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discuss How to register new gTLD names in 2019 (and actually sell them).

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How to register new gTLD names in 2019
(and actually sell them).

This is written particularly for new domain investors - I hope it will save you some money :)
It is only my personal opinion, and I might be wrong (of course). So here we go:


1. Register 1 word domain name, in most cases try to avoid 2 word domain names

Example of 1 word domain name: holy.life. Example of 2 word domain name: myholy.life or ourholy.life.
Why? Because chances of selling 2 word domain name in new gTLD space is very small (consult namebio.com). Do not think you can outsmart someone with your word1word2.gTLD combo...in most cases you will not outsmart anyone, and usually you will be dropping such names after 1 year. There are exceptions from this rule of course, but safest bet is to simply avoid it, particularly when you just start with domain investing.

2. Register names with not many alternatives in new gTLD space

This simply means, that end users can not find alternatives for your name in other new gTLD extension, for reg fee.(use uniregistry.com to check that). Particularly when you ignore point no.1 and register 2 word domain name, you will usually find that your string exists in dozens of other new gTLD extensions...and is available to be registered by anyone for reg fee. This subsequently means you will have no leverage when it comes to negotiations with end users.To learn exactly what "alternatives in new gTLD space" means, read this new gTLD appraisal thread here.

3. Register names with large pools of potential end users.

You can have perfect new gTLD name, but if there are only few suitable end users who can use your name, it will usually take long time to sell it. If you register name where millions of potential end users exist (so something pretty broad and generic), you will be getting much more offers, and you will be able to close much more sales.

4. To be first is not always better...sometimes it is better to be second.

When registering new gTLD names, consider this: when extension is brand new, there is almost zero awareness about it among end users (unless there is a huge marketing campaign for it you know about).
It can take years for awareness to be created. This also means that for many extensions there is almost 0 aftermarket in early times. Usually only fellow domain investors. This is natural - if something is very new, almost no one knows about it. So if you want to be first to get best names, fine, but budget for your investments accordingly - it is not wise to expect that you will buy something totally new for USD 10, and you will be able to flip it to end user for USD 10k. It happens, but rarely. There are many experienced new gTLD domain investors, who simply wait for drops after 1st year and pick up some very nice names. But this wisdom comes with years of investing experience and is not something what can be intuitively understood, at least from what I see.

5. Make sure renewals of your domain names are sustainable.

Second most important thing in new gTLD domain investment (after quality of the name) - make sure you understand renewal fees for your domain names. In order for you to be in a long term game, renewal fees of your domain names must be sustainable (aka low). Otherwise you will be dropping almost all of your names after 1 year, and all your effort will be wasted.

6. Make proper landers for your names

Do not just let your domain names without proper landing pages. Do not be lazy and immediately prepare landers for them. Imo best option is undeveloped.com atm, but many good alternatives are available as well.
Some old school domainers are used to the fact that they were contacted by people who found their contact details in WHOIS database - this is not possible anymore, as due to GDPR legislation most records from WHOIS database are now masked. This also means that when you have new gTLD domain name, your details will be masked in most cases (again, there are few exceptions from this rule, but do not rely on them),. Buyers thus have no way how to contact you. Clear landing pages are a must in 2019.

7. Do not follow the herd.

Just because all people at Namepros are registering .panda (just an example), it does not mean you also need to register .panda...Most people are not profitable and are actually loosing lot of money - so if you will do the same thing as most people, you will have the same results as most people....

When you follow the herd, it is not only that competition is huge, but you will end up registering nonsense word1 word2 names, in times where there is no aftermarket created yet, when you do not know if there are some renewal promotions in future, when major domain selling sites not yet support that extension, and when there is no awareness yet among end users. Likely result of your action: you will drop your names prior first renewal round. This is happening since 2014 in many forms and shapes, still it seems like most people like to repeat those mistakes happily again and again.

