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Aged domains question

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Bob Hawkes

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I have a question that I hope someone more experienced in domain investing can provide insight on....

Very frequently I see mention in domain name sales that the domain is aged or how many years old it is, as though this is universally a good thing.

I understand completely how if the domain has been used in a website in a positive way, has received meaningful links from other websites, etc. that being aged is a plus that will make the domain more valuable.

However, what if the domain was first registered say 12 years ago, but has essentially sat parked for most or all of that period? In this case I don't see how being aged is positive, and maybe even it could be negative if an unsuccessful attempt has been made to sell the domain over years. Of course, you may have new ideas for promotion and hope to find success where others have not with the domain name, but I still don't see why per se being aged is always positive and meaningful.

Or am I missing something? Thanks for any insights.

Bob
 
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I think the value of a domains age is subjective. It matters to some people and to others it doesnt matter.

Much like estibot values....whilst we all know they are not accurate, just browse around the domains wanted section and you will see the same thing..., some people make specific mention a domain having x amount of estibot value. You will also see many listings where people ask for domains that must be at least x years old.

Also from an SEO perspective an aged domain does have a little more clout than a brand new hand registered domain.
 
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Subjective
 
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In the early days of the Internet almost all names were available for hand reg even names that eventually were worth millions.

It stands to reason that the longer ago the name was registered the more likely that it is a superior name. As more and more people use the internet and more and more people become involved with needing a domain name - needing it for whatever purpose - stands to reason that the names being more recently hand registered will be the dregs only. Inferior.

You’ve heard about how an infinite number of monkeys typing on an infinite numbers of typewriters will produce all the works of Shakespeare? Well as the amount of people dreaming up domain names increases it will get harder and harder to come up with any decent name that has not already been registered. What’s available to hand reg today is definitely crappy compared to many years ago.

So whether the domain has been parked or not all these years still if it was hand registered 15 years ago it came from a superior pool than what is available today.
 
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Age is a funny thing. Some Investments are good when they are aged, and some Investments are good when they are new.

I have heard, that a domains age can command more money. A person that has paid renewal fees for 15 years, can reasonably ask for a minimum of 15 years of renewals.

Additionally, as others have mentioned, more valuable domains were available years ago.

As far potential revenue from a domain name, with an aged domain, traffic statistics can be validated.

Other than those points, a brand new hand registered domain can be great too.
 
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Nothing you may hand reg today compares to the best domains that were registered years ago.

Now, weird misspelled or made up names of today may acquire distinctiveness and value but they will never, straight from registration, compare to the best names from the past. It’s absurd to argue otherwise. Stuff like sex.com x.com those were available once to hand reg, and not today. Real word domains, one word and two ones, are pretty much all spoken for. Those are the best. The newer domains can’t compare until after they have acquired distinctiveness through branding or use.

So, saying that a brand new hand registered domain can be great - simply means that through use, it may acquire greatness, but straight out the gate it is not on par with the best names of the past, that are great simply because of what they are even before use.

If you want to look at it this way - beer.com is great because it’s a word that has been in use in language for over two thousand years, and refers to a beverage that has existed for over seven thousand years. Made up domain names just came into existence and by comparison have a long way to go.
 
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Nothing you may hand reg today compares to the best domains that were registered years ago.

Now, weird misspelled or made up names of today may acquire distinctiveness and value but they will never, straight from registration, compare to the best names from the past. It’s absurd to argue otherwise. Stuff like sex.com x.com those were available once to hand reg, and not today. Real word domains, one word and two ones, are pretty much all spoken for. Those are the best. The newer domains can’t compare until after they have acquired distinctiveness through branding or use.

So, saying that a brand new hand registered domain can be great - simply means that through use, it may acquire greatness, but straight out the gate it is not on par with the best names of the past, that are great simply because of what they are even before use.

If you want to look at it this way - beer.com is great because it’s a word that has been in use in language for over two thousand years, and refers to a beverage that has existed for over seven thousand years. Made up domain names just came into existence and by comparison have a long way to go.
Except that new technologies and new terminologies are being created that weren't around years ago. There are still opportunities to make 5, 10, 15 times your money with domain names. The best domain name investment is the one that sells.
 
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"Except that new technologies and new terminologies are being created that weren't around years ago. There are still opportunities to make 5, 10, 15 times your money with domain names. The best domain name investment is the one that sells."

That's just a general statement, meaningless, and doesn't support your claim that a newly hand registered domain can be just as good as say, beer.com , straight from the gate.

Anyway, I think you're speaking in generalities. Show me any hand reg of today that is good as beer.com , straight from the gate, worth just as much on the day it was invented through these new technologies and new terminologies.

Which anyway, new terminologies are not what are being created. Made up names acquire distinctiveness through use they are not in existence at the time of creation. Your statement is very general and not really on point to this discussion, of what the value of time has for a domain name. As time goes on, even all of those made up names will be eaten up and unavailable. :xf.grin:
 
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What’s available to hand reg today is definitely crappy compared to many years ago.

