Buying/Selling - Is it Time to Quit Domaining?

[ZOX]

Hi guys,

Anyone notice a significant DECREASE in offers being made for domains now??

Thanks!
SDX

 

[Seabass]

Okay.....granted it is hard to see the future.

--But Google did not just open up their platform to anyone with one domain for no reason.

--Yahoo did not just expand PPC to 12 more countries three months ago for no reason.

--Parked.com is investing in more employees. Now you get a SEO specialist, a designer, and an account rep.

--MSN, has stated that if they don't make a special "strategic purchase" soon (Yahoo), then they will enter parking in the next 12 months.

Is everyone forgetting that this is a 2.8 Billion USD market?

This negative sentiment is simply arising from a one-two whammy of a recession and an overdue correction of the PPC market, meaning G and Y are to begin phasing out trash traffic. They have already stated so in private discussions. G and Y are already paying less through SmartPricing and TQ Score, now they just want to get rid of it. Much of it is a liability anyhow....and court cases against them keep getting filed. I expect that much expired traffic domains, brand domains, TM typo domains will all be washed out within two years.....if not sooner. Then the rest of us with good generic intent domains will see some kind of rise in income.

PPC will never go away completely. There may be other preferred advertising vehicles in the future....but PPC will still have its place.....just like the pop-up ads still do.

.

 

[deleted984054565403]

Aren't you guys afraid of ICANN?

Maybe even some of WIPO's legal decisions in the recent past?

 

[Seabass]

Aren't you guys afraid of ICANN?

Maybe even some of WIPO's legal decisions in the recent past?

The DOC just put their foot up ICANN's rear last month. They told them that there needed to be less extensions introduced and caps on pricing. It was a good move by them and somewhat reassuring to domainers.

What's to fear with WIPO or the NAF? Many of these UDRP's are starting to be won by domainers.....most of the rest lost were b/c they were not responded to simply b/c the registrant knew they were intentionally treading on someone's TM.

I'm in a UDRP right now, for a generic domain, and I plan to kick the other side's ass. I've owned it for a decade and never offered it for sale. As a "land owner", I will not be forced off my property by gun-wielding pistoleros......like the days of the Old West. They are going to get a shotgun blast to their face instead.

No, I'm not scared. Pissed is more like it.

.

 

[ZOX]

The DOC just put their foot up ICANN's rear last month. They told them that there needed to be less extensions introduced and caps on pricing. It was a good move by them and somewhat reassuring to domainers.

What's to fear with WIPO or the NAF? Many of these UDRP's are starting to be won by domainers.....most of the rest lost were b/c they were not responded to simply b/c the registrant knew they were intentionally treading on someone's TM.

I'm in a UDRP right now, for a generic domain, and I plan to kick the other side's ass. I've owned it for a decade and never offered it for sale. As a "land owner", I will not be forced off my property by gun-wielding pistoleros......like the days of the Old West. They are going to get a shotgun blast to their face instead.

No, I'm not scared. Pissed is more like it.

.

Seabass should be the President of ICANN...YES! :tu:
...
UDRP's SUCK BIG TIME!!!
I spent over $20K fighting FRIVOLOUS lawsuits last year! :td:

 

[gazzip]

Seabass should be the President of ICANN...YES! :tu:
...

I'd vote for that :tu:

.

I'm in a UDRP right now, for a generic domain, and I plan to kick the other side's ass. I've owned it for a decade and never offered it for sale. As a "land owner", I will not be forced off my property by gun-wielding pistoleros......like the days of the Old West. They are going to get a shotgun blast to their face instead.

No, I'm not scared. Pissed is more like it.

.

..good luck with it...give em hell ! . :yell:

.

 

[DiggleNamer]

The DOC just put their foot up ICANN's rear last month. They told them that there needed to be less extensions introduced and caps on pricing. It was a good move by them and somewhat reassuring to domainers.

What's to fear with WIPO or the NAF? Many of these UDRP's are starting to be won by domainers.....most of the rest lost were b/c they were not responded to simply b/c the registrant knew they were intentionally treading on someone's TM.

