Digipawn domain purchases listed in dnjournal.

[betterdayz4]

I guess I'm not going to ever find out the answers to some of these questions, but.... I was interested to read of all the purchases being made by Digipawn in this weeks sales chart at DNJournal.

This week he bought Brown.com for $300,000.. Dora.com for $100,000, Street.com for $50,000 + $10,000 for a number of years after.. Pesos.com for $11,000.. and plans on spending $5m this year on domains.

When reading this I can't help but wonder what sort of return he expects to make on this investment. Some of those buys are expensive (my opinion of course).. when looking at safe long term investments you generally look at acheiving a bit more than what a high interest bank account might offer (%5 here in the UK, buy to let property investors look for around %7-8 per year..). Is this sort of return easily made at the high end of the market / with these domains ? His business is called Digipawn, but round here if you enter a pawn shop you expect to get a fair amount less than the true market value...

Given also that higher end buyers are fewer, and end users for "brown.com" and "dora.com" over those prices even fewer.. aren't his investments extremely agressive ? I'm beginning to think digipawn.com might be the first port of call for the selling of any of my domains.

Of course to digipawn $5m may just be a drop in the ocean, in which case merrily punt away..

Before I get flamed too, I will explain that I'm still very much a domain noob, so I'm looking for enlightenment here, particularly on the higher end of the market - so I apologise if I've overlooked some very simple fundamental points

 

[Australia]

interesting question

 

[fonzie_007]

Domaining is a speculative business. I wouldn't say that his buys are guaranteed any returns; however, I would say street.com was a solid buy for that price.

 

[betterdayz4]

yes I agree with you fonz. street.com struck me as a decent buy.

 

[ridesign1]

i wonder how many years he has to pay $10k for?

10?

 

[smub]

in my opinion couple of the sales are little expensive but not that expensive. Such as dora.com << is a program which alot of kids watch so it have a value. Brown.com << very popular name because it is a color and i dont think any common color is available.

also i think 50k for street.com was a little less because it worths more because it have a high developement potential

 

[betterdayz4]

I think generally the point im trying to make is, its only truely proven to be worthwhile once the investment has come full circle and he has buyers for them. at these prices, those are in short supply... does this make higher price buys even more price critical ? i spend all day making bets of various kinds and one of the questions I always ask is, why someone else isnt placing this bet? most of the time it's because I know more than them, (thankfully !) but the question always arises. how easy is it to cash in a $300,000 domain for a profit..

and brown is such a nasty colour ! hehe just kidding.

I think also my post is about a gap that appears to be between the common reg fee, cheap snapper that populates most of the forum... people buying domains from $2 up to $60.. and the people buying and spending vast amounts of money on very good names.... If the cheap buyers are lucky, they may get hold of a domain that one day they can sell on to the big boys for a lot of money.. but, what about purchases of $300,000 or $550,000 for macau.com... who comes along bigger than those buyers to buy them out and allow them to make a profit ? and why would they, when someone else willing to pay even more than that has to come along to buy them out...

This would make me uncomfortable if I owned a lot of domains that I payed a lot of money for.

Which sort of brings me back to the original posting, doesn't an investment of this sort need steady long term investment returns, the sort you would expect from bank interest etc... is PPC enough to produce this.

 

[-db-]

Brown.com - It makes me immediately think of UPS. (United Parcel Service)

What can brown do for you?

They have a whole "brown" advertising campaign. Their delivery trucks are brown, etc.

I guess their advertising worked on me.

 

[equity78]

Most likely these domains were purchased for Development and not resale Latona has digipawn as another developed site. He has a site that does offshore development for websites. He owns other premium names and a pretty large adult website business.

 

[America First]

Rick bought my domain, The AllStarGame.com and its not developed?

 

[DomainSage]

I think also my post is about a gap that appears to be between the common reg fee, cheap snapper that populates most of the forum... people buying domains from $2 up to $60.. and the people buying and spending vast amounts of money on very good names.... If the cheap buyers are lucky, they may get hold of a domain that one day they can sell on to the big boys for a lot of money.. but, what about purchases of $300,000 or $550,000 for macau.com

I think you have hit the nail on the head there Most of the people buying cheaper names ( unless they develop ) are just looking at a lucky strike or spending more time developing them than would a decent business strategy would concider a 'profit'.

Take a look at a lot of domains for sale either on this site or anywhere else and you will find they fall into a few categories ( just my opinion ) :

1) buy cheap, sell cheap .... To me I do not want to buy a domain with the intention of just selling it for a buck or two profit, just not worth my time.

2) Slightly developed sites .. They have bought a domain and spent a while putting up a site on it .... Better than above, but they are still pretty much cookie cutter sites, even if it is 'unique'

3) Decent domains ... These just sell themselves on the domain alone.

4) Top end .... These are real sites with real traffic and real potential.

If you took $100,000 for example .... You could buy a load of domains / sites , or you could go for one decent one ... Speaking personnaly I would probably go for 10 x $10k sites myself.

Sorry ... Been rambling

All the best.

Richard

 

[allinone]

Brown is also a college.....

 

[mrfike]

Brown.com? I bet that gets HUUUUGE traffic! Brown college, UPS, Brown & Co...investments...used to be Brown.com???? They were just bought out by Etrade, and currently reside at brownco.com. That site will pay for itself within a couple years, if managed properly, even just as a parked lander.
Street.com has to get huge hits from TheStreet.com too. Booyah!

 

[nick-8318]

I wish this guy wud buy some of my domains.

 

[mole]

What a strange title for a post, I thought dukey sold out to digipawn

 

[-db-]

What a strange title for a post, I thought dukey sold out to digipawn

A good point mole.

I took the liberty of editing the title to avoid confusion and mass panic among DNJ fans.

 

[.X.]

I think they came out like a bandit on Street.com,All are good long term investments imo

 

[betterdayz4]

A good point mole.

I took the liberty of editing the title to avoid confusion and mass panic among DNJ fans.

lol thanks db, it was late, i just wanted to throw something up ! good replies..

I liked the categories domainsage posted.

I'm amazed that mrfike think brown.com can make $300k in parking / landing in a couple of years ! wow. If it can then the investment is absolutely incredible...

 

[gazzip]

I would'nt think it would make much in PPC it only has an overture of 533 for brown.com with ext.
Even if it did get loads of traffic - just what would they be likely to be looking for ?? The name Brown is just too vague I think.

Loads of traffic is basically pretty useless unless you can offer what they are looking for.

Take a recent example - dirtbike.com - overture of 1640 with extension - Now he is going to get a steady nice amount of people who will click because he is offering exactly what the customer has came looking for.

I think Brown.com's value would have to come from resale - JMO of course

 

[cache]

Some people collect paintings, stamps or other art objects and wait for the price appreciation. They usually do not care if whatever they have collected earn any interests, just want the capital gain later.