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Is “Age” Always Critical?

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Some Domain Name Requestors require submissions with “age.” I’m assuming age in this case means the domain name wasn’t registered yesterday, as two of my domain names were
by NameSilo.

Specifically, l was reading about the relatively new sale of hands-free crutches. I immediately thought this new product would make for a good name with and without the hyphen—but was pretty-sure neither version was available.

To my pleasant surprise, both versions, followed by .com, were available—and immediately purchased both versions. Yes, l know hyphens are eschewed in domaining, but when l googled “handsfree crutches,” l discovered that just about all of the manufacturers of these products used a hyphen, and when in Rome.... so l purchased both versions.

Finally, my diatribe begs the question: Why is age so crucial to selling domain names, at least in the eyes of many domainers?

Thanks for your time!
 
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Why is age so crucial to selling domain names

It has never mattered to me...a great name is a great name. They fall through the cracks every day in addition to those that can be found on auction.

I've had several sales this year...average low/mid xxxx and none of them were over 5 years old...the youngest was just over a year old.
 
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Thanks, M.F., for your prompt and instructive reply.

I teach upper-level English, and l emphasize the importance of showing rather than just telling when writing. Specifically, a specific example is worth 1,000 general words—at least.

And you supplied an informative specific example—your own!

Lew
 
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Some one will buy a low quality domain if it is age back to some time in 1990s 1980s. They tlike the age number.
Scarsity. Smaller number of domains from those time periods.
 
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No it doesn't ....
No, it doesn’t what? I’m not sure what you mean—but my excuse is that l just teach English to college students.... Though l do understand that age can come into play vis-a-vis scarcity, which could affect price of a domain; thus, you may well have answered my question.

In other words, you’re saying that the fewer of something increases its value.
 
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No, it doesn’t what? I’m not sure what you mean—but my excuse is that l just teach English to college students.

Lew

No age makes no diffrence
 
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About 90% of the names that I sell for $xxxx are less than 4 years old. About 50% is less than 2 years old.
 
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Interesting that two members who, obviously, are successful high-value domain-name sellers say that age is not a major factor in most, if not all, of their sales.

And l must admit though l said l understood the counter-argument that an older domain name is normally scarcer—l’m not sure why longevity affects value.
 
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The vast majority of end-users are not at all interested in the age of the domain.
 
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Personally, I think it's an insignificant "metric" that a lot of domineers seasoned and new want to believe matters so as to increase the value of their stock, but it doesn't in most cases.

But I'm not an expert.
 
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The vast majority of end-users are not at all interested in the age of the domain.

So this begs the question, why do so many domainers believe it is significant?
 
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So this begs the question, why do so many domainers believe it is significant?

This is one of the benchmarks that determine the domain value, but it does not belong to those more importantly.
 
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Age + Quality + King = Winner

One major reason why an older domain (all other factors being equal) may be more attractive than a similar, newer domain is that the older one may have been "off the market" for a very long time and have some built-up demand that you can maximize.

If a company named Jaybird Properties used jaybird.com since 1994, then it goes out of business in 2019, and the domain is sold or expires, it stands to reason that during the intervening 25 years that other entities may have used "jaybird" in their company names and may want to upgrade.
 
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Some Domain Name Requestors require submissions with “age.” I’m assuming age in this case means the domain name wasn’t registered yesterday, as two of my domain names were
by NameSilo.

Specifically, l was reading about the relatively new sale of hands-free crutches. I immediately thought this new product would make for a good name with and without the hyphen—but was pretty-sure neither version was available.

To my pleasant surprise, both versions, followed by .com, were available—and immediately purchased both versions. Yes, l know hyphens are eschewed in domaining, but when l googled “handsfree crutches,” l discovered that just about all of the manufacturers of these products used a hyphen, and when in Rome.... so l purchased both versions.

Finally, my diatribe begs the question: Why is age so crucial to selling domain names, at least in the eyes of many domainers?

Thanks for your time!

All very good domains were registered a long time ago, age is crucial. Whilst some might occasionally sell fresh reg for 3 or 4 figures to endusers they are worth nothing/very little in terms of liquid value, another domainer might pay $9 but not more.

Hyphens are a bad idea even if that is the correct spelling.
 
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The age of *A* domain has virtually nothing to do with it's value. However ...

The age of domains in general, on scale, is one of many factors domainers look at to weed out the crap. It's a probabilities thing.

Basically if a person or company bothered to pay renewals on the domain for 15 years, then that increases the probability of it being a good domain. But to be clear .. it does NOT mean a domain is good if it is aged .. nor does it mean that a domain is bad if it's not aged.

It simply means that if you take 2 random domains, the older one will likely be better.

That being said .. within the domainer community the importance of that fact I think kinda grew into it's own thing .. and as such there are actually some domainers who do put more value on aged domains ... and the irony of that .. actually means that indeed within the domainer community there actually is more demand/value on aged domains simply because of a domain's age.

