Cobb.com 1.5 mil

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2007/3/prweb512810.htm

This is a fine generic name..  it's a county, a last name..  it's brandable.. but wow 1.5mm.

Funny thing is,  the name is probably worth that to somebody.  It's just a big wow moment when you consider that names like that used to rain down on drop days and the people scooping them 5 or 50 at a time had no idea what they were picking up in terms of value.  This space is still so early,  but has come so far.  Amazing.

Comments

[Eric]

That is amazing – do you have any good references on how to calculate the value of a domain name. I know there are articles out there but I would rather get guidance from a guru than a wannabe.

This may sound so “ass-kissing” but you cannot imagine how much you inspire me with your postings and your thoughts. Everyday I look at that picture of you standing looking out at the beach and I say to myself – push harder – you can do it – it is right there in front of you.

Thanks so much

Eric

***FS*** Its just a huge name.. I'm eyeballing it. The question I ask myself is: "How many people does this domain name effect?" How many people's lives are in one way or another impacted by a name like cobb? It's short, it's broad reaching. A very valuable name IMO. I am greatful you like the blog.. glad to help. I feel grateful for this life and glad to share what I know.. keep what you like and throw out some.. not everything I write is the gospel.. but thanks again.

[paul sloan]

C'mon, Frank. You didn't answer the question :) If you were to buy that name, would you just go by the gut or would you look at any quantifiable measures.

Hey, thanks for the kind post yesterday.

Paul

***FS*** Wow.. paul sloan comments.. I am flattered. :) .. So I am a wildcatter. I like wildcat returns. Spend 500 to make 5000 olr 50,000. I wouldn't personally invest in that name for 1,5mm but a see the valueline based on gut instinct and the fact that lots of people are effected by the name's orbit/gravity. Its kind of hard to articulate.. but I guess you could call it gut instinct.

[Russ Goodwin]

Not to challenge your gut, Frank, and while I hope the guy gets his asking price, I just can't see the domain selling for that much very quickly.

Like you said, the applications for the domain are many, but none of the groups it could reach are that huge or immensely profitable. This is one of those situations where a good domain can have too many possible contexts (something that doesn't get talked about much) and his press release isn't exactly targeting any one buyer or segment of buyers.

If he "only" gets $150k for it that would still be pretty good IMHO.

***FS*** Years ago a friend was in New York at a hot club and wanted to get a good table. Good tables are bottle service and you need to order a bottle of Dom Perignon. The fellas ordered the bottle and about 30 minutes later found themselves getting evicted from the table. Reason? Bruce Willis had come in and ordered a dozen bottles of Cristal Rose' .. Bruce wanted their table. Moral? There is always somebody in New York with more money than you and their perspective of expensive may be different than yours. Ditto in domain land. :)

[paul sloan]

But when you get to that price range -- and i'm guessing cobb.com goes for far less -- isn't it a bit risky to rely on gut? Nothing against your gut, of course. paul

***FS*** depends on complex formula of your pain tolerance divided by wallet thickness. :)

[Sahar Sarid]

Cobb.com falls into a favorite category of mine, family-names based domain names.
Lots and lots of companies name their businesses based on a family name and the good thing here is, it is pretty much generic as none is exclusive.
In the case of cobb.com I see one of those companies a potential client. Problem is, there isn't many of those who can afford the 1.5m price tag. Still, it only takes one.

while this is one of my favorite categories, it isnt the most favorite one. I would prefer names that imply product or usage, such as maps.com or rarecoins.com, or family names+product desc., such as rice.com .

Paul Sloan wrote:
"If you were to buy that name, would you just go by the gut or would you look at any quantifiable measures."

Paul,
While this question was for Franky, I will add my two cents here as I believe it is what most of us do. We take EVERYTHING into consideration and the last call is a gut instinct call. It's not either or.

[owen frager]

I like the way people are beginning to use press releases, advertising, pr (real marketing) to create perceived value and demand around million dollar products. What other products sell for a million dollars that don't have such a push? The days of just blind listing your name in an auction and hoping for the best might be over.

btw, Did anyone consider that these guys could keep their name and sub-let the sub-domain capabilities using Rick's famous "enter" button (see erealestate.com)

[Stephen Cobb]

Fascinating comments folks, and very helpful. I'm the guy who owns cobb.com and wrote the press release. Apparently I gave the impression that I was asking $1.5m for the name. That's is not the case. I'm open to offers (although I wouldn't say No to seven figures, six would probably do :-).

This type of name is interesting. As several commenters pointed out, it has a generic aspect. A surprising number of people apparently just enter cobb.com in the address bar, possibly looking for a variety of cobb-related things, like Cobb County (Georgia), Cobb Grill, Cobb-Vantress (the world's #1 chicken breeder?).

Right now the name is parked at sedo.com with Google ads and the click-thru-rate is over 5 percent.

Anyway, very helpful posting, much appreciated.

Stephen

[Joseph Slabaugh (Mr. Deleted)]

I would rather buy a name like MY.com (email me if you want it - it is half of what this guy wants for Cobb.com) then a name like that. Although I would like my last name in a .com, I would not pay more then 5-10K for it. And since I have 4 ext of my last name, I see no reason to rush to buy it.

Unique Visitors per month*: 5,145

small traffic compared to MY.com which gets 100,000/month. and My.com could be used for email, .my.com, etc....

I am not trying to promote this name really, I am brokering it, but I am also trying to make a point....

There are lots of better names out there then just jumping on the first 1.5M domain offer you see.

The next time you see a name that is high priced, see if it fits current market trents before you jump on it.

[Stephen Cobb]

This is really a great set of comments. So allow me to add a small but potentially useful piece of information to the domain name knowledge base. When a domain gets parked at www.sedo.com the counter for unique visitors (in last 32 days) is deceptive until the domain has been there 32 days. For example, cobb.com has only been there 14 days but the listing at sedo.com says it has had 5,500 visitors in the last 32 days. In fact, it has had 5,500 visitors in the last 14 days, which is how long it has been parked there. Not a fatal flaw in their otherwise impressive site, but a bit annoying for the first 32 days you park your site there.

[Stephen Cobb]

Folks, I really want to thank you all most sincerely for such a great discussion. I have decided to take the plunge and put the name up for auction, at sedo.com, starting noon on Monday, May 7.

I wanted to let you know because the results of the auction will be a very interesting bell-weather for all of our various estimates, guestimates, gut-feelings, hopes and fears and so forth.

I still feel kind of dumb that I put out a press release that gave the [false] impression I was asking $1.5M. So let me repeat, that is NOT the asking price. In fact, the auction reserve is w-a-a-a-y lower than that.

How low? Allow me to explain (but please don't jump to conclusions until you reach the end of my analogy). A few years back when I was a Microsoft vendor, doing some work for their CPO, I asked him how much a particular contract could be worth. His reply? "Oh, not much, about a Miata." Frankly, I had to ask him to repeat it because I didn't get it. For one thing, I aspired to a Mazda Miata at the time and didn't think it equated to "not much." But obviously he meant the contract was worth about $25,000, the price of a nicely equipped new Miata at the time.

So, let me say the reserve price for cobb.com is "about a ten-year-old Miata" (nicely equipped of course).

Stephen [scobb at scobb dot net]