Whats my domain worth and how do I handle the sale?

The most common question from people in email or in person is "what is my domain name worth". I always ask them if the have people interested or not. The answer is usually no, followed by a "I was just wondering what its worth" I always compare collecting domain names with collecting baseball cards. Sure there are guides and "experts" that will make you feel good by telling you your domain is worth tons of money but the real truth of the matter is that your domain is only worth what someone will pay. (pretty obvious huh?). The bottom line is if your just asking what your domain is worth and nobody wants to buy it then its worth....... nothing. Now if someone emails you and asks if your selling your domain that is a different story. When someone does email you asking if your website/domain is for sale your answer should ALWAYS be "Its not really for sale but I am open to offers". This small response is pretty effective to filter out the following:

• Brokers who want to shop your site to other people - Basically someone sees value in your site and wants to paste it all over the internet "for sale".
• People who just want to see if your making any money so they can copy you
• People who just want to chit chat - I dont know about you but I dont have the time for this.

The next response you are going to get is probably going to be the same from a novice or a pro domainer. "I have never bought a domain before, what is your asking price?" or something to that effect is what you can expect to get back from a interested party. Now depending on how bad you really want to sell the site depends on your response. If you want to sell the site then respond with "I was offered $xx,xxx.xx for the site 3 months ago and I turned it down. If you want the site your offer is going to need to be more then that" the x amount being what you would sell the domain for. Its good to come up with this figure (especially if your new to buying/selling) before engaging in negotiations. Now the interested party knows your "bottom line" and will either offer you more or wont respond. If you really dont want to sell the domain but are open to offers then NEVER name a price. Just respond with vague things like "its gotta be a offer I cant refuse" and various things like that. This lets your buyer know that indeed you really are going to be a tough sell but could be bought for the right price. Here is a update on a post I made before With schoemaker.com I dont know if the guy was a pro or not... maybe he just reads my blog =P, but he played it really well. Long story short - he wants $30,000.00 for it and I offered $10,000.00. I just cant do 30.... crap i shouldnt even do 10 but its my last name so I thought perhaps it was worth 10. How do you put a price on your family name? Only 1 person can ever own it ever... in 20 years I will probably be telling my kids how I could have purchased our lastname.com for a mere 30k (less then a cup of coffee in 2026).