sales Maple.com 100k USD aquisition attempt to compliment .ca portfolio

MapleDots · Mar 6, 2018

As some of you might have noticed MapleDots is in an acquisition phase and we have significant funding set aside for new domain acquisitions.

Before we started the process we decided to try to acquire a top brandable .com.

www.Maple.com was purchased by a company from New York that delivered restaurant style meals.

At the time I predicted the company would have some challenges
https://www.namepros.com/threads/maple-app-upgrades-to-maple-com.857730/#post-6049500

Before we started our recent acquisitions we attempted to acquire Maple.com for 100k USD and we contacted every email address in the WHOIS listing.

We did not get a response and therefore decided to drop the attempt to acquire this domain and pursued our current strategy instead. MapleDots is highly focused on Canadian Domain Properties but will entertain the purchase of .com properties if they can be re-branded with a Canadian presence.

PLEASE KEEP THIS TOPIC PROFESSIONAL, COURTEOUS AND ON TOPIC.
We will be asking the moderators to strictly enforce namePros rules/standards on this topic.

Kate · Mar 6, 2018

wwwweb said:
The two names you purchased red.ca, and rule_violation were on sale many years here, and before that.

It's true, I remember that red was on sale on another forum a long time ago.

wwwweb said:
.org has trust factor also, but Canadians do not spend like Americans when it comes to stepping up for domains, and when it comes to geo targeted domains with residency restrictions it makes it a bit harder.

If the restrictions were lifted this could boost the registrations and the aftermarket. Plenty of American companies could use .ca to promote their products and services up north, without maintaining a legal presence in Canada. But maybe this (free trade) is not something that Cira would want. Many ccTLDs are open nowadays, and the trend is toward relaxing rules, seldom the opposite way.

wwwweb said:
Other holders can weigh in, but to be honest I think this is what led to the downfall of A D, he just spent way to much money on .ca, and the sales never showed up.

If I remember well he bought 5L LLL.ca but it was the leftovers and he dropped them after a few years. Hardly surprising.

Joe N · Mar 6, 2018

As a Canadian, I've always been kind of tempted to build a little .ca portfolio and see what kind of interest I can generate with some targeted outbound.

I keep hesitating because the limited supply of buyers really scares me. Only 30M people here, and way fewer businesses, many of whom seem to be as happy to use a .com as they are to use a .ca, unless local/regional traffic is important for them.

I agree with you on the .ca trust factor, though.

MapleDots · Mar 6, 2018

Joe Nichols said:
Only 30M people here, and way fewer businesses, many of whom seem to be as happy to use a .com as they are to use a .ca, unless local/regional traffic is important for them.

Your response is exactly why I can sell .ca domains, it is so clear what you are overlooking and I am torn to divulge it to my friends on the forum or keep it to myself.

Does it work..... yup

Josh R · Mar 6, 2018

MapleDots said:
Your response is exactly why I can sell .ca domains, it is so clear what you are overlooking and I am torn to divulge it to my friends on the forum or keep it to myself.

Does it work..... yup

I love your acquisitions. I think they are really cool domains for development.

Unfortunately if you're buying .CA in hopes to resell and make a ton of cash, it's probably not a great idea. It's simple Math.
It's hard enough to sell a .COM which has a 7.5 Billion target market.
When you look at .CA, you are now targeting 30 million. Most of which are only interested in the .COM.

I don't think there is any getting away from it.
.Co.Uk is a very popular extension in the UK, but do you see many significant sales?

Brands.International · Mar 6, 2018

Apparently .ca works for MappleDots ... imo everyone should follow their niche where they feel the best

If one is Canadian and loves .ca, then definitely go for it!

MapleDots · Mar 6, 2018

Josh R said:
I love your acquisitions. I think they are really cool domains for development.

Unfortunately if you're buying .CA in hopes to resell and make a ton of cash, it's probably not a great idea. It's simple Math.
It's hard enough to sell a .COM which has a 7.5 Billion target market.
When you look at .CA, you are now targeting 30 million. Most of which are only interested in the .COM.

I don't think there is any getting away from it.
.Co.Uk is a very popular extension in the UK, but do you see many significant sales?

@Josh R - If you sell 4 .ca's with an acquisition cost of 10 bucks each for 1.5k each what is the profit percentage? After a few weeks you buy a high profile domain and you sit on it until you can double your money. There will never be another red.ca, sure a red.biz or something but never another red.ca which is as Canadian as it gets.

