Domaining in 1994

[slapman]

Found this thread on the sale of OS.COM from 1994..on google groups
The reply from 'steve' is hilarious.

Searching old threads it is amazing the keywords for sale, less than $100


: Ono-Sendai Corporation, a former San Francisco-based virtual-reality
: technologies development concern, has entered Chapter 7 bankruptcy
: proceedings. A sale of assets is being organized. The company's
: NIC-registered Internet domain name, os.com, is offered for
: reassignment to the highest bidder. The domain name "os" has the
: advantages of brevity and homonymity with the acronym for "operating
: system."

: Please direct all inquiries to [email protected]. Those with
: genuine interest will receive contact information for the Trustee
: in order to submit a bid.

: Thank you.
: -Tim Wood


Aug 27 1994, 10:55 pm
Umm, your joking right ?

"Hey duods, I regged this domain with Internic for _free_ now I think I'll
try and sell it to the highest bidder."

one more reason why internet sucks these days.

-steve

 

[aaronfalloon]

Awww man, if only you could go back in time. I'd be registering a whole lot of domain names.

 

[slapman]

Sad thing is I wanted to be 'domaining' in 1993-94. I was only 15 at the time and then everytime my parents heard the word 'internet' they thought it was for porn and wanted no part of it... it kind of was..but still. they wouldnt give me any $$ for internet related anything.

but I believe if I had been a few years older I would be a pretty rich man today too bad i waited until 2007 to get back into it. kind of late in the game

 

[Seabass]

That's beautiful.

I was going to sell a AWESOME domain for $500 in 1996 to a guy that ran a travel business and we both verbally agreed on the phone to the price. The domain matched PERFECTLY to his niche business. Well, I called up Internic, which was ran by Network Solutions, and they told me there was a $100 transfer fee. I called up my buyer and told him of this info that I was previously unaware of and I wanted $100 extra for the transfer. He literally screamed in my ear, " IS THAT HOW YOU DO BUSINESS??? F_ _ _ Y_ _ !!!!", and slammed the phone down in my ear. I stood there dumbfounded with the phone receiver in my hand. I since found out he is a known hot-head in the industry. It turned out to be the biggest mistake he ever made and a stroke of luck for me.

Today, this same gentlemen has had to come back to me on his hands and knees because I control his niche's traffic by way of generic domain, even though it is not for sale. He now pays for ads that range between 6K to 8K a year since the year 2000. Instead of paying $600 total he has now paid me about $70,000.

In 1995 I was getting a few flame emails from folks pissed that I was registering more than one domain. It was always the techies that sneered at us early domainers. And you can tell in the response by "Steve" that he is a techie

 

[WGS_Thunder]

Sad thing is I wanted to be 'domaining' in 1993-94. I was only 15 at the time and then everytime my parents heard the word 'internet' they thought it was for porn and wanted no part of it... it kind of was..but still. they wouldnt give me any $$ for internet related anything.

but I believe if I had been a few years older I would be a pretty rich man today too bad i waited until 2007 to get back into it. kind of late in the game

Kink of late, yes but not too late. There will still be lots of money made in domain trading.

 

[MadAboutDomains]

Unless people want them, then they are worth nothing. Sad truth.

 

[Krossat]

Key is looking around you now.
I'm sure there are still certain niches which will make it big.
Also, looking ahead 14 years in time, there WILL be people saying the same thing

Back then if you would of spent $100 on a name, think about that as $2k now for example. Can you spend 1k on something, and keep it for 14 years to reap the rewards? If you can, its still not too late.

 

[Charley]

I was only 15 at the time and then everytime my parents heard the word 'internet' they thought it was for porn and wanted no part of it...

:D

 

[Spade]

It'd be funny to call that guy up who made the comment and explain the value of that domain name today. He completely missed the boat.

 

[Seabass]

It'd be funny to call that guy up who made the comment and explain the value of that domain name today. He completely missed the boat.

He'd be unimpressed. Remember, he is a techie unimpressed by commercial interests.

He'd look down his nose at you and sneer while making a derogatory comment about how you and the rest of us f'd up the Internet. :notme: :notme:

Meanwhile, he'd continue working for the weekly paycheck.

 

[Web Master]

If I took several domains in 1994, I would have already cruised around the world ... sigh...sigh...

 

[chenzen]

That's beautiful.

I was going to sell a AWESOME domain for $500 in 1996 to a guy that ran a travel business and we both verbally agreed on the phone to the price. The domain matched PERFECTLY to his niche business. Well, I called up Internic, which was ran by Network Solutions, and they told me there was a $100 transfer fee. I called up my buyer and told him of this info that I was previously unaware of and I wanted $100 extra for the transfer. He literally screamed in my ear, " IS THAT HOW YOU DO BUSINESS??? F_ _ _ Y_ _ !!!!", and slammed the phone down in my ear. I stood there dumbfounded with the phone receiver in my hand. I since found out he is a known hot-head in the industry. It turned out to be the biggest mistake he ever made and a stroke of luck for me.

