$350,000 Deal at NoktaDomains Tops New Weekly Domain Sales Chart at DNJournal.com

buyer seems to have posted more...

Amazing Guest Post by The Purchaser of CookingGames.com – A Must Read | DirectNavigation.com

exponent said:

I'm not a fan of DNJ or the sales reported there. I suspect many of them are bullsh!t. I suspect the report was designed to send traffic to the company that supposedly sold the domain.

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Many? I suspect very few of them are fraudulent. Ron does an excellent job of screening legit sales but no doubt it is possible to create a hoax if both parties want to lie. I was involved in an xx,xxx domain transaction in which he requested proof of funds transfer from the bank prior to listing sale.

Ron provides a great and professional service to the domaining community and I don't think at all he would list strange sales without making sure of their trueness.

SpareDomains said:

buyer seems to have posted more...

Amazing Guest Post by The Purchaser of CookingGames.com – A Must Read | DirectNavigation.com

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That's a great explanation. Glad to see it went into the hands of someone who is going to develop it.

the_poet said:

Ron provides a great and professional service to the domaining community and I don't think at all he would list strange sales without making sure of their trueness.

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I don't doubt the value of his service. However, the verification scheme can be manipulated relatively easily.

Billidn said:

I was involved in an xx,xxx domain transaction in which he requested proof of funds transfer from the bank prior to listing sale.

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Interesting. All I needed was a screenshot of my Sedo account (would have been pretty easy to fake).

I suppose a lot of it stems from the fact that mainstream domaining is largely a game. The market is heavily manipulated by some of DNJ's 'favorites'. Of course, this is simply opinion, but I don't think highly of those who try to rub wealth in the face of others, especially when it's built on lies, broken promises, and empty dreams. Take it to the bank, the next few years will see a magnitude of sales that make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Of course, details won't be discussed due to disclosure statements, so you need little (if anything) to form a background story and make a sale look legitimate.

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Not that hard to sell something to your alter ego and report it...

Regardless of any explanation or justification given, anyone in their right minds truly believe this sale actually occurred (outside of furnished proof) at this price, where seller was actually paid that sum for that domain, must have their naive heads examined.

Gullibility has its limits.

mjbenterprises said:

Not sure what all the surprise is here.... the domain was simply bought at 8Xyearly PPC revenue

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So you believe that a domain registered in 2004 is raking in $43,750 per year in parking revenue?

IF that is true, we're talking about the best story of striking domain gold since mega keywords being available for regfee in the early to mid 90's. This is just so incredibly unlikely.

I'm not buying any of this hot air. Not even the tax savings angle. If he wanted to burn through profits, then he would have bought something that was actually worth $350,000. He could have bought 350 computers had them delivered to his garage and then sold them on CraigsList. At least he makes back 80% of his cost. What does this domain sell for today? So no, I can't buy this angle either.

DubDubDubDot said:

I'm not buying any of this hot air. Not even the tax savings angle. If he wanted to burn through profits, then he would have bought something that was actually worth $350,000. He could have bought 350 computers had them delivered to his garage and then sold them on CraigsList. At least he makes back 80% of his cost. What does this domain sell for today? So no, I can't buy this angle either.

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that sounds like work, people with money don't wanna deal with craigslist or 350 computers in their garage, if someone was looking to kill profits before tax time they would just buy a domain desirable to them and they wouldn't mind paying a higher ppc revenue multiple since they are an end user, The "exact match" global stats from google are pretty strong on this one....

[cooking games] 1 - 3 $0.43 2,240,000

type in traffic is gold, I have taken crappy domains and had to bust my ass to get ahead, I take a domain with type in traffic and throw up some instant niche minimal effort type store and sales roll in, I think this sale is legit and if it turns out not to be legit in the future it wouldn't be Ron's fault as the best he can do is verify the Escrow receipt, I think Ron has done a great job covering domaining news over the years and helping to promote the industry, I can understand possibly doubting a sale price which is why I was thinking the tax time payout but I'm surprised so many people in this thread are willing to trash a sale and dnjournal publicly with zero evidence that it didn't take place, if you're gonna throw out prove it to me then I say prove it didn't happen.