I have a group of unpublished domains that I bought up cheap but before I bought them I looked for end users. My outbound system and strategy is so unique that it could not possibly ever be duplicated in .com

It is so unfortunate that domainers are not seeing the opportunity here.... it is because there is good availability that the sales are easy. OMG I wish I could shout it from the mountain top but I need to make some more money before I tell everyone.

.ca has a distinct advantage and that is availability..... utilize that to its fullest potential and you can write your own paycheck. Now get on the damn phone and sell it!!!

How do you sell it? HeHe.... that is easy too if you know the trick.

Small sales make for big gains

DomainVP · Mar 6, 2018

I think that what @MapleDots is doing is bold and he is blazing the trail here.

Remember back in 2013 when buying 4L "chips" for $20 was a "waste of money", some people did it and cashed out as millionaires.

We are so accustomed to the past dictating our present, but maybe his vision & action will set a trend for Canadian buyers to start securing their .CA domains.

@MapleDots the amount of work that you are putting into this shows how passionate you are about building this into a successful venture. I hope you succeed and that you receive good blessings coming your way.

equity78 · Mar 6, 2018

MapleDots said:
@Josh R - If you sell 4 .ca's with an acquisition cost of 10 bucks each for 1.5k each what is the profit percentage? After a few weeks you buy a high profile domain and you sit on it until you can double your money. There will never be another red.ca, sure a red.biz or something but never another red.ca which is as Canadian as it gets.

I have a group of unpublished domains that I bought up cheap but before I bought them I looked for end users. My outbound system and strategy is so unique that it could not possibly ever be duplicated in .com

It is so unfortunate that domainers are not seeing the opportunity here.... it is because there is good availability that the sales are easy. OMG I wish I could shout it from the mountain top but I need to make some more money before I tell everyone.

.ca has a distinct advantage and that is availability..... utilize that to its fullest potential and you can write your own paycheck. Now get on the damn phone and sell it!!!

How do you sell it? HeHe.... that is easy too if you know the trick.

Small sales make for big gains

Focusing on a niche where many don't want to go can pay off big time. Best of luck. I always wondered why .ca didn't have more sales since so many great domain investors have come from Canada, (Chernoff, Schilling, etc...)

wwwweb · Mar 6, 2018

equity78 said:
Focusing on a niche where many don't want to go can pay off big time. Best of luck. I always wondered why .ca didn't have more sales since so many great domain investors have come from Canada, (Chernoff, Schilling, etc...)

Kevin Hamm, Shaun Pilford, Richard Lau, Yun Ye

Domain Shane · Mar 6, 2018

I went the same route as you but only went in with $50K. Never got a response at all on Maple.com. Ended up buying SugarMaple. com instead

equity78 · Mar 6, 2018

wwwweb said:
Kevin Hamm, Shaun Pilford, Richard Lau, Yun Ye

Yes so many

wwwweb · Mar 6, 2018

equity78 said:
Yes so many

That is just from one province aka state, those guys alone

dande · Mar 7, 2018

MapleDots said:
Your response is exactly why I can sell .ca domains, it is so clear what you are overlooking and I am torn to divulge it to my friends on the forum or keep it to myself.

Does it work..... yup

As far as .ca is concerned, I don't think there is any spacial info to divulge or not to divulge.

You have plenty of advises here already. My own advice is: make use of them when you still can

MapleDots · Mar 7, 2018

Domain Shane said:
I went the same route as you but only went in with $50K. Never got a response at all on Maple.com. Ended up buying SugarMaple. com instead

Very nice catch, I think I saw that domain somewhere but I was preoccupied with something else.

MapleDots · Mar 7, 2018

Bannen said:
Actually you'll have to say never, ha ha; just spoke to Caleb Merkl (founder of Maple.com), he did indeed sell the domain to Deliveroo along with the company (even though the domain is still pointing to his and Akshay's 'goodbye message'), he said that 100k would definitely have been too low, and that the current owners have no interest in selling the domain (but wouldn't comment on whether they had plans to use it for any future project).

So, good that you have moved on. Best of luck

Forgot to add something here.....

Deliveroo bought Maple.com right?

So where are they? I see nothing as far as US is concerned and its been a year. The business motto may work in England or other dense areas of the world but as my link posted earlier the motto cannot be sustained in North America. The distances are to vast to deliver hot restaurant style meals on bikes. Heck it did not even work in New York which is pretty dense. You have cooks, kitchen, staff, bike riders, possibility of car deliveries instead of bikes. Customers wanting refunds due to cold food, spoilage.... OMG I would want no part of that.

