A Domainers World Just Ended

[DOMiNIC]

For anybody who hasn't read this weeks DNjournal this is just Unbelievable. http://www.dnjournal.com/domainsales.htm

The same person allowed all of these names to drop and this is what they sold for at Snap Names.

VacationWorld.com $45,400

ShoppingWorld.com $25,500

AdvertisingWorld.com $21,000

ReligionWorld.com $18,250

EntertainmentWorld.com $17,750

CandyWorld.com $15,250

ArtistWorld.com $15,250

RetirementWorld.com $13,750

MedicalWorld.com $12,250

DoctorWorld.com $12,250

ConventionWorld.com $12,250

ExerciseWorld.com $ 8,487

MagazineWorld.com $ 7,000

AirlineWorld.com $ 6,487.

By my calculation that amounts to $230,874.00 and who knows how many more lesser valued world.com domains he let drop.

I guess this guy is thinking about dropping off the nearest tall building.

Anybody who says that Domains are like real estate and the stock market are wrong. This could only happen in the 'WORLD' of domains

 

[DOMiNIC]

OVT Stats for some of these domains:

Vacation World: 4755
Shopping World: 330
Advertising World: 108
Candy World: 497
Entertainment World: 228
Artist World: 217

VacationWorld.com No suggestions for VacationWorld.com
ShoppingWorld.com No suggestions for ShoppingWorld.com
AdvertisingWorld.com No suggestions for AdvertisingWorld.com
EntertainmentWorld.com No suggestions for EntertainmentWorld.com
CandyWorld.com 77
ArtistWorld.com No suggestions for ArtistWorld.com

With these kind of stats the quoted sale prices are crazy, ESPECIALLY when the *buyers* of these names are well known for being masters of their trade; i.e. monetizing type-in traffic and making money thru PPC model. The *buyers* belong to a highly select elite group of domainers...could this all be just coincidental, yes, may be but may be not. Could it be that there's an orchestrated effort to inflate the prices of some prominent portfolios as the word is that we'd likely see some big portfolios changing hands from professional domainers to newbie deep-pocketed investors over these next few months....Recent media exposure generating interest from mainstream investors, looming seachange in the PPC model, gradual segmentation of the Internet with rising importance of ccTLDs, slow but steady adaptation of new tlds, pending release of yet additional tlds like .eu, .mobi, and others, emergence of IDNs in countries like China, Japan and India, and various other factors probably have provided an invaluable opportunity for some big players to cash-out on their long-held positions. Recent report in DNJ of this upcoming *special* TRAFFIC conference in Silicon Valley specifically targetted towards these new investors along with the sense of urgency its being put together...!! .May be its just my own skepticism going overboard but may be there's something going on here...things just don't add up like some others have pointed out above.

What is really interesting when looking at these stats is that if you visit Name Administration's web site - http://nameadministration.com they claim they "Do Not Sell Domains". Quote "Is this domain for sale?
We do not sell domain names. We receive many unsolicited offers each day however our business is building and developing each domain name and website into a relevant microportal. We are constantly improving our network to offer more relevant information and advertising content".


Yet from what I can see they only use their names for PPC conversion.

At first glance I thought the portfolio of 'world.com's that N.A. had acquired were good brandable domains, from a developers point of view, but in the context of N.A. developments and the low stats it all looks a wee bit weird.

Although http://nameadministration.com seems to be a nice attempt at friendly Public Relations, it seems a shame that it does not contain a complete list of all of their Domain Acquisitions. :td:

Below is another interesting extract from their site.

If you guys are running this nice little business, doing the "right thing", how come you are hiding out in the Cayman Islands?
This is our favorite. The Cayman Islands is nothing like what you hear about in the movies. We could just as easily ask, "How come YOU are hiding-out in the USA (or Canada or Europe or Australia)?" We are in the Cayman Islands because it is a great place to live. The weather is warm, the people are friendly and there is good Internet access. Everyone lives somewhere. We live here (www.caymanislands.ky). We may be contacted via email or through the Contact form on this website.