I sold a domain that I hand regged today
for $500 USD a few minutes later

crappy ?

yeah I should have asked for more
 
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"Except that new technologies and new terminologies are being created that weren't around years ago. There are still opportunities to make 5, 10, 15 times your money with domain names. The best domain name investment is the one that sells."

That's just a general statement, meaningless, and doesn't support your claim that a newly hand registered domain can be just as good as say, beer.com , straight from the gate.

Anyway, I think you're speaking in generalities. Show me any hand reg of today that is good as beer.com , straight from the gate, worth just as much on the day it was invented through these new technologies and new terminologies.

Which anyway, new terminologies are not what are being created. Made up names acquire distinctiveness through use they are not in existence at the time of creation. Your statement is very general and not really on point to this discussion, of what the value of time has for a domain name. As time goes on, even all of those made up names will be eaten up and unavailable. :xf.grin:
What you don't consider, is that beer.com, when was available to hand reg, the internet was making the first steps. Also, you should consider ROI. If you buy today beer.com, probably you will pay xxxxxx, I'm curious to see how much more and in how much time you can sell it and if you can sell it for 2,5,20 times more than what you have paid. In the same time, if you pay 2$ for a hand reg and sell it for, let say 5k( it's done all the time) than you sell it 2500 more than what you paid. So, if you will invest the full amount that you would have paid for beer, just on hand reg, you could have done 10-50 times better than try to buy beer.com and resell it again.
 
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boker, again - general comments, and perhaps valid, and much appreciated, but what do they have to do with the thread, which is about whether there is value in the age of a domain?
 
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Some pay for aged domains as a collector's item... like if it was reg'd in 1993 for example.
 
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boker, again - general comments, and perhaps valid, and much appreciated, but what do they have to do with the thread, which is about whether there is value in the age of a domain?
No, the question was if a domain registered 5-10 years ago is more valuable than a domain registered yesterday. It's not about beer or other premium commercial words. I can show you tens-hundreds examples registered 5-10 years ago, even before 2000 and which they don't have any value at all and also domains registered this year that were sold for xxx-xxxx or which they had at least inquiries. In conclusion, even if the domain was registered 15 years ago and the domain is jgkjbkjhhbhbkhj.com, it will have no value just based on age.
 
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There was only one sentence in OP’s post with a question mark: “However, what if the domain was first registered say 12 years ago, but has essentially sat parked for most or all of that period?” and he was referring to whether there is value in the age of a domain.
 
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There was only one sentence in OP’s post with a question mark: “However, what if the domain was first registered say 12 years ago, but has essentially sat parked for most or all of that period?” and he was referring to whether there is value in the age of a domain.
Yes, let's say that jgkjkjhbjhkjjk.com or stayed parked for 12 years. Do you think that it has any value, just because it was registered 12 years ago?
 
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Such domains would not have been paid and maintained for 12 years. Absurd hypothetical.
 
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Such domains would not have been paid and maintained for 12 years. Absurd hypothetical.
Ok, let's take some examples: FPTALTD.COM and electronicsnews.net
How mush would you have paid for them? They were sold a few years back here at namepros, being 12 years old when they were sold. I didn't wanted to take some examples from this year, to not affect the value of the domains, these one's were sold here a few years ago and the owners are not active anymore. Just is you check namepros you will find hundreds of examples even worse than these, without any meaning, for which peoples have paid renewals from 1997 or even longer, without having any value.
 
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You can't hand register anything that great today as far as domaining inventory for resale. If you spend all your days, with your complicated algorithms and searches/filters, buying nothing but hand reg stuff all day long, in the end you'll lose money, with the occasional winner being eaten up by reg fees on the losers.

There are just too many people in the game right now, for enough quality stuff to remain in the hand reg market.

And this fact, I think, means that age does add value to the equation, or at least means that age is a factor that presupposes value.
 
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You can't hand register anything that great today. If you spend all your days, with your complicated algorithms and searches/filters, buying nothing but hand reg stuff all day long, in the end you'll lose money.
I know a few guys that are doing just that including myself and are making xxxxx profit year by year. Also, there are lots of guys who are buying just from the aftermarket and loosing money or they make a small profit. There are also guys who are trading only LLLL.com's and loosing money or they make a small profit. It's about. I have sold over 330 domains to resellers and 19 to end users this year( and around 30 others with offers which were not big enough), all hand reg and my cost of acquisition was around 3,30$
 
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"I know a few guys that are doing just that including myself" are you saying then that your budget for every single domain you own, is only the reg fee, never more? If so, then your domains must be older not just hand registered today, which again, supports my argument and not any claim that age is irrelevant.

"are making xxxxx profit year by year" - exactly. Older domains, year by year, how many years back do your regs go? How many are selling TODAY that you just hand registered TODAY, versus ones you hand registered a longer time ago? :xf.smile::xf.grin::xf.wink:
 
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come on

age has nothing to do with domain value

only value matters not age

and value is different in the eyes of different people

I hand reg most of my domains for more then 15 years
it takes a while sometimes
before somebody else recognises the value
 
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You can't hand register anything that great today as far as domaining inventory for resale. If you spend all your days, with your complicated algorithms and searches/filters, buying nothing but hand reg stuff all day long, in the end you'll lose money, with the occasional winner being eaten up by reg fees on the losers.

