For the people that have been doing this a while:
It would be extremely interesting/informative to all of the newbies (myself included) to find out what your first big sale was and what it was worth in
terms of profit/mindset.
It would be great to see what domain you sold and the approx value that it sold for. (approx= "xx-xxx,xxx" format).
Would love to hear your "war stories"!
Thanks in Advance!
BTW It doesn't matter how big or small the sale.....it would just be cool to hear about the "sale" that got you hooked.
I started a small business magazine site called SolePropritetorMagazine.com
It was kicking major butt as far as page rank and membership during our first year...but I wasn't making much money, and keeping fresh content on there was getting tough for me to justify (no money coming in VS. wasting my time)...
So I put it up for sale and got $5,000 for it on eBay.
The owners have since changed it so much that I barely recognize the site anymore...it's sad actually. It's no longer a personal experience website, but a bland and sterile site filled with RSS b.s.
=========
Same exact story applies to FamiliesLost.com
Had over 4,000 members on that site...was sick of maintaining it and not making good money.
Put it up on eBay, sold THAT for another $5,000. Wasn't worth it though. I spent 6 or 7 years maintaining that site and making it worthwhile for adoptees and birth parents.
I was contact by tv talk shows, radio stations, etc and didn't have the know-how (that I do now) to capitalize on all of the hype.
So in frustration...I sold. And now the site looks like dog @*^#*@#.
Great stories!
Personal stories really help to puncutate the advice that that we read in the other sections.
Alot of the stuff that I read on here doesn't make much sense until I hear it in a real world situation.
Thanks for sharing!
This isn't a HUGE WOW Sale but nevertheless it was my first domain sale.
It was early in domaining and at the time $10 was a good amount of money to me so I bought names carefully ( I was in high school at the time and $10 was gas money for two weeks). One day I regged a two word dotUS domain. After paying for it I got really upset at myself for regging it. I actually lost sleep over it that night. This is before I knew about any 5 day grace rule. Anyways two days later I got an email from some guy offering me $500 for the name!!! It was huge for me at the time. I sold the name and had a smile on my face ear to ear. I took $100 which was my initial investment into domains. Spent $300 on the domain "lust.us" and put the other $100 in new regs.
Since that day I have been playing with profit. I am 23 years old and work full time. I domain part-time (10-15 hours a week) and am at about $9,000 PROFIT for this year so far.
I cant reveal the two word .us I sold because the buyer at me not to at the time and I still honor that but it was what allowed me to really get a decent start.
I registered one of my first domains for a senatorial canidate for $6.99 on domainsite.com out of speculation he would run, and the next week I had the guy's campaign talking to me. Can't tell you who it was (per the contract) but I sold it for $5000. This launched my domaining career as I reinvested all of it in domains, and now I still make a steady profit.
The best part was I received a really low offer, so I made a spoof site mocking his campaign (it was really realistic looking too). I even fooled a reporter for a major newspaper who commented that this candidate was sexist. lol. After a few days of negotiating I got up to $5000. I probably would have got more if I held on to it, but it was too good for a poor college student to refuse.
My first ever domain sale, sold for only $15 but to me that meant there was money to be made in this business still. That was my wow sale, not much but it meant a lot to me.
The first "WOW" sale was not that big but, but it was a wakeup call. I picked up a GEO.net of a very small city off a drop list for $8, and sold it for $200+. It was then that I realized with research, and effort you can do well.
Well, three months into the game, I don't have any wows. One of my first dropped domains for $7 prompted I think my first post at Namepros. A typical newbie "please appraise this domain." A couple of responses said $50 more or less. I sold it for $100, after a previous $100 offer through Sedo stood me up. If I could just reg 10 names a day like that...
But it taught me there are bargains. There are often distressed sellers, and there are sometimes very hungry buyers. Get between them, and everything is sweet.
Your First "WOW" Sale. 