Reading this made me wet my pants. :o

No mention about the fact of hiding behind offshore companies, banks and privacy banking laws. No mention of the fact that its damn hard to bring legal action against someone hiding behind the veil of offshore privacy. No mention of the tax advantages. No mention of the difficulty of auditing and validitaing domain transactions. No mention of the fact that there are other Sunny Islands, with good internet access south of latitude 12°40'N, (i.e. Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago and Margarita), where you don't need to check on your home during a hurricane.

I also found this cover story, http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2005/october.htm
at DNjournal very interesting especially this clip,

"Finally, the coveted “Domainer of the Year” Award went to Frank Schilling who unfortunately had to leave the conference early to check on his home in the Cayman Islands which were sideswiped by Hurricane Wilma. Vern Jurovich of Name Administration.com accepted the award on behalf of Schilling."

:blink: Notice Frank Schilling was the only person who didn't stick around to have his photo taken!!!!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not making any assumptions or accusations, we are all, (well maybe not US Citizens), able to conduct some of our business affairs legally through Offshore Protection, I do a little myself, but when something as unregulated as the Domain Industry is involved, I Bet my Bottom Cayman Island Dollar, that it has nothing to do with, "We are in the Cayman Islands because it is a great place to live. The weather is warm, the people are friendly and there is good Internet access. Everyone lives somewhere. We live here".

If the US Department of Commerce does not get a grip on ICANN, the next time the United Nations hold a conference to discuss the industry, I think the Sh#t Will Really Hit The Fan.

 

[capiche]

I forwarded this thread to SnapNames. It will be interesting to see if they have anything to say.

 

[domainica]

If these domains had been mine listed for sale instead of at auction I'd have only received $2 offers for them. Sometimes it takes a bidder getting caught up in the madness of an auction to drive up the prices to these amounts.

Absolutely, positively true!

 

[Beachie]

I think the bottom line is there are three or four really cashed-up buyers who are in a bidding war. The "normal" domainers (professional or otherwise) may have rationally reached the mid $x,xxx range for these names (they are inherently quite valuable), but for the likes of vaxis, nameadmin etc, $xx,xxx is one day's revenue and they already own their revenue stream.

The original owner (these were regged in 1995) may have got a nice payout from NetSol, but I doubt he'd drop them on purpose without knowing what price they'd reach. Remember he only gets 10%, and it was anyones guess that they'd reach that price.

 

[TLDnetworks]

From the DNjournal cover story:

The drop game also became so competitive in 2005 that it became far less lucrative with many domainers paying over ten to twenty years revenue to win the auctions," Warner noted. "The “catch and release” miners soaked up most of the fringe traffic by registering hundreds of thousands of domains daily only to drop most of them within the five day non-penalty period if they didn’t have traffic. Even this brutish form of registration has largely dried up like a Japanese fishery.

Although I don't know that the last sentence is entirely true.

 

[America First]

What is really interesting when looking at these stats is that if you visit Name Administration's web site - http://nameadministration.com they claim they "Do Not Sell Domains". Quote "Is this domain for sale?
We do not sell domain names. We receive many unsolicited offers each day however our business is building and developing each domain name and website into a relevant microportal. We are constantly improving our network to offer more relevant information and advertising content".


Yet from what I can see they only use their names for PPC conversion.

At first glance I thought the portfolio of 'world.com's that N.A. had acquired were good brandable domains, from a developers point of view, but in the context of N.A. developments and the low stats it all looks a wee bit weird.

Although http://nameadministration.com seems to be a nice attempt at friendly Public Relations, it seems a shame that it does not contain a complete list of all of their Domain Acquisitions. :td:

Below is another interesting extract from their site.