Today, this same gentlemen has had to come back to me on his hands and knees because I control his niche's traffic by way of generic domain, even though it is not for sale. He now pays for ads that range between 6K to 8K a year since the year 2000. Instead of paying $600 total he has now paid me about $70,000.

In 1995 I was getting a few flame emails from folks pissed that I was registering more than one domain. It was always the techies that sneered at us early domainers. And you can tell in the response by "Steve" that he is a techie

Nice :sold:

 

[Seabass]

If I took several domains in 1994, I would have already cruised around the world ... sigh...sigh...

True......if you could go back and KNEW what to buy like you do now.

Remember, there was no guides like Overture type-in, relatively few documents in Lycos and Webcrawler (remember them?) :D , no advertisers, etc...... to gauge what is a good domain and what is not.

A friend and I had passionate arguments about whether to buy singular or plural domains (we argued for a month on that one), category killer domains or niche domains, etc.......

My biggest mistake was not taking into account market caps of certain industries like financials, hotels, etc... and I went instead for what is popular with the population. It did not occur to me to look at the market cap. After a couple, three years it finally occurred to me that a domain like Loans,com is worth more than Beds,com - for example. Previously, I tended to register domains in subjects I was passionate about.

A friend, who is now jealous, saw me buying up domains and told me, "In two or three years the big boys will enter this market and with their millions of dollars will stomp your ass and make your silly domains irrelevant." How about those words for encouragement?

If you bought a domain and made a mistake it was a $100 mistake, which you could not do too many of. There was no PPC and no domain buyers to be found. Even if you found a domain nugget nobody cared b/c there was so many other golden nuggets yet to be found.

It took balls of steel to register domains in mass back then when there was no known apparent way to make money with them. I registered $30,000 worth of domains on my credit cards before I even owned a computer in late 95' and 96' - then I bought a Gateway. I was using my friend's computer at his house until Feb. 1996. You gotta' remember that a personal PC was about $3,500 back then too, so not many folks wanted to pony up that amount to access "that thing called the Intenet" - besides hardcore techies. :yell: So, the early domainers caught an earful from these guys.

I was asking all the techies I could find if they thought it was a good idea to reg domains and they answered with answers of confusion as to why you would want more than one domain, or scorn for abusing the system ((legally you were only allowed to own one domain. So a company had to be set up for every domain name) , and ultimately I had to make a gut call on my own and set up several hundred companies. :o

The techies back then wanted the Net to remain "Techie Heaven" - their own little closed club. You guys know the rest of the story. :sold:

 

[scandiman]

True......if you could go back and KNEW what to buy like you do now.

Remember, there was no guides like Overture type-in, relatively few documents in Lycos and Webcrawler (remember them?) :D , no advertisers, etc...... to gauge what is a good domain and what is not.

A friend and I had passionate arguments about whether to buy singular or plural domains (we argued for a month on that one), category killer domains or niche domains, etc.......

My biggest mistake was not taking into account market caps of certain industries like financials, hotels, etc... and I went instead for what is popular with the population. It did not occur to me to look at the market cap. After a couple, three years it finally occurred to me that a domain like Loans,com is worth more than Beds,com - for example. Previously, I tended to register domains in subjects I was passionate about.

A friend, who is now jealous, saw me buying up domains and told me, "In two or three years the big boys will enter this market and with their millions of dollars will stomp your ass and make your silly domains irrelevant." How about those words for encouragement?

If you bought a domain and made a mistake it was a $100 mistake, which you could not do too many of. There was no PPC and no domain buyers to be found. Even if you found a domain nugget nobody cared b/c there was so many other golden nuggets yet to be found.

It took balls of steel to register domains in mass back then when there was no known apparent way to make money with them. I registered $30,000 worth of domains on my credit cards before I even owned a computer in late 95' and 96' - then I bought a Gateway. I was using my friend's computer at his house until Feb. 1996. You gotta' remember that a personal PC was about $3,500 back then too, so not many folks wanted to pony up that amount to access "that thing called the Intenet" - besides hardcore techies. :yell: So, the early domainers caught an earful from these guys.

