You have to see the business for what it is

After 2 years at this, a couple months back I decided to back off and spend my time on other more interesting retirement hobby endeavors that require actual technical creativity, not scanning lists of pending deletes. In hindsight, I feel I have wasted enough time daily going over the expired lists and millions of names I have manually reviewed.

I have never contacted you, so sorry to hear that you get inundated with the wrath. I have been a speculator for many years in physical product, but usually it pan's out to cost recovery at worst case. In this industry, it is not exactly that easy to get cost recovery simply due to due to necessary time investment. It's very slow going and not worthwhile to invest in large amounts of inventory in 2018 unless you have the high risk extra cash to do so. Even at that, it's still a long shot. I have been contacted numerous times on my few higher valued names- mostly brokers that think they can buy them for nothing and chinese spam low ball script writers.

Rick's post said it best today:

"You own it and there is less than a 50/50 chance you will sell it in YOUR lifetime."

The illiquidity of the market forces people to wholesale off before renewals come up or give them away. Or if you value your time, you just let them expire. I have watched my drops grabbed by someone else and think it's simply good luck to them, I hope they sell the name and make money.

But the part that frustrates me are those fake sales that list their names at auction to sell to their wealthy friends to get "price discovery".

The weekly announcements of some big sale, in the beginning I believed. I no longer believe at face value, without double checking what is written since I have followed up to see enough names parked after selling for large amounts of money. Yet, oh... it was reported that some end user bought it from some "broker" and the domain then you go to look and after 6 months it is still parked. Or upon further digging it was a wholesale purchase for investment. Who the F cares that some broker sold it to some investor? Not worthy of print. It adds to the hype and nonsense. The pulse of the market is end user sales. Period.

You look at nameserver changes and whois, and you have to ask yourself- hmmm. Was this "Price discovery", or a sale that fell through? or complete bullshit? Why would a legitimate end user, buy a domain name for $XXX,XXX. and have it parked ? They wouldn't, but they would immediately 301 it to their existing website. I have upset enough people whose intentions are to prey upon newbies about exposing this nonsense, I won't bother to post specific examples- but if you are a new domainer- do your homework- use archive.org, look up the company who supposedly bought it, look at whoxy and look to see the registrant history makes a circle back to original 1996 registrant or to a corporation. If you read some big sale occurs, go to the website in a month later and see if the end user is using it. Then, you will know the sale was legit. But reading "weekly sales reports", blogs, and databases of sales prices realize it's not all necessarily real.

If you follow Dotweekly or GK when he finds an SEC filing to corporate sales, those are quiet or invisible valid end user sales. That is excellent information amongst all the domain brokers, promoters and shillers noise. Most of the real legit big sales likely are never announced, or in any domain blogs or blabbed about on twitter. "Congratulations to buyer and seller". Lol. Which if it was an end user- excellent. But more often than not, it could be translated "congratulations to my cousin and brother in law who helped me get price discovery."

REAL End user sales to corporations are the only thing that matters imo. They do exist. But not huge volumes.

offthehandle said:

After 2 years at this, a couple months back I decided to back off and spend my time on other more interesting retirement hobby endeavors that require actual technical creativity, not scanning lists of pending deletes. In hindsight, I feel I have wasted enough time daily going over the expired lists and millions of names I have manually reviewed.

I have never contacted you, so sorry to hear that you get inundated with the wrath. I have been a speculator for many years in physical product, but usually it pan's out to cost recovery at worst case. In this industry, it is not exactly that easy to get cost recovery simply due to due to necessary time investment. It's very slow going and not worthwhile to invest in large amounts of inventory in 2018 unless you have the high risk extra cash to do so. Even at that, it's still a long shot. I have been contacted numerous times on my few higher valued names- mostly brokers that think they can buy them for nothing and chinese spam low ball script writers.

Rick's post said it best today:

"You own it and there is less than a 50/50 chance you will sell it in YOUR lifetime."

The illiquidity of the market forces people to wholesale off before renewals come up or give them away. Or if you value your time, you just let them expire. I have watched my drops grabbed by someone else and think it's simply good luck to them, I hope they sell the name and make money.

