.TV Handregs don't make money - and the world is flat!
We hear time and time again that the era for .TV hand regs, now its 2008, is over and the aftermarket is the be all and end all.
A couple of months ago I purposely bought, fresh as a daisy, a non-premium domain - Hooked.TV - purely to sell and disprove this theory.
After hand-regging it for $18 I managed to sell it a few days later for $80.
Forgetting all the commission costs, etc etc, this is a difference of $62.
This is only a small, insignificant example, but there must be far better examples of handregs BOUGHT in 2008 and then sold a few days later for much better prices.
Does anyone care to better my instant $62 profit to prove the world of .TV handregs can be profitable?
Good point Jimbo, and it's a good thing because those are all I can afford! Luckily versign or whoever's in charge of the premiums missed a few good ones I think !
I just sold a hand reg last month for $144 profit after all of the fees, etc.. However, I did hand reg about 40 names in that niche and have not been able to sell the other ones for more than peanuts. Renewal time is coming up for all these domains so lets do the math:
In theory if I were to renew all of them that did not sell for significant profit
40 hand regs * $6 (approx my cost per domain as the ext varied) = $240
39 domains * renewal fees $6 = $234
Total invested for a two year period: $474
Total sales: 1 for $150
Profit margin: -$324
So in order to turn a reasonable profit (starting at double what I invested) by the end of the second year I would have to sell: $948 - $144(first sale) = $804
$804 in two years sound easy right? Sure one of them may harvest an $xxxx sale and sure some of them may make in parking enough to cover it's own reg fee. However, for the most part IMO hand regs will sit and wait to be renewed again and again until the original owner can't afford to renew or doesn't have as much interest in that niche any longer and dump them off for cheap (see sig).
Well, this is domaining! As for me, I am more confident with my investments in the aftermarket right now. Good luck to all!
[edit] - This is not to say that hand regging is bad, it is just an example! Many domainers make a living from hand registrations and it CAN be very profitable. I just see many marginal hand regs posted around here that I don't think are profitable.. Just my .02c
Ok, I am just thinking hand registrations in general here, actually I thought this thread was in the general domain discussion area not the .tv lol.. However, for .tv the registration fees are higher and in many cases many people hand reg more when there are good deals to register which means that when renewal time comes around you are looking at paying more than the original investment... Sorry again for posting my experiences and theories outside of the .tv realm!
For the most part they work. But yet again I am taking losses on most of my .tv names and getting rid of things. That being said I got lucky on a nice .tv sale this year for x, xxxx which was very nice. Can't disclose.
Have had a few offers on a few of my forex names but turned them down. Those were all hand regs.
Regret not selling debatestv.com and turned down a high offer. Oh well. Keyword tv.com I believe will catch on and go up in price I feel as well as .tv as a whole.
There are definately hand reg names still available & always will be IMO, but you have to be selective in the names that you pick. For example, I've hand regged a name that was probably at the very begging of this year & have received offers on Sedo in the Mid to High $xxx range, but haven't sold that one yet as I'm not too keen on getting rid of it that cheap.
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lol.. However, for .tv the registration fees are higher and in many cases many people hand reg more when there are good deals to register which means that when renewal time comes around you are looking at paying more than the original investment... Sorry again for posting my experiences and theories outside of the .tv realm!
