.com Onions.com sold to enduser

EmpireNames.com · Apr 4, 2019

Bad Story of day :
I saw 6-7 months ago Onions.com sold in Flippa private acquisition in 17000 USD the person who sold he reported he kept this name for one year he bought in 7000 USD so he made handsome profit on it ... now the person who bought onions.com on flippa he sold privately to Vidala Onions in 14k usd today
I really want to know why he did this when enduser came to him. maybe he wanted cash ASAP? or he felt like he cant sell it anymore?
Any thoughts guys??

Have you bought anyname in high price and sold to enduser in low price if yes please let us know your story.

WordMills · Apr 8, 2019

Recons.Com said:
One way is to forward to vidalia, another one is put educational info page with lots of onion articles, recipes etc. and display that the project is brought to you by vidalia onions.

Isn't it true that if you forward a web page, it won't get picked up by search? Onions.com, on the other hand, will be found - either by type-in traffic or by search requests. In fact Google now doesn't distinguish between them.

I like the idea of an educational page. How else could Onions.com be linked to Vidalia's main site?

EbookLover · Apr 8, 2019

I agree from an SEO standpoint that the domain be developed with links to your money site.

Probably like a cooking-related site.

I think a domain like Onions.com would be best suited as a brand rather than a site that sells onions.

I can also see it as a successful gardening site or a site devoted to small market growers.

I would think that selling onions online isn't super-lucrative. But maybe I am wrong?

I guess people will buy anything online these days. Personally, I grow my own. One of the easiest things to grow.

Mister Funsky · Apr 8, 2019

eightturn said:
Vidalias are a very mild, sweet onion. They're often called 'the caviar of sweet onions'.

Man, I can taste them now...simply the best onions on the planet. As a young boy I would take a 12 hour road trip (round trip) with my father to get the onions once they were harvested and sold in Georgia. He was an intense entrepreneur in the chemical, engineering and food industries. The only onion he would use (once in season) in his restaurants or frozen food business was the Vidalia.

A slab of butter and a little olive oil to prevent the butter from premature browning is all you need...I would love a plate full now!

Congrats on the transaction...wish I had seen the auction!

Recons.Com · Apr 8, 2019

WordMills said:
Isn't it true that if you forward a web page, it won't get picked up by search? Onions.com, on the other hand, will be found - either by type-in traffic or by search requests. In fact Google now doesn't distinguish between them.

I like the idea of an educational page. How else could Onions.com be linked to Vidalia's main site?

Make it fun educational page with lots or recipes, info, contests etc.

On top with the logo put Onions.com by Vidalia (clickable)

And then in each article info page etc. mention Vidalia onions and why they are special linking to your page where this info is located.

Soofi · Apr 8, 2019

MediaCode said:
But, he didn't really need Onions.com. He doesn't sell any other types of onions besides Vidalia onions and he already owns VidaliaOnions.com, the category killer name for his niche.

He’s dominating the market with Onions.com without leaving a room for competitor to jump on it. Plus, an opportunity to grow his business to selling “all types of onions”.

Thinking ahead of the game!

Recons.Com · Apr 8, 2019

Soofi said:
He’s dominating the market with Onions.com without leaving a room for competitor to jump on it. Plus, an opportunity to grow his business to selling “all types of onions”.

Thinking ahead of the game!

I don't believe he is.

He had opportunity to buy it cheap paying under 20K, and yet he risked until it sold to him at loss. He got lucky that a 5% chance probability played out, 95% that it would end up with a reseller that would put 6 figure price sticker minimum, or get developed as unrelated brandable (news, tech, security, recipes etc.) and is no longer for sale or, worse, with a competitor.

So, he has shown frugality and being reasonable (as I have seen business owners that don't see value in their exact acronym .com), but he has not demonstrated being a visionary here.

Soofi · Apr 8, 2019

Recons.Com said:
I don't believe he is.

He had opportunity to buy it cheap paying under 20K, and yet he risked until it sold to him at loss. He got lucky that a 5% chance probability played out, 95% that it would end up with a reseller that would put 6 figure price sticker minimum, or get developed as unrelated brandable (news, tech, security, recipes etc.) and is no longer for sale or, worse, with a competitor.

So, he has shown frugality and being reasonable (as I have seen business owners that don't see value in their exact acronym .com), but he has not demonstrated being a visionary here.

You have an opinion, and I respect that, but...

I believe he did what he planned to do, and was probably taking a chance by trying to acquire at low price point. Or who knows, getting ready while raising funds to get his hands on this gem. Remember, its 5 figure sum that was spent and not your/mine peanut butter money which definitely takes time for someone to shell out.