I'm in a UDRP right now, for a generic domain, and I plan to kick the other side's ass. I've owned it for a decade and never offered it for sale. As a "land owner", I will not be forced off my property by gun-wielding pistoleros......like the days of the Old West. They are going to get a shotgun blast to their face instead.

No, I'm not scared. Pissed is more like it.

.

please can you do a write up of how you handled the case when it is complete - thanks!

 

[has2hands]

Seabass........

Good luck, sounds like you should win.....just a gigantic waste of time, energy, money and loss of work on your part due to someone's frivolous claims.

Best of luck...Paul

 

[dotnom]

I like domains so much that if I had the opportunity to buy a house as an investment or a good generic domain I would buy the domain (unrelated with the current real estate status)

I believe that the feeling to abandon domain industry is fired from the whole psychological level and economic depression level we live in.

My only “fear” is not that domains will drop to the appreciation of the people but if in the near future we will abandon the whole idea of domains. This is not a rational fear of course and looks like more with fear of Vitalstatistix in Asterix comics ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recurring_characters_in_Asterix ) who’s afraid that the sky will fall to his head.

Domainers are accused in the past as “pirates” of the web because they buy and hold domains just for parking and not use them for a real project/site. Journalists presented cyber squatters as domainers. Domaining is bad to the mind of uneducated people that see the crazy box (TV) most of the time.

I also saw in the past ccTLDs to give one domain per VAT number giving to the domains the sense of highly controlled, censored area (untimely make these people abandon their ccTLD and boost the .com sales)

IMO domains are the display window of the site/company
We all want a short, meaningful, pronounceable set of characters that we will advertise as our company site.

There are million of people in the world that still don’t understand what is the difference of usa.com and i-was-born-in-usa-and-then-i-realized-internet.com

Google was, is and will be the start page for many people
That doesn’t drag out the power of misspelled generic words, the typein traffic and the short domains.

I believe in the future they will be more dashes and long domain names and if we’re lucky we will pass with just scratches the whole economic downfall so that we can talk again with optimism for the next decade (unless Maya were true and the world will be destroyed in 2012. So in that case how verisign will give my money back in one registration I made till 2014?)

Also for the recession I found an interesting blog post from 2007 that I pasted in NP before some months. ( http://www.namepros.com/2737567-post8.html )

 

[Seabass]

please can you do a write up of how you handled the case when it is complete - thanks!

I'll see what I can do.

Seabass........

Good luck, sounds like you should win.....just a gigantic waste of time, energy, money and loss of work on your part due to someone's frivolous claims.

Best of luck...Paul

Paul.......thanks.....and yes, it is a big waste of time and money........but I am hoping that anyone that looks to mess with me in the future will see I previously hired the best TM lawyer in the business

Maybe it will act as some form of insurance. Who knows?
.

I'd vote for that :tu:

.



..good luck with it...give em hell ! . :yell:

.

Thanks Gazzip !

.
.
.

On another note, even if PPC disappears, "Domaining" will not die. There were many of us snapping up domains in the mid 90's when there was really no way to make any money off of them at the time. It would be about seven years before PPC would be an option for domain owners.

Before PPC.....you could make money with affiliate programs, creating original sites and selling advertising on them, and doing domain redirect deals to companies that wanted the traffic.

No matter what "Domaining" will not disappear.......we will just find new ways to make money.

In 1997 I began picking up the phone and selling redirects to companies and well as banners and links on my sites. It really is very easy to get advertisers on you site.....IF you will just call them. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. I've never done easier sales. It's as simple as, "I have BicycleTires,com and you sell bicycle tires. Would you like to be listed?" What do you think the response was 19 out of 20 times? :talk:

.

 

[deleted984054565403]

No matter what "Domaining" will not disappear.......we will just find new ways to make money.

I agree with this. Domainers, by nature, are natural money-makers and creative people. We were the ones with lemonade stands and pet washes when we were younger. :hehe:

 

[dotprofan]

I agree with this. Domainers, by nature, are natural money-makers and creative people. We were the ones with lemonade stands and pet washes when we were younger. :hehe:

This is a great quote that really rings true with all I've seen.

