Aged domains question

[Bob Hawkes]

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

 

[frank-germany]

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

 

[boker]

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.

 

[xynames]

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!

 

[boker]

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?

 

[xynames]

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.

---

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.

 

[boker]

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.

Everything is true what you just said and for sure you can't know for which you will receive the higher offers and when. Let's take scenario B, when you accept the 1k for each domain. you have 20k and you can reinvest them again and repeat again. If you want to wait for the 3k offer( highest offer in our case) than probably your waiting time should be 3-5 years if not more. In this time you can make several times 20k, by accepting the lower offer, so in the same time, with the same investment, you can make 50-60k in 5 years, when in the other scenario you make 30k, waiting. In the same time, you have liquidity, don't need to be stressed if the higher offer will ever come. It's like some are selling thousands of items at xx-xxx and others are selling one luxury car at xxxxxx, everybody has his strategy, but one can sell cheap and reinvest and the other will sell high, but keep the cash locked all the time.

 

[platey]

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.

I hand regged a two keyword. Com this week which could be worth a few quid to a tech entrepreneur cost me $15 in. Com

 

[frank-germany]

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.
.

I am all for selling at maximum prices
and I support you with your idea


but in that scenario
I would rather sell fast for $20K profit
as that money could buy other names

and you could build a broader base

 

[xynames]

Here you go. Your made up word and misspelled domain names that were brand bucket listed for a few grand, dumped for $19 each:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/bb...park-com-2-595-and-more.1045491/#post-6396812
One made up name is as good as the other, in that a company willing to take on a domain name that has no connection to what it is doing may just go with most any brandable name.

 

[Nickynames]

This domain sold for 5K when it was just 2 days old.

flippa.com/9199038-skriptsell-com

Case closed. Aged is just a number.

 

[xynames]

Lol “in a random sample of one....”

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thank you to all who replied. I found a number of helpful insights in your responses.

So I would summarize as follows:
(a) The value of domain age is somewhat subjective.
(b) Since there were more valuable names in the early days, in general an aged domain may represent higher quality. The fact that people renewed it over and over is also an indication of perceived value.
(c) There will be at least a few cases where newer domains have high value (e.g. related to technology not present for many years).
(d) A domain that has been held and registered for many years will have the owner feel that it is worth at least the holding cost, perhaps justifiably so.
(e) Not all aged domains will increase in value - e.g. domains related to technology and trends of a bygone era.
(f) As with collectable items, a very old domain may hold some special value related to its age beyond the simple quality (although age as a positive or negative is in eyes of beholder). Others might take the opposite view and find some aged but unsold domains as stale.
(g) Of course domain names with positive website history have special value (links, etc.).
(h) Every now and then someone will discover a gem not yet registered, but in general this would only be in the mid value range of .com and is rare with so many registered domains and active domainers.

Thanks again. It was interesting following the twists in the thread, and I have learned from your posts.

Bob

 

[Daniel Owens]

Aged domains rank better in google thus that is a huge advantage.

 

[xynames]

This domain sold for 5K when it was just 2 days old.

flippa.com/9199038-skriptsell-com

Case closed. Aged is just a number.

This transaction was removed from namebio as an illegitimate sale. It apparently never happened, according to namebio's follow up research, there never was any sale - the domain did not change hands.

 

[Rajnish Prasad]

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.

Well said...i agreee to it...the keyword is what matters rather than the age factor.

A crappy word registered djrrjeue.com 20 yrs will have scrap value..the conclusion in todays reality is that the age sometimes matter but what most matters is the keyword and the endusers requirement.

Everyday or other new tech are pumping in and people are hand registering those names..they are not crappy and they are valuable as well...

Exceptions are everywhere and domaining is not apart from that...there is no thumb rule of the age factor.

A enduser who is in search of a brand domain name for his newly opened business will give priority to the keywords matching and is relevant to his business rather than opting for crappy keywords just bcoz it is 10 or 20 yrs old..

So be realistic...

 

[Isac]

Psychology

For enduser - Age doesn't matter, they only want good domain name.
For reseller - Age is one of the positive factor

 

[elevator]

What matters in this biz is making money having good rollovers. There are many old names.that have sold well and.there are many new hand reggs that have made good money. Like what @Rajnish Prasad have said keywords are very important.
The beauty is in the eyes the beholders.

 

[toughdomains]

if I look at my personal sales over the past few years many of them are aged over 10 years. I feel like when i sold them I didnt realize the age and wanted to make sure I had a way to take age into account if an offer came in.
we include age in our store for every domain because it does matter to some. with an aged domain my opinion is the price paid is more justified knowing that this wasnt something I could have picked up a few months ago (parked or not ) it was never available to reg. but thats just me. obviously newer names like drone, AI, VR and crypto names are younger and have amazing value as well.

 

[xynames]

I’ve had a few potential buyers play stupid after making lowball offers, saying things like, “Oh, I figured that since you’d held on to it so long without using it I figured you didn’t want it.”

 

[lock]

I have some cheap aged domains simply because have done nothing with them. Aged still needs to be good to sell for high margin the good ones are priced accordingly. No point now to drop names have renewed 20 years so I think all have some value just not what some sellers hope for.
Mine mainly adult have sat around a bit long not in marketplaces or even offered for sale just renewed. People want old but developed in recent times.