Hey everyone, thanks for the comments thus far. It's certainly very interesting to hear, even though I possibly disagree with methodology used to valuate (I would, wound't I, I am the owner!)
With that said I do wonder what methodology you are using to base it on. Few things to consider:
1) Purely PPC or the like, definitely the price would be XXX, not more if one is to consider making money of any type in traffic. There is some but very small. I have a hunch that too many domain valuations I've already seen on DNForum are only keeping mostly this metric in mind, and not any other potential. Of course we can agree to disagree.
2) SEO - doesn't apply or none you'd say. Except one thing! To a person starting their own business on their own domain, it should be very important to make sure their name doesn't bring up tons of other confusing results when searched for. In this respect Haay.com is a search virgin, a clean slate. Anything you do, the engine will find you right away. If your brand becomes known enough, you could have search engines recommending haay.com when people type in "hey".
For example I operate di.fm, and someone else operates dj.fm. At least for me if you type "dj fm" into google it asks if I meant di.fm (poor chaps). Or if I type in "dig" three results later it says "dig you mean digg".
>do a search for Haay.com on G and you get... Did you mean: Gay.com
That must be personalized Google results, as I don't get that here or my other machines. Google thinks you are probably looking for... take away what you want from that
3) Brandability. That's open for debate, it works for one while it doesn't work for another. But it's the major factor going for the name. If there is a service for haay.com (and this name lends nicely to being for anything social IMO), once people know it's haay and not hey, it works.
>How many ppl would go to HAY.COM or HEY.COM when you say this? Just a thought.
True, and same argument goes for dig vs digg, I think it speaks for itself. Had digg not built up a service, one would laugh at "digg" being worth anything. But really there aren't that many 4 letter words which lend themselves to be used in a natural language (and stand the test of international pronounciations too). Digg is one of them, for others we all hold our opinions. Then again, maybe there are too many of such brandable words, 4 letters or 5, and the value really is xxx.
So I guess this just begs the question if I have such an opinion on this why do I even ask. I wanted to hear other thoughts, as well as to see how DNforum regulars think. So thanks for any input.