question-answered Fake sale by domainers

[aliweb]

One thing always bothers me. Do you guys think that some people in domain industry post fake sales? Because sometime I think people post fake sales just to make a name for themselves. Just so people start noticing them which will in turn help in doing real sales?
I think if you are a famous domainer then people are more likely to buy from you. They will think that the feces you are giving is actually gold.
What is your take on this?

 

[jhm]

The old saying "fake it till you make it". Those experienced know bs when they see it. It shouldn't concern you if people want to pretend...let them. They're only kidding themselves

 

[bmugford]

Well, the bar to be a "domainer" is so low there are going to be bad actors.

Have people posted fake sales in the past? That is about as close to 100% as you can get.

There is lots of fake BS in every field; many fake it until you make it people exist.

I take all reported sales be in domains, art, collectibles, NFT, etc. with a grain of salt.

Brad

 

[johnn]

Only "Nobody" want to be "Somebody".
People know who you are so there is no need to show off.
This happen everywhere not just in Domaining business.
Everything is about "ME".

 

[Domainication]

Sadly it happens very often (on twitter).

Want an example?

Huh, an xyz for $84,000? Possible as we all know about Swethas success stories, but...
At an closer look that user owns domains like b/u/y/f/l/a/t or m/e/t/a/1/1/1 dot xyz. Newly registered.
Close to a $xx,xxx value? nooo way. lol... But 74 likes at that post. A lot people see a reported (fake) sale and like.

Btw. same user a month later:

 

[jhm]

Sadly it happens very often (mostly on twitter).

Want an example?

Show attachment 219182

Huh, an xyz for $84,000? Possible as we all know about Swethas success stories, but...
At an closer look that user owns domains like b/u/y/f/l/a/t or m/e/t/a/1/1/1 dot xyz. Newly registered.
Close to a $xx,xxx value? nooo way. lol... But 74 likes at that post. A lot people see a reported (fake) sale and like.

Btw. same user a month later:

Show attachment 219183

Better yet: The guy claiming he sells his "dot finance" domains for millions. Hes a beauty

 

[Domainication]

Better yet: The guy claiming he sells his "dot finance" domains for millions. Hes a beauty

Hahaha. Yes that guy was a truly legend with his fake stuff! :D

 

[bmugford]

Better yet: The guy claiming he sells his "dot finance" domains for millions. Hes a beauty

Some people make it too obvious...

https://www.namepros.com/threads/16-500-000-sale-of-philadelphia-finance.1268107/

 

[biggie]

I think if you are a famous domainer then people are more likely to buy from you. They will think that the feces you are giving is actually gold.
What is your take on this?

Hi

any "persona" in domaining can move the crowd... depending on who's following them.

i've seen it action quite a few times.

perception of individuals and associations with them, all play a part in the "who's who" theme of notoriety.

since very few may get to interact with "them" personally, then the opportunity to perform a transaction may be just as rewarding.

this psycho phenom, also works with domain services as well.
where "word of mouth" or frequent postings about such, can sway large groups in short periods.

the deal is, once you get em, how you gonna keep em?

imo...

 

[topdom]

Purpose of posting fakes sales can be:

-manipulating appraisals and expectations for that name or similar names

metaverse.io was sold 6 figures.. I said to myself : BS, it is just .io promotion.
what is even metaverse. what is .io. what happened to old .biz, which means
business and supposed to compete directly with .com
Some people got best .io's and promoting it various ways.
meta- part was real (trend), .io part was mostly fake (or real but artificial).

What happened to .mobi, many sold for 5-6 figures,
now even the best ones drop, not many people look at them.
Same for .nu
what happened, probably a powerful group got best keywords, promoted it
using fake sales, shillbidding, and even some real sales (fake intention);
but most importantly, by offering them as second choice after .com
and once they are out of their .mobi's, switch to the next one.
Meanwhile just because others seem to sell their .io's, this doesn't mean you can
sell yours as well.

 

[uzver]

metaverse.io was sold 6 figures.. I said to myself : BS, it is just .io promotion.
what is even metaverse. what is .io. what happened to old .biz, which means
business and supposed to compete directly with .com
Some people got best .io's and promoting it various ways.
meta- part was real (trend), .io part was mostly fake (or real but artificial).

Considering the context (of this thread and your first sentence), it sounds like you still suggest it’s a fake sale and I think it’s unjustified.

By now, it should be pretty obvious why metaverse.io fetched 6-figures.

I personally don’t see anything fake in the dot io extension sales, especially for a monster keyword like metaverse (the hottest buzzword of 2021 and 2022).

