Anyone Else Downsizing?

[domainsusi]

About two years ago we were holding 2000+ domains and selling enough to keep the rest renewed plus making a decent profit. Good (if not great) domains could still be picked up on the drop.

Today the count is less than 400. About half of those are making their way - some have very good parking revenue. Our goal is to reduce the portfolio to 200 or less producing domains.

In the past two months or so I have been attempting to sell some fair to decent domains for regfee or less with very poor results. I won't be doing that again. It is not worth the effort.

We will let most of the non-producing domains drop because there is no sense in throwing good money after bad. It will be interesting to see what these drops will sell for on the various auction sites.


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[cityforums.com]

About two years ago we were holding 2000+ domains and selling enough to keep the rest renewed plus making a decent profit. Good (if not great) domains could still be picked up on the drop.

Today the count is less than 400. About half of those are making their way - some have very good parking revenue. Our goal is to reduce the portfolio to 200 or less producing domains.

In the past two months or so I have been attempting to sell some fair to decent domains for regfee or less with very poor results. I won't be doing that again. It is not worth the effort.

We will let most of the non-producing domains drop because there is no sense in throwing good money after bad. It will be interesting to see what these drops will sell for on the various auction sites.


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I started downsizing a few years ago ... adding subtracting to the portfolio here and there ... I believe that as time progresses MOST people holding decent domains will sell for LESS than what they would have sold today ... the reason I think this will be is that as niches get established with competitors ... even good names won't let you grab market share ... the mind share battle would have been won and too late for anybody else to penetrate ... even with good domains. I think Rick Latona is wise

 

[onlinedomains00]

without seeing the actual domains, it is hard to evaluate the quality of ones defn of a good domain, compared to a bad...

 

[Timewarp]

You might not want to watch what they go for after dropped, from what I've heard there are often domains that people can't sell at reg fee suddenly getting $xxx after dropped. I dont get it, maybe something to do with just reaching that many more eyes or people getting excited at auctions.

I need to downsize as well, priority is to keep the ones I can develop myself.

 

[Mike]

I've been trying to downsize - unsuccessfully. not because i'm falling into the trap of buying more all the time, but rather the market situation doesn't let me downsize. domains that were valued at $xxx+ are now getting mid $xx, unless it's a keyword kicker in .com.
Something has happened, just to chalk it up to our miserable economy seems to easy.

M.

 

[onlinedomains00]

I am still actively purchasing domains in the auction pits... and getting great deals, I am able to pick up domains, which have great keywords such as antique" insurance" organic etc.. and will only touch .com's ... but I totally agree how domains someone won't pay $20 for on namepros, can go to auction, and sell for $200... it is the whole auction process, people get caught up..... Don't give up, this will turn......... I purchased an insurance .com last week, for $5 and it is doing $10 per day at sedo.... go figure

 

[HuntingMoon]

if skiresorts.com did not earn its reg fee back in 1996 and was "downsized", then a huge multiple would have been foregone.

thinning out crap .biz names and the like is one thing, but dumping names based on parking & ad revenue is another.

 

[weblord]

middle of the year i usually unload my domain portfolio for what it's worth and then so i can buy come september, october.

 

[labrocca]

Trying to keep around 400 domains but usually I hover in the 500-600 range.

I am paid up for most of my renewals but in about 3 months I have a lot coming up that I will be looking to get rid of..even if at a loss. You have to sometimes consider your portfolio overall.

I have done a better job this year of monetizing domains at least. Some with parking, some with MFA's, and some by full on development. Of course some names are great keepers and good speculation. But some speculations from 2+ years ago now look bad (CCC.net's) and will have to go.

I tend to look at a domain and think "Would I renew this for 5 years?" and if the answer is no I stop renewals or try to sell.

 

[Name Trader]

In the past two months or so I have been attempting to sell some fair to decent domains for regfee or less with very poor results. I won't be doing that again. It is not worth the effort.

I'm doing the same. Agree. It's just too much bother to list them for sale. Just let them drop and forget about them.

We will let most of the non-producing domains drop because there is no sense in throwing good money after bad. It will be interesting to see what these drops will sell for on the various auction sites.

I'm doing the same. Although I don't look too much at what they sell for at auction. I do remember 1 domain I sold cheap, the buyer didn't renew it and it sold for a couple of hundred bucks at auction.

dumping names based on parking & ad revenue is another.

Whilst I agree with your thoughts in general there are circumstances, such as where you are holding too many reasonable domains which have value but no buyers, where cash flow dictates you let them drop. You hold onto the ones which pay their way and the ones where you have some certainty of their future potential. The other mediocre ones have to let go. It's called downsizing I'm letting most of my non-.com's drop for starters. I'm still a buyer of some .coms & .orgs though.

 

[npcomplete]

I have routinely gone through downsize/upsize for my portfolio since 1996. I have around 2000 domains right now, and for the last few weeks have been desperately trying to find some domains similar to the ones I dropped in a downsize phase years ago. The ones I dropped ten years ago would cost me $x,xxx to buy back. oh well. I have a firm policy of "never looking back" after making a financial decision.

I suppose I am in a sideways move right now. Not downsizing, not upsizing, just rotating the inventory, dropping the cr*p, and registering/buying new domains that are *hopefully* better than the stuff I drop/sell, or at least in a better point in the appreciation curve.

Now back to looking for some things that I really *need* that are nowhere near as good as what I dropped years ago.

 

[cityforums.com]

I've been trying to downsize - unsuccessfully. not because i'm falling into the trap of buying more all the time, but rather the market situation doesn't let me downsize. domains that were valued at $xxx+ are now getting mid $xx, unless it's a keyword kicker in .com.
Something has happened, just to chalk it up to our miserable economy seems to easy.

M.

Maybe this is playing a factor

Case Study: Auctions.com

How much would it be worth when Ebay was starting to take off ?

How much was it worth when Ebay exploded ?

How much is it worth now that Ebay cornered the market ?

Answer: its value is its potential to generate revenues today and tommorrow.

Say it earns no revenues what would it sell for today ?

Say a company bought it for a million dollars ... how much more money

would they then have to spend in order to take market share away from

Ebay ?

The answer to this shows the real worth of auctions.com with no revenue

today. With revenue the value is the estimated discounted future cash

stream. Because more and more companies are cornering their niches the

values of most domains can only go down.

 

[networkmsia]

I have downsized all my reg free domains, and upsize premium domains worth 1k and above.

 

[Shasta]

I'm not downsizing. I buy about as many domains as I sell. My portfolio contains only short .com acronyms and since they get rarer and increase in value with time, I feel pretty good about investing in them.

 

[accent]

Cosmicray, what I think you are saying is that the online market has matured. I do not think it has. Online business in the US was up 20%, year over year, last Christmas, and the developing world is a long way from fully online. What about the mobile internet - supposed to become several times the size of the PC internet.

Yes the big boys have staked out their places - But the market is ripe for auctions of specialized goods that do not do well in eBay's one-size-fits-all environment - such as BQB.com. (Ebay sellers are currently in full revolt and that site is in deep trouble, for that matter.)

As a market grows, niche areas once ignored become profitable. Entrepreneurs always find new and better angles and new frontiers to open. Millions of new businesses will come online in the next few years. Some, hopefully, will buy my domains.

This all reminds me of the guy who said in 1900 that they should close the Patent Office because everything has already been invented.