Has that ever happened to you? You get an offer on a domain name you own that you never would have expected. No, not the $10 offer on a high valued domain because we all get those, but the offer you hoped for but never really thought you would get?

With the simple fact that domain names are one of a kind, the great thing for domain name owners is that fact. Many times the "want" factor over rides an estimated value or even the interested party simply sees a higher value than you expected and the outcome is a purchase price many, including yourself didn’t expect.

What are some examples of this?

~ A more recent one was the CamRoulette.com sale for $151,000 USD that Adam Strong received when he put the domain name to auction. I never asked Adam but I would bet he never would have expected his $1,400 purchase would turn into a $150,000 sale a short time after his purchase! To put this sale into perspective. The domain name was first registered on 12-12-2009. Adam purchased it on or about 2-14-2010. Adam sold it for $150,000 in the Domain Madness2 auction on 3-23-2010 and the domain changed ownership on or about 4-7-2010.

A short period of time and a fair amount of money exchanged hands for it! Although this was an auction format, the end results IMO resulted in an unexpected offer amount for the domain name which clearly pleased the seller.

~ Another example would be NoHotel.com and NoHotels.com which I covered awhile back. The pair of domain names sold for $60,000 total! The domains were first registered in 1998 but I still think to this day, the $60K would be an unexpected offer amount for the domains. NoHotel.com resolves to a Sedo parking page and NoHotels.com resolves to a website creator not published page.

~ NoStrings.com and NoStringsAttached.com grabbed a combined total of $75,000 USD for seller Michael Berkins of TheDomains.com! Although Mr Berkins owns some 70,000 domain names, I would think the $75K sale raised an eyebrow a little bit and little hesitation to pull the trigger and accept the offer. Michael passed along the sales lead to Sedo and they closed the deal at the $75K, so Sedo get’s a nice pat on the back for the sales price as well. Various, Inc. was the buyer of the domains.

~ Another pretty rare one that I remember but do not recall all the facts on was a domain purchased by T.J. Demas. Demas had requested a price from Marchex on a domain name and when Marchex stated the price, Demas offered MORE than the amount requested. The reason was behind a symmetrical purchase of several domain names at the time. Again, I do not have the facts on this but I somewhat recall this happening and being reported someplace.

So owning a domain name does offer you the chance that somebody will come along and offer you an unexpected amount that would make most very happy with the offer to sell. Does this happen a lot? No but it does happen. I have owned domain names for several years and it has yet to happen to me. The more domain names you own, the more likely it will happen for you.

Domain names like Candy.com selling for $3 Million and Toys.com for $5 Million are a little more expected.

So have you ever sold a domain name for an unexpected price that made you feel like you hit the lottery? I’d be interested in hearing the story and I still hold the hope that it will happen to me one day.

Sedo, SnapNames, Moniker, GoDaddy, NameJet and many more domain name aftermarket services have one good thing going for them, repeating commissions from domain names and many times it is from the same domain. If a domain name sells because it is expired or if the seller decides to sell, doesn’t always mean that is the last time money will be made from that specific domain name at the specific service.

Take the recent sale of the domain name Prize.com for an example.

Sedo brokered the domain name sale of Prize.com on about 10-10-2006. The sales price in 2006 was $70,000 USD. Sedo’s commission rate varies a little bit based on the type of service used but the most common commission rate at Sedo is 10% of the sales price for the seller. A $70,000 domain sale would result into a $7,000 USD "sellers fee". This would result in the seller being paid approx $63,000 on a $70,000 sale, with Sedo pulling in a nice profit of about $7K.

Keep in mind that this is just one domain. Sedo sells hundreds of domain names each week with prices ranging for a couple hundred to in the millions for time to time.

About 2 and a half years later, on about 3-23-2010 the domain name Prize.com finds a new owner and once again is brokered by Sedo. In the approx 2.5 yrs, the sales price for Prize.com gains an extra $30,000 and this time around sells for an even $100,000 USD. Sedo’s likely commission this time on the same domain they pulled in $7K on it already? Add $10,000 more to that total and Prize.com commission is now $17,000 USD Sedo profit!

A revolving door if you wish of domain sales commission profit! Prize.com very well could sell again, right at Sedo and adding more to the total of the domain.

The domain industry is full of "quick flips" with many resulting in sales. It is not all that uncommon to see a domain name listed in an auction, sell and then later sell again in a similar auction.

PePe.com was listed on Bido.com and sold for $15,000 USD giving Bido an 8% sellers fee commission. 3 months later the domain was flipped and sold for $61,000 at a private site with Escrow.com getting some commission to handle the escrow.

Optimize.com was sold via Moniker for $24,650 in 2008 and sold again in early 2010 for $115,000.

All of these sales result in a repeating commission for the one domain that is sold, then sold again. Sometimes the sales happen at one service like Sedo, sometimes the sale takes place at one service and then happens again at another. This process is continued with "flips" and expiring domains.

This is part of business and how some services make there money, but it is interesting to look at the commission side of domain name sales that we see each and every day and the fact that many times the commission is not the first one for the specific domain name and often times it happens at the same service like Sedo.