You and I, very well can argue/debate over what was going on his mind or what he was thinking while he pursued the domain name but it eventually played out for him. That's all that matters at the end

Recons.Com · Apr 8, 2019

Soofi said:
You have an opinion, and I respect that, but...

I believe he did what he planned to do, and was probably taking a chance by trying to acquire at low price point. Or who knows, getting ready while raising funds to get his hands on this gem. Remember, its 5 figure sum that was spent and not your/mine peanut butter money which definitely takes time for someone to shell out.

You and I, very well can argue/debate over what was going on his mind or what he was thinking while he pursued the domain name but it eventually played out for him. That's all that matters at the end

That is not how decision-making works.

If there was 10% of success and 90% of failure with option 1 and you still went with it and it worked, it was still wrong decision. And if you chose 90% success option 2 and it did not work out, it was still a right decision.

When he was offered the name for slightly higher, he should have taken it. If I am samsung and I am offered phones.com or I am hilton and am offered hotels.com (assuming it did not already sell for 8 figures) for a bargain price, I don't haggle and say no for a great wholesale price hoping for 5% chance that I will buy it at throwaway price.

Soofi · Apr 8, 2019

Recons.Com said:
When he was offered the name for slightly higher, he should have taken it. If I am samsung and I am offered phones.com or I am hilton and am offered hotels.com (assuming it did not already sell for 8 figures) for a bargain price, I don't haggle and say no for a great wholesale price hoping for 5% chance that I will buy it at throwaway price.

You are still ASSUMING a lot of things here. And I'll let you do that

Recons.Com · Apr 8, 2019

Soofi said:
You are still ASSUMING a lot of things here. And I'll let you do that

You are too kind

Just like a sufi should be ))

EbookLover · Apr 8, 2019

Keyword research alone on the word "onions" does not reveal to me the high price like hotels or phones do.

"Onions" gets 91K searches a month but "buy onions" only gets 320. It's really not that big of an online market like phones and hotels (millions of monthly searches each). Most likely, people searching for "onions" aren't even looking to buy onions, just info of various kinds. This is evident to me from the first page of results.

Google shows not only relevant results but results people are historically looking for when searching that term (measured by historical clicks on results for the keyword). Google would show onion sellers if that's what the bulk of people searching for onions were looking for when searching "onions". But that's not what you see in the results.

And of the people that are looking to buy when searching only "onions", many may be looking for onion sets or seeds to buy to grow their own, which is a rather large market (gardening and market gardening, that is).

When you look at it this way, onions.com may not be worth as much to an onion vendor/grower as many other one-word product, "category-killer" domains.

The price paid is probably market value, at least to the specific buyer, an onion grower/seller.

carob · Apr 8, 2019

Sometimes someone buys a domain just because they really, really like it.

Recons.Com · Apr 8, 2019

EbookLover said:
Keyword research alone on the word "onions" does not reveal to me the high price like hotels or phones do.

"Onions" gets 91K searches a month but "buy onions" only gets 320. It's really not that big of an online market like phones and hotels (millions of monthly searches each). Most likely, people searching for "onions" aren't even looking to buy onions, just info of various kinds. This is evident to me from the first page of results.

Google shows not only relevant results but results people are historically looking for when searching that term (measured by historical clicks on results for the keyword). Google would show onion sellers if that's what the bulk of people searching for onions were looking for when searching "onions". But that's not what you see in the results.

And of the people that are looking to buy when searching only "onions", many may be looking for onion sets or seeds to buy to grow their own, which is a rather large market (gardening and market gardening, that is).

When you look at it this way, onions.com may not be worth as much to an onion vendor/grower as many other one-word product, "category-killer" domains.

The price paid is probably market value, at least to the specific buyer, an onion grower/seller.

Google search is not everything for market potential. I assume billions worth onions are sold annually around the world.

The company has a line of the product that is tear-free. If he manages to get even 1% of the market, it is worth tens of millions a year in revenue. Having onions.com provides instant credibility, authority, reputation and huge marketing potential. If he spends 1MM annually marketing (or will get to that level) and onions.com can help amplify the message by 10% extra, that is worth 100K/year to him.

But it sounds like he was not sure how to use the name and with the right idea might have valuated it much higher and might have grabbed it at the time of original offering.

Peter Askew · Apr 8, 2019

MediaCode said:
But, he didn't really need Onions.com. He doesn't sell any other types of onions besides Vidalia onions and he already owns VidaliaOnions.com, the category killer name for his niche.