You need to find your niche/extensions/areas of expertise and go from there. The most lucrative way is still to buy new gTLD names from fellow domain investors, but almost no one is doing it, except few people. Typical newbie new gTLD domain "investor" will rather spend USD 10 on 200 bad names and will not sell even 1 of them, prior dropping them all, then to pay USD 2000 for 1 great name which can sell for great profit. Which leads to:

8. Get 2-3 good names instead of 200-300 bad names (which you will drop anyway).

Buy only quality new gTLD names, as only highest quality sells in 2019. And you know that you have great new gTLD domain name, if you have a good feeling renewing it 9 years in advance.This should be always your test: am I confident enought for this name, so I have no problem to pay years in advance for it's renewal fees? Now to critics which would tell you that you are blocking unnecessarily your capital by paying renewals in advance, I would like to remind:
a) renew your name years in advance if there is a great renewal promotion (you can save sometimes 90% of total cost, as some renewal promotions for new gTLDs are simply amazing)
b) when you renew your new gTLD name 9 years in advance, it tells your potential buyers something about your commitment....in my experience, it is much easier to negotiate if your name is renewed like that.

Buyers are not stupid: they will check everything possible about you and your names, and in most cases they are simply waiting if the name does not expire/if you do not drop it . But when we are in 2019 and your name is renewed until 2027, this waiting game is simply over for them, and they need to approach you if they want the name. But to play this game, you really need to have good new gTLD names.

9. Get to social media and make lot of connections.
Do not be a secret seller. Have your portfolio clearly visible to anyone, and go to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook at least. People with most success have great online presence, and professionally looking marketplaces.

10. Price your domain names as a pro, do not be a chicken
Look, if you price your domains with $120 price tag (for example), this will result in following: you will sell your best domains quickly for low price (and when you report it, fellow domain investors will say Congrats congrats, congrats, and you will feel great as super-seller), but at the same time you will be left with portfolio of bad domain names, which no one wants even for this low price tag. This is sure way to poor financial status and poverty. You do not want that. New gTLD names are very unique, as they are are pure phrases without any suffix, and are therefore also geo neutral. They have great value, and this value grows in time.
If you have great new gTLD name, renew it for years in advance, and do not let it go for cheap - as one day you might retire on it...

11. Bonus point - do not listen to "voices of past" with "only .com is an good investment" mantra
This is already past us and so not 2019 - luckily we see this nonsense less and less ...

What is your opinion when it comes to new gTLDs registrations ? :)
 
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
A lot of good sense in this post, even for those of us who are not completely new. Thank you @lolwarrior !

I totally agree with advice to for the most part aim for single word on the left of the dot. I think the only exceptions would be in cases where two words are essential to express the idea. For example, AirConditioning sold for a good amount. It is technically 2 words, but you need them both to express the idea so it is like a single word.

The sustainable renewal point you make is critical, and you are the pro finding good renewal deals. I personally do register a number of names that I never plan to pay renewal on - unless I have some legitimate interest in the first year. The price structure does support doing this in many extensions. But for the high quality names you plan to keep until you get a reasonable offer, for sure plan on renewal costs you can afford.

Anyway thanks so much for all of your great contributions to NPs!

Bob
 
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This is excellent advice. Great post!

I'm still sticking to .com though...
 
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My opinion about ngTLDs...

Read the above article before getting into this...

Wish I had read this one year before... I would saved good amount of money...

Time travel is not yet available...so careful steps now onwards.. :)

Thanks @lolwarrior for this great checklist...it is concise and very valuable.

Thanks,
Ravi.
 
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This is a super great article for nGTLD investors!

Just want to add a point that keyword must match extension. For instance, "insurance" is a great keyword but does not match .flowers, so "insurance.flowers" will never be sold.
 
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These names rarely sell, easy to say “don’t listen to .com people” but 92% of aftermarket sales are in that extension.

All new tlds combined don’t even have half of one percent. .us and .eu sells better than all new tlds combined, and they are terrible extensions to begin with!
 
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These names rarely sell, easy to say “don’t listen to .com people” but 92% of aftermarket sales are in that extension.

All new tlds combined don’t even have half of one percent. .us and .eu sells better than all new tlds combined, and they are terrible extensions to begin with!

There is no doubt that the vast majority of sales are in legacy TLDs, especially .com.

