DomainInvesting.com Blog Chooses To Be Non-Transparent, NameBio.com Ends Up Publishing Sales Data

[texmexi]

"Requested DomainInvesting.com/Elliot Silver to publish full list of Uniregistry domain sales he received (he only published 136 names) to remain transparent to his readers, he refused and said info could probally be found on namebio. Later, he said smart people would just email Jeff/Frank from Uniregistry to obtain full list instead of rely on 3rd parties." Read blog post to get full context.

Today, Uniregistry published a press release with domain median sales and amount of names sold in past 8 months (3,617 names sold for total of $29,000,000 in sales). Soon after, Elliot Silver from DomainInvesting.com contacted Jeff Gabriel and requested a list of domain sales for this time period and jeff provided a list of 2,700 names that could be made public.

Soon after, Elliot decided to only publish 136 of the 2,700 names in the list of domains that have sold for $20,000 and above, which was only 136 names (0.06%) of the list. I left a comment on domaininvesting.com requesting Elliot Silver if he could publish the full list of all domains (The remaining which equates to 99.04%) under $20k via a downloadable link or post. I explained this is what I assumed many of his readers (as well as I) were interested in, as this is the sweet spot in the domain aftermarket that provided data on trends, demand, sales prices, etc. Very valuable data to domain investors.

After requesting this info, the discussion escalated. The end state he refused to remain transparent and said he would not be pressured or bullied to publish data. Additionally saying, smart people would request the list directly from Jeff/Frank at uniregistry instead of relying on a 3rd party (Yes his blog) to provide such data.

When you conduct business or publish a blog in any industry, Transparency is essential for customers/readers to establish trust. Bloggers/businesses who refuse to be and remain transparent, when given an opportunity to do so, Should be called out for such practices, so others do not try and do same thing. So, this is the reason for this news, and I am calling out Elliot Silver of DomainInvesting.com for choosing to be nontransparent, and cherry picking sales data to make public, while hoarding the true valuable data. I am sure the only reason Jeff Gabriel released this info to Elliot is because he assumed Elliot would make it public as a respected Domain industry blogger. No chance of that happening according to Elliot Silver. NameBio.com has released the full list that can be downloaded! Thank you to Michael for making this data public.

.

 

[anantj]

I don't think this is a lack of transparency. Uni would be opaque if they refused to release the data. Elliot publishes a private blog, with topics of his choosing and it is entirely his prerogative what he publishes or does not. If you feel he is misleading his audience, it is fully your right to call him out on your own publishing platform (or his blog if he chooses to allow the calling out). But AFAIK, it is fully his choice to publish the full list or not, especially if he is not the exclusive recipient of the data as he pointed out. If uni refused to release the data (which is not the case), you should instead call them out.

I get why you want the data, but targeting Elliot incorrect in my opinion. He is not the owner of the data and has zero obligation to publish it

 

[JB Lions]

His site, he can post what he wants.

 

[Michael]

When I think of the most ethical people in the domain space there are two people that immediately come to mind, and Elliot is one of them. I'm not exaggerating in the least, Elliot is as good as they come.

Actually you should thank Elliot because if it wasn't for his post I would have had no idea Jeff was releasing the full list to anyone. I had to request it after seeing Elliot's post. When what I got didn't have dates I had to request it again, and then manually fill in some missing dates, which is why we were several hours late to the party. Elliot could have just kept the list to himself.

He wasn't hoarding data, he was just publishing what he felt like his readers would be interested in, with a mind to keeping the list at a reasonable length. That's his choice as the publisher. Last year DNJournal released the list in pieces over the course of more than a month. Was that hoarding data too? Ron is actually in the business of reporting sales and I didn't hear anyone complain. Elliot's focus is news and advice not data warehousing, he was just sharing some interesting sales with his readers.

The list itself is a bit of a hot potato because it includes sales made on non-house inventory, meaning brokered sales and I believe even self-brokered ones where Uniregistry only acted as the platform. Sales that not everyone realized would be made public. I can't tell you how many angry calls and emails I got from publishing the full list last year, from some very big names.

