Where do people go to sell domain names online?  Obviously, they could do it on eBay (which I've read about anecdotally in the newspaper), but where else are domains sold?

It appears that there are a number of online auction sites which focus on selling domains, the primary domain aftermarkets" seem to be:

• Afternic
• GoDaddy
• GreatDomains/Sedo.com
• and eBay

GoDaddy is an internet domain registrar and web hosting company founded in 1997.

It became the largest domain registrar (passing Network Solutions) in April 2005, and later launched what now appears to be the highest volume aftermarket exchange.

It may not be appropriate for the premium domain market, though.  Keither Pieper, a senior analyst at domain name research company Zetetic, says in this press release, "GoDaddy's sale transactions are likely casual sellers who happen to register their names with GoDaddy, casually willing to sell at any price."

According to Zetetic's December 2005 data, GoDaddy had the lowest average sale price of the major online exchanges, where the average sale was for about $692 (Sedo was the leader at $2,558, followed by Afternic at $1,072), though they were a relatively new player at that time.

An acronym for "Search Engine for Domain Offers," Sedo is one of the leading online domain aftermarketplaces, with the world's largest database of domain names (over 8 million domains listed for sale).

When Sedo.com acquired GreatDomains in June (for a reported $2 million) to boost their presence in the higher end of the domain market, they kicked off a monthly week-long online live auction of premium domains.   The most recent auction, ending August 23, sold 22 domains, including lifts.com (67,000), dental.net and queries.com (both $21,500).

According to Zetetic's December 2005 data, Sedo had the highest average sale price of the major online exchanges, and I bet the premium auction has further boosted this.

For a quick summary of Sedo's process and fees (as well as comparison with Afternic), see this Domains Magazine article about Selling Domains: Domain Aftermarkets.

eBay is far and away the United States' biggest online auction community. But that doesn't necessary mean that they are dominant in the field of domain name auctions.

Do people buy and sell domains on eBay?

They clearly do!  There were several thousand domains for sale when I visited eBay's .com domains auction page.  And people did appear to be looking at the details (though how they could make sense of them, I don't know) -- closing auctions tended to have had 50 or even hundreds of page views, though most domains bid prices weren't very close to the admittedly starry-eyed "buy now" prices.

 Unfortunately, the site was such a mess that I couldn't imagine a lot of people finding the good domains there.  And the whole experience made me feel a little sleazy, so ultimately I didn't feel comfortable doing this with table.com.

Here is something you might want to check out if you do go down this road:

• Auction Domains on eBay - The Complete Guide

One of the longest-established domain exchanges, Afternic remains one of the two largest domain exchanges.  Afternic was bought by Register.com in 2000, then sold after the .com crash in 2002 to a company known as NameBuySell.

According to Zetetic's December 2005 data, Afternic's average sale was for about $1,072, between GoDaddy and Sedo.

For a quick summary of Afternic's process and fees (as well as comparison with Sedo), see this Domains Magazine article about Selling Domains: Domain Aftermarkets.

According to Zetetic's December 2005 data, Sedo had the highest average sale price of the major online exchanges, where the average sale was for about $2,558, followed by Afternic at $1,072 and GoDaddy was at $692.  The anecdotal evidence also seems to say that though GoDaddy is getting good volume, it doesn't seem appropriate marketplace for premium-type domains.

This Domains Magazine article about Selling Domains: Domain Aftermarkets is a nice summary of the fees and procedures at the two other major exchanges, Afternic & Sedo.  In our case, the difference in fees weren't particularly significant, since we were hoping to sell the domain for quite a bit more than $100.

Domain Rookie, who despite his name appears to have a relatively substantial portfolio, has the following post listing where he is selling his names.

One reasonable question is whether I should sell this domain myself, rather than having someone do it...

I bet I could do well at it.  I wouldn't have to pay any commissions. I could follow up on all of the leads I wanted.  I wouldn't have to trust that someone else was doing what I wanted.

On the other hand, there are skilled people who do this for a living, who already have many of the strategies and contacts necessary to succeed.  And most importantly, I really do already have the job of running a small business.  Between my job, family, this project, and other commitments, something would definitely suffer. 

If I did decide to sell the domain myself without using an auction, I would probably use a combination of strategies:

• broad reach by posting the domain on listing services & forums
• and lots of targeted calls and emails to people working in relevant positions in relevant industries (for instance: furniture, dining) asking whether they know anyone who might be interested in table.com.

Domain listing services, an alternative to auctions and brokers, are websites which allow sellers to list and sell their domain names in a DIY-type environment.  Usually, no commissons, but also much more limited services.

Examples include DotComerica.com, 100domains.com, DomainsListing.com, MAXdomains, alphanames, and many more.

Similarly, many domain name forums offer one or more message boards with the express purpose of allowing users to list their domains:  Digital Point, SitePoint, NameCheap, SiteUSell, etc.

We thought this was a nice idea in principle, but not really the best location to solicit buyers for a premium domain name.  Sales from domain listing services and online forums seem to mostly be in the $xx-$xxx range...