Buying Aftermarket Domain Names

In addition to registering available domains and trying to catch dropping domains, you can add to your portfolio by purchasing domain names directly from the current owners. This is called the domain aftermarket (names that have already been registered or purchased by someone else that are made available for sale by the current owners).

There are large aftermarket sales sites like Afternic.com and Sedo.com that list hundreds of thousands of domains for sale. You can visit their site and enter a keyword you are interested in in their search box. That will return a list showing every domain they have for sale that includes your keyword. If you find any you like, you can then place a bid and begin negotiations with the current owner.

A lot of domain owners have their names parked on pay per click advertising pages that will often display a clear notice whether or not the domain is for sale. You can enter names you are interested in in your browser to see what the domain is currently being used for. If you land on one of those For Sale/PPC pages you can click on the For Sale link and make an offer for the domain. The owner will usually make a counter offer and the negotiations will continue from there.

You will also find a lot of names for sale in the various domain name forums on the Internet (see our Free Resources section for links to the largest ones). A lot of domains have changed hands for very good prices in forum sales and if you spend some time in them you will also get to know a lot of the sellers making it easier to buy from a trusted source.

Another option you have when you have a specific domain name in mind that you would like to have is to look up who owns the domain in the public WhoIs record. This record will show the current owner's name and email address (unless they are using a WhoIs privacy service).

You can then drop the owner an email inquiring whether or not they would be interested in selling the domain. This may not have a high success rate because many of these names will not be available for sale. Still, it never hurts to ask and once in awhile you might land a bargain.  

Before you make an offer on any domain name you should spend some time studying the market so you will have an idea of how much to bid. You don't want to overpay but you will also be wasting your time (and the seller's time) by making unrealisticly low offers that are far below current market values. In most cases, you won't even get a reply when you make such offers.

How do you learn about current market prices? The weekly domain sales report that comes out every Tuesday night at DNJournal.com lists dozens of sales in all extensions that have been completed in the previous seven days. From studying those sales reports (which also inlcude all of the year's top sales) it won't be long before you become familiar with the kind of domains that command premium prices. For example, since you will see 3-letter .coms typically selling for thousands of dollars, no need to write someone and offer them $50 for theirs.

On the other side of the coin, other types of names or particular extensions may be conspicuous by their absence. If the kind of name you have in mind rarely shows up with a high price tag attached, a motivated seller might consider a couple of hundred dollars for it. Unfortunately, when it comes to getting a real handle on domain values there is no substitute for study and experience.