But the part that frustrates me are those fake sales that list their names at auction to sell to their wealthy friends to get "price discovery".

The weekly announcements of some big sale, in the beginning I believed. I no longer believe at face value, without double checking what is written since I have followed up to see enough names parked after selling for large amounts of money. Yet, oh... it was reported that some end user bought it from some "broker" and the domain then you go to look and after 6 months it is still parked. Or upon further digging it was a wholesale purchase for investment. Who the F cares that some broker sold it to some investor? Not worthy of print. It adds to the hype and nonsense. The pulse of the market is end user sales. Period.

You look at nameserver changes and whois, and you have to ask yourself- hmmm. Was this "Price discovery", or a sale that fell through? or complete bullsh*t? Why would a legitimate end user, buy a domain name for $XXX,XXX. and have it parked ? They wouldn't, but they would immediately 301 it to their existing website. I have upset enough people whose intentions are to prey upon newbies about exposing this nonsense, I won't bother to post specific examples- but if you are a new domainer- do your homework- use archive.org, look up the company who supposedly bought it, look at whoxy and look to see the registrant history makes a circle back to original 1996 registrant or to a corporation. If you read some big sale occurs, go to the website in a month later and see if the end user is using it. Then, you will know the sale was legit. But reading "weekly sales reports", blogs, and databases of sales prices realize it's not all necessarily real.

If you follow Dotweekly or GK when he finds an SEC filing to corporate sales, those are quiet or invisible valid end user sales. That is excellent information amongst all the domain brokers, promoters and shillers noise. Most of the real legit big sales likely are never announced, or in any domain blogs or blabbed about on twitter. "Congratulations to buyer and seller". Lol. Which if it was an end user- excellent. But more often than not, it could be translated "congratulations to my cousin and brother in law who helped me get price discovery."

REAL End user sales to corporations are the only thing that matters imo. They do exist. But not huge volumes.

Click to expand...

Yes, seem like domaining is big waste of time Lol

offthehandle said:

After 2 years at this, a couple months back I decided to back off and spend my time on other more interesting retirement hobby endeavors that require actual technical creativity, not scanning lists of pending deletes. In hindsight, I feel I have wasted enough time daily going over the expired lists and millions of names I have manually reviewed.

I have never contacted you, so sorry to hear that you get inundated with the wrath. I have been a speculator for many years in physical product, but usually it pan's out to cost recovery at worst case. In this industry, it is not exactly that easy to get cost recovery simply due to due to necessary time investment. It's very slow going and not worthwhile to invest in large amounts of inventory in 2018 unless you have the high risk extra cash to do so. Even at that, it's still a long shot. I have been contacted numerous times on my few higher valued names- mostly brokers that think they can buy them for nothing and chinese spam low ball script writers.

Rick's post said it best today:

"You own it and there is less than a 50/50 chance you will sell it in YOUR lifetime."

The illiquidity of the market forces people to wholesale off before renewals come up or give them away. Or if you value your time, you just let them expire. I have watched my drops grabbed by someone else and think it's simply good luck to them, I hope they sell the name and make money.

But the part that frustrates me are those fake sales that list their names at auction to sell to their wealthy friends to get "price discovery".

The weekly announcements of some big sale, in the beginning I believed. I no longer believe at face value, without double checking what is written since I have followed up to see enough names parked after selling for large amounts of money. Yet, oh... it was reported that some end user bought it from some "broker" and the domain then you go to look and after 6 months it is still parked. Or upon further digging it was a wholesale purchase for investment. Who the F cares that some broker sold it to some investor? Not worthy of print. It adds to the hype and nonsense. The pulse of the market is end user sales. Period.

You look at nameserver changes and whois, and you have to ask yourself- hmmm. Was this "Price discovery", or a sale that fell through? or complete bullsh*t? Why would a legitimate end user, buy a domain name for $XXX,XXX. and have it parked ? They wouldn't, but they would immediately 301 it to their existing website. I have upset enough people whose intentions are to prey upon newbies about exposing this nonsense, I won't bother to post specific examples- but if you are a new domainer- do your homework- use archive.org, look up the company who supposedly bought it, look at whoxy and look to see the registrant history makes a circle back to original 1996 registrant or to a corporation. If you read some big sale occurs, go to the website in a month later and see if the end user is using it. Then, you will know the sale was legit. But reading "weekly sales reports", blogs, and databases of sales prices realize it's not all necessarily real.