However, I believe this post does not accurately portray the global situation. Using NameBio data for the full year 2018 ngTLDs had 1464 sales accounting for a sales volume of $5.7 million. All extensions combined accounted for 82,,800 sales and $107.3 million. In both cases the real market is bigger due to the fact that NameBio is a subset of the entire market.

In other words ngTLDs accounted for 1.8% of total sales by number and 5.3% of total sales by dollar volume. By registration the ngTLDs account for about 7.6% of the total domain registrations. Therefore by dollar volume they are slightly under represented. If we take into account that about 50% of the ngTLD sales volume is to registries, and about 15 to 20% of the number of sales, you could adjust for that factor if desired.

If we are to do a comparison as the poster suggests with .us and.eu, they sold (NameBio stats) 127 sales, $136k or .us and 62 sales, $273.8k for .eu. In other words .us plus .eu combined represent about 1/9 the number of sales of the ngTLDs and a bit under 1/12 by dollar volume of the ngTLDs.

Since the 92% figure was quoted, I suspect the poster was using the Afternic/GoDaddy data presented by Paul Nicks at NamesCon. Naturally enough although GoDaddy operate globally their sales show a strong North American bias, and with that a strong .com bias. NameBio has its own selection biases, but I would argue it better represents the global situation. The presentation at NamesCon did point out that there were strong regional differences and also that while tiny ngTLDs proportionally to the previous year had done better. GD/Afternic are extending regional offices, and I suspect will have a stronger global presence in future.

Bob
 
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Namebio new tld data is full of registry sales. That isn’t the aftermarket.
 
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There is no doubt that the vast majority of sales are in legacy TLDs, especially .com.

However, I believe this post does not accurately portray the global situation. Using NameBio data for the full year 2018 ngTLDs had 1464 sales accounting for a sales volume of $5.7 million. All extensions combined accounted for 82,,800 sales and $107.3 million. In both cases the real market is bigger due to the fact that NameBio is a subset of the entire market.

In other words ngTLDs accounted for 1.8% of total sales by number and 5.3% of total sales by dollar volume. By registration the ngTLDs account for about 7.6% of the total domain registrations. Therefore by dollar volume they are slightly under represented. If we take into account that about 50% of the ngTLD sales volume is to registries, and about 15 to 20% of the number of sales, you could adjust for that factor if desired.

If we are to do a comparison as the poster suggests with .us and.eu, they sold (NameBio stats) 127 sales, $136k or .us and 62 sales, $273.8k for .eu. In other words .us plus .eu combined represent about 1/9 the number of sales of the ngTLDs and a bit under 1/12 by dollar volume of the ngTLDs.

Since the 92% figure was quoted, I suspect the poster was using the Afternic/GoDaddy data presented by Paul Nicks at NamesCon. Naturally enough although GoDaddy operate globally their sales show a strong North American bias, and with that a strong .com bias. NameBio has its own selection biases, but I would argue it better represents the global situation. The presentation at NamesCon did point out that there were strong regional differences and also that while tiny ngTLDs proportionally to the previous year had done better. GD/Afternic are extending regional offices, and I suspect will have a stronger global presence in future.

Bob

Also big chunk is fake sales, 3 x 500k “donuts”. That is one third of your total. Look at godaddy, that is real data. What registries report isn’t real data, it is PR numbers to try and impress domainers and thereby boost volumes.

You can crunch number all night long but the data you are using is garbage, gotta use common sense. As ntlds collapse .com’s winning run continues unabated. Good luck to you and lolwarrior.
 
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How to register new gTLD names in 2019
(and actually sell them).

This is written particularly for new domain investors - I hope it will save you some money :)
It is only my personal opinion, and I might be wrong (of course). So here we go:


1. Register 1 word domain name, in most cases try to avoid 2 word domain names

Example of 1 word domain name: holy.life. Example of 2 word domain name: myholy.life or ourholy.life.
Why? Because chances of selling 2 word domain name in new gTLD space is very small (consult namebio.com). Do not think you can outsmart someone with your word1word2.gTLD combo...in most cases you will not outsmart anyone, and usually you will be dropping such names after 1 year. There are exceptions from this rule of course, but safest bet is to simply avoid it, particularly when you just start with domain investing.

