Dropped domain competition

I think a lot more people are in this business now and I suspect many are too knew to understand the prices and risks and they bid up names they will probably end up never making a profit on. I do see many names that would've gotten snapped a year ago now just dropping with nobody taking them.

AEProgram said:

I think a lot more people are in this business now and I suspect many are too knew to understand the prices and risks and they bid up names they will probably end up never making a profit on. I do see many names that would've gotten snapped a year ago now just dropping with nobody taking them.

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Yep, that's how the registrars make money. I wonder if the pandemic situation has pushed more people into this.

twiki said:

Yep, that's how the registrars make money. I wonder if the pandemic situation has pushed more people into this.

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Based on the wix, shopify numbers it certainly pushed people to start online ventures and it almost always means they need a domain. It is possible that during the process of trying to find a name they discovered the whole aftermarket world.

I also noticed people selling domain name courses, many market it as a get rich quick thing (far from the truth). That also drove people to this market.

twiki said:

How do you currently succeed at getting expired / dropped domains vs. 1 year ago?

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I used to have about 3-4 good names to target every day. Now I would say it's more like 1 name every 2-3 days that seems worth buying (on godaddy). Then out of those, I sometimes lose the auction to (presumably) the bidder no. 9xxxxxx whatever on godaddy that beats everyone... but not always.. depends if someone was foolish enough to place an early bid in hours before the end of close.. if that happens then the domain is unattainable below $200

twiki said:

Has the competition increased?

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Yes, it seems there is more competition since about June of this year. But you can still find a lot of gems.. but you have to know what to look for. Plus, one man's gem is another's garbage..

twiki said:

Anything specific you notice, such as Dropcatch/ SnapNames fetching more domains etc.?

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I noticed on registrarowl yesterday that the registrar dropcatch/namebright or whatever added a ton of new names this year.. https://www.registrarowl.com/report...selected=1&fltr_ctry=&fltr_tld=5&fltr_ctype=1
so did wix, but that's for a different reason.. I'm assuming the latter was because people were making their own webpages in response to the pandemic.. namebright however might be buying up a lot of names for some reason.. and it seems a lot of people are transferring to them.
https://www.registrarowl.com/report...selected=1&fltr_ctry=&fltr_tld=5&fltr_ctype=1

AEProgram said:

I also noticed people selling domain name courses, many market it as a get rich quick thing (far from the truth). That also drove people to this market.

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99.9% of them will only lose money.

Just join some domain FB groups for a test and see what's being sold. Mostly utter garbage for which they paid with hard earned money.

Hmm, After just one-year it's going to be difficult to be specific about overall competition and growth. In Certain categories of domains a year can almost be a lifetime if the right keyword is involved. maybe growing 500% or more. Overall for the successful domain resellers The competition has always grown year on year as those that enter and make some money stay around.. Covid and stay at home has probably encouraged a few more to enter the market. Successful investors in any market usually have their finger on the pulse of what is needed to bring themselves up to speed in around 6 months. Those like myself that came-in on a Chew-it and see background probably take at least 6 years.

My take is there is going to be a lot of businesses out there that are being pushed on-line, even when it was not in their plans to - they probably didn't care about relevant domains until now. maybe just settled for a social profile then a fully functioning website - now they are changing

Revisiting said:

My take is there is going to be a lot of businesses out there that are being pushed on-line, even when it was not in their plans to - they probably didn't care about relevant domains until now. maybe just settled for a social profile then a fully functioning website - now they are changing

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I agree and also competition drives businesses to new things as well. Business owners that would laugh off spending good money on domains, might change their mind when their competition is using a quality name.

Business owners don't realize that the cost of promoting and branding a junk domain is a drop in the bucket of the costs of buying a good domain that is easier to brand and remember. EMD's is a whole other story, I believe almost all EMD's with serious search volume are underpriced and under appreciated. Dot com top category EMD's with 30k exact search matches a month should start at 250k.

AEProgram said:

Business owners don't realize that the cost of promoting and branding a junk domain is a drop in the bucket of the costs of buying a good domain that is easier to brand and remember. EMD's is a whole other story, I believe almost all EMD's with serious search volume are underpriced and under appreciated. Dot com top category EMD's with 30k exact search matches a month should start at 250k.

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Well said. Unfortunately domains are still largely undervalued today due to owners who are willing to sell for pennies. In comparison with any other marketing tasks that would compensate for the effect of a great good name, they are insanely cheap.