy it. No one did. I moved onto other bigger things. URL registration expired.

www.vwrep.com - guess who owns it?? Yup!