2. Register names with not many alternatives in new gTLD space

This simply means, that end users can not find alternatives for your name in other new gTLD extension, for reg fee.(use uniregistry.com to check that). Particularly when you ignore point no.1 and register 2 word domain name, you will usually find that your string exists in dozens of other new gTLD extensions...and is available to be registered by anyone for reg fee. This subsequently means you will have no leverage when it comes to negotiations with end users.To learn exactly what "alternatives in new gTLD space" means, read this new gTLD appraisal thread here.

3. Register names with large pools of potential end users.

You can have perfect new gTLD name, but if there are only few suitable end users who can use your name, it will usually take long time to sell it. If you register name where millions of potential end users exist (so something pretty broad and generic), you will be getting much more offers, and you will be able to close much more sales.

4. To be first is not always better...sometimes it is better to be second.

When registering new gTLD names, consider this: when extension is brand new, there is almost zero awareness about it among end users (unless there is a huge marketing campaign for it you know about).
It can take years for awareness to be created. This also means that for many extensions there is almost 0 aftermarket in early times. Usually only fellow domain investors. This is natural - if something is very new, almost no one knows about it. So if you want to be first to get best names, fine, but budget for your investments accordingly - it is not wise to expect that you will buy something totally new for USD 10, and you will be able to flip it to end user for USD 10k. It happens, but rarely. There are many experienced new gTLD domain investors, who simply wait for drops after 1st year and pick up some very nice names. But this wisdom comes with years of investing experience and is not something what can be intuitively understood, at least from what I see.

5. Make sure renewals of your domain names are sustainable.

Second most important thing in new gTLD domain investment (after quality of the name) - make sure you understand renewal fees for your domain names. In order for you to be in a long term game, renewal fees of your domain names must be sustainable (aka low). Otherwise you will be dropping almost all of your names after 1 year, and all your effort will be wasted.

6. Make proper landers for your names

Do not just let your domain names without proper landing pages. Do not be lazy and immediately prepare landers for them. Imo best option is undeveloped.com atm, but many good alternatives are available as well.
Some old school domainers are used to the fact that they were contacted by people who found their contact details in WHOIS database - this is not possible anymore, as due to GDPR legislation most records from WHOIS database are now masked. This also means that when you have new gTLD domain name, your details will be masked in most cases (again, there are few exceptions from this rule, but do not rely on them),. Buyers thus have no way how to contact you. Clear landing pages are a must in 2019.

7. Do not follow the herd.

Just because all people at Namepros are registering .panda (just an example), it does not mean you also need to register .panda...Most people are not profitable and are actually loosing lot of money - so if you will do the same thing as most people, you will have the same results as most people....

When you follow the herd, it is not only that competition is huge, but you will end up registering nonsense word1 word2 names, in times where there is no aftermarket created yet, when you do not know if there are some renewal promotions in future, when major domain selling sites not yet support that extension, and when there is no awareness yet among end users. Likely result of your action: you will drop your names prior first renewal round. This is happening since 2014 in many forms and shapes, still it seems like most people like to repeat those mistakes happily again and again.

You need to find your niche/extensions/areas of expertise and go from there. The most lucrative way is still to buy new gTLD names from fellow domain investors, but almost no one is doing it, except few people. Typical newbie new gTLD domain "investor" will rather spend USD 10 on 200 bad names and will not sell even 1 of them, prior dropping them all, then to pay USD 2000 for 1 great name which can sell for great profit. Which leads to:

8. Get 2-3 good names instead of 200-300 bad names (which you will drop anyway).

Buy only quality new gTLD names, as only highest quality sells in 2019. And you know that you have great new gTLD domain name, if you have a good feeling renewing it 9 years in advance.This should be always your test: am I confident enought for this name, so I have no problem to pay years in advance for it's renewal fees? Now to critics which would tell you that you are blocking unnecessarily your capital by paying renewals in advance, I would like to remind:
a) renew your name years in advance if there is a great renewal promotion (you can save sometimes 90% of total cost, as some renewal promotions for new gTLDs are simply amazing)
b) when you renew your new gTLD name 9 years in advance, it tells your potential buyers something about your commitment....in my experience, it is much easier to negotiate if your name is renewed like that.

