Quick question about selling ca domains (2 Viewing)

tama88

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Hi ... I was recommended to join this forum to ask this question about selling the dot ca domains.

I have a few that I had bought years ago to build out but I never got to it ... so I thought maybe I could sell them.

But what I am wondering is do these domains even sell for much being they are not dot com ?

Or is it smarter to just hang onto them to use for a website.

One of the two word keywords has over 600,000 searches but I am not sure if that is even something that would add value to the domain value or not ...

Thanks for any advice I appreciate it
 
I guess I'd say to ask yourself, what are the chances you'll get around to building a website for these domains? If you have good knowledge about the topics related to your domains, and might actually want to build it out, hold onto them because they'll be much more expensive to buy a good domain in the future.

But if those chances are pretty low, then maybe consider selling it.

You can try and sell it quick and maybe make anywhere from hundreds to thousands or even 5 figures for a truly rare premium domain. If that's the route you want to go, this is a good place to find buyers who invest in domains for the long term.

Or you can wait for the right buyer to come along (which could be decades from now) and get much more - .CA domains can sell for 6 figures, and in the perfect scenario possibly even 7. Of course it has to be a truly great domain and have a little luck to boot for that to happen.

I'd say, just put up a contact form and let interested buyers contact you. This way, there's no rush to decide, you can weigh the decision to sell or hold as offers come in. If you have any potential desire to develop your domains, this is the best way to go, leave both options on the table.

Personally I'd avoid the marketplaces out there due to their high commissions - the reality is, they are great for low value domains that might sell as an impulse buy, kinda like buying candy at the checkout line at a store. But if you want to maximize your sale price to an end user, they'll find you by visiting the domain name - which is why the contact form is important. There's no need to pay a middleman a commission when the buyer is coming to you directly anyways.
 
Thank you so much for your advice ... I really appreciate it.

So are you saying the best way to sell them is to self host them and put my own contact form right on the website itself ? And then use escrow to handle the sale and transfer ? Or do you mean to list them for sale in this forum with a contact form ?

Yeah I really have no idea the value of them other than looking at the godaddy domain value website but I was told that it is not a reliable estimate. I thought maybe the search volume might be part of the equation but really I have no idea lol.

Or are there people on this forum who do estimates ?

Thanks again !
 
There is a section on the forum where you can list domains for sale, either by offer or for a price. Just note that this forum will be full of domain investors who will just want to buy the domain cheap and then sit on it themselves hoping to sell it for a higher price in the future.

Domain investors typically have large portfolios of domains, in the thousands. They may only sell 2% or less per year. Furthermore, they'll sell their domains for 10 to 100 or time times what they paid for it - this is the only way to profitability as an investor. Buy low, sell high and have a large volume of high quality domains than can justify a high price.

Many people may try to invest in domains, but they typically get frustrated that you can hold a domain for decades before finding the right buyer to make it worth selling. This is where volume comes in, you need a large portfolio to have any expectation to sell domains with any frequency. If you own 10 domains but only sell 1% per year, that is only selling one domain every 10 years. If the price is right and you have the patience, then that can be profitable.

The godaddy values are at least a starting point for you to work from, but their values tend to be more realistic or even too high for crappy domains, and unrealistically low for good domains. If your value is $2500 or less, its probably more in the crappy range. But sometimes a hidden gem can slip past their valuations too. Or if their valuation is more like $5K+, then your domain may be worth 2x to 50x that price - that is if you're patient enough to wait for the right end user to come along.

Domains are liquid at wholesale prices (at a place like on this forum), but are not very liquid if you are expecting a high price. Picture a curve of price vs # of buyers. At the low end of price, there are lots of buyers, but as the price goes up even a little bit, those wholesale buyers drop off quickly. Then you get all the "small biz" people who might buy a domain for a thousand or two. Then there are medium businesses that might pay $10K+, then there are larger businesses that might pay $100K+. The numbers of each group drop off significantly as you can imagine. So the sales price is always some sort of compromise between the buyer and seller, with signifcant unique factors for every scenario such as how bad does the buyer want it, and how bad does the seller need to sell it. The same domain in the hands of two different owners could sell at $10,000 and $100,000 and both could think they made a good sale. There is soooo much at play in every transaction. And so much depends on the actual domain.