So yeah .. indirectly aged domains do have a tiny extra advange just because they are older .. but it's based on a false narrative that became self-fulfilling. That being said .. I don't think it changes the value to justify over paying for them.

So in terms of wholesale pricing there could be a little bump ... but it really doesn't make much difference to end users in many cases. Although again .. if a potential buyer isn't set on a domain yet and is "window shopping" .. if the domain was tagged "aged domain", then it could be a factor for the buyer because he believes the "hype" and marketing even if at the end of the day age makes no difference to end users.

In fact .. age could technically be a bad thing for end user buyers if the domain had a questionable history with spam etc .. could make for problems sending out emails or getting ranked in google .. but in the end that's not really a factor in most cases.

Where age can be a huge factor is when searching for expired domains ... if you only have 10-15 minutes to search, then you're likely to find better domains if you filter based on age.

That being said .. some of my best domain VALUE PURCHASES have been domains in lower age tiers .. the ones that other people don't have the time to search for so I can grab with little competition or even at closeout.


The one instance where age obviously does not and can not apply .. is "future tech" .. which I would say is what category your "Handsfree Crutches" falls into.

Recent trends are things like drones, crypto, cannabis .. none completely new .. but there has(/had) been such explosive growth in those industries that there were not enough existing domains to fill the demand .. so then the only choice is to handreg.

I almost exclusively buy expired domains at auction and closeout .. however .. every now and then if I'm watching the news, I'll jump to try to register something that looks like it could be a future business or trend. Really does not happen often though (like twice a year .. lol) .. usually 90% the domains are taken ... looks like you got lucky! :)
 
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Voila! Thanks, kind sir, for a most-Interesting, informative and, ultimately, it certainly seems, bottom-line dissection of age as it relates, in most scenarios, to the value of a domain.

As one who often writes lengthy documents— though l warn my students about not writing more words than necessary by giving them one of my favorite writing mottos: “l didn’t have time to write a short piece, so l write a longer one”—l often just can’t stop writing as more thoughts come to mind once l force myself to put my seat into the seat of a chair.

What l’m trying to say is that although you might have shortened your message a bit to please too-many readers these days who are infected with short-attention spans—l can’t think of anything you wrote that doesn’t effectively address age vis-a-vis domain names, and l applaud you for taking the time to write a thorough explanation that l’m sure explains to many of us mystified domainers the true value of age of a domain name in the great majority of cases.
 
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All aftermarket names at one point were hand registrations so age alone by itself does not create value. On the other hand, in a portfolio of 100 domains, an investor over time will curate the portfolio - dropping domains of lower quality and renewing the better ones. What seemed to be a good domain as a newbie with a few years experience the investor realizes is not such a good name after all. So that 100 domain portfolio in year one become 85 then 75 then 60 then 50 then 40 etc and after ten years what is left are some pretty decent domains - assuming the domainer continued to be prudent with renewals and acquisitions.

Amongst the newer extensions there are some nice combinations. Many are registry reserved and have premium renewals which make holding them very expensive. But many have tried to find what the registries have overlooked or underpriced. However, enthusiasm over the myriad possibilities will tend to create bulging portfolios whose renewals are much greater than a few random sales. So in time those investors will be forced to prune the lower-quality names and keep only the best names. In ten years those new TLD portfolios will have gone through the same process that legacy investors have gone through the last decade. And ten years from newbies will be telling them that domain age does not matter.
 
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Goid post Garp. Usually those who say age doesn’t matter hold recent fresh reg names with only sporadic sales.
 
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We have had the age debate in many different threads but I think the answer that @Ategy.com gave above is the most balanced and comprehensive that I recall. I see the danger of much reliance on age is it might distract from the harder job of trying to evaluate true quality.

It is true that if you look at the top half of the NameBio sales list on a typical day the majority of the legacy sales are aged domains. However for fun one day I looked at the super low sales <$10 and most of them were aged too! My little study was too small for statistical significance but I suspect it is true that while there is some correlation between age and price it is a very weak one. And is simply a correlation, the age does not cause value except in the minds of some domainers.

Bob
 
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Keep in mind question is “Why is age so crucial to selling domain names“ not “is age the sole factor”.

It is crucial beyond getting random pot luck sales. For names with definite value it is crucial!

Reason why it is crucial is because valuable domains have been picked over 1000 times. They are not available or fresh reges.
 
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If age doesn't matter much for domains, it might still be a relevant criteria for domainers! Aged domainers probably better! Haha:xf.cool:
 
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Yeah, you gotta be alive to buy domain names—whether woeful or wonderful!
 
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All very good domains were registered a long time ago, age is crucial.

Hi

that statement is not true, in it's entirety

as there are products, services, concepts, etc, that haven't been invented yet.

so, the future for a domain to describe such, may still be unregistered.

imo...
 
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