Publishing the full list opens you up to threats and potential lawsuits, so I can totally understand not wanting to publish the entire thing, especially when you know someone else will do it soon anyway. The more sales you publish the more chance you have of pissing people off. We get threatened all the time so I'm used to it, but had you gotten the list and published it you would have quickly found out why it sucks to be that guy

So rather than sitting there imagining some grand conspiracy where Elliot is twirling his curly mustache profiting from data that he won't give to you, be grateful Elliot brought its existence to light and that Uniregistry was kind enough to share it at all. And then go back to work, because this isn't productive.

 

[jberryhill]

 

[ecalc]

Right, best to lighten the mood, we're not curing cancer here. For the record I'm with Elliot not the peanut gallery on this one.

 

[Michael]

So I am imagining some grand conspiracy now? Really? Not productive to call out unethical business practices? SMH. I should thank Uniregistry, guess what, I do thank them for releasing the info.

Yes, you are. You are accusing Elliot of withholding data so he can benefit from it and you can't. That's just silly, if he wanted to do that he wouldn't have mentioned having the list at all. And even when I explain to you why people don't want to publish sales data you won't let it go and claim it is an ethics violation. Nobody is under any moral or ethical obligation to spoon-feed you data. If he only wants to post the top X sales that is his business as the publisher. If he didn't publish any of it that is fine too.

Elliot had plenty of opportunity to explain in detail why he would not publish the full list. Instead he chose to tell me and his readers, to go find it elsewhere.

Can you tell me why he owes you any detailed explanations for his decisions? You strike me as being really, really entitled.

Seems folks only want to read between the lines where facts do not exist to defend Elliot's actions, but fail to read the true facts written in black and white written by him and I. For the record, I did thank Elliot and said Great job getting the sales data and also thanked him. But it is apparent you choose not to read that either to lecture me and make your point.

I read all of your comments on his blog. I didn't say that you never thanked him, but it certainly isn't grateful to then spit in his face, accuse him of being unethical, and then start this ridiculous thread trying to ruin his reputation because he didn't want to do what you demanded of him. That's a tantrum.

To bring up DnJournal.com is ridiculous. Ron has a consistent job validating sales before they are made public and this is why spurts of sales are released and updated on his sales database. I am no rookie/newbie. Been in the domain industry since 1999, and have seen it all.

You genuinely don't know what you're talking about, I'm sorry to say. See this:

http://www.dnjournal.com/sales-verification.htm

"Most of the sales in our report come directly to us from reputable and widely-known sales venues such as Sedo.com, NameJet, DomainNameSales, SnapNames.com and several others. We accept their sales reports as accurate [...]"

"We also receive reports of sales made between only two parties, a buyer and a seller. In these cases, unless the parties to the sale are already very well-known to us, we require that documentation showing proof of the price paid be sent to us."

The staggered roll-out wasn't Ron taking time to verify sales, he didn't verify them at all and in fact he only verifies them if he doesn't already trust you. Him verifying every sale is an urban legend.

Do you seriously think Uniregistry sent him like 3,000 screenshots? Jesus. It was simply a publisher making a judgement call on how to present the information that was provided to him. Same as Elliot. Ron chose to break it out over several weeks, Elliot chose to only publish the sales $20k+. Get over it.

--

I just wanted to poke my head in and explain why people don't want to publish sales data, so you can stop going on about ethics and standards and other such nonsense. But you clearly just want to argue and start drama, which is why some of the most prolific content creators and service providers in the industry are leaving. Nobody gets paid all that much, we do it out of passion, and this kind of bullshit sucks the fun right out of it. I'm going back to work, I suggest you do the same.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

NameBio released a larger list...

https://namebio.com/blog/full-list-17-2-million-sales-uniregistry-released/

 

[Michael]

@Michael,

Another ridiculous comment in this scenario and topic. The full list was released by Jeff Gabriel at Uniregistry.com. Only folks that would be held accountable if list contained Non disclosures would be Uniregistry, as they made the list public.

This also goes for pissing folks off.

If you are going to lecture me, please provide content of value/meaning Sir.