 

[ZOX]

I'll see what I can do.


Paul.......thanks.....and yes, it is a big waste of time and money........but I am hoping that anyone that looks to mess with me in the future will see I previously hired the best TM lawyer in the business

Maybe it will act as some form of insurance. Who knows?
.


Thanks Gazzip !

.
.
.

On another note, even if PPC disappears, "Domaining" will not die. There were many of us snapping up domains in the mid 90's when there was really no way to make any money off of them at the time. It would be about seven years before PPC would be an option for domain owners.

Before PPC.....you could make money with affiliate programs, creating original sites and selling advertising on them, and doing domain redirect deals to companies that wanted the traffic.

No matter what "Domaining" will not disappear.......we will just find new ways to make money.

In 1997 I began picking up the phone and selling redirects to companies and well as banners and links on my sites. It really is very easy to get advertisers on you site.....IF you will just call them. It's like shooting fish in a barrel. I've never done easier sales. It's as simple as, "I have BicycleTires,com and you sell bicycle tires. Would you like to be listed?" What do you think the response was 19 out of 20 times? :talk:

.

I still hope PPC evolves somehow...it's such a fun "business".

 

[labrocca]

This thread makes a few things very obvious to me. We have passed some point of no return. For the past month or so I have stayed away from NP discussions. I am focusing only on the Marketplace area here. However this thread caught my attention.

It's depressing around here. I don't see sales happening. I don't see glory over new registrations or awesome Sedo offers. I see scared, broke, and uncertain domainers. You can include me in that too. I am dropping like crazy. It's probably a very good thing though. I can easily prune 30-50% of my portfolio of 500 names. I am renewing many of my strong dot coms and I have a lot of developed sites. A few weeks ago I sold off about 15+ mini sites. Mini sites are now dead to me. I am staying clear of them. Reality is they aren't converting well enough and PPC is down drastically imho.

I have always been a preacher of development as it's my background long before domaining (first site 1996). Right now I have a few sites earning me money and revenue is increasing month over month. But I admit the last few years I have flipped dozens if not hundreds of domains for great profit. 2008 was the worst earning year I have had for domain sales and the best year for site income. I have sold off many good names in the past and right now my portfolio isn't nearly as attractive as it once was. I am finding it harder and harder to grab great domains at bargain prices.

Sure sellers here are selling but they still want top dollar. That's just what I see. I am looking to buy but I am pickier than ever. I have enough fluff in my portfolio now. I do think that over time domains will regain value but things may never be the same. Lots of names won't recover and unless domains are proven earners they may just end up sitting parked forever without interest from end-users or resellers.

So what does the future of domaining look like? To me it's bleak for a lot of people here. Reg fees are increasing and sales are decreasing for most. Competition to get good names is increasing. This is not the lucrative market it once was where $100 names would flip for $1000 within weeks or months. Deep pocket domainers appear to be closing their wallets.

Where is the good news? For pure domainers that spend their days optimizing parking pages and looking for end-user sales I thnk it's abysmal imho. Top tier domainers (Rick Latona's of the world) will fair just fine. They are entrenpenuers and would probably be successful no matter what they do in life. But a lot of people here are part-timers or people that are jumping on a bandwagon of sorts.

I personally am focused on making money no matter where it is or how I make it. I been a self-employed person for about 14 years now. I don't need the internet or domains to continue that. So overall...I know I can fare well. I am looking for the "next big thing" and I guarantee you that it exists. Money is something that can always be made. Even in the worst disastrous economic times there are those that profit. I plan to be one of those people.

Domaining will for me ...never be the same. I been a member here for over 4 years. It's been fun but now it's not. It's just sad. I hold no single person or event accountable but admit that a mass-hysteria of sorts did exists where the money flowed. Hype was built up and a marketplace was formed for a product that doesn't even really exist. Domains aren't even owned...they are a leased contract. Does anyone here realize how fragile that is? How with one stroke of a pen and a new law that domainers could be placed into the cold.