There are just too many people in the game right now, for enough quality stuff to remain in the hand reg market.

And this fact, I think, means that age does add value to the equation, or at least is a factor that presupposes value.
Yes, to many peoples in the game, but 90% of the new guys don't know what to buy and most of the experienced they don't have the patience to look for them, because it's much easier to buy from closeouts and drooped domains, even do the prices are the highest ever and don't leave to much room for profit.
"I know a few guys that are doing just that including myself" are you saying then that your budget for every single domain you own, is only the reg fee, never more? If so, then your domains must be older not just hand registered today, which again, supports my argument and not yours.
My older domain is just over 2 years old, so I don't think that 2 years is so aged that it can add value. Let's take for example Motorkite in com. It was hand regged 2 years ago, for 5$...I have received 17 offers in 2 years, the biggest was 1,2k and I have multiple domains like this, lot's of them from this year. So, my point, sometimes it's easier to make a profit buying low than competing with everybody for the same domains.
 
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What is "in com" do you mean dot com?

Those made up names, misspelled names, one is the same as the other, in my opinion. Before branding they will never be worth much. You may keep doing what you are doing but when your inventory has nothing special in it where one name is as good as another from your competitor, it's hard to stay ahead. Of course "worth much" is all relative. To me a $500. or $1000. offer on my domains are the offers I almost universally turn down; I get such offers daily.

My inventory is mostly hand registered too, but hand registered years ago, just been patient, holding, and selling selectively at fair prices only.

You're getting way off on a tangent. Making a living or not making a living on domaining is not what this thread is about. It's about whether age matters, and it does!
 
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What is "in com" do you mean dot com?

Those made up names, misspelled names, one is the same as the other, in my opinion. Before branding they will never be worth much. You may keep doing what you are doing but when your inventory has nothing special in it where one name is as good as another from your competitor, it's hard to stay ahead. Of course "worth much" is all relative. To me a $500. or $1000. offer on my domains are the offers I almost universally turn down; I get such offers daily.

My inventory is mostly hand registered too, but hand registered years ago, just been patient, holding, and selling selectively at fair prices only.
Yes, you turn them down because you have them for 12-15 years or more and you have invested time and money to renew them, but if I pay 3$-5$ for one domain this year and selling it for 500-1k-2k and doing it over and over, it's worth it. Let's count the average of 1k and cost of acquisition of 3$, so for 20 domains you pay 60$ and make 20k in the same year, do you think that it's worth it?
 
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Doesn't entirely address your question, but I did post this:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/lo...word-domain-names.1045621/page-3#post-6396689

Our experience has been that after we turn down lower offers eventually someone comes along and buys enough of these same domains for which there were low offers, at much better prices.

Also, if you're going to accept low offers, then you will be doing it across the board. Your thinking is flawed. So you "lost" 100K from not selling domains where you received low offers and did not sell, and have not sold those domains yet. Okay. Well what if you had sold ALL of your domains at comparably very low prices? What if you had put buy it nows for all of your domains at low prices? How much less would you have received then, from your closed sales?

Let's say: You have 20 domains that should sell for $3000. each.

Scenario A.
10 domains, received 1000 offers for them, did not accept, never sold. So you "lost" $10,000. according to your thinking.

10 domains, that you did sell for $3000. Received $30,000.
Net receipts: $30,000.

Scenario B
You accept every $1000. offer immediately, do not try to get more, and sell all 20 domains at $1000. each
Net receipts: $20,000.

You see what I mean? You can't have it both ways. Either you hold out for the higher price on everything, or you just dump everything cheap.

If you're going to accept low offers, then you will lose out on higher sales. You must have a consistent policy. Either just dump everything cheap, or wait for the higher offers. Usually, the higher revenue you receive from the sales at market value (Scenario A) will more than make up for the "lost" revenue of unsold domains (Scenario B).

You can't know which domains will receive higher offers later, which will not, doesn't work that way.

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You're still supporting my point when you write: "but if I pay 3$-5$ for one domain this year and selling it for 500-1k-2k" well first of all, $2K is quite different from 500 or even 1000. Once you get anyone to pay over 1000 that's what most of these guys consider real money. So I doubt you're selling too many hand registered today for $2000. Sorry, I just doubt it. But if all you can get is 500 I am sure you have to hand reg a LOT to sell one for 500, and at end of the day, not much if any profit. You seem to imply that you hand reg one domain and BAM! it always sells for at least 500 within two years. No way. Most of your profits will be eaten up by losers that do not sell, and as time goes on, less and less hang reg will be worth much of anything, by virtue of the fact that more and more people coming into existence who are registering domain names.

Also, if your oldest domain name is only two years old, you did say this, then if you have in fact been doing this "year after year," then you must simply never hold a domain more than two years before giving up on it and letting it go. Either that or you have been doing this two years only.
 
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