showcase First domain sale over $1,000?

[kaz2]

Hi, we are a mix of domainers here - some experienced, some not so experienced. What I'd love to know is who, if anyone, sold their FIRST domain name for over $1,000 and how much was it sold for?

I'll kick off by saying that I sold my first name for $11 so way below a grand - however, it was a thrilling feeling nonetheless.

It would be interesting to see who, whether by beginners luck or shrewd domain trading, had a first sale of over $1,000.

Look forward to hearing from you!

 

[SpareDomains]

My first sale was exactly for 1k on a hand registered domain I hadn't developed yet back in 2003 as started as a developer. After that sale decided to invest in domains strictly for resale along with my developed sites since ROI was insane. Most of my sales since that first one have all been reg fee expired .coms in the 1-10k range as 1k is kinda my starting point. Don't sell a ton of domains as I play the passive game and wait for the right buyer as busy working on revenue generating websites and the domaining is really no work other than responding to inquiries from sales pages. Easier to be patient when busy with websites that bring in revenue. So that first sale is what started the madness. Wish I had dorked out earlier and gotten into domains a few years earlier than 2003.

 

[kaz2]

My first sale was exactly for 1k on a hand registered domain I hadn't developed yet back in 2003 as started as a developer. After that sale decided to invest in domains strictly for resale along with my developed sites since ROI was insane. Most of my sales since that first one have all been reg fee expired .coms in the 1-10k range as 1k is kinda my starting point. Don't sell a ton of domains as I play the passive game and wait for the right buyer as busy working on revenue generating websites and the domaining is really no work other than responding to inquiries from sales pages. Easier to be patient when busy with websites that bring in revenue. So that first sale is what started the madness. Wish I had dorked out earlier and gotten into domains a few years earlier than 2003.

Hi SpareDomains, thanks for the post, much appreciated! Not surprised that the light bulb moment came for you when you sold that first domain.

Really interested as well to hear that most of your domain name sales are in the 1-10k range and, more importantly, hand registered domain names! Wow, that is a real eye opener.

From a new comers point of view it would be good to know when you hand registered most of these domain names - was it over 10 years ago and then you just sat on them passively selling a domain name now and then?

Or, do you still actively hand register hand domains even now and still manage to sell these hand reg domains in the 1-10k range?

This last point is important for us new domainers as the perceived wisdom these days is that there is no point in hand registering domain names as all the good names have gone!

Would love to know your thoughts in this area SpareDomains, thanks.

 

[SpareDomains]

Hi SpareDomains, thanks for the post, much appreciated! Not surprised that the light bulb moment came for you when you sold that first domain.

Really interested as well to hear that most of your domain name sales are in the 1-10k range and, more importantly, hand registered domain names! Wow, that is a real eye opener.

From a new comers point of view it would be good to know when you hand registered most of these domain names - was it over 10 years ago and then you just sat on them passively selling a domain name now and then?

Or, do you still actively hand register hand domains even now and still manage to sell these hand reg domains in the 1-10k range?

This last point is important for us new domainers as the perceived wisdom these days is that there is no point in hand registering domain names as all the good names have gone!

Would love to know your thoughts in this area SpareDomains, thanks.

Primarily hand registered expired .coms meaning ones that dropped and didn't get sucked into auction houses, have purchased these every year but yes it does trim down each year as the years go on as busier with more websites so don't have the hunting time and each year more competition is hunting the same domains as myself. Due to being a passive seller honestly don't need to buy much these days as still hundreds in the vault from previous years and when your starting from $8 you can afford to sit on it so not unusual for me to wait 2-10 years to turn $8 into 1k,5k,6k,7k etc... as even if I wait for the right end user buyer holding costs are minimal based on return as not in this to turn $8 into $50 as a flipper equals a job and I don't wan't a job as my work is in building more income producing sites so the domain sales income just goes into more development/advertising as don't need the income to survive so I use it to continually expand/increase my recurring monthly income from websites. Good domains no hurry to sell as they can't be replaced as easily/cheap these days so I try to capitalize on them. If I don't think a business would pay 1k+ for a domain I try not to own it as that's basically my starting point for any sale to take place. Only exception to that was recently when I let a few random 4 letter .coms go for 400, 500, 600 etc... but I picked those all up for $15-$20 so I let them go as ROI was there and not really my thing more of a keyword .com guy.

 

[Silentptnr]

My first sale over $1000 was years back. It was a 5L .com domain that sold for $2500. Funny thing is, could have been anywhere in the world, but the buyer happened to be local and brought a cashiers check to my office for $2500. It was really cool.

 

[GoKaizen]

Easier to be patient when busy with websites that bring in revenue.

True, and the majority of members here will say building sites is a waste.

Wish I had dorked out earlier and gotten into domains a few years earlier than 2003.

Everyone thinks that.

 

[frank-germany]

my first sale was 3000 € minus sedo fees for a handreg .com in 2003

 

[SpareDomains]

True, and the majority of members here will say building sites is a waste.

The days of smacking up an article and throwing adsense on them probably a waste but building real service/store related sites definitely worth a shot.

 

[AEProgram]

2002 sold domain a bit over 1k, 2006 domain drops I hand reg lol sometime in late 06 or early 07 he contacts me asking why the domain is registered to me again, I explain to him he forgot to renew, however I will give it back to him free. He is in the gift business or whatever, he sends me a real nice box of chocolates and cookies as a gift, I eat them up as I add the name to my watch list once again, still no site, he still seems to be renewing.