Do you think the psychos that threaten us care about that? Here is what I got for publishing a Flippa sale, which as you mention is publicly reported by the platform and we're not liable:

https://twitter.com/NameBio/status/744306638069305344

Who needs that kind of drama in their lives? I certainly don't. I have dozens and dozens of emails threatening me with lawsuits over the same type of publicly-released information. One guy even threatened to call Interpol on me, lol.

Again, you really don't know what you're talking about.

 

[Chris Hydrick]

I first read about the UNI press release on OnlineDomain.com HERE

Below is the first comment:

I assume that comment hinted that the sales figure included in house sales.

I only ran two reverse WHOIS.

(1)

(2)

The last WHOIS registrant (that I saw) before Facebook took ownership was somebody from Germany n 2016. What a great ROI for a 2016 reg!

http://dotweekly.com/domain-movers-likewise-com-toontrump-com/


**I only searched two domains. Two sales don't tell the full story. Don't speculate. Don't be afraid research or ask questions either**

 

[ecalc]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth unless it's made of wood, if so, check the belly for soldiers.

 

[texmexi]

This is not the case. Jeff Gabriel from Uniregistry would not have released such sales. This is why the list only contains 2,700, instead of 3,614.

I gave him a few opportunities to comment if this was the case as to why not publish full list. Bottom line, no matter what I said, he refused to publish and said not to rely on 3rd party sources for sales data.

DnJournal.com is a 3rd party that publishes sales for quite a long time. Does this mean sales data can not be trusted?

In the end, A spade is a spade. No need to make excuses for Elliot. He chose not to publish and insult me along the way. My feelings are not hurt. I have the moral fortitude to call out blogs/businesses who are nontransparent or who conduct unethical business practices. All others should do the same to clean up this industry. Many have, and I applaud/salute those folks!

 

[biggie]

Only individuals can answer the the question you ask if not giving a flying frisbie and meaning anything to them.

Knowledge of any sale has value for those who know how to use that data. Certainly, a list of 2,700 domain sales from Uniregistry.com has immense value.

What point are you trying to make with such a sporadic comment?

my point is,
what sells for what or when isn't that important to me

if someone tells of their sales, that's fine and we give congrats to them

but i don't go out of my way seeking that data

it's not an obsession.

and i posted because the title of this thread, from my perspective, is kinda silly

it reads as if you're trying to hold dude's feet to the fire, cuz he didn't post some info you think you got a right to know about.

i don't read blogs like that, so that's where the flying frisbee comes in again

but if i did, wouldn't feel compelled to blast him, because it's his right to blog about whatever, in part or in totality, at his discretion.

and since there will be more sales in the future,
was not knowing every single sale out of that 2700, when you wanted to know, from the person you wanted to know it from..... that important.


just saying...

imo....

 

[wwwweb]

I agree that sales data is valuable, some of those sales on that list are mine that were handled via uniregistry brokers who earned some nice commissions. I don't like the fact that select insiders got access to those sales until it was opposed and released to everyone. At least provide it to your internal clients who make up a good percentage of those sales, instead of random outside bloggers of your choosing.

Elliot has always been private with his sales data, because he wants to give himself the edge, he has never been shy about that fact, and it is his right.

The uniregistry sales data is private data, and they have the right to give it to whoever they want, even though some of those sales are private sales assisted by uniregistry brokers.

Since Uniregistry chose to go this route, I will be setting my sales data to private from now on, I believe in being transparent to all, or nobody at all if they are going to pick, and choose among friends, and insiders.

 

[anantj]

I just wanted to poke my head in and explain why people don't want to publish sales data, so you can stop going on about ethics and standards and other such nonsense. But you clearly just want to argue and start drama, which is why some of the most prolific content creators and service providers in the industry are leaving. Nobody gets paid all that much, we do it out of passion, and this kind of bullsh*t sucks the fun right out of it. I'm going back to work, I suggest you do the same.

Very well said. Thank you for stating this so well.
And thank you for all that you do for the industry. The more said is still not enough....

 

[wwwweb]

@texmexi

Just backoff this now, you made your point, you got J Berryhills attention, that's says a lot, but nothing to win here.

