Comparable sales
Domain sales are recorded, in aggregate, by escrow agents, marketplaces and industry databases. For any name there are recorded sales of names with the same structure: two dictionary words in the same sector, a city plus a service, a company-style name with a common suffix. We start from those, adjusted for date and for how closely they resemble the name in question. This is the same logic a surveyor applies to a house.
The structure of the name
Shorter is worth more, other things being equal. Dictionary words are worth more than invented ones. A name that describes what the company does, in the words a customer would search, is worth more than one that has to be explained. Hyphens, numbers and unusual spellings all take value away, because every one of them is a chance for a customer to reach the wrong site.
What it does for the buyer
This is the input most sellers overstate and most buyers understate. A name that stops a clinic leaking patient email, or lets a software vendor retire six country sites, or removes a lookalike from a bank's search results, is worth more to that buyer than the comparables alone suggest. We ask what the name will do, and we say plainly how much of the price rests on that answer.
Why unrepresented corporate buyers pay more
When a company writes to a domain registrant from its own corporate email address, the registrant prices the buyer rather than the domain. The same two-word .com that trades between portfolio holders for mid-four figures is routinely quoted at mid-five figures once the seller sees a funded operating company in the signature block. Anonymous buyer representation keeps the conversation anchored to the asset itself.
What we do not do
We do not quote a range, because a range is an invitation to start at the bottom and a signal that the top was never real. We do not raise the price because you replied quickly, or because someone else asked. And we do not decline to explain a number. If a figure cannot be reasoned to a finance director in a paragraph, it is not the right figure.