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

 

[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.

 

[xynames]

"People want old but developed in recent times."

Developed? You mean with a website? Or are you talking about adult domains only.

If you mean that people don't want to buy domains unless they have a website I of course disagree.

 

[Hootsifer]

Aged domains must still be trending -- if they aren't sold on trend, they become useless relics. Take for example a domain about floppy disk drives from 94 -- aged yes, but relevent? Maybe to extreme collector..

 

[namelancer]

Age is a funny thing. Some Investments are good when they are aged, and some Investments are good when they are new.

Correct, so the answer to the OP's question of whether aged domains are more valuable is both a YES and NO, depending on the class of a name in question.

These are categories when age(with some exceptions) is a positive factor:

1. Dictionary words;
2. EMDs, or exact match domains (e.g.'CertifiedPublicAccountant');
3. SEO-rich key-word domains;
4. Common, classic (or timeless) linguistic expressions .

These are the categories where age is generally just a number (no value added on account of the age itself):

1. Creative names that belong to a sub-category of brandables (if we consider brandables to be largely generic). They are tailor-made for the unique usage based on specialized specs. Their value lies in combination of uniqueness, cleverness and creativity capturing the essence of a business, product or service..
2. New gTLDs
3. Language expressions reflective of new trends, be it in politics, social life, or the technology sector, etc.
4. SEO- accentuated key-word domains that keep abreast of the latest in commercial, developmental, etc spheres.
5. Newly coined words being continuously added to the dictionary.

These are the borderline categories where the age may or may not be a factor,based on subjective perception/values, as well as objective factors deemed as such by the context of their historical, technological, etc. relevance:

1.Brandables in the broadest definition of the term, including generics and niche names.
2. Some Keyword domains

 

[toughdomains]

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.”

a bit off topic but somewhat related because most of my offers come from aged names
i list all my personal names on godaddy....get at least 2 offers a month on 300 names. every single offer is no higher than $250....one word names like turned.com or heated.com and Im getting $200 offers. when you counter with anything higher than 1k no reply. you have to pay an extra fee to add a min offer...what a horrible service to have to pay for...but makes me think if you ask 1000 domainers maybe 1 says yes. I use the low ball offer volume to validate which names i should keep and renew.
another story had a buyer who let his .com expire (relaized from the screenshot history of the name) offer me $50 it was over 10 years and 6 letters. he said he owned the .co.uk and just wanted to have it nice and neat in his portfolio so hence why the low offer. I paid 60 for it at auction and it looks nice and neat in my portfolio. I love to hear the reasons from people on why you should sell for peanuts..

 

[namelancer]

Made up names acquire distinctiveness through use they are not in existence at the time of creation.

If this were true, none of the Brandable Markeptplaces which specialize precisely in selling these types of names (among other, more liquid, catchy and short acronyms, or descriptive names) for hefty sums would be in existence.That is so in part because what you described above often corresponds to the very definition of a brandable, being, a name, that enters the market with a price tag set to higher aspirations at a time preceding its as of yet unfulfilled (but promised) heyday of trading or trademark glory and long before the name gets developed into or acquires distinctiveness of a brand through channels of marketing and brand awareness..

ps: Strictly from a technical point of view, your statement pertains to definition of a trademark that in itself represents an acquired value.My argument favors assignment of perceived values to names prior to the start of going through trademark process.

 

[namelancer]

Now, weird misspelled or made up names of today may acquire distinctiveness and value

So, saying that a brand new hand registered domain can be great - simply means that through use, it may acquire greatness

The above is being contradicted by the fact that esoteric and misspelled naming distortions of grammar rules command top prices from the moment of their creation as is evidenced by continuous existence of Brandable Marketplaces and namebio's sales records of said brandables.

The only difference is that unlike objectively valued aged domains, purely invented brandables possess what is known as mostly subjective value.

 

[Haris]

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.

Completely agree with you mate.

 

[namelancer]

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.

Yes, one must ask a cardinal question: what kind of names do the countless startups and thousands of businesses born out of garages weekly choose for themselves from the starting ground of corporate inception and do they hold on to the original name after surviving long enough to complete the next round of founding allowing them to afford an upgrade ? Do they at later date go for ageless classics or stick with invented and convoluted uniqueness in defiance of traditions and in keeping with a style of disruption ?

 

[xynames]

The above is being contradicted by the fact that esoteric and misspelled naming distortions of grammar rules command top prices from the moment of their creation as is evidenced by continuous existence of Brandable Marketplaces and namebio's sales records of said brandables.

The only difference is that unlike objectively valued aged domains, purely invented brandables possess what is known as mostly subjective value.

Not really, I mean
https://www.thedomains.com/2017/09/...s-cms-summit-merge-announce-domain-challenge/
is dumping thousands of these made up and misspelled names for $299. each (dropped down from initial attempt at $495. each), and they are no better or worse than some of the ones people are trying to get a few grand for. My communications with people who are selling exclusively these made up or misspelled domain names indicate that they can't make it with this sort of junk alone especially when they try to sell for more than a few hundred each - sales are so slow when trying to sell made up/misspelled domains for "top prices" that domain reg fees for the entire portfolio eat up all incoming profits.

 

[Haris]

Aged domains are better than handregs.. But it's obvious that not all aged domains are going to be great.. people registered bad domains back in the day too.

But to understand this let's look at the expiring and pending delete lists.. it's much rare that a domain registered in 1990's and early 2000s expire when compared to recent 1-2 year old domains. Sure too many domains are being registered today but why are so many of those that are registered nowadays are dropping? Because the newly registered domains are mostly of bad quality, it's a fact.