If you guys are running this nice little business, doing the "right thing", how come you are hiding out in the Cayman Islands?
This is our favorite. The Cayman Islands is nothing like what you hear about in the movies. We could just as easily ask, "How come YOU are hiding-out in the USA (or Canada or Europe or Australia)?" We are in the Cayman Islands because it is a great place to live. The weather is warm, the people are friendly and there is good Internet access. Everyone lives somewhere. We live here (www.caymanislands.ky). We may be contacted via email or through the Contact form on this website.

Reading this made me wet my pants. :o

No mention about the fact of hiding behind offshore companies, banks and privacy banking laws. No mention of the fact that its damn hard to bring legal action against someone hiding behind the veil of offshore privacy. No mention of the tax advantages. No mention of the difficulty of auditing and validitaing domain transactions. No mention of the fact that there are other Sunny Islands, with good internet access south of latitude 12°40'N, (i.e. Grenada, Trinidad & Tobago and Margarita), where you don't need to check on your home during a hurricane.

I also found this cover story, http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2005/october.htm
at DNjournal very interesting especially this clip,

"Finally, the coveted “Domainer of the Year” Award went to Frank Schilling who unfortunately had to leave the conference early to check on his home in the Cayman Islands which were sideswiped by Hurricane Wilma. Vern Jurovich of Name Administration.com accepted the award on behalf of Schilling."

Notice Frank Schilling was the only person who didn't stick around to have his photo taken!!!!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not making any assumptions or accusations, we are all, (well maybe not US Citizens), able to conduct some of our business affairs legally through Offshore Protection, I do a little myself, but when something as unregulated as the Domain Industry is involved, I Bet my Bottom Cayman Island Dollar, that it has nothing to do with, "We are in the Cayman Islands because it is a great place to live. The weather is warm, the people are friendly and there is good Internet access. Everyone lives somewhere. We live here".

If the US Department of Commerce does not get a grip on ICANN, the next time the United Nations hold a conference to discuss the industry, I think the Sh#t Will Really Hit The Fan.

Well it looks like we have the right person on this case, NOW FIND THE OLD OWNER "DOG"...
:tu: Great Job, good read.
Joker!

 

[Beachie]

What is really interesting when looking at these stats is that if you visit Name Administration's web site....

Of course they operate out of the Cayman Islands - it's a US-backed tax haven, and I'm sure it's a lovely place to live. Do you really think they're gonna write "We operate here to avoid the IRS" on their website???

 

[America First]

Of course they operate out of the Cayman Islands - it's a US-backed tax haven, and I'm sure it's a lovely place to live. Do you really think they're gonna write "We operate here to avoid the IRS" on their website???

Oh No... Don`t balme us (in the USA) for people living in the Cayman Islands. Its sunny,lovely and a great palce to live like San Diego. Wonder why they didn`t pick Switzerland? :td: maybe to cold?

Joker has Spoken!

 

[Beachie]

Oh No... Don`t balme us (in the USA) for people living in the Cayman Islands. Its sunny,lovely and a great palce to live like San Diego. Wonder why they didn`t pick Switzerland? :td: maybe to cold?

Joker has Spoken!

Who's blaming anyone? That's an odd statement.

I think you'll find Switzerland is a little colder than Grand Cayman.

 

[America First]

Who's blaming anyone? That's an odd statement.

I think you'll find Switzerland is a little colder than Grand Cayman.

See the smiles: im Joking

 

[Riceman]

I think somebody's wife will file a divorce when she see's the money they lost

 

[SpongyBob]

Perhaps we should all checkout Snapnames.com's web design, perhaps it can in some way induce bidders to go mad and bid thousands at a time :D

 

[Shorty]

After reading all this, i'm really considering not spending another penny on anything related to domains. The conspiraces behind the scenes are just apalling.

 

[SpongyBob]

After reading all this, i'm really considering not spending another penny on anything related to domains. The conspiraces behind the scenes are just apalling.

Sadly, things do seem to be getting more corrupt by the day.