Buyers are not stupid: they will check everything possible about you and your names, and in most cases they are simply waiting if the name does not expire/if you do not drop it . But when we are in 2019 and your name is renewed until 2027, this waiting game is simply over for them, and they need to approach you if they want the name. But to play this game, you really need to have good new gTLD names.

9. Get to social media and make lot of connections.
Do not be a secret seller. Have your portfolio clearly visible to anyone, and go to Twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, Youtube and Facebook at least. People with most success have great online presence, and professionally looking marketplaces.

10. Price your domain names as a pro, do not be a chicken
Look, if you price your domains with $120 price tag (for example), this will result in following: you will sell your best domains quickly for low price (and when you report it, fellow domain investors will say Congrats congrats, congrats, and you will feel great as super-seller), but at the same time you will be left with portfolio of bad domain names, which no one wants even for this low price tag. This is sure way to poor financial status and poverty. You do not want that. New gTLD names are very unique, as they are are pure phrases without any suffix, and are therefore also geo neutral. They have great value, and this value grows in time.
If you have great new gTLD name, renew it for years in advance, and do not let it go for cheap - as one day you might retire on it...

11. Bonus point - do not listen to "voices of past" with "only .com is an good investment" mantra
This is already past us and so not 2019 - luckily we see this nonsense less and less ...

What is your opinion when it comes to new gTLDs registrations ? :)
Fantastic advice!
 
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Also big chunk is fake sales, 3 x 500k “donuts”. That is one third of your total.

Exactly how are they fake? At NamesCon I attended a presentation where two of the three buyers of these names talked about why the name is so valuable to them, how they came to pay that much, and how they feel looking back. The purchases were verified by DNJournal. All three are operating websites. They certainly don't seem fake to me! But to each their own, believe what you wish, and have a nice day.
 
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@Bob Hawkes ok maybe using the word ‘fake’ was wrong, but those 3 sales account for about 20% of that $5.7 mill in ngtlds, which skews that sales number.

Also, as @lolwarrior likes/loves to spread/share/give so much advice/appraisals etc on the new gtlds, it would ‘more beneficial’ if he’d share his sales of all the new gtlds he’s sold so far, so people can get a better idea of his knowledge base of them, and not appear to spreading advice based on his personal bias for being so heavenly invested in them. One sided advice is only good if it’s been proven, and is not just a dispersed opinion.
 
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This simply means, that end users can not find alternatives for your name in other new gTLD extension, for reg fee.(use uniregistry.com to check that).

This is such an important point! With about 700 extensions, and many of them similar (loan and loans, tech and technology, shop and store, etc.) if another name is available for hand registration it is unlikely you will be able to sell yours.

I think you need to either have the best across the dot match, or if you don't know that the person with the one better is offering it only at a huge price. For example if I owned a name with a nice match extension, and the other one is available from the registry but at $5000 per year, I might well be able to sell mine at $1000 plus standard renewal, especially if to a smaller business.

Thanks again for a great post @lolwarrior !

Bob
 
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Also, as [USER=990731]@lolwarrior likes/loves to spread/share/give so much advice/appraisals etc on the new gtlds, it would ‘more beneficial’ if he’d share his sales of all the new gtlds he’s sold [/USER]

lolwarrior may not desire to sell his new tlds at this time because it is real difficult to sell a name if you do not reply to inquiries! Over past few months I have emailed him 2 or 3 times without replies.
 
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(and sell them) lol O_o ...

@lolwarrior has not obligation to disclose his "sales", but If you choose that path then why would you post so much public advice on new G's?... If you want to pioneer the new G space, then you have step up and demonstrate that you can at least practice what you preach.
 
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The few G's I did reg when I first started ended up going nowhere and was a costly lesson

New investors - please save yourself time and money and stay away from gTLDs unless you really know what you are doing

:coffee:
 
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@Bob Hawkes ok maybe using the word ‘fake’ was wrong, but those 3 sales account for about 20% of that $5.7 mill in ngtlds, which skews that sales number.

