Watch the "How To Value A Domain Name" GoDaddy video with Ammar Kubba and Page Howe on YouTube. These are two of the most experienced domainers who've achived great success in the industry.
Yes they did, but not in new extensions right...
That being said, telling someone who's regged some .vip domains that his domains will be worth nothing is absolutely wrong. The gTLD is very new, we do not have an idea about how the trends will change in the future and the whole thing is a big unknown right now. If anyone here says that he/she knows what the future for a certain gTLD is, he/she should definitely see a shrink.
So do we agree that they are worthless at this point ?
That kinda answers the original question.
New extensions are not new, we are into the third year. Are they becoming mainstream yet for you ?
My suggestion to domainers is to focus on the extensions that are already popular today. Do keep an eye on the other extensions, but treat them as mere speculation. I'm such a conservative person.
As I've said before, it's too early to say anything. VIP is short for a very important person who is accorded special privileges due to their status or importance. This makes me think that certain sectors like tourism might be interested in this domain name. For example, some travel agents arrange "VIP tours" which are basically high priced, high quality tours for a small number of people or rich families etc. Now, italytours.vip could very well be a good domain for a travel agency making VIP italy tours.
As a rule the semantics don't have much of an impact when it comes to adoption of TLDs by end users. Speaking of travel, it's one of the biggest online industries. Does that mean .travel is a great investment. No. The poor marketing for sure doesn't help but you get the point.
.pro looks nice too, and is a positive keyword, but it's not really widespread and I wouldn't recommend it as an investment. Especially when they are so many competing extensions around. Why should I buy a .pro when I can get .tld .corp or whatever. The same applies to the other extensions. It's not like .vip is so exceptional. You have .luxury and others.
Most .vips were bought in China, so it's mainly a Chinese extension like .top or .xyz.
The OP should look to China for possible leads.
But I suspect that most Chinese buyers are speculators and not end users. It's not a good sign when speculators outnumber end users. It means the actual demand is lower than it seems.