I'm suggesting you host a website with a simple contact form for your domain and let potential end-users inquire about it. If you are a more motivated seller, then this forum is a great place to see what it's wholesale value is. You can simply ask for offers here under the right topic.

Asking for estimates is a very difficult question as there are so many factors - but you can ask and see what people throw at you.
 
First of all.... Welcome aboard

The section of the board rlm was referring to was namepost.ca, where we sell .ca domains.

The thing about the board that most people don't see is how many domains we sell behind the lines that are not discussed on the board. I am in contact with a number of members at a time and am continuously buying, selling or trading without posting about it.

Those are what I call the sleeper sales and sometimes it's entire catalogs where both the buyer and the seller don't want to publish it.

I have bought many domains, plus a number of catalogs, via private contact with members. Often those domainers are in situations where they are forced to sell due to financial constraints and I am asked not to divulge. My catalog has grown pretty big the last year and I stopped publishing it because of the promises I made not to divulge the information.

So you can do it both ways, you can publish the domains or you can simply state contact me for details.

The only thing you should not do is solicit members via Private Message unless they want to be solicited. Sending put unsolicited bulk PM's will get the privileges removed.

So do it like this....

1. Post each domain separately
2. Post a list of domains
3. Post a catalog with description with contact me if interested

Many different ways to aproach it.

You can also try a MarketPage on our site and use it kind of like a directory to all your For Sale topics which is something I like to do.
 
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There is a section on the forum where you can list domains for sale, either by offer or for a price. Just note that this forum will be full of domain investors who will just want to buy the domain cheap and then sit on it themselves hoping to sell it for a higher price in the future.

Domain investors typically have large portfolios of domains, in the thousands. They may only sell 2% or less per year. Furthermore, they'll sell their domains for 10 to 100 or time times what they paid for it - this is the only way to profitability as an investor. Buy low, sell high and have a large volume of high quality domains than can justify a high price.

Many people may try to invest in domains, but they typically get frustrated that you can hold a domain for decades before finding the right buyer to make it worth selling. This is where volume comes in, you need a large portfolio to have any expectation to sell domains with any frequency. If you own 10 domains but only sell 1% per year, that is only selling one domain every 10 years. If the price is right and you have the patience, then that can be profitable.

The godaddy values are at least a starting point for you to work from, but their values tend to be more realistic or even too high for crappy domains, and unrealistically low for good domains. If your value is $2500 or less, its probably more in the crappy range. But sometimes a hidden gem can slip past their valuations too. Or if their valuation is more like $5K+, then your domain may be worth 2x to 50x that price - that is if you're patient enough to wait for the right end user to come along.

Domains are liquid at wholesale prices (at a place like on this forum), but are not very liquid if you are expecting a high price. Picture a curve of price vs # of buyers. At the low end of price, there are lots of buyers, but as the price goes up even a little bit, those wholesale buyers drop off quickly. Then you get all the "small biz" people who might buy a domain for a thousand or two. Then there are medium businesses that might pay $10K+, then there are larger businesses that might pay $100K+. The numbers of each group drop off significantly as you can imagine. So the sales price is always some sort of compromise between the buyer and seller, with signifcant unique factors for every scenario such as how bad does the buyer want it, and how bad does the seller need to sell it. The same domain in the hands of two different owners could sell at $10,000 and $100,000 and both could think they made a good sale. There is soooo much at play in every transaction. And so much depends on the actual domain.

I'm suggesting you host a website with a simple contact form for your domain and let potential end-users inquire about it. If you are a more motivated seller, then this forum is a great place to see what it's wholesale value is. You can simply ask for offers here under the right topic.

Asking for estimates is a very difficult question as there are so many factors - but you can ask and see what people throw at you.
ok awesome thank you so much for all of the info and advice !

I have bought many domains always seeing as potential niche sites to build out. Ya they start to pile up fast with each new idea and then not enough time lol

A broker contacted me a few years ago asking to buy one of my 3 word domains for $10,000 and until then I really had no idea that could happen lol.

Ok yeah I kind of got that feeling about pricing being all over the place depending on who is buying.

Thank you ... I will do that then
 
First of all.... Welcome aboard

The section of the board rlm was referring to was namepost.ca, where we sell .ca domains.