 

[GoKaizen]

The days of smacking up an article and throwing adsense on them probably a waste but building real service/store related sites definitely worth a shot.

It is not easy and takes time/work. How long does it take before you see decent revenue and returns @SpareDomains? What sorts of services/stores are these?

 

[SpareDomains]

It is not easy and takes time/work. How long does it take before you see decent revenue and returns @SpareDomains? What sorts of services/stores are these?

hosting company
domain sales/brokerage
ticket brokerage

and a handful of other real sites, the rest are simple stores, white labels or lead generation which works better for those without coding skills and easier to manage multiple sites, some make dollars a day and others pay up to $400+ per lead, so nothing knocks me out of my chair daily but when you combo the income of 50 sites it's enough to not need domain sales income so I reinvest the majority of it

As far as return time depends on how profitable the niche is as some things pay really well insurance, loans etc... reason PPC parking income is high on those categories and others not so much. One advantage today over yesterday is I can throw backlinks from 50 sites to anything new I start along with all my domains for sale pages so close to 500 free backlinks/traffic instantly to anything new I start.

 

[korganian]

What do you use for lead gen?

 

[Silentptnr]

I use domainnamesales.com, my own site, sedo, namepros.

 

[kaz2]

Primarily hand registered expired .coms meaning ones that dropped and didn't get sucked into auction houses, have purchased these every year but yes it does trim down each year as the years go on as busier with more websites so don't have the hunting time and each year more competition is hunting the same domains as myself. Due to being a passive seller honestly don't need to buy much these days as still hundreds in the vault from previous years and when your starting from $8 you can afford to sit on it so not unusual for me to wait 2-10 years to turn $8 into 1k,5k,6k,7k etc... as even if I wait for the right end user buyer holding costs are minimal based on return as not in this to turn $8 into $50 as a flipper equals a job and I don't wan't a job as my work is in building more income producing sites so the domain sales income just goes into more development/advertising as don't need the income to survive so I use it to continually expand/increase my recurring monthly income from websites. Good domains no hurry to sell as they can't be replaced as easily/cheap these days so I try to capitalize on them. If I don't think a business would pay 1k+ for a domain I try not to own it as that's basically my starting point for any sale to take place. Only exception to that was recently when I let a few random 4 letter .coms go for 400, 500, 600 etc... but I picked those all up for $15-$20 so I let them go as ROI was there and not really my thing more of a keyword .com guy.

Great reply SpareDomains, great insights. Good to hear that you are still in the hunt for deleting domain names for hand registration!

How do you market your domain names? I know you are a passive seller but do you have a landing page on them and, if so, is it one of your own design?

Also, would be most grateful to know what type of domain names you hand register for sale - is it more generic keyword domain names you or are they brandable names?

Are you at liberty to give a couple of examples of names you sold?

Thanks SpareDomains.

 

[kaz2]

my first sale was 3000 € minus sedo fees for a handreg .com in 2003

Thanks for the reply frank-germany, appreciated. Great first domain name sale!

Was this a one off for you or have you repeated the process since?

How do you market your domain names and do you hand register them?

 

[kaz2]

My first sale over $1000 was years back. It was a 5L .com domain that sold for $2500. Funny thing is, could have been anywhere in the world, but the buyer happened to be local and brought a cashiers check to my office for $2500. It was really cool.

Lovely sales silentptnr, how much did you pay for the domain name and how did you sell it? Was it via a landing page or on a 3rd party platform like Sedo?

Many thanks!

 

[frank-germany]

Thanks for the reply frank-germany, appreciated. Great first domain name sale!

Was this a one off for you or have you repeated the process since?

yes you bet - that was my start as a domainer

 

[Silentptnr]

It was ***jobs.com. The guy contacted me via email from whois. I had hand regged the domain. He claimed to be a local small business owner but the site is a full on jobs site and is operating to this day. I dont use privacy because its great for leads.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

First domain buy was $500 for a LLL.net I flipped for $4XXX if I recall correctly and the rest is history.

 

[Aceimages]

Interesting thread. Mine was $1,250 for a domain I hand-registered 2 years earlier.

 

[kaz2]

Interesting thread. Mine was $1,250 for a domain I hand-registered 2 years earlier.

Great ROI Aceimages! How did you sell the domain was it via your own landing page or through a 3rd party platform? Thanks.

 

[kaz2]

First domain buy was $500 for a LLL.net I flipped for $4XXX if I recall correctly and the rest is history.

That is a great return for a dot net. Was it a dictionary word?

 

[Aceimages]

Great ROI Aceimages! How did you sell the domain was it via your own landing page or through a 3rd party platform? Thanks.

Thanks so much. It was a two-word name which I sold through GoDaddy's Premium Listings.

 

[kaz2]

Thanks so much. It was a two-word name which I sold through GoDaddy's Premium Listings.

What type of name was it? Generic keyword domain name or brandable?

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

That is a great return for a dot net. Was it a dictionary word?

I believe the letter combo was dba or bda would have to look.. or something like that, at the time we would have considered them all premium letters I would say it was above market average for sure but the buyer was some what an end user/domainer.

I took that $3XXX profit and bought bs.net and flipped that for $15,000 not long after and on and on ...

I had a very short and cheap learning curve when I started and owe that to this forum, another forum and dnjournal. Knowledge is power!