James Booth has only been a part of the industry for two years, but during that time he has produced some impressive sales figures. Very recently, James has crossed a significant milestone of $10 million in sales. Here, we speak with James about his past two years as a domain name broker and we learn exclusively about two new six figure sales that James has been a part of.
When was your first domain name sale and why did you choose to start brokering domains?
Out of your $10 million in sales, what percentage of has been from personal investments versus brokered domains?
What has been your single largest sale (either brokered or personal sale) to date?
Can you give us any exclusive sales that you haven’t revealed anywhere else?
Which category of domain names has been the most popular amongst your clients?
How many of each category of domain name have you sold?
Has your personal investment strategy changed since you started investing in domain names? If so, how?
What has been the biggest change within the industry since you started?
What do you expect to happen within the liquid domains market within the next twelve months?
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Congratulations to James (@BoothDomains) on reaching this impressive milestone.
These responses have been edited for clarity.
When was your first domain name sale and why did you choose to start brokering domains?
My first domain sale via brokering was VWT.com in May 2015 so just under 2 years ago. At the time I was emailing 3 letter .coms for my brother trying to find him good deals. I would come across several names that wouldn't be of any interest to him that were priced well so I thought why not ask some domain investors other than my brother if they were interested and they were. From that point onwards I decided to start brokering any names that were not of interest to my brother.
Out of your $10 million in sales, what percentage of has been from personal investments versus brokered domains?
At the time of writing this we are now getting close to $11 million in sales and acquisitions. 10% has been from names I have bought and then resold. The other 90% was from brokered domains and acquisitions for clients.
James Booth
The largest sale to date was for the domain NN.com but I am unable to reveal the price due to an NDA.
Can you give us any exclusive sales that you haven’t revealed anywhere else?
Any sales we get we usually publish. We just sold D8.com for $196,500 with Sharjil Saleem and W6.com for $117,000 which haven't been published as of writing.
Which category of domain names has been the most popular amongst your clients?
100% LLL.coms. The market over the last 2 years has been extremely active for 3 letter .com domains with both China and the West buying these types of names. There will always be an active market for LLL.com.
How many of each category of domain name have you sold?
I have sold 1 LL.com (NN.com), 200+ LLL.com, 15+ 1 Word .coms, 15+ NNNN.coms, 200+ LLLL.coms, 5 CC.coms and a few others in different areas.
Has your personal investment strategy changed since you started investing in domain names? If so, how?
Yes but only slightly. My main area of investment will always be LLL.com as they are liquid and they will always have end users if you buy the right names and do research. I have now started investing in 1 word .com domains myself too such as Chop.com. My portfolio will always consist of good 1 word .coms and premium LLL.coms.
What has been the biggest change within the industry since you started?
During the last 2 years I have seen many brokers come and go. Generally people think brokering is easy but the entire process is quite tough from sourcing names, to agreeing a price with seller, to finding a buyer and to getting the buyer to agree on a price that matches what the seller is expecting. The markets change often so you need to keep your fingers on the pulse to see what is selling and what isn't.
What do you expect to happen within the liquid domains market within the next twelve months?
Chinese premium LLL are now at around $32k each so I expect these to pick up again in price. CC.com and numerics are very active right now with most of my clients looking for these types of names. I think a lot of Chinese investors have started investing in other areas such as bitcoin etc as there are not as many active buyers around now as there was in the end of 2015 and 2016. If I was an investor I would stick to liquid names such as CC.com, CCC.com, LLL.com and good LLLL.com. Always look for end users as that is what people need to focus on.
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Congratulations to James (@BoothDomains) on reaching this impressive milestone.
These responses have been edited for clarity.