I have 4 very important points to make for everyone posting negatively on this:
1- Lack of Information.
There isn't enough information given by Uni to judge either way whether this is something to be seen as good or not (or at least in the eyes of the average NamePros domainer). What really constantly frustrates me about this industry is the number of people who rush to make judgement without sufficient data nor being fully informed.
The only fact here is that until we see some more information and hard data, any assumptions and judgements are completely unfounded and just go to show how some people like to spread their opinions in pure ignorance. That being said .. there here are more important FACTS that actually SHOULD be part of the discussion:
2- Portfolio sales are NOT intended for everyone.
If you follow my daily blog and lists of domains at auction, it's no secret that I've had a very stressful couple of years. Health issues (myself, my mom and my dog), condo flooding, and more in context, a business that suffered a big loss because of the death of an overseas middleman at a crucial moment right before payment. I had just started domaining then, and thankfully it's (retail) domaining that had actually saved me on a financial level. But this sort of portfolio acquisition service most certainly could be helpful for people who are going through hardships .. both on the financial level .. but also on a personal level. Domaining takes time and effort .. imagine if your significant other suddenly get diagnosed with cancer and the extra time you had to devote to domaining suddenly disappears. While this obviously is not the ideal solution .. it has the potential to be a REAL solution to the alternative of letting your portfolio expire.
Similarly .. if YOU pass away .. ask yourself .. do the people who will inherit your estate have any clue what to do with your portfolio? Again .. while this would certainly not give anyone optimal retail pricing, it still is a better alternative to nothing ... and more importantly, is one of hopefully many portfolio liquidation solutions which together with more competition could bring fairer pricing to liquidations.
It seems that what some here should be more angry about is not that Uni/Frank is the first to do this as an official "service" (for lack of a better word) in the context of a large marketplace, but instead you should be frustrated with the fact that there are not actually MORE big players who are doing this.
Imagine if Huge Domains, Afternic and a handful of other big marketplaces were doing this .. combine that with more awareness/aggressiveness of individual domainer investor portfolio acquirers .. then all of a sudden there could potentially be REAL liquid pricing on our portfolios. It's all about having MORE options .. not fewer! Anybody who is against this clearly has no clue about how economics works!
Most importantly, if you have the time to manage your leads and portfolio and are running a profitable domaining business .. then unless they have amazing buyers and will be paying very generous wholesale pricing, then this program is not for you, and by trashing this program and submitting false portfolios, you are just hurting others who it could truly help and benefit.
3- Frank's / Uni's wholesale purchase price threshold is NOT the same as ours.
With his sales staff and infrastructure and Uni marketplace,
@Frank Schilling can afford to buy domains at higher prices than the average domainer and still make a profit. For those of us who invest time to find great wholesale bargains, this could be a profitable sales channel. And while I'd definitely agree that the prices would be far lower than retail prices, in this case volume COULD most certainly compensate ... again though .. it really depends on the actual data of what they end up buying and at what prices.
Anyone speculating about purchase pricing without any hard data is not only doing a disservice to all of us .. but you're also showing how truly nonobjective you are and your opinion on this matter is less than worthless, as the ONLY thing it is accomplishing is damaging our industry by attacking one of many channels to hopefully bring in more competition on the wholesale acquisition side.
If you want to look for a really bad business model for the average domainer in the domain industry, look at the BrandBucket model where they actually ask us to PAY THEM to give them EXCLUSIVE rights with giant commissions on our domains in their overwhelmingly oversized portfolios. While this could work for a few, overall I personally think that model is very very bad for the average domainer. I could go on, but I don't want to take this off-topic.
4- Supply and Demand
While I've touched at this a few times above .. some of you need to inform yourselves on the very foundational principle of supply and demand! Seriously .. it's a very basic fact that as the number of people and businesses who want our domains goes up .. the higher our domains go up in value!
This is a very basic economic FACT! It applies from wholesale through to retail levels. So while Uni/Frank might
or might not offer us good or even fair pricing, it's still one more little bit of upwards pressure on the overall value of our domains. The added bonus here is that if it actually does take off .. then there will most certainly be other big players looking to copy their playbook, which could have the potential of actually pushing wholesale pricing on our domains upwards .. and in turn be one part of a real move toward ACTUAL wholesale liquidity.