Goodbye domaining...2001-2008 RIP.

 

[ZOX]

Okay.....granted it is hard to see the future.

--But Google did not just open up their platform to anyone with one domain for no reason.

--Yahoo did not just expand PPC to 12 more countries three months ago for no reason.

--Parked.com is investing in more employees. Now you get a SEO specialist, a designer, and an account rep.

--MSN, has stated that if they don't make a special "strategic purchase" soon (Yahoo), then they will enter parking in the next 12 months.

Is everyone forgetting that this is a 2.8 Billion USD market?

This negative sentiment is simply arising from a one-two whammy of a recession and an overdue correction of the PPC market, meaning G and Y are to begin phasing out trash traffic. They have already stated so in private discussions. G and Y are already paying less through SmartPricing and TQ Score, now they just want to get rid of it. Much of it is a liability anyhow....and court cases against them keep getting filed. I expect that much expired traffic domains, brand domains, TM typo domains will all be washed out within two years.....if not sooner. Then the rest of us with good generic intent domains will see some kind of rise in income.

PPC will never go away completely. There may be other preferred advertising vehicles in the future....but PPC will still have its place.....just like the pop-up ads still do.

.

Actually let's try to bring this thread back to a "positive note" like Seabass states!
...
I seriously don't think that this $Billion$ dollar industry is just going to "vanish" :bah:

 

[Seabass]

My parking earnings have been going up significantly lately......not to the point to where they historically were, but up very significantly.

Sales.....well.....I'm not in the sales market.....but the offers have been coming in heavily for me lately. I noticed a big lull from Oct. to Dec. 2008, but now they are coming in strongly....for what reason I do not know.

I do see very heavy bidding going on and competition getting fiercer in some cases. I do agree with that. The prices are hit and miss it seems.....it's not as consistent as before (maybe a lack of seasoned domainers bidding these days?) Many domains get overbid on and some just seem to go unnoticed at times. The bidding landscape has changed. I really think we have a whole bunch of new faces all of a sudden.

I hear folks talking about how bad it is, but it still seems to me that domainers are holding on to their domains b/c not a lot of great domains are dropping, either that, or many just never had good domains to begin with so the domains they are dropping are just mixed in with all the other domains.

I'm still really pumped up about the domain market....PPC-wise, that is. I think the "golden years" to sell domains is still several years away.....like five to ten years away. The market needs to tighten more. Demand will grow as both Internet users grow, more businesses get started, and clearer visions of domain uses come into focus. So I'm going to wait and concentrate only on income producing domains for now and make any selling decisions later.

Hang in there folks....there still is gold in them hills. You might feel like a starving miner at times, but there have been many instances where I made one little move that brought me a little, or a significant gold nugget and has saved the day. The key is to never give up and keep experimenting and learning from others.
.

 

[pcp]

...The key is to never give up and keep experimenting and learning from others...

Wise words.

 

[JoshuaPz]

I know I mentioned earlier I would withdraw from this thread but the content of its most recent posts compelled me to write this.

Seabass, I don't mean to make this discussion personal, but do realize you're approaching this thread with a sort of bias. The history of your posts make it quite clear to me you started domaining around '96 and have since become a multi-millionaire from this practice alone.

Given that you once rejected a 1.2 million dollar offer on one of your domains, you clearly own at least one -- if not many -- highly vied after generic .com domains. Heck, if I owned names with the likes of Sink.com, RealEstate.com, and Quebec.com I would probably also feel very optimistic about the future of an industry that poured tens of thousands into my coffers every week.

As Steve pointed out, the Rick Latonas, Frank Schillings, and Seabasses (whoever you are) of this industry will do fine. But I don't think it's fair to assert that the top 0.01%-earning domainers' fates accurately represent how even the top 1%-0.01% earners (and Steve & I likely fall into this category) will fare. I have yet to see you qualify any of your posts with statements resembling "but I do realize that I'm in an unusual position compared to most readers."

