Are you saying the global perception of domains has changed all of a sudden in 2015 ? Then the question is why and how.
Kate, one more thing. I do not know if you have experienced a period of LLL.com traded for USD 300 each. I do not, but I was reading people's posts/stories about their experience. When prices went from USD 300 to over USD 1,000, also not everyone could agree that it was sustainable.
The issue is are we seeing a paradigm change, where letter and numerical short domains are becoming a universal investment object (without the goal of selling to endusers) - as basically LLL.com are already since years? Need a proof for this statement that LLL.com is an investment object? Here it is, in the next post after yours:
... Make your money and go by something that will always have a market uhm LLL.coms anyone?
I was already writing in one of my previous posts regarding LLLL.com buyout and subsequent stagnation - it happened during the worst crisis since 1929-1933. Nonetheless, the buy-out of 2007 withstood the global economic crisis. Pressure from uncertainty over new domain zones over the last years - how it will influence .com and .net (well, finally, after new zones have been lauched, they even emphasised value of main internet zones .com and.net). And now, with rising economy, much more money running though the system due to QE in the US over the last years, and now in EU since march 2015, with more Chinese investors (their economy is growing year after year in huge steps), finally there is enough critical mass of domain investors to absorb all short domains - as years ago critical mass of domain investors pushed LLL.com prices beyond USD 1,000 mark.
Will CHIPs .com remain at/above/below USD 1K? 3K? 0,5K? Difficult to say, it depends on economy as well as on over investment in general (i.e. in 6L, 10N, 11N, etc domains), not on price rise on top assets from this new category, LLLL.com and NNNNN.com. People are not looking at LLLL.com and other short domains (as previously) as an asset having substantial value only to endusers and having much lower reseller prices among domains. These short domains now got an investment image, and the situation is different now. Huge price fluctuations may be in the future, in any directions, but the image has changed already.