Pricing Strategies

Pricing strategies help you decide how far below the Estimated Retail Value to list a domain. On Appraise.net, the Optimistic retail value is a ceiling, not a promise — most actual sales happen below it. Your strategy is the haircut you take to convert inventory into cash at a given speed.

There are two ways to set your asking price in your profile:

1. Fixed Fraction (My Price %)

A flat percentage of the Optimistic retail value — for example, 80%. The same percentage applies to every domain regardless of size. Best for investors who already have a portfolio-wide rule of thumb.

2. Strategy Curves

Four preset curves that price higher-value domains closer to (or above) the Optimistic retail value and discount the long tail more steeply. Pick one based on your tolerance for sitting on inventory:

• Aggressive — about 27% of the Optimistic retail value. Faster sales, higher sell-through rate, lower dollars per sale.
• Balanced — about 38% of the Optimistic retail value. Strong middle ground; meaningful STR with healthy revenue per sale.
• Patient — about 50% of the Optimistic retail value. Maximum dollars per sale, lower STR, longer holds.
• Conviction — scales with value, from about 50% of the Optimistic retail value on commodity names up to about 150% on your best. The only strategy that can price above retail: discount cheap names for fast sales, ask a premium on in-demand hero names.

Whichever you pick, your chosen price is shown as My Price on appraisals, lists, and batch results.

Both methods produce a My Price from the Estimated Retail Value. They just answer the question “how should the discount change as domains get more valuable?” differently.

Fixed Fraction (My Price %)

A flat percentage of the Optimistic retail value. An 80% setting prices a domain with a $5,000 Optimistic retail value at $4,000, and a domain with a $1,000,000 Optimistic retail value at $800,000. The discount never bends.

Use it when you already have a portfolio rule of thumb and want every name priced the same way without thinking about size.

Strategy Curves (Aggressive / Balanced / Patient / Conviction)

A curve that bends with retail value: stronger names get a higher fraction of retail, the long tail gets discounted more. This reflects how STR (sell-through rate) actually behaves in real portfolios — deeper discounts unlock liquidity on smaller names without burning margin on hero names. Conviction takes this further, scaling from a deep discount on commodity names to a premium above retail on your best, most in-demand ones.

Use a curve when you want pricing that scales with value the way most successful portfolios do.

How they interact

If the My Price % field has a value, it wins. If you leave it empty, the Aggressive / Balanced / Patient / Conviction strategy you selected applies. Asian Market Pricing (88/888) works on top of either choice.

My Price (% of Optimistic retail value) is a fixed percentage of the Optimistic retail value (the high end of the Estimated Retail Value range) used as your asking price. It lives at the top of Pricing Preferences and overrides the strategy curve when set.

Enter a whole number from 1 to 200. For example, 80 means “always price at 80% of the Optimistic retail value.”

How it behaves

• Static: Same percentage for every domain, whether its Optimistic retail value is $5,000 or $1,000,000.
• Charm-priced: The raw number is rounded to a charm-friendly figure before display (e.g. $4,995, $50,000, $158,888).
• Overrides curves: If this field has a value, your selected Aggressive / Balanced / Patient / Conviction strategy is ignored.
• Empty by default: Leave it blank to fall back to the strategy curve.

When it's the right choice

A flat percentage suits investors who already think about pricing as “X% of the Optimistic retail value” portfolio-wide and value consistency over fine-tuning by tier. If you don't have that rule of thumb yet, the strategy curves are a better starting point.

The first three strategies discount stronger names less and the long tail more, sitting at different points on the sell-through-rate vs. revenue tradeoff. Each is a curve f(R) of the appraised retail value R, anchored between $10k and $2M. Conviction is a fourth curve that goes further — it scales all the way from a deep discount on commodity names to a premium above retail on your best ones.

• Aggressive — ~27% of retail. f rises from 0.20 at $10k retail to 0.35 at $2M. Faster sales, higher STR, lower dollars per sale. Suits a working-inventory portfolio that needs to turn over.
• Balanced — ~38% of retail. f rises 0.32 → 0.45. Strong middle ground; meaningful STR with healthy revenue per sale. A defensible default if you haven't decided which way you lean.
• Patient — ~50% of retail. f rises 0.45 → 0.60. Maximum dollars per sale, lower STR, longer holds. Suits a hero-name portfolio anchored on a few big sales.
• Conviction — scales from ~50% to ~150% of retail. f rises log-linearly from 0.50 at $5k retail to 1.50 at $10M, crossing 100% around $220k appraised value. The only strategy that can ask above retail: it discounts commodity names for liquidity and asks a premium on your best, most in-demand names where qualified end-users will pay up. Suits a portfolio with a few standout names you can afford to hold for the right buyer.