 

[metronome]

well....domain name industry will not just vanish for sure.
but it is changing, in fact, had already changed.
you dont own good generic premium domain name, you are screwed

sure a lot of great good name being sold during this time, but you could see the competition for those name is so high that you need to be on the exclusively top tier to get the domain name (you know....everybody thinks the same: "this time is a good time to buy cheap great domain name".)

new technology and new stuffs will come out for sure, but during this time, it might be hard, and if there is new technology coming out and so on, you know that the 99% of the domain name that has connection with that new stuff will be in the hand of some people that doesnt even have to worry about their life anymore. rich getting richer~~

sux to be us normal domainer during this time:D.
guess some domainer should do some "web developing part time" during this time:D

 

[Krossat]

I'll remember to read this thread frequently which will keep reminding me what a fragile belief in ones instincts can do to their success or failure.

I wont say whether things will get better or worse. For if I knew that for sure, I wouldnt be reading this thread. The only thing I do know is that I was introduced to domaining in not so friendly times. Even then "good domains" were all taken and the future was always going to be difficult. This enabled me to work on my instincts. I havent done exceptionally well, but the progress has been steady. The "well" has temporarily dried up, this is the time to patiently collect and save up the trickle.

And yeah, someone said some people got "lucky" so many years back. Well back then also people were looking at these names and despairing at the "costly proposition which would never work". If everyone got it right, there wont be any success stories, only the resilient survive. And it takes hard work to being lucky.

 

[mhdoc]

I seem to remember reading that Frank Schilling came in "after all the good names were taken" but did well because he was the first to recognize the value of two word domains.

I think there is potential for serious price appreciation when investors become more comfortable buying income from domains/websites. If an investor can buy a domain or site for 20 times annual net income, that gives a yield of 5%, which looks good in an era of 1% T-bills. However, at this point a website is to intangible for most investors to deal with.

I think some of the pricing strangeness comes from the different perspectives of buyers in the market place. Domainers, developers, and end users, and investors don't think alike. Domainers often seem to feel they have the most mature understanding of what makes a domain valuable. A developer may look at names in a completely different way.

For example, I just hand registered about 60 long tail, but related, dot infos, many with hyphens. The "good" dot coms are all taken and parked. I could have purchased a single, expensive dot com and set up 60 categories. I think I will do better ranking, traffic, and income wise with 60 related sites.

I could be wrong of course

 

[ZOX]

I seem to remember reading that Frank Schilling came in "after all the good names were taken" but did well because he was the first to recognize the value of two word domains.

I think there is potential for serious price appreciation when investors become more comfortable buying income from domains/websites. If an investor can buy a domain or site for 20 times annual net income, that gives a yield of 5%, which looks good in an era of 1% T-bills. However, at this point a website is to intangible for most investors to deal with.

I think some of the pricing strangeness comes from the different perspectives of buyers in the market place. Domainers, developers, and end users, and investors don't think alike. Domainers often seem to feel they have the most mature understanding of what makes a domain valuable. A developer may look at names in a completely different way.

For example, I just hand registered about 60 long tail, but related, dot infos, many with hyphens. The "good" dot coms are all taken and parked. I could have purchased a single, expensive dot com and set up 60 categories. I think I will do better ranking, traffic, and income wise with 60 related sites.

I could be wrong of course

Yes! That's the spirit mhdoc! :tu:

 

[labrocca]

I do see very heavy bidding going on and competition getting fiercer in some cases. I do agree with that. The prices are hit and miss it seems.....it's not as consistent as before (maybe a lack of seasoned domainers bidding these days?) Many domains get overbid on and some just seem to go unnoticed at times. The bidding landscape has changed. I really think we have a whole bunch of new faces all of a sudden.

I think a lot of old faces will vanish. This is a shaking out and it's brutal. It reminds me of the internet stock market bubble and crash. Remember day trading anyone? It was the thing. It was easy money. Get an IPO of a hot net stock and you made 200% or more within days. It was a type of mass-hysteria and imho that's what has been going on with domains. People paying $xx,xxx for a domain with pure speculation of a resale and the domain doesn't earn squat. Sound familiar?

Eventually people catch on...sellers stop buying and buyers stop selling. Everyone moves on. Yes we still have a stock market and internet stocks but you have to prove value and actually earn money.