Mark my words Maple.com will hit the marketplace when they need cash, I'll be surprised if it does not. Then its a matter of everyone looking to see who will pull the trigger. It might eventually be a bid from china that wins it because MapleStory is so huge there. I sold a few Maple Domains to China so I have an idea about that market.

I asked for the domain because I figured Maple might still own it and maybe they would need the funds to pay off some debts. That is why I came in at 100k usd, I figured I had one kick at the can to sneak in the back door. Little did I know so many people were thinking the same

Joe N · Mar 7, 2018

MapleDots said:
Your response is exactly why I can sell .ca domains, it is so clear what you are overlooking and I am torn to divulge it to my friends on the forum or keep it to myself.

Does it work..... yup

I get what you're saying. The smaller market also means way less competition for you... You buy at reasonable prices, hoard the good names, and market them aggressively.

I love your brand, and love that you're succeeding with .ca. I'm just too green to venture into it.

MapleDots · Mar 7, 2018

Joe Nichols said:
I get what you're saying. The smaller market also means way less competition for you... You buy at reasonable prices, hoard the good names, and market them aggressively.

I love your brand, and love that you're succeeding with .ca. I'm just too green to venture into it.

What if I told you that you could start with 1 domain and make money right away?

OK here goes.... I am going to use my sample domain...

As mentioned several times in this topic.... a lot of Canadians already use .com's

Bingo !

Here is a typical .com which I use as an example because I did not make a great effort with it, I use it as my teaching domain.

Restaurant in City one has domain BurgsBarandGrill.com with an email of [email protected]

Now to the good part where everyone says the .ca's don't sell. Great I love it because that means I can get it. When burgs first opened the domain burgs.ca was taken so hence the burgsbarandgrill.com

Now the burgs domain comes up on the drop list and I look at it as interesting, I google burgs and match it to potential clients. If I have at least 3 potential clients I register the dropped domain.

Email to possible clients

I notice you have the domain:

BurgsBarandGrill.com with an email of [email protected]

I currently have available...

burgs.ca with an email of [email protected]
For a small fee of $1,500 I can transfer the domain to you and you can have both running at the same time to assure no disruption to your business.

If that does not sell it I make a quick logo burgs.ca and superimpose it on a picture of their menu or another piece of their advertisements.

If that still does not work I call the manager and tell him the $1,500 fee is a 100% tax deduction if they put it in their advertising budget.

Domain sold

Wash, rinse, repeat

So you see .ca's work because they are available. Everyone that argues that a lot of businesses already have a .com just shows how we are not doing our job. They have very poor .coms and we can give them very good .ca's.

Lesson done.

PS. What percentage gross profit is that on a $10 registration?
Bet you can't do that with a .com. The availability of .ca's make it the strong point, not the weak point as most domainers think.

platey · Mar 7, 2018

Bannen said:
You need to contact the higher-ups at Deliveroo (dot com); they bought Maple. If this domain is now simply an 'unusable asset' to them and they have no plans to create any project with it, they might go for a sale:

Find a phone number for Deliveroo or any of their corporate team. Maple.com may not be out of reach yet! Good luck

Deliveroo is only worth about $5bn

Based in the uk

Founder is will shu who should be in forbes rich list the next time its updated eg the founder is comfortably worth $1bn +

Will shu is on twit I think

alcy · Mar 7, 2018

MapleDots said:
What if I told you that you could start with 1 domain and make money right away?
Don't pick the domain, pick the client and then match a domain.

OK here goes.... I am going to use my sample domain...

As mentioned several times in this topic.... a lot of Canadians already use .com's

Bingo !

Here is a typical .com which I use as an example because I did not make a great effort with it, I use it as my teaching domain.

Restaurant in City one has domain BurgsBarandGrill.com with an email of [email protected]

Now to the good part where everyone says the .ca's don't sell. Great I love it because that means I can get it. When burgs first opened the domain burgs.ca was taken so hence the burgsbarandgrill.com

Now the burgs domain comes up on the drop list and I look at it as interesting, I google burgs and match it to potential clients. If I have at least 3 potential clients I register the dropped domain.

Email to possible clients

I notice you have the domain:

BurgsBarandGrill.com with an email of [email protected]

I currently have available...

burgs.ca with an email of [email protected]
For a small fee of $1,500 I can transfer the domain to you and you can have both running at the same time to assure no disruption to your business.

If that does not sell it I make a quick logo burgs.ca and superimpose it on a picture of their menu or another piece of their advertisements.

If that still does not work I call the manager and tell him the $1,500 fee is a 100% tax deduction if they put it in their advertising budget.