I think saying calling them fake might have been wrong understates it :xf.wink: but to each their own interpretation!

Re your second point, yes no doubt the big ones were a significant part of the ngTLD total. That is somewhat less so in .com, although the top sales are also pretty important there. For example in 2018 .com sales the top 0.1% (70 sales out of about 70,000) accounted for 27.4% of the entire .com sales volume for the year. NameBio of course does not include private sales and the Sedo ones where privacy was purchased, so probably the real figure is even more dominated by a tiny number of large sales. That is why I draw attention to median numbers in so much of my writing.

It was nice meeting you at NamesCon meetup and hope all is well with you!

Bob
 
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unless you really know what you are doing

I would say that is true for all domain investing, not just the ngTLDs, but well said @maxtra and I agree! And I thank @lolwarrior for helping inform so people do understand the ngTLD market better.
 
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I would say that is true for all domain investing, not just the ngTLDs, but well said @maxtra and I agree! And I thank @lolwarrior for helping inform so people do understand the ngTLD market better.
Very true Bob (y)

Just easier to lose money in G's in expensive renewals/limited clientele
 
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Or just buy a few .com and forget about new gTLD :xf.cool:
 
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much more easy to lose money in G's in expensive renewals/limited clientele

I agree with limited clientele. Probability of selling a ngTLD over $100 even is only maybe 1/3 to 1/4 as good as probability of selling a .com at that $100+ figure. Will that change? I am hopeful but agree it is not clear. Median prices partly make up for this lower sales probability, but not completely (when registry sales volume is excluded).

Re expensive renewals, I think that is overstated, as @lolwarrior has pointed out many times. The economics of premium renewals make it very difficult to make them work in my opinion and I never pay them. I have 130 or so ngTLDs and 0 premium renewals. In my opinion the only potentially profitable route with ngTLDs is either choose extensions where the premium is a one time charge, or with names not designated premium.

By shopping around the renewal rate can be much better than many who criticize ngTLDs from the .com sidelines imagine. For example right now I could pick up two top 20 ngTLDs for 10 years at an average of $4.90 a year (before ICANN). If you wait for multi-year promotions, or really find the best places to hold and renew you can easily have average renewal less than a com/org/net portfolio.

I have paid more than $11 for a ngTLD renewal only once (and it was only about $13). I wish I had done even more multi-year renewals which @lolwarrior covers in his post. I might sometime work out the exact number but the average renewal i have paid on ngTLDs is probably no more than $5 per name per year. The most expensive renewals I have right now are in ..ca, .net and .info, not in ngTLDs.

While it needs updating, about a half-year ago I compared renewal costs for non-premium ngTLDs in the top 10 extensions with the top legacy/general cc extensions. They are very comparable. You can see the details on my personal blog here.

Bob
 
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Wow @Bob Hawkes :xf.eek: You seem to be heavenly invested in new gtlds. Do you have any, or at least 10, .coms?

Nice meeting and talking with you too at NamesCon.
 
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Exactly how are they fake? At NamesCon I attended a presentation where two of the three buyers of these names talked about why the name is so valuable to them, how they came to pay that much, and how they feel looking back. The purchases were verified by DNJournal. All three are operating websites. They certainly don't seem fake to me! But to each their own, believe what you wish, and have a nice day.

Do you wonder why 2 out of 3 would make presentations at namescon promoting new tlds? This is all PR nonsense which is why each price was a few hundred higher than the last 500k sale.
 
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lolwarrior may not desire to sell his new tlds at this time because it is real difficult to sell a name if you do not reply to inquiries! Over past few months I have emailed him 2 or 3 times without replies.
@namemarket hmm that is strange - well, I get dozens of emails daily, as many people here, most are various strange offers, lists of horrible new gTLD names I am supposed to buy, crazy low ball offers from fellow domain investors, and unlimited numbers of seo proposals - so it can happen that I missed your email, but I should not miss 2 or 3 (I assume relevant) emails really - are you sending it to [email protected]? Or you can send me an PM here, or on LinkedIn (link is in my signature).
Thank you :)
 
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