 

[uzver]

I’ve attached some recent $50k+ sales above to prove that metaverse.io sale is not that much of an outlier.

 

[topdom]

metaverse.io sale can be justified, but at that time, I said nonsense.. how could I know, all .io's were being sold by park.io, very strange. And .io was a sleeping giant noone knew about for a long time. There are natural trends, and real trends, and artificial trends, and fake trends.

6 digit random looking .top's were being sold for mid-5 figures. All were being sold at the same marketplace.
4 digits .co's were being sold for 4 figures. Some parties are manipulating these trends. You can benefit from them, or just waste your money.

 

[uzver]

how could I know, all .io's were being sold by park.io, very strange. And .io was a sleeping giant noone knew about for a long time. There are natural trends, and real trends, and artificial trends, and fake trends.

Yeah… Mike of Park.io holds lots of great .io’s. And it makes sense for him to report the sales as Park.io sales to promote his marketplace (although those are just private sales).

I couldn’t also get it when I saw .xyz sales by the same person until I became involved in web3 space and could see all those .xyz brands.

 

[Denismth]

Fake sales reports were rampant in the Internet marketing world to do one thing - to persuade people buy their "systems" or software. I've been there for years and saw it firsthand.
But here not sure if that is being practiced. If so, for what reason? Generally screenshots motivate me more than just reporting it with just a written text. So I asked one of the gurus here for a screenshot and he posted it. That was awesome.

 

[karmaco]

If you see it on NameBio the sale receipt has been provided and proven. I also doubt GD or Sedo are posting fake sales.

The ones that really annoy are on Twitter—Pat me on the back I sold a domain for huge profit but I won’t tell you the name and the amount or I sold a domain for XXXX but I can’t tell you the name. Lots of bragging with no or few facts doesn’t help or inspire anyone. Too many huge egos in this biz.

I am sure there are fake sales posted by domainers from time to time but no one should be accused without proof. Most only post their sales occasionally or not at all.

 

[enterscope]

Fake sales do happen, either owner bidding on his own name or proxy bidding a domain up. Also people claiming a sale when no sale took place. These usually get found out.

At the end of the day, a domain's value is fairly transparent. If you overpay or undersell then it's you're own fault. Anyone can post a thread or ask for an appraisal before purchasing.

 

[domain400]

I think if you are a famous domainer then people are more likely to buy from you.

If you have a strong domain people will want it regardless of your reputation as a "domainer".

 

[AEProgram]

Show me an industry that wasn't caught up with a scandal? Wall Street, poker sites, the scandal with the famous domain auction site, insurance, medical care etc.

I believe that there is a very good chance that a popular extension uses manipulation fraud. Could be two extensions but one is the one I suspect the most.

If it is in fact a fraud scheme, this is what I think the fraudsters (owners of the extension) are doing.

1. They acquire names within their extension from people that have a social media / forum presence for very high prices. The people they buy it from ARE NOT in on it!

2. They make a fortune because some of the names have high renewal costs, makes the holders scared to stop paying those costs.

3. As the scandal was exposed and people pointed out that many of the sales in that extension never get developed, suddenly, some of the domains sold have these template web 2.0 NFT / Crypto sites that are just BS. Most sites still go to nothing. Very unusual for people that spent a large amount on a name. It happens, but not common when the buyer spent a lot of money. To compare, out of the top 25 sales this year of .com's about 18 have real sites on them, not a template with a web 2.0 word salad.

The argument that it's not fraud is that a lot of companies have been raising money and the sale price for domains, even six figure sales, are low compared to the capital raised. The issue with that theory is the lack of .com 5 - 6 figure sales. There would've been a flood of those.

Many domainers, like stock and crypto traders, are degenerate gamblers. Gamblers suffer from FOMO (fear of missing out), it is easy to push their buttons because they are always thinking about the time they could've gotten into something cheap and they didn't and lost millions. Now they think they won't miss the opportunity again just to fall into another scam.

 

[bmugford]

I think if you are a famous domainer then people are more likely to buy from you. They will think that the feces you are giving is actually gold.

I don't think anyone is looking to pay some astronomical price because they just want to do a deal with a "famous" domainer.

Even "famous" domainers are not household names. The average person has no clue who Frank Schilling, Rick Schwartz, Mike Mann, etc. are.

It might seem like they have higher sales but they all have high quality large portfolios and a social media presence. If you have a lot of high quality domains and no major need for cash, you are going to make some great sales but likely at a well below standard sell-through rate AKA you have to pass on a lot of good offers to get great offers.

Brad