Domain sold

Wash, rinse, repeat

So you see .ca's work because they are available. Everyone that argues that a lot of businesses already have a .com just shows how we are not doing our job. They have very poor .coms and we can give them very good .ca's.

Lesson done.

PS. What percentage gross profit is that on a $10 registration?
Bet you can't do that with a .com. The availability of .ca's make it the strong point, not the weak point as most domainers think.

sounds like a prety well defined strategy. how many times would you say this has worked for you? and also, how many times was it attempted but failed.. any success % to share? cheers.

MapleDots · Mar 7, 2018

alcy said:
sounds like a prety well defined strategy. how many times would you say this has worked for you? and also, how many times was it attempted but failed.. any success % to share? cheers.

I have been in sales all my life but I run 4 businesses so time is limited. When I apply my strategy it is highly dependant on being able to communicate with the person in charge. If I get to that person then the close is very easy.

I am leaving out two key points in the strategy because I don't want to jeopardize my business but one should be able to apply my example and do well. There are also two styles of businesses where I am having phenomenal success with this but again I cannot divulge that because it is my business motto.

Make your own, blaze a path, the rough outline is contained in my post. You have to tweak it to your strength and find your niche but I can make far more money fast on a .ca instead of waiting years to make it once on a .com.

However still does not believe it, well, I guess there will always be those. I just wonder if they're able to procure 20k + domains with their profits

@Josh R - I did that for you because it does not have to be tons of money, it just has to be something you can repeat

hookbox · Mar 7, 2018

Hard to believe a guy pumping .ca that just bought a domain specifically to sell .ca. When I first read the post I was wondering what the angle was and now its obvious.

There's a reason all these heavy hitter Canadian domain investors invested in .com and not .ca.

MapleDots · Mar 7, 2018

hookbox said:
Hard to believe a guy pumping .ca that just bought a domain specifically to sell .ca. When I first read the post I was wondering what the angle was and now its obvious.

There's a reason all these heavy hitter Canadian domain investors invested in .com and not .ca.

Yup and that market is not attainable for noobs anymore. A few very inexpensive .ca domains and a bit of time one can make some good coin.

PS. There are a lot of heavy hitters investing in .ca's lately, the wholesale market on these domains is increasing exponentially. I'm shocked that domains I could have picked up a few months ago are now all registered. A few bigger sites like domainbrothers, emall etc are sure snapping up a bunch. I smell some mini hugedomains coming out soon.

Joe N · Mar 7, 2018

MapleDots said:
What if I told you that you could start with 1 domain and make money right away?

OK here goes.... I am going to use my sample domain...

As mentioned several times in this topic.... a lot of Canadians already use .com's

Bingo !

Here is a typical .com which I use as an example because I did not make a great effort with it, I use it as my teaching domain.

Restaurant in City one has domain BurgsBarandGrill.com with an email of [email protected]

Now to the good part where everyone says the .ca's don't sell. Great I love it because that means I can get it. When burgs first opened the domain burgs.ca was taken so hence the burgsbarandgrill.com

Now the burgs domain comes up on the drop list and I look at it as interesting, I google burgs and match it to potential clients. If I have at least 3 potential clients I register the dropped domain.

Email to possible clients

I notice you have the domain:

BurgsBarandGrill.com with an email of [email protected]

I currently have available...

burgs.ca with an email of [email protected]
For a small fee of $1,500 I can transfer the domain to you and you can have both running at the same time to assure no disruption to your business.

If that does not sell it I make a quick logo burgs.ca and superimpose it on a picture of their menu or another piece of their advertisements.

If that still does not work I call the manager and tell him the $1,500 fee is a 100% tax deduction if they put it in their advertising budget.

Domain sold

Wash, rinse, repeat

So you see .ca's work because they are available. Everyone that argues that a lot of businesses already have a .com just shows how we are not doing our job. They have very poor .coms and we can give them very good .ca's.

Lesson done.

PS. What percentage gross profit is that on a $10 registration?
Bet you can't do that with a .com. The availability of .ca's make it the strong point, not the weak point as most domainers think.

Yeah, I can definitely see the merit in what you're saying. Might have to try my hand at selling a few.

jaydub · Mar 7, 2018

It is changing upwards. I am getting more interest than I have for some time..

MapleDots said:
Keep an eye on the resale market moving forward, you might be in for a few surprises.
I know a whole group of investors silently buying up premium .ca's.... that market is about to change big time.

dande · Mar 7, 2018

jaydub said:
It is changing upwards. I am getting more interest than I have for some time..

How many have you sold? Or is your business thriving on just getting interests?

sales Maple.com 100k USD aquisition attempt to compliment .ca portfolio

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