Sedo, etc. don't make sense to me

If I were to sell a domain name, wouldn't it make sense for me to create a page that allows people to bid for my domain name? Why do I need to go through a middle man like Sedo, and lose 10% of the sale price, if I know that anyone interested in my domain name would have typed it in the address bar first?

You answered yourself to your question,because Sedo is a middle man,how many bidders will trust you to send money upfront or you will send the domain upfront?
Also on sedo you have maximum visibility to your auction,10% it's a fair fee in my opinion,i don't think that creating a auction page on your domain will get you more bidders than on sedo page.

Just go to one of the domain sales forums and make a post offering it for sale.

As for trust, you need to specify making the sale through Escrow.com. They are cheaper than Sedo and give the same piece of mind to the buyer and seller.

kev said:

You answered yourself to your question,because Sedo is a middle man,how many bidders will trust you to send money upfront or you will send the domain upfront?
Also on sedo you have maximum visibility to your auction,10% it's a fair fee in my opinion,i don't think that creating a auction page on your domain will get you more bidders than on sedo page.

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I understand the issue about security, but I still think that Sedo does not offer more "visibility" than the domain itself. If I wanted to buy Nike products, wouldn't I go to Nike.com first, not a sports goods website?

well, sedo is a trusted and known site and people know they can shop there for one or many domains. It's like a store.. if you wanted to buy a doodah but you weren't sure which kind of doodah you wanted, you would browse through them all (online or at a real store), then pick one you wanted. The one you end up selecting, you may have never found if it wasn't for the store/middleman.

It's like that with domains too. How would someone know about heymydomainisthebest.com being for sale, since that is such a random name to figure out? At sedo (or other places selling mass quantities), a lot more people would find it. And if you, the individual, doesn't have a bunch of positive feedback for selling domains via a forum/wherever, then it will be harder to get a good sale if you were just selling on your own.

the opposite can happen too though.. sedo has so many names it's hard to get noticed unless you have something killer.

I think sedo is like the ebay in domain auctioning, that's why many utilize it's services as a middle man.

boeing767 said:

If I were to sell a domain name, wouldn't it make sense for me to create a page that allows people to bid for my domain name? Why do I need to go through a middle man like Sedo, and lose 10% of the sale price, if I know that anyone interested in my domain name would have typed it in the address bar first?

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boeing767 said:

If I were to sell a domain name, wouldn't it make sense for me to create a page that allows people to bid for my domain name? Why do I need to go through a middle man like Sedo, and lose 10% of the sale price, if I know that anyone interested in my domain name would have typed it in the address bar first?

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Its about marketing... SEDO are the largest of them all (and free to list).
Also, try Afternic.com

You can add a sale sign on your own page which helps but likely any buyer will ask for escrow anyway which means you will inevitably have to involve some sort of pro site.

Another good way is using a parking site such as namedrive.com who have a for sale link on the page as well. Best of both worlds. Sedo also do this.

Also, with SEDO. Once somebody makes you an offer, you can then take it to auction which means a LOT more people see it. Overall, this could get you a better price.