Sample My Price across the four strategies

After the curve and charm pricing are applied, prices look like this:

For the first three strategies, retail below $10k and above $2M is clamped to the curve endpoints. Conviction spans a wider range — it is clamped to ~50% of retail below $5k and ~150% above $10M — which is why it can list a hero name above its appraised retail value. You can see your own preview at every level in Pricing Preferences or compare all four side-by-side on the Pricing Strategies page.

The appraised retail value on Appraise.net is a ceiling, not a median sale price. It's the price an ideal, well-funded end-user might rationally pay in a one-off, patient negotiation. Most actual sales happen below it.

Your asking price is a fraction of that ceiling:

asking price = f × retail

where f is the fraction your pricing setup produces — either a flat number from My Price % or a value-dependent number from your selected strategy curve.

Why pick a fraction at all?

Sell-through rate (STR) — the share of your portfolio that sells in a year — is itself a function of price. Listing closer to retail maximizes dollars per sale but produces few sales. Discounting more increases STR but gives up margin. The strategy curves are different points on that tradeoff:

• Patient (~50%) tends to win on dollars and total revenue.
• Aggressive (~27%) tends to win on cash flow rhythm and faster capital recycling.
• Balanced (~38%) sits between them on every dimension.
• Conviction (~50% to ~150%) scales the fraction with the domain's value — deep discounts for liquidity on commodity names, a premium above retail on your best, most in-demand ones.

None of these is “correct.” They solve for different things. Pick the one that matches your time horizon, capital needs, and tolerance for sitting on inventory.

Set your pricing preferences from your profile:

1. Go to Profile → Pricing Preferences.
2. Optionally enter a number in My Price (% of Optimistic retail value) (e.g. 80). This sets a fixed percentage of the Optimistic retail value as your asking price across the board. Leave it empty if you want to use a strategy curve instead.
3. Pick a Pricing Strategy — Aggressive, Balanced, Patient, or Conviction. This is used whenever the My Price % field is empty.
4. Optionally enable Asian Market Pricing (88/888) if you target Chinese-speaking buyers.
5. Check the Pricing Preview table to see your resulting prices at sample Estimated Retail Values.
6. Click Save Pricing Preferences.

My Price % takes precedence over the strategy curve when both are set. Your saved preference appears as My Price on every appraisal, domain list, and batch result.

Charm pricing nudges raw calculated prices to numbers that read better to buyers. After your strategy or fixed-fraction calculation produces a number, it is rounded to a charm-friendly figure before being shown as My Price.

In practice that means:

• Smaller prices end in 95 or 995 — e.g. $1,995 or $24,995.
• Larger prices round to clean intervals — e.g. $50,000, $100,000, $250,000.
• If Asian Market Pricing is enabled, prices end in 88 or 888 instead — e.g. $1,888, $24,888, $158,888.

This happens automatically. You don't need to charm-price anything yourself; the numbers shown in your profile preview, on appraisal pages, and in batch results are already charm-priced.

You can see how your pricing preferences play out in three places:

• Profile preview: The Pricing Preferences section in your profile shows a small table of sample Estimated Retail Values ($5k through $1M) and the resulting Your price using your current settings. The table updates live as you change strategy or My Price %.
• Pricing Strategies page: Visit Pricing Strategies for an interactive calculator and a side-by-side comparison of all four strategy curves at any retail value.
• Bulk Pricing Advisor: Use the Bulk Pricing Advisor to apply your pricing preferences to a list of domains at once.

Asian market pricing adjusts all prices to end in 88 or 888, considered highly auspicious numbers in Chinese culture. The number 8 (八, pronounced "ba") sounds similar to "发" (fa), which means prosperity, wealth, and fortune.

When to use Asian market pricing:

• Targeting buyers from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, or Taiwan
• Selling domains with Chinese, Pinyin, or Asian cultural themes
• Listing on Asian marketplaces or forums
• Appealing to Chinese diaspora communities worldwide

Examples: $5,000 becomes $4,888 • $15,000 becomes $13,888 • $500 becomes $488

Yes. You can change your pricing setup any time from Profile → Pricing Preferences. The change takes effect immediately and is reflected everywhere your My Price appears — appraisals, lists, and batch results.

You can also switch between the fixed-fraction mode and a strategy curve by clearing or filling in the My Price (% of Optimistic retail value) field, and toggle Asian Market Pricing on or off independently of either choice.

No. My Price is a default starting point, not a binding number. You should adjust based on:

• Your financial goals and time horizon
• Current marketplace conditions and demand
• Domain age, history, and existing traffic
• Comparable sales and competing listings
• Your willingness to negotiate

The strategy curves and the My Price % setting are tools to keep your pricing consistent across a portfolio. Override individual domains whenever you have a reason to.