This is correct. At first, the domain didn't make sense for me to own, as my business is quite niche. But as we've grown over the years, the domain became more attractive from a defensive standpoint. If anyone might compete against me, they could operate off of Onions.com/Vidalia, which is an equally strong brand. So I decided to remove that option from the playing board. And now I'm investigating ways to leverage Onions.com from a software side for onion farmers in general. Not sure it'll go anywhere, but gonna dig a little and see where that rabbit hole goes.

Peter Askew · Apr 8, 2019

carob said:
Sometimes someone buys a domain just because they really, really like it.

Yup on this.

EbookLover · Apr 8, 2019

eightturn said:
But as we've grown over the years

Very punny

Peter Askew · Apr 8, 2019

Not that this has any positive or negative effect on my domain, but neat to see large foundations buying up onion farms (from a few years back):

https://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/news/2014/10/29/bill-gates-buys-more-southeast-farmland.html

EbookLover · Apr 8, 2019

@eightturn I take it you own vidalia (dot) com

Why is it not updated both content and technology wise? Looks like it was made in 1999.

Not meant to offend, just wondering. It seems to give no value to your brand or the user.

Kate · Apr 8, 2019

I always think of Tor when I see mention of onion and Vidalia

Peter Askew · Apr 8, 2019

Recons.Com said:
That is not how decision-making works.

If there was 10% of success and 90% of failure with option 1 and you still went with it and it worked, it was still wrong decision. And if you chose 90% success option 2 and it did not work out, it was still a right decision.

When he was offered the name for slightly higher, he should have taken it. If I am samsung and I am offered phones.com or I am hilton and am offered hotels.com (assuming it did not already sell for 8 figures) for a bargain price, I don't haggle and say no for a great wholesale price hoping for 5% chance that I will buy it at throwaway price.

Just for the record, I originally had zero interest in the domain. I wasn't playing a game for a lower price. I just didn't want it (at that time).

As the years passed, I began to realize how important the name was, so that lead me to reach out to the owner.

Peter Askew · Apr 8, 2019

EbookLover said:
@eightturn I take it you own vidalia (dot) com

Why is it not updated both content and technology wise? Looks like it was made in 1999.

Not meant to offend, just wondering. It seems to give no value to your brand or the user.

I don't own Vidalia dot com. I believe that asset is now owned by the Gates Foundation when they acquired 2 farms in the region. (see the previous news article I posted). They prob don't realize they own it - hence the junky website.

EbookLover · Apr 8, 2019

eightturn said:
I don't own Vidalia dot com. I believe that asset is now owned by the Gates Foundation when they acquired 2 farms in the region. (see the previous news article I posted). They prob don't realize they own it - hence the junky website.

I thought "Vidalia", as it refers to onions, was trademarked by your company/organization.
I also though Vidalia Onions were a hybrid owned by your company.

My bad.

biggie · Apr 8, 2019

gonna put some onions in with my filet mignon steak today
with some baked garlic buttered potatoes and broccoli

along with a few slices of homey-made garlic bread

yum, yum

imo...

Recons.Com · Apr 8, 2019

eightturn said:
Just for the record, I originally had zero interest in the domain. I wasn't playing a game for a lower price. I just didn't want it (at that time).

As the years passed, I began to realize how important the name was, so that lead me to reach out to the owner.

Thank you for the honesty! That is what I thought believing that you are a shrewd businessman. From what I have experienced, being shrewd in business doesn't automatically come with appreciation of web potential. That requires certain exposure. Good look with your endeavors!

Peter Askew · Apr 8, 2019

EbookLover said:
I thought "Vidalia", as it refers to onions, was trademarked by your company/organization.
I also though Vidalia Onions were a hybrid owned by your company.

My bad.

The term 'Vidalia Onion' is trademarked by the vidalia onion farmers committee.. They basically protect the name to make sure someone growing sweet onions in, say, Texas doesn't try to pass them off as Vidalias (vidalias can only be grown in Georgia). When I started this project, I went down & met with with committee and got their blessing to use the name (trademark wise), and then partnered up with M&T Farms. And yes, I bought the domain first (a gamble), then got their blessing to use. Was a risky move that ultimately worked out.

There are several types of sweet onions, Vidalia being one. Others include Texas 1015, Maui Sweets, Walla Walla, and others. Peru sweet onions have recently entered the market, and are quite good (if you like Vidalias and want to try something else in our off-season).

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