closed BackToSchoolStore(.)com

[ngconcepts]

BackToSchoolStore(.)com
Aged Domain (2003)
235,000 exact search on Google

What do you think?
Thanks.

 

[grcorp]

It's got a couple of strikes against it (length, and "to" can be typed as "2" erroneously).

On the other hand, the establishment, great keywords, and applicable demographic (the percentage internet users among those going back to school are in a majority) all work well for this name.

Plus, "back to school" is a very affiliate-friendly niche (laptops, backpacks, USB drives, software, etc.), so you have a wider scope of end users thus making the name easy to sell.

My guess at valuation: $2,500.

 

[WhoDatDog]

Money doesn't grow on trees. $2,500 is way to high. What is an appraisal? In my mind, an appraisal should somewhat reflect what the name would get if a reasonable number of dominainers had a chance to buy it. I don't see this name going for anything more than low XXX, if it was listed here. But, you might ask, what about a possible end-user? I mean, Back to School sales are a short-duration of time, so I seriously have my doubts that someone would pay good money for this in order to operate a website for a condensed period of time.

I think that you would be extremely lucky to ever get a few hundred for this name. If there is someone on this forum who sees this appraisal and they are willing to honestly offer you $250 for it right now, and are ready to pay you today, then I accept that I may be off on my appraisal.

I see that there is a site at BackToSchoolStore.org, so the game changes a bit. You would think that they would easliy pay $2,500 for this. After all, it has to be worth $2,500 for them to have the dotcom, right? In theory, the answer is yes, but you will find that it is not as easy as it seems. I have had many similar names and have been shocked way too many times by the response (or lack of response) I have received from possibly end-users like this.

This is the type of name that would be very hard to sell to anyone other than someone with an active site, or someone with specific plans on building a site. You could get lucky though, so it is a nice name to keep in the vault until luck comes your way.

 

[ngconcepts]

Money doesn't grow on trees. $2,500 is way to high. What is an appraisal? In my mind, an appraisal should somewhat reflect what the name would get if a reasonable number of dominainers had a chance to buy it. I don't see this name going for anything more than low XXX, if it was listed here. But, you might ask, what about a possible end-user? I mean, Back to School sales are a short-duration of time, so I seriously have my doubts that someone would pay good money for this in order to operate a website for a condensed period of time.

I think that you would be extremely lucky to ever get a few hundred for this name. If there is someone on this forum who sees this appraisal and they are willing to honestly offer you $250 for it right now, and are ready to pay you today, then I accept that I may be off on my appraisal.

I see that there is a site at BackToSchoolStore.org, so the game changes a bit. You would think that they would easliy pay $2,500 for this. After all, it has to be worth $2,500 for them to have the dotcom, right? In theory, the answer is yes, but you will find that it is not as easy as it seems. I have had many similar names and have been shocked way too many times by the response (or lack of response) I have received from possibly end-users like this.

This is the type of name that would be very hard to sell to anyone other than someone with an active site, or someone with specific plans on building a site. You could get lucky though, so it is a nice name to keep in the vault until luck comes your way.

Thanks for your responses. BackToSchoolStore.org is just another SEDO type page to generate clicks but I suppose they felt the name good enough to pay reg fee to get it. I originally had a SEDO page for this domain name but decided I needed to be more proactive and find an end user.

You are exactly correct in your assessment of it being very seasonal. It peaks each year around the August/September months for hits. That is backed up by peaks on Google Trends for Back to School.

Any suggestions on who a good end user would be to approach? Will the big retailers like Wal-Mart, etc.. give me the time of day?

 

[WhoDatDog]

http://www.backtoschoolstore.org/ is now a full-functioning site, so someone must have bought the .org from the person who had it parked at Sedo.


Your best shot is to approach BackToSchoolStore.org and see if you can get at least $1,000. Sometimes it is best to test them out to see how interested they may be, and other times it is best to mention a price. You would think they would be smart enought to pay thousands of dollars for the dotcom, but I know from experience that some people would rather not have someone else profit from a similar name.

I would check out their site and try to figure out just how big their business is, and if it seems substantial I would go about it with a serious approach. Maybe call them or email multiple parties and let them know the value. It is an art, not a science. The key is to make sure they know that the name is worth more to them than the price you are asking, and you also want them to know that you aren't getting a windfall at their expense (even though it is a generic phrase/term).


I sometimes use an approach like this:

Greetings,

I acquired the domain name BackToSchoolStore.com at a domain auction a few years ago. I have decided not to develop it, and therefore it is available today for $3,500. Please let me know your interest so that we may conduct a quick and easy transaction.



Now, remember, there are 100's of different variations of the above. Sometimes it is better to list the price, and other times not. Sometimes it is better to let them know why the name is valuable to them, but in this case it is quite obvious (they have the .org), so you don't really need to explain it to them. Get as much information about them as possible and then develop your gameplan.

Also, in this case, even though they should already have an idea as to why it would be valuable, it might be just as well that you let them know that the name gets good traffic.....targeted traffic, and there is a likelihood that a significant percentage of that includes people looking for their site. You can only do this if you are not infringing on their trademark. Since this is a generic term, I feel that they won't feel entitled to the name as much as some others might, and it isn't likely they would spend the time and money on a UDRP against you (that they would probably lose, anyways). If they think they are losing sales and they feel you are not taking advantage of them, then your job gets much easier.

There are many ways to skin the cat, and part of the fun is figuring out an approach that will maximize your return without blowing the sale, so use your own creativity and common sense. Put yourself in their shoes. What approach would you respond best to?

 

[ngconcepts]

Hey, good timing WhoDatDog. I was in the process of emailing them when I got a notice that you had posted on here. I modified some of my email to what you suggested. Let's see what happens. Thanks again.

 

[WhoDatDog]

Good luck. The one thing you have going against you is that they probably just threw up that site, since you thought it was still a Sedo page. Even with that, they would be foolish not to at least give you a few hundred. If they balk, then let them build a big site and you will be able to capitalize on it. The bigger they get, the more they will want it.

 

[ngconcepts]

Good luck. The one thing you have going against you is that they probably just threw up that site, since you thought it was still a Sedo page. Even with that, they would be foolish not to at least give you a few hundred. If they balk, then let them build a big site and you will be able to capitalize on it. The bigger they get, the more they will want it.

Actually I had a typo in the URL when trying to go to the .ORG site. When I tried to go to it again later today, it came to the site you were looking at.

I started researching how much the US spends a year on back to school stuff and one site had it at $20.1 billion. I need to create the site into a news feed or something to generate traffic while in parallel, try to find an end user. I might spend a year developing the site and have it ready in time for next year or maybe auction it off right before school starts.

 

[grcorp]

Re: selling it to the .org owner, chances of succeeding are hit or miss.

I've made sales in the past of .com names to those who owned the same name in an inferior extension. But the majority of attempts were failures. They gave typical useless responses like "we already have a domain name..."

The existing site built on backtoschoolstore.org is ho-hum. Looks like an affiliate shop. However, blatantly showing their customer service number shows they're likely a little more than a two bit operation.

Having googled the name, they appear to be advertising very little.

Your best bet is to coerce them by exaggerating how much traffic they could be losing. Who knows? It could work in your favor.