[alex_c]

This is the kind of pricing philosophy that plagues HN (and I'll admit, I'm guilty of it as often as not).

The value of a product is usually not cost of labor + cost of materials, it's the value it brings to the buyer. $106.99 won't get me the same value, because I have to spend long frustrating hours trying to find a decent available domain name, then a few more hours going back and forth with a designer for a logo I may or may not like. Not having to do that is easily worth $143.01.

I agree that the domain system is horribly broken, but these guys are closer to a solution than to a problem.

[froo]

The best tool I've found for screwing around with domain names is wordoid which I'll link below

While it seems the database hasn't been updated in awhile, it definitely gives very good/quick results without hours of work.

http://www.wordoid.com

[alex_c]

Wordoid is probably the best. I've also used http://www.nameboy.com/ (which seems to be down at the moment), and http://domai.nr/ (if you don't mind non-.com, del.icio.us style domains).

Even with those tools, I still hate looking for domain names :)

[Ntagg]

Good tip. I really like bustaname.com Their second tab is like wordoid, but they have other tools too.

[wildmXranat]

In the free market, anything goes. In the domain market, there's a finite space within which we have to work in. If you want to buy a domain at a ( 250/8 = 31.25 ) 3100% markup, so be it.

[alex_c]

Well, how much do you value your time, per hour? And how much time does it take you, on average, to find a decent .com domain name and a decent temporary logo? You don't seem to include that in your calculation - unless your time is free, or you're really amazing at finding domain names. In which case, you could be making a mint.