I think what holds people back in many cases could be more Psychological then business like. Imagine you have a premium domain that is $1000/year and you have sunk $3000 into it already. Now if you let it go, someone will reg that same name for either $20 or a one time premium fee of $500 and then that someone will take your 3 years of hopes and sell it for $5000 probably a year out. It is hard to let go. But does that make good business sense? Sometimes you need to write off your loses and move on to better investments. It's tough because a lot of the names people are paying premium for are awesome names.
Great Post RPK.
I agree 100%.
As silly as it sounds I seem to have these same thoughts daily with some of my $50 and $20 domains, hell even some of my $8.00 domains. Not sure about calling it Denial...In my case, I like to think of it as hopeful...lol
Even though I have stated this many times, I did not buy any Legacy .TV domains but I do feel for those who have, and once again if I was involved 3+ years ago, I would have owned a few myself by now.
But there is one point that I am surprised that hasn't been brought up yet.
Forget denial. What about those loyal premium holders that have their absurd renewal on that $x,xxx or $xx,xxx domain tommorow, or next week, or next month. If it was me, and I could afford to renew my legacy premium .TV, I would pretty much almost have to. Verisign has made so many crazy moves lately that I know my thoughts would be that, they will have to address this problem soon, and with my luck, they will make the announcement tommorow (the day after I let my killer premium drop).
Until Verisign at least makes a firm statement I believe everyone would be thinking that they
will rectify the problem, and let them have a buyout or some type of customer loyalty type of plan. So, by Verisign not addressing this problem in one way or another right now, they will still make the same money they have been IMO. Fair - No, but there is no rush right now for them to address this since there is probably someone, right now hitting the credit card "submit payment" button to renew their Legacy domain.
People/companies either have morals or they don't. I believe in "carma", what comes around goes around.
I now own DM.tv (maybe a Demand Media site and will raise hell)
Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I believe public pressure is going to heat up here and eventually we will make positive changes with Verisign.
Time will tell.
Thanks, JIm
Jim, I have the same exact beliefs, karma.
and there will be a public uprising and things will have to at very least...be addressed.
I made a real long post somewhere here equating this problem to our current housing problem. Do I lose the $150,000 value on my house and keep struggling? Do, I throw the keys on the counter, and take the redit hit, then buy the same house across the street for $150,000 less? or will the government come in and say, hey guess what since you're screwed that means we are screwed since 25% of the houses in the US are in forelosure, and we are all gonna lose money anyways, why dont we just renegotiate that contract for ya.
Not sure what the right answer is, except I know one thing for sure...
Verisign should announce their intentions now, then people will know whether they should shit, or get off the pot.
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edit
I just went back to the beginning of the thread to read it over, and saw this in the O.P.
So then I called Verisign HQ and finally got a customer service rep for domains. Henry. He said absolutely old premiums would keep the premium renewal and he said that was coming from Verisign, not ENOM.
This sure sounds like there are no plans of changing Legacy Premiums,
if this is a definitive statement. If so, then I guess that would answer the question as to whether this is financially sound for that holder. Are people still hopeful things will change, IDK. I probably still would be until I saw it in a written statement from Verisign....
So much has changed recently it does make sense for loyal legacy holders to think this could change too, til Verisign makes a public statement one way or another. They owe it to the people who have been buttering their bread.
IDK the answers but I am just glad I am not in their shoes right now.
Vito.