Anyone Ever Get Suspicious of Big Domain Sales?

[lennco]

Sometime I see a big sale and I go Hhhmmmmmm?

Like this week ForexStars.com sold for $100k at Sedo and twice it was dropped, once back in 2003 and once in 2006 and now it sold for $100k.

Also Gamez.com sold for $77k about a year and half ago and every since then it has been for sale at Sedo.

I am probably reading too much into it but I thought I would ask you guys if you had any options on this.

 

[Keith]

Suspicion in the domain industry? Never! :hehe:

I tend to believe reported sales at sedo but other venues may have me asking questions.

 

[lennco]

Suspicion in the domain industry? Never! :hehe:

I tend to believe reported sales at sedo but other venues may have me asking questions.

Yea my suspicions wasn't with Sedo, more with the buyers and sellers actually.

I just wonder if they ever buy back their own domains just to give it a high dollar value for future sales.

 

[Kate]

My belief is that in a number of cases, domains must be used as a vehicle for money laundering.
Now, a sale may be announced early but never complete. We don't always hear about failed sales.

 

[DU]

I don't believe any of the hype unless it comes with a notarized tax form and even then I have doubts.

 

[Ms Domainer]

*

IMHO: "Love everyone, trust no one."

Some of those "big" reported sales seem suspect.

I would love to be able to take sales reports at face value, but I think it's potentially dangerous to do so.

If something doesn't pass the stink test, then I simply choose not to believe it. In other words, I do not base my aftermarket buying decisions based on sales reports, but, rather, on hard, cold analytics.

*

 

[alien51]

I will never dismiss the possibility that some random guy out there slips in his bathroom, hit his head on the toilet sink, and when he came to, he suddenly went online and paid 20,000 dollars for a domain you probably wouldn't even pay reg fee if it dropped.

 

[the_yehezkiel]

Believe me, Gamez.com is a great domain name! I would be more than willing to pay $77k for that domain (if I have the money )

 

[ibidu]

Gamez.com is not just a domain name. It's a high earning PR4 site - I doubt very much if as a domain name it would have fetched that much.

 

[slumdog]

gamez.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

A 77k domain & Webmaster please contact [email protected]

LOL

Believe me, Gamez.com is a great domain name! I would be more than willing to pay $77k for that domain (if I have the money )

 

[freedom30]

...I've sometimes wondered if some(not all) of the high-end sales were used to launder money for one reason or another.

Just my natural suspicious nature, of course.

 

[alien51]

...I've sometimes wondered if some(not all) of the high-end sales were used to launder money for one reason or another.

Just my natural suspicious nature, of course.

That's possible.

Because domain names can be worth whatever you want it to be priced.

Say a pack of dope is worth 100k. To transfer the money without raising any flag, you ask the receiver to list some unassuming domain for sale in the domain aftermarket website. The dope payor then buys the domain name for 100k. The transaction goes through some escrow service. Domain ownership changes hands. 100k money changes hands. Bank records would show the 100k came from the escrow company as payment for the domain name.

This is the same tactic used in the movie "Mickey Blue Eyes" starring Hugh Grant. They tried to put into auction a painting of Jesus Christ holding a machine gun they said was worth millions of dollars. And "somebody" from the auction actually bought the painting. LOL

 

[lennco]

Gamez.com is not just a domain name. It's a high earning PR4 site - I doubt very much if as a domain name it would have fetched that much.

No, it was for the domain only but it was a year and half ago so they had time to get their PR ranking up.

---------- Post added at 11:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 PM ----------

gamez.com/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi

A 77k domain & Webmaster please contact [email protected]

LOL

WOW!
Someone forgot to pay the light bill...lol

 

[firefly]

I think to take anything at face value is a somewhat naive practice, although there seems plenty that are happy to do so.

Lets face it, the domain industry as it is at its very core, is nothing more than a hype machine designed to part people from their hard earned monies; in particular domainers. Buy the new next big thing that will surpass .com being the obvious one, but over inflated sales reports do their job as well, encouraging folks to spend when common sense would seem to suggest that keeping their credit cards in their wallets would be the most prudent action to take.

So no, I don't believe all of the hype around some of theses purported monster sales.

 

[Archangel]

It's a practice to list a crap domain, have a friend pay, let's say, $10k for it (these are more common on eBay but surely ppl do this at SEDO etc) & have the friend re-list it later on, telling ppl it was bought for $10k but they're willing to sell it at a "loss" for $5,000. And of course, there are variations of this tactic.

 

[MicroGuy]

Some of these big sales is money laundering. And all for the price of a Sedo fee.