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

 

[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..

 

[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 ?

 

[boker]

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.

Ok, let's take some examples. Bitcoincash was bought this year for 10$ and sold for 48k if I'm remember right, so a hand reg. Naturalbeauty, bought for 65k over 10 years ago and sold for 10k a few days ago...so the name it's important, not the age.. Also, if you check namepros or godaddy you could buy names bought over 10 years ago for 10-30$ and sometime for free, so no, the age doesn't have any value if the name is bad.

 

[Haris]

Okay so I did a search at Expireddomains.net

.com's dropped in last 12 hours

Domains from 1980's - Dec 31 2000.
About 245 Domains

Then 2016 .com domains dropped in last 12 hours
About 33,137 Domains

 

[Haris]

We can say that every day less than 500 domains from 1980's to 2000 drop while at the same time 30000 domains registered last year drop.

Too many people registering too many domains? Obvious but why are they dropping? Bitcoinsomething sold for $xxxxx but thousands of domains registered at that time sold for $0.

 

[xynames]

What we're talking about here is when the domain was original "created" as far as its age - when the name came into existence.

 

[namelancer]

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.

Prime real estate always get claimed first. It is true for both old and new trends. If you look at most valuable crypto domains that are representative of the new trend you will find the most valuable (as of now, or according to our current ability to estimate value) to be already registered (cryptonews, crypto, etc.). That is not to say, that some of the already registered but unvalued as of yet crypto names or the crypto-combinations still available for registration, would not raise in value in the future. Because we can only judge the object's true value by the current value system and today's standards. At some point in time, all domains were hand-registered. That is to say, at the moment of their original registration they were not considered to be prime (scarcity and value-wise). Since we use language as our primary mechanism of expression, it's quite natural that, once it stood clear that the internet was here to stay, dictionary words were the first to go. The rest (acronyms, EMDs, common linguistic expressions, liquid, etc.) had followed the same route. But back then far from the many had grasped the value of what they had, or else they would never have let them go. This is evident by so many stories of people regretting not holding on to their old registrations of prime names.
When an object is recognized as having value, and its supply is limited, it leads to depletion of available reserves of that product. Sometimes, scarcity precedes acknowledgement of value.However, that is not to say that all of the aged domains, once viewed as prime and valuable, would retain their value through the time despite their hypothetical future depletion and resulting scarcity. As new technologies arise and old become obsolete, it will lead to creation of many more new, language-embedded hot spots of innovation (i.e. new categories of domains), that will repeat the same circle of going through the motions of initial abundance, gradual depletion (in tact with recognition of their increasing value), and an acute scarcity stage (as the point when their value is at the peak).
Age is the ultimate judge and filter of a domain's value, adding the benefit of hindsight. All domains are created equal (except for some prime in newer extensions), in that at the time of their primal registration for a reg.fee their value is an unknown variable solved later by the flow of time and market fluctuations.

 

[poweredbyme]

For me, as an independent webmaster-developer the best strategy is to purchase good aged domains (registered before 2000 or 2005) rather than hand registering. I developed sites (mostly wordpress, a few on drupal and forum - phpbb) on old domains and hand registered domains. I can confidently say the difference is huge between aged and brand-new domains. I even don't care the history of the old domains Their bad history doesn't affect almost anything (or I didn't notice any negative thing) as long as the domain and website content are relevant. I redirect the old baclinks to the homepage which ends up with 404 error, and that's it Search engines immediately crawl and index aged domains. In less than 10 days you start receiving free organic search traffic even if the aged domain has no backlinks. Its age alone is enough.

 

[poweredbyme]

I'll start by responding to your earlier post.

I think, that by ranking a domain/website higher, it's a google' way of saying they put a stamp of appreciation on a domain with a bright future and a long life AHEAD of it rather than the one with a glorious past

If you develop a website on a fresh domain, the domain itself (content age is also counted in ranking) will be 5 years old 5 years later. If you use a 15 year old domain to develop a website, the domain is already 15 years old domain today and will be 20 years old in 2022. "glorious past" is not the factor that was measured in my test to know the impact of domain age on a fresh content. Because fresh content was used in both, new and aged domains. If you publish a content on a brand new domain, it doesn't get indexed even in 10 days while the aged domain starts receiving organic traffic. The difference is huge. Even if you renew for the next 5-10 years in advance, aged domain outperforms fresh domain. I experienced this for many times. So this is almost a rule. Search engines rank aged domains better. "glorious past" is a different thing, is not very relevant. Every domain will be old in the future, every domain will have a past. But the aged domains of today will be always most aged domains. Search engines don't give authority because of a bright future. They give authority because of a guaranteed past that will happen in the future, when you renew domain for multiple years, not only for 1 year.

 

[Silentptnr]

I get just as many offers on my newer domains as I do on my older domains. Just last month I sold two domains for 1k each that I just hand registered 65 days earlier.

I just got an inquiry earlier today for a domain that I hand regged [ r/n/c/n/e/w/s/./c/o/m ] in 2014 and consider newer. I get offers and inquiries literally almost daily both on older names and new names.

I agree that the age of a domain name can contribute to it's value, even if it has sat parked. I will add however, that I also sell domains, get inquiries on domains, and get offers on domains, that are not old.

 

[xynames]

That's an irrelevant comparison.

 

[Silentptnr]

I will add that there are tons of aged domains in the GD Closeouts for $5 - $11.

 

[HotKey]

What would be the final verdict on age ?

Basically if I'm selling an old domain, i say age matters.
If l'm selling a newer domain, i say age doesnt matter.
Depends on what I'm selling.

Though quality will almost always be the bigger factor, unless:
https://www.namepros.com/threads/wtb-at-least-1-domain-from-1990-1991.1029196/#post-6259373

I really don't care about the quality of the domain.

it is specifically implied.

 

[Sinh]

aged or new, it doesn't matter for the endusers. To get a good selling price, the quality of the domain is the most important thing and the second thing depends on your luck, just my opinion. I am negociating with a buyer about my aged domain (1992) that is over 10k but we don't mention about it is aged or new

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I've excerpted the part of your post I'll respond to, as the owner of maybe a 75 or so domains aged between 12 - yes, 20 -ish years.

Their value IMO as " aged domains " is their long term unavailability to interested persons seeking those domains over the years.

And as the years have passed without their availability, should an opportunity to acquire the
" aged names " arise a potential buyer would recognize this is likely their only opportunity to acquire the name or names - hence a perceived value to an " aged domain ".

Thanks for your post, and that is a perspective I had not clearly thought of this way before.I agree the view has a lot of merit. It is probably very analogous to certain types of fine art bought early on, then held by a private collector for a long time, and now perhaps for the only time in a decade or more is made available for sale.

Clearly the topic of domain age has lots of facets, and interesting that it has stayed so active for so long here. Even though I have only commented a few times, I wanted to thank EVERYONE for answering with so much detail and insight. I am sure I am not the only one who has learned a lot from this discussion.

Thanks everyone, and have a nice day!

Bob

 

[xynames]

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?

 

[xynames]

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.

 

[xynames]

Such domains would not have been paid and maintained for 12 years. Absurd hypothetical.

 

[xynames]

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.

 

[boker]

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$

 

[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!

 

[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.