I agree. I dont think it's fair to trash the guy for reporting sales. There is no reason not to believe that the sale has been validated. Like someone has already pointed out, it would not be hard to manipulate this unbelievable sale. Take for example, the seller is holding a big stake in one niche. And the buyer is holding a big stake in another niche. Could be a case of ' you scratch my back and i'll scratch yours '. The money would change hands, and the value of the other niche domains being held, go up in value. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see this kind of thing happening.

If I wanted to manipulate sales reports, I would try with more generic domain names.
Whether the sale is real or not, that sale is one of a kind (in some way).
Plus, not all purchases and sales are rational. Everything is possible in our industry

DubDubDubDot said:

So you believe that a domain registered in 2004 is raking in $43,750 per year in parking revenue?

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Sure, if it was a name that meant nothing in 2004 and has since taken off in a big way, which this has.

One of the most popular games for the Nintendo DS (and it's probably on other platforms as well) is "Cooking Mama" and its sequels. Factor in a lot of other similar games, and it's really not that surprising it would be doing well.

According to the wayback machine, this was a developed site for 7 months in 06 /07.
If this was such a cash cow, why would the site be taken down ?
It shows nothing after that. Not sure if the wayback machine archives parked pages or not.

exsedo said:

According to the wayback machine, this was a developed site for 7 months in 06 /07.
If this was such a cash cow, why would the site be taken down ?
It shows nothing after that. Not sure if the wayback machine archives parked pages or not.

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depends on the parking company as I know in the past one of the better companies I have used would block them, I see more than 7 months of parked pages archived, I see 2006, 2007 and 2008 results...

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://cookinggames.com

That is a lot of money!

I was amazed at the sale price as well but after Googling the term "Cooking games" and doing a little research it was pretty obvious why this sale happened. Any domain can be a large success if the keywords becomes popular.

As far as the legitimacy of Dnjournal sales reports, Ron Jackson is very thorough when vetting a sale. If anything I find he might not publish enough sales results due to his thoroughness. Ron is as solid as they come but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

think said:

after Googling the term "Cooking games" and doing a little research it was pretty obvious why this sale happened. Any domain can be a large success if the keywords becomes popular.

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Exactly!

DubDubDubDot said:

So you believe that a domain registered in 2004 is raking in $43,750 per year in parking revenue?

IF that is true, we're talking about the best story of striking domain gold since mega keywords being available for regfee in the early to mid 90's. This is just so incredibly unlikely.

I'm not buying any of this hot air. Not even the tax savings angle. If he wanted to burn through profits, then he would have bought something that was actually worth $350,000. He could have bought 350 computers had them delivered to his garage and then sold them on CraigsList. At least he makes back 80% of his cost. What does this domain sell for today? So no, I can't buy this angle either.

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So about $120 a day in PPC is unbelievable to you? You can't fake the Google searches and popularity of the term. I am sure it has tremendous type in traffic and big conversion rate. I was the first one to post my skepticism about this sale but after reviewing the material provided by buyer it's a good deal for them. I bet they retrieve their earnings in 2-3 years. If you look at their site you can see exactly what they're doing.

I went from shock about the sale to shock about it's value. Truly a hidden gem and in 2004 many of us could have regged it. btw...at one point I owned PlayVideoGames.com. Sure wish I didn't sell it for $x,xxx. It's probably worth a lot more today.

He can pay $1million if he wants to but the fact here is that he definitely overpaid. Enough said.

At the end of the day someone is 350K richer and someone else is thinking how to make those 350K back ..welcome to the domain industry ....

I did a little research and heck if I tried 30-40 names that had "keyword"games and they were all taken. including CloudGames, PencilGames, SaladGames, and PrinterGames....what the heck kind of games can you play with a printer?

Alright, I have to find one...CarpetGames - Gone, WallGames - GONE, CeilingGames.com is available! WHEW~! If ya want it take it and rep me, LOL.