discuss Am I wrong? Do domains really appreciate in value or is it Fools Gold?

[siyavuya]

I'm really starting to think that domains don't appreciate in value. I took the time to look around and I saw that the value is just pulled from thin air. Basing the value on a few things like length, keyword and sequence of numbers or letters is a hard sell. Has anyone here ever held a domain for some time and saw it go up in value?

One of the mistakes people make is confusing the value of money and the final price of a domain.
Let me give you a simple example:
Money goes down in value over time due to inflation

Most VIPs have a lot of domains which they hold for many years. Has anyone here ever gone back monthly or even yearly to increase the price of their domains or do they stay at the same price until sold?

I'm starting to really think that this is fools gold
Am I wrong?

 

[Ategy]

What I was asking is has there been an example of just holding a domain proved to go up in value at a greater rate than inflation because everything gets more expensive over time due to inflation.

That's not true at all .. plenty of things in history have plunged in value because of changes in the market.

As some have already mentioned .. pricing is usually closely if not directly related to supply and demand.


When it comes to domains that's where it gets tricky .. as the supply isn't the general 330 million domains registered.

For domains each domain is unique and in it's uniqueness it has it's own demand. Often times it can be categorised like

- Geo's: Certain cities have more demand than others
- Niche: Certain market trends can explode demand like Solar, Canna, etc
- Brandables: even certain keywords that get hot and then cool down like Hero, Gator, Ninja, etc.

The key is to find good domain that are in demand .. then as more of those domains get purchased and the number of alternative choices to the end user has goes down, then the value of the remaining domains goes up. But only for that class/type/niche of domain.

There is a broad scope of supply and demand on domains .. primarily what we are seeing with single word domains as 2L's, 3L's .. the advantage of having those domains combined with their growing scarcity are making their value skyrocket.

But don't expect this to happen with all 2-word .com's nor with 4L .com's ... because the Advantage*Scarcity factor is so much vastly lower than those 1-word, 2L 3L super premiums. That being said, the shortening supply of super premiums will affect other domains like 4L and 2-words, but there are so many that it will only be the best ones ...

The real question is what makes for the best 2-word domains .. well .. there are so many factors involved in that secret sauce:

- Niche demand
- Phonetics
- Radio test (clarity)
- Humour / Cool factor
- Rhyming / alliteration
- Length
- Uniqueness
- Contextual prefixes/suffixes
- Trending prefixes/suffixes
- Something special that can't be described (Je-ne-sais-quoi)
- Etc etc etc ..

In the end it's about what domain fulfils a potential end user's checklist the most. Even that checklist can vary depending on if they are consumer facing or B2B or even something else.

There are no rules .. but it certainly helps if you have a broad knowledge base and have very good language skills.

When you find a good domain in a hot niche with growing demand .. then yes .. the value will go up. More than inflation even. But the fact of the matter is .. that the vast majority of existing domains do NOT fit the very simple criteria of even being a "good domain".

 

[Dave]

Yes plenty of types of domains have appreciated in value over the years. Let's look at some examples.

5N .com's could still be hand registered back in 2007 when I started (without 0 or 4, names like 97898.com). 4N .com's could be had for low to mid $xxx. Whilst numeric domains have had a small dip recently there was a time when 5N price minimum was low 4 figs.

3 letter .com's were still being sold for mid $x,xxx when I joined in 2007. You would be very lucky to find one below $10k-15k these days.

4 letter .com's could also still be hand registered.

CVCV .com's could still be had on reseller market for $500-1000 when I joined in 2007.

All of the above have for sure appreciated in value over time. Other examples include two word brandables, one word .com's for sure

Cheers

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Why would the OP think inflation would have any noticeable effect on the value of domain names, when there are vastly larger events impacting the domains market?

I think the point was not directly around if inflation influenced domain prices (I agree with you that other factors dominate) but rather the point that investments that do not increase in value at least at rate of inflation lose value in real terms. Within domains the time period under consideration and the type of domain influence which domain portfolios increase in value at more than the rate of inflation.
Bob

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Edit Double Post (mods please delete this one)

 

[garptrader]

Even some of the most successful domain traders admit to only selling one in five domains through outbound methods. So despite efforts to acquire meaningful domains which could be used to promote a business, controlling acquisition and renewal costs, one still faces the reality that most end users are reluctant to pay a premium price for a domain. They will opt for inferior domains or a social media site even though the underlying business easily generates a revenue stream to pay for online marketing efforts. So there is no guarantee that acquiring a portfolio of domains will generate a positive Roi.

 

[biggie]

I'm really starting to think that domains don't appreciate in value. I took the time to look around and I saw that the value is just pulled from thin air. Basing the value on a few things like length, keyword and sequence of numbers or letters is a hard sell. Has anyone here ever held a domain for some time and saw it go up in value?

One of the mistakes people make is confusing the value of money and the final price of a domain.
Let me give you a simple example:
Money goes down in value over time due to inflation

Most VIPs have a lot of domains which they hold for many years. Has anyone here ever gone back monthly or even yearly to increase the price of their domains or do they stay at the same price until sold?

I'm starting to really think that this is fools gold
Am I wrong?

Hi

a lot of extensions are Fool's Gold, like .best, .dev, .pw, .ws, .pro, .tel, .travel. mobi and ?99% of the rest of those new gtld's are Fool's Gold too.

why do I say that, even if there have been some sales within them?

cuz those sales are "one-off", they are the lottery tickets and most of those sales will occur during the hype period of pumping, so newbies will buy and sellers can start dumping.

if you only look at length, keywords,etc, without considering whether the domain as a whole "makes sense" then you're chasing Fool's Gold.
just look at all the ass backwards names folks are hawking cuz they couldn't get the proper term or phrase, where the words are in right order of procession.

money doesn't go down in value, only what you can buy with a $1 becomes less.
things and services become more expensive.

when I started domaining, .com reg fee was only $6.95, now it average $10
you can get promo deals cheaper, but renewal cost will be close to average.

as for domains going up in value.
many do as others have given examples for.

but other domainers have names which still earn some ppc, like me

so, surely, their value had increased overtime and the names even paid for their acquisition costs, plus the cost to renew them to date... and into the future

people are always posting wanted ads, in an effort to buy domains with traffic that earn ppc revenue

and I own names that have earned ppc rev for over a decade!

now, depending on how many domains one has, is the quantity at which they calculate expense for the year.

1000 names = $10k in renewal fees on average
500 names = $5k in renewal fees " "
300 names = $3k in renewal fees, which is where I fit in
and... having already sold a name for twice as much as my yearly expense, puts me over the top for 2019.
and... I bought that name 11 years ago for a couple hun-nerd bucks

and....now I don't have to sell another name this year or next year, and we not gonna mention ppc rev.

so yeah, a lot of it is Fool's Gold, but if you a Fool, you will chase it
and a lot of Fool's Gold sellers will try their hardest to convince you to invest

be smart, open your eyes, refute the lies, watch out for co-conspirators, pump assistants, etc. and perhaps you won't be misled.

imo...

 

[xynames]

Absent some sort of new development that increases or decreases the value of the keyword (for example the crypto run then decline) domain name values don’t change over a period of months but definitely do change over the years.

Domains I have that were valued at reg fee or close to reg fee fifteen years ago are selling briskly in four figures or more today.

So if you’re looking for short term appreciation just because you’ve held short term you’re mostly going to be disappointed.