Reg fees are cheap enough to hold a lot of good domains. But it's becoming painfully obvious that holding for resale non CNOs is nearly pointless unless you can develop yourself. The new TLD market imho has already crashed. Mobi was the last IPO and I don't think any more sunrise land rushes will happen. At least not to the same degree. Paying 1000% for a sunrise name within a month is probably going to be .0001 percent of registrations. It's casino odds imho. New tlds won't have proven earnings and parked they won't make squat. Developers can decide to wait for the next TLD or find an alternate name. Plenty available for reasonable prices of $xx or $xxx.

I hear folks talking about how bad it is, but it still seems to me that domainers are holding on to their domains b/c not a lot of great domains are dropping, either that, or many just never had good domains to begin with so the domains they are dropping are just mixed in with all the other domains.

I agree. Between the choice of selling cheaply a name I think is worth $x,xxx or at least was and paying another couple years regfee the choice is easy. Renew and wait. I just spent $300 this month and I have to spend $500 next month for renewals. It hurts to do it but wtf choice do I have. I gotta hope at least one name is gonna pop to a $x,xxx sale or more one day. Again..casino odds.

Hang in there folks....there still is gold in them hills. You might feel like a starving miner at times, but there have been many instances where I made one little move that brought me a little, or a significant gold nugget and has saved the day. The key is to never give up and keep experimenting and learning from others.

I agree but many realize they can't afford the shovels or the digging tax (renewals). IMHO the best deals are from buying from those people. Most great domains are already registered. The drop market is too finicky and the competition for a great name is fierce. I have always preferred direct contact but also find some great deals on the many available free marketplaces like NP.

I know I mentioned earlier I would withdraw from this thread but the content of its most recent posts compelled me to write this.

Oh stay in the discussion please.

Seabass, I don't mean to make this discussion personal, but do realize you're approaching this thread with a sort of bias. The history of your posts make it quite clear to me you started domaining around '96 and have since become a multi-millionaire from this practice alone.

Agreed. He hit the marker of success long ago. Well before the hype, rise, and now fall. He is well positioned to stand on the sidelines while the industry and market shake out. Good for him I say.

well....domain name industry will not just vanish for sure.
but it is changing, in fact, had already changed.
you dont own good generic premium domain name, you are screwed

Well stated and blunt. It's obvious as well.

Even then "good domains" were all taken and the future was always going to be difficult. This enabled me to work on my instincts. I havent done exceptionally well, but the progress has been steady. The "well" has temporarily dried up, this is the time to patiently collect and save up the trickle.

I still believe that's more about the person that it is about domains. Successful people succeed because that's their persona. It just so happens domains is their focus. We have too many losers in this industry though. Too many kids and starters without a clue. Usually that's a good thing but they are helping to inflate the marketplace causing a bubble. Also the landscape is changing imho for typos and squatting. imho (some will disagree) it's getting much harder to grab a TM typo and earn from it. It's riskier at least (no one should disagree with that). I think new laws are coming. I think they will destroy certain segments of the domain market.

I seem to remember reading that Frank Schilling came in "after all the good names were taken" but did well because he was the first to recognize the value of two word domains.

Always examples of one or two top earners shining. Add Latona to that mix and even Kevin Ham not too long ago. Still..what percentage is that? Casino odds once again.

I think there is potential for serious price appreciation when investors become more comfortable buying income from domains/websites.