I was asking all the techies I could find if they thought it was a good idea to reg domains and they answered with answers of confusion as to why you would want more than one domain, or scorn for abusing the system ((legally you were only allowed to own one domain. So a company had to be set up for every domain name) , and ultimately I had to make a gut call on my own and set up several hundred companies. :o

The techies back then wanted the Net to remain "Techie Heaven" - their own little closed club. You guys know the rest of the story. :sold:

Seabass, perfect description of how things were. I was broke and regged the little I could but mainly focused in my own industry of graphics and design. I too had the multiple "businesses", thankfully they didn't check for the business license. Everyone I knew thought I was a nut job to spend $100 for a word especially when paying rent was a struggle. It's not so much a struggle anymore :hehe:

 

[Pred]

great post seabass
repped

also other things to consider, knowledge that can be gained on forums like this in 6 months may have taken more than that in years, plus technology moves sooo quick now it's scary. it didn't back then

also to transfer domains way back sometimes took a solicitor or an aid, that got kind of embarrassing for some with adult names :o

i know of an amusing story someone told me

also how many would have sold out 10 years ago for a percentage of a big payday?

also how many people could have lost domains to reverse hijackers, lawsuits, also hackers stealing from accounts without forum backups, groups, domain lawyers etc?

so many, many things to think about

even in 2000 i felt like one of only a few domainers doing it. no forums etc. still on dialup. many domainers still out there are feircely private and dont want to come near forums

many, many things to think about it. in many ways it was a huge leap of faith and in the course of say 13 years you've been doing it, you only need one major catastrophe to cause many drops, personal or financial. i salute you mate

 

[Seabass]

great post seabass
repped

also other things to consider, knowledge that can be gained on forums like this in 6 months may have taken more than that in years, plus technology moves sooo quick now it's scary. it didn't back then

also to transfer domains way back sometimes took a solicitor or an aid, that got kind of embarrassing for some with adult names :o

i know of an amusing story someone told me

also how many would have sold out 10 years ago for a percentage of a big payday?

also how many people could have lost domains to reverEe hijackers, lawsuits, also hackers stealing from accounts without forum backups, groups, domain lawyers etc?

so many, many things to think about

even in 2000 i felt like one of only a few domainers doing it. no forums etc. still on dialup. many domainers still out there are feircely private and dont want to come near forums

many, many things to think about it. in many ways it was a huge leap of faith and in the course of say 13 years you've been doing it, you only need one major catastrophe to cause many drops, personal or financial. i salute you mate

Thanks Arnie. Much appreciated.

Yeah, it was like sailing in the open ocean with no land in sight and you could steer your pirate boat any direction. Now, even with all I know, it is like we arrived with land in sight but now there are fifty rivers in front of us and we have to chose which ones to explore since there is no turning the boat around.

In many ways it is more complicated now, and yes, more tiring if you want to keep fresh on all that is happening. It really is getting to be too much for one person to wrap his head around anymore - more "Vanity extensions", IDN's, new bills, even more scammers, backstabbers, domain theft, etc...... It could take all your energy to just become an expert in IDN's, but at the expense of, say capturing a slice .com.br market or the .de , for example.

The flame emails about mulitple domain ownership have stopped, however.

You are right Arnie. I know a handful of early domainers and I am the only one that has ever posted on NamePros or any other forum for that matter. They have asked me directly to never mention them by name or their domains by name - even though none are trademark type of domains. They own some of the biggest domains in the world, but some just like to be private folks, don't need to satiate egos about domain ownership and being the "Domain King", and enjoy the phone never ringing but the money coming in. :hehe:

Little does Schwartz know that there are several other "Domain Kings" out there not talking about their golden domains that get 10,000 direct navigation uniques (per domain) daily.

I'm sure there are many that I don't know also living quietly and lovin' it, like Yun Ye. I never knew a thing about him until he was exposed for selling his mammoth portfolio.

 

[Pred]

agreed

if i could own anyones portfolio it would have to be : P Gordon
owns spain.com and about another 150 just like it :o

seems quite content just driving traffic to his little forums and getaway.com site

think he must be the master dropcatcher to get what he has, looking at some of the dates. very picky and just got the best

long admired his names, having said all that just gimme one or two and i'll show you what SHOULD be done with them

 

[ezimedia]

HI

Some great... posts here... would love to see this thread in another 10 years...

Tom

 

[DomainTalker]

I love hearing these stories, Seabass...


...Real pioneer stuff.....You guys were working without roadmaps - and a fair dose of guesswork, and gut instinct.

The point that struck me between the eyes reading your posts above, is that, not only was it relatively expensive up front (regs) - and there were no support frameworks to guide you - but, there was no apparent market for the domains at all, at the time, either...!!


That's real entrepreneurship....backing your judgement - and a hunch - and toughing it out over years - until markets were forged, and mechanisms were created to prosper...


Take my hat off to you...

.

 

[gazzip]

Great posts Seabass, I luv hearing about the early days in domaining, it must have been so exciting but terrifying at the same time.

agreed

if i could own anyones portfolio it would have to be : P Gordon
owns spain.com and about another 150 just like it :o

Me too, he has so many amazing names + loads of primo GEO ones like Italy.com :tu: He must have been a very early bird cos he sure got alot of big fat juicy worms!

I'd love to know how much his autoinsurance.com makes per year

any guesses ?

Take my hat off to you...

.

Me too ! I bet there were alot of people that lost faith for one reason or another and dropped loads of primo domains over the years.....I would'nt like to be them now


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