The thing about the board that most people don't see is how many domains we sell behind the lines that are not discussed on the board. I am in contact with a number of members at a time and am continuously buying, selling or trading without posting about it.

Those are what I call the sleeper sales and sometimes it's entire catalogs where both the buyer and the seller don't want to publish it.

I have bought many domains, plus a number of catalogs, via private contact with members. Often those domainers are in situations where they are forced to sell due to financial constraints and I am asked not to divulge. My catalog has grown pretty big the last year and I stopped publishing it because of the promises I made not to divulge the information.

So you can do it both ways, you can publish the domains or you can simply state contact me for details.

The only thing you should not do is solicit members via Private Message unless they want to be solicited. Sending put unsolicited bulk PM's will get the privileges removed.

So do it like this....

1. Post each domain separately
2. Post a list of domains
3. Post a catalog with description with contact me if interested

Many different ways to aproach it.

You can also try a MarketPage on our site and use it kind of like a directory to all your For Sale topics which is something I like to do.
Thank you ! That sounds good ... I will post the list of them and see if there is any interest or not ... if not Ill just keep them for my initial plan lol

I am happy I reached out to ask where I could sell the dot ca domains now ... I have learned so much already.

I was concerned they would be harder to sell, being that you could only be a Canadian citizen to own them. At least that is what I understand ... maybe that it not true.

Thank you so much for all the info !
 
Welcome to the forum. Great opinions above, I'll add my two cents.

Are the 600,000 searches you are referring to a monthly statistic? Are these searches made only in Canada or other countries as well?

Keeping in mind that a .CA domain has a designation to primarily serve the Canadian market, if that volume of searches is only for Canada, then it will definitely add value to it.
 
Welcome to the forum. Great opinions above, I'll add my two cents.

Are the 600,000 searches you are referring to a monthly statistic? Are these searches made only in Canada or other countries as well?

Keeping in mind that a .CA domain has a designation to primarily serve the Canadian market, if that volume of searches is only for Canada, then it will definitely add value to it.
yes thank you ... that is a good point ... it was using the "keywords everywhere" plugin so it would be a collective search volume I guess.
 
Ok yeah I kind of got that feeling about pricing being all over the place depending on who is buying.

Who is buying is 50%. Who is selling is the other 50%.

Quite seriously, the same domain can sell for drastically different prices depending on the owner. You've got owners who don't need the money and are willing to hold out for a fantastic sale, just for the principle of it. You've also got owners who need to fund renewals or pay other bills, or who are just happy with a sale for some extra vacation money.

The trick is waiting for the best buyer with the deepest pockets to come along for your domain. But not everyone is willing to wait for that scenario, and to get a 6 figure sale, you have to say no to MANY really good offers first to get there. The trick is knowing the value of the domain and when to hold out or when to take the sale. It is so circumstantial...

Feel free to Private Message message me and I can give more specific advice depending on the domain.
 
Who is buying is 50%. Who is selling is the other 50%.

Quite seriously, the same domain can sell for drastically different prices depending on the owner. You've got owners who don't need the money and are willing to hold out for a fantastic sale, just for the principle of it. You've also got owners who need to fund renewals or pay other bills, or who are just happy with a sale for some extra vacation money.

The trick is waiting for the best buyer with the deepest pockets to come along for your domain. But not everyone is willing to wait for that scenario, and to get a 6 figure sale, you have to say no to MANY really good offers first to get there. The trick is knowing the value of the domain and when to hold out or when to take the sale. It is so circumstantial...

Feel free to Private Message message me and I can give more specific advice depending on the domain.
ok yes that makes sense. awesome thank you ... will do
 
The .ca ,market is quite thin. I, personally. will no longer hold a .ca domain unless I see a particular value (or potential value) to it.
 
The .ca ,market is quite thin. I, personally. will no longer hold a .ca domain unless I see a particular value (or potential value) to it.

Hehe, I see the value, told my wife today that domaining might be my only job moving forward. Year to date I have made more than I ever expected.
 
The .ca ,market is quite thin. I, personally. will no longer hold a .ca domain unless I see a particular value (or potential value) to it.
oh ok good to know. Ya I was not sure how valuable they are considering only Canadians can buy them. Lesson learned lol thank you for your reply
 

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