As long as I have been a Web professional (closing in on 20 years), domain name valuations have always been, well, insane.
In my book
Domains 360: The Fundamentals of Buying & Selling Domain Names, I address what I believe is the true secret to valuations:
they are worth what someone is willing to pay for them. If you want it bad enough, you're going to pay whatever it takes to acquire it.
That time may be coming to an end however as it looks as though GoDaddy is introducing a whole new approach to the practice of valuing domain names and it could be a real shake up for the industry.
Domain Name Wire is reporting that GoDaddy is rolling out its new valuation system for bidders on expired domain auctions at GoDaddy Auctions. The company apparently began using the valuation tool internally last year but should start displaying it next to all expiring domains this week - its first public use of the new system.
The valuations reportedly use a variety of data including actual sales data and historical data and will show a wholesale valuation, predicted sales price and predicted list price.
Domain names with valuations under $1,000 will be denoted as merely < $1,000. Valuations over $25,000 will be denoted as > $25,000.