If you follow Dotweekly or GK when he finds an SEC filing to corporate sales, those are quiet or invisible valid end user sales. That is excellent information amongst all the domain brokers, promoters and shillers noise. Most of the real legit big sales likely are never announced, or in any domain blogs or blabbed about on twitter. "Congratulations to buyer and seller". Lol. Which if it was an end user- excellent. But more often than not, it could be translated "congratulations to my cousin and brother in law who helped me get price discovery."

REAL End user sales to corporations are the only thing that matters imo. They do exist. But not huge volumes.

Click to expand...

Great post, whenever a sale is announced there is some motivation for announcing it. Especially for new tlds many of the sale are faked by registries to try and get domainers to buy more.

..

johnnie018 said:

Great post, whenever a sale is announced there is some motivation for announcing it. Especially for new tlds many of the sale are faked by registries to try and get domainers to buy more.

Click to expand...

It’s not just registries either, as you are well aware I am sure.

offthehandle said:

..


It’s not just registries either, as you are well aware I am sure.

Click to expand...

Yes many domain owners faking sales also, especially in new tlds. A lot making up tales about receiving offers also, which is just as bad.

http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2019/january-february.htm

I liked this what @Mike Mann wrote:

“.Com locks in permanent status, while gTLDs are a permanent failure.

——-> Endless monopolies and scammers and racketeers in the industry need to be flushed.

Also every decent .Com domain needs a professional appraisal. Can you imagine for example if Godaddy owned millions of used cars, or pieces of fine used jewelry, or art, wouldn’t their shareholders be concerned of the actual market values of their assets vs. what they are going out the door for, and the cost to maintain them and overhead? There is no such thing as a valid automated domain appraisal, not even remotely close, it’s a terrible joke since its so costly to asset holders and amounts to fraud. Follow me on social for the full scoop!”

Don’t listen to Mike Mann, selling gargabe paid appraisals.

offthehandle said:

.....You look at nameserver changes and whois, and you have to ask yourself- hmmm. Was this "Price discovery", or a sale that fell through? or complete bullsh*t? Why would a legitimate end user, buy a domain name for $XXX,XXX. and have it parked? They wouldn't, but they would immediately 301 it to their existing website. I have upset enough people whose intentions are to prey upon newbies about exposing this nonsense, I won't bother to post specific examples- but if you are a new domainer- do your homework- use archive.org, look up the company who supposedly bought it, look at whoxy and look to see the registrant history makes a circle back to original 1996 registrant or to a corporation. If you read some big sale occurs, go to the website in a month later and see if the end user is using it. Then, you will know the sale was legit. But reading "weekly sales reports", blogs, and databases of sales prices realize it's not all necessarily real.......

Click to expand...

Mike Mann's Domain Market said they sold CryptoWorld.com in January 2018 for a widely reported in the media and forums price of $195,000. Today, a very long 14-MONTHS later there's still no site and the name resolves to a domainmarket.com landing page!

How after all that time and money would the alleged buyer not even bother to at least park it or 301 forward the name to another website? It is highly suspicious to say the least. I am sure most large sales are legit but this one is extremely dubious. It's still listed as a completed sale at various places last time I checked.

namemarket said:

A perfect example is Mike Mann's Domain Market selling CryptoWorld.com in January 2018 for a widely reported in the media and forums price of $195,000. Today, a very long 14-MONTHS later there's still no site and the name resolves to a domainmarket.com landing page!

How after all that time and money would the alleged buyer not even bother to at least park it or 301 forward the name to another website? It is highly suspicious to say the least. I am sure most large sales are legit but this one is extremely dubious. It's still listed as a completed sale at various places last time I checked.

Click to expand...

The buyer is probably bankrupted! They bought it right when the crash was starting.