I agree here. I am really hoping to bank a $xxx,xxx website sale within the next 2-3 years. I have already sold a few sites in the $xx,xxx range and this time I am going to try and take one all the way to the end to pay my house off. I have been comfortable in the past selling and cashing out knowing I can make more sites but now I see that I should be searching for that special project. One that will make me a fortune. I am 100% positive I will do it. I am very very determined at this point. It's why I have held back being here and other forums where I would normally spend great time participating. I have a couple friends with sites I helped to start that are now worth millions. I watched as their sites grew from nothing into $xxx,xxx yearly earners. I was one of the first members at FatWallet.com and was pretty buddy buddy with Tim many years ago. Now his site has to be worth $25 million or more just 10 years later. My other friend started a site 6 years ago and he recieved his first 7 figure offer this year and his yearly earnings are substantial. Websites imho are what the internet is meant for. It's information and sales. It's about services and customers. Domains are simply the address. Yes it's important but with all the empty real estate available how much is a domain worth? Most great sites are brandables. How many sites are on domains that someone paid $xx,xxx for? I see a lot of $xx,xxx and $xxx,xxx sales mentioned in DNJournal but how many become great sites? Most just languish. Reality is that it's better to spend the money building a great brand and website. I feel like I been preaching that for a while though. More recently top domainers are seeing the wisdom in this.

Thanks for reading. Back to my development.

 

[Seabass]

I did get many good domains years back, and I won't deny that helps to pay the bills, but the reason I am still optimistic is that I keep making purchases that pay well in PPC. I still find deals. There are still plenty of deals.....you just have to work harder than other people to find them.

Let me list three recent TDNAM examples...changed slightly for my sake :

DenverUsedCars,com - $10 plus reg fee (Making about $10 a month)
24hrcash,com - $10 plus reg fee (Making about $40 a month)
BlackWomensWigs,com - $10 plus reg fee (Making about $28 a month)

None of these have substantial referral traffic. It is just clean direct navigation traffic. All are making good money. Now if you can get a bunch of these they add up. Nobody bid against me on these and they are all high quality. That would not have happened a year ago I suspect. Still, it is hard to find these deals.

This is just one auction house. Then there is cold-calling domain owners. Buying into other ccTLD's.

I can understand the negative sentiment, this is a hard recession, and if I did not have the cash I would go get a job, but I still would keep a third eye on domains with the intention of becoming self-sufficient one day and phasing out of a job where I work for others.

Yes.....there is a bubble right now. The funny thing is right as the bubble popped for all pre-2009 domainers, a whole new group of fools rushed in to overbid on domains. I've never seen anything like it in the domain industry. Even back in the day old school domainers never got this stupid. There is evidence they are novices b/c there quite of few high quality generics that are getting no bids. Go figure. The domain game has changed.

Anyhow......I'm positive b/c I still am making good deals in .com. And, there still is a sea of opportunity I am getting ready to explore in .in and .com.br domains. That is where I plan to concentrate for my next domain run.

Money flow is more powerful than a one-time domain sales. If domainers concentrate on cash flow domains and just totally forget about making domain sales I believe domainers might do better in the long run by just waiting this recession out....even if it lasts years. I do think things will get really bad, much worse honestly, but domaining will hold on. If not, I guess I'll go down in flames with it.....b/c honestly I don't ever want to quit buying domains, even when I'm 70. I really am addicted to domains.

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[labrocca]

The funny thing is right as the bubble popped for all pre-2009 domainers, a whole new group of fools rushed in to overbid on domains. I've never seen anything like it in the domain industry.

Could this group be comprised of stock market investors looking for new pastures? Certainly the uncertainty of the marketplace might attract new money to domains which are an international commodity with long-term future growth.

 

[Seabass]

Could this group be comprised of stock market investors looking for new pastures? Certainly the uncertainty of the marketplace might attract new money to domains which are an international commodity with long-term future growth.

Jesse.....I'm not sure what the hell is going on, but check out these insane prices at TDNAM. These auctions closed at these really high prices. Granted there was some expired traffic, but expired traffic does disappear. The prices are not justified :

19323362
o3q.com
$1,005 $10 109
AUCTION CLOSED


01/26/2009 11:44 AM (PST)
19321531
badcupid.com
$580 $10 31
AUCTION CLOSED

01/26/2009 11:46 AM (PST)
19321231
arab-woman.org
$250 $10 10
AUCTION CLOSED

01/26/2009 11:50 AM (PST)
19321765
bestbajafishing.com
$610 $10 71
AUCTION CLOSED

01/26/2009 11:51 AM (PST)
19321075
trava.com
$1,500 $10 47
AUCTION CLOSED

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