Every blog that got the early jump basically reported the same thing. Maybe he thought the list was good to be kept quiet, and why not cherry pick some end users to pitch, or not. That is his choice, but there are about 4-5 blogs that pretty much repeat the same stories, your choice who to visit. I am sure advertisers want to measure traffic, so if they continue to produce soft content, they will cease to exist.

But just straight up, go out enjoy your day, most of the people who are arguing with you here don't have much skin in the game, or are close with your chosen opponent, so what's the point.

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Wow I don't get it.why keep that info private? When it could easily be gotten from some other sources?

What's the point?

 

[texmexi]

Exactly my point. The reason, data is valuable and chose to hoard sales data for self interests, instead of make public. He commented for me and his readers to do the research on namebio.com and to just email jeff/frank directly to get the sales data directly, instead of him just publishing.

This was his last reply to me, saying I was having a tantrum because he would not make this info public. SMH......

 

[texmexi]

His site, he can post what he wants.

You are correct. So can I and others based on facts and direct communications. It is called freedom of speech in America. Something I defended for over 20years as an Soldier in the United States Army. And continue to do so, now that I am retired.

 

[biggie]

soooooo,

the names that sold, have value....

and because they sold,

then knowledge of the sale, has value too?

but, if you don't give a flying frisbie -

then, does this, mean anything to you?

imo....

 

[wwwweb]

my point is,
what sells for what or when isn't that important to me

if someone tells of their sales, that's fine and we give congrats to them

but i don't go out of my way seeking that data

it's not an obsession.

and i posted because the title of this thread, from my perspective, is kinda silly

it reads as if you're trying to hold dude's feet to the fire, cuz he didn't post some info you think you got a right to know about.

i don't read blogs like that, so that's where the flying frisbee comes in again

but if i did, wouldn't feel compelled to blast him, because it's his right to blog about whatever, in part or in totality, at his discretion.

and since there will be more sales in the future,
was not knowing every single sale out of that 2700, when you wanted to know, from the person you wanted to know it from..... that important.


just saying...

imo....

This is how the car industry works, real estate market, what anything similar sells for is comprables, it sets a market tone, just as cryptocurrency domains which sold for peanuts 3 years ago, are commanding thousands today. If you are not in the know, you are only doing yourself a disservice. Many of the buyers on that list are going to be spammed to kingdom come in the coming days from people looking to cash in their subpar lottery tickets. I think Uniregistry just wanted to put the word out their market did $30M in sales, and somehow got pushed to back it up. There are many big sales missing from the list also.

 

[anantj]

Black and white facts are conspiracy theory/theories.

your entitled opinion does not equal to a fact. There is nothing black and white

 

[WhoaDomain.com]

Maybe many of these sales had "gentleman's handshake" type non disclosure agreements?

That he would not publish the sale but removes all liability from himself if the sale was "discovered" by some clever domainer?

 

[texmexi]

Don't look a gift horse in the mouth unless it's made of wood, if so, check the belly for soldiers.

Very funny. Needed a good laugh!

Thanks

 

[texmexi]

I don't think this is a lack of transparency. Uni would be opaque if they refused to release the data. Elliot publishes a private blog, with topics of his choosing and it is entirely his prerogative what he publishes or does not. If you feel he is misleading his audience, it is fully your right to call him out on your own publishing platform (or his blog if he chooses to allow the calling out). But AFAIK, it is fully his choice to publish the full list or not, especially if he is not the exclusive recipient of the data as he pointed out. If uni refused to release the data (which is not the case), you should instead call them out.

I get why you want the data, but targeting Elliot incorrect in my opinion. He is not the owner of the data and has zero obligation to publish it

There is something called professional etiquette and ethical business practices. When an industry blog refuses and chooses not to publish valuable sales data to keep for himself and cherry pick’s data to release publicly, trust is lost along the way of content published. This is not my opinion but fact. If an industry blog wants to operate in a nontransparent manner, what true value do they offer readers or their advertisers? If you are going to hoard sales data, do not make it public that you have gained access to it. Simple as that!

Aplaud/salute Michael from @namebio.com making this sales data public approx. 7 hours later after this post. Elliot should have just made full list public instead of hoarding the data. I am not the only one who feels this way. A spade is a spade. No need to make excuses for Elliot's actions, or lack of action.