debate I'm skeptical... Are you?!?

[Josh R]

Mike Mann reports all these domain sales which is great for him and the industry. But how real are they?

He reports very large sale prices that would only be justifiable from an end-user stand point. Even then, some of these prices are far-fetched based on the domain quality.

Now my question is, after days, weeks, months even years, why are these domains still in his name?.. Normally, the ones that are not in his name will be under privacy and not resolve to anything.

I'ts actually very difficult to find too many sales that are actually being used by an end-user. Please correct me if I'm wrong by all means... I've looked through many...

icram.com
lingerieboutique.com
shays.com
riseup.org
WeAreParents.com
Football.co

Old one for you as well, which triggered by interest.
FromRagsToRiches.com - Apparently sold in 2012 for 26K --- Never moved away from DomainMarket.com

I'm sure he has many very legit sales, but something just doesn't feel right to me?.. Thoughts?

 

[Hootsifer]

;p;

 

[maven]

Mike Mann reports all these domain sales which is great for him and the industry. But how real are they?

Don't know the guy and I'm sure he's a great guy and certainly a very successful entrepreneur.

I'm by no means insinuating that domainmarket reports fake sales.

lol, this is gold!

 

[Rinkuji]

@Axorees
You hit BullsEye ...

 

[Kingslayer]

I've nothing to add to this thread but I think the OP has asked some good questions.

 

[carob]

If you really want to look into this you need to work out what the default behaviour for domain pushes and transfers was for the transactions and registrars involved.

Some places if you push a domain it automatically takes the default whois settings of the receiving account, possibly also nameserver settings.

Some places you have a choice to keep the pushing account's whois, but probably defaulting to the receivers.

Does any registrar keep the sender's whois by default?

Same questions for transfers.

I have sold domains where the buyer never changed nameservers, but I would not let them keep whois unchanged. To me a majority of sold domains not updating the whois would seem odd and worth talking about.

 

[Silentptnr]

Maybe they got repossessed.

I've heard of situations where domains are sold on payment plans, then fall apart. Who knows.

 

[Lox]

Almost all the companies (internal project department or independent-external solution provider) buying domain names as a pre-emptive move. Later in the process, that make life easier for decision makers within the company to approve your project or deal. Some of the companies will keep the rest of domain names that may not be needed for the next 5-20 years.

(e.g. iomega.com - Lenovo)

 

[infosec3]

Although it is always good to go through life with a healthy level of skepticism and it is clear that a few very good questions have been raised in this thread, the truth is that domains being parked after purchase (even after years of purchase) is not unusual. Most of the names I have sold for thousands of dollars are not been used.

Ironically, the cheap GEOs I have sold are indeed redirecting to the Website of those who bought them, but the more expensive ones are not.

There is a variety of reasons why someone may buy a domain and park it. Here are a few of them.

Some people have a lot of money and make the wrong investments. Just as many non-rich newbies register names they later discover are worthless, there are rich newbies who discover domaining and start buying expensive names thinking they may be able to sell them for much more. I am not necessarily referring to six figure names, but certainly to names between the four and five figures. And, yes, it may also happen with six-figure names.

There are others that invest in a particular name because they have plans of building a business, but abandon the idea for a variety reasons and are left with the expensive domain they bought.

I do not personally know Mike Mann, but I don't believe he has the need to make up his sales data. First, have in mind that it is an undeniable fact that he owns great names. But, in addition, he owns an enormous domain portfolio. When you combine, skills, good names and portfolio size, sales must happen one way or the other.

 

[comati]

Although it is always good to go through life with a healthy level of skepticism and it is clear that a few very good questions have been raised in this thread, the truth is that domains being parked after purchase (even after years of purchase) is not unusual. Most of the names I have sold for thousands of dollars are not been used.

yeah man, people are weird

domains sold years ago, never used
domains sold years ago, never used, dropped, went to auction sold for more than i got for them
domains sold years ago, never used, dropped, went to auction, got them back
domains sold years ago, never used, dropped, got them back at GD closeout for $5
domains sold years ago, never used, dropped, still available to this day
domains sold years ago, still shows my contact info
domains sold years ago, still shows my contact info, at a registrar i've never used

... and I think everyone gets a better offer on a name he no longer owns, once in a while.
uuh, that hurts like a mofo

 

[toughdomains]

dont think its uncommon at all that buyers dont host, use or even park names. Its one of the things we are trying to change. about 30k names registered each day and if we could just host 10% of them with our instant domain development we would be happy. when i speak to non domainers they dont even realize that their registrar is making money on their parked traffic by default. registering a name is like bringing life to a name. it should be attended to.

 

[carob]

... and I think everyone gets a better offer on a name he no longer owns, once in a while.
uuh, that hurts like a mofo

But also beware there - there is a known scam of buying a cheap domain, then a new buyer approaches the original seller with a big offer - so the original owner buys it back at a huge increase from the original buyer to sell it to the new buyer who promptly disappears.

 

[poweredbyme]

Some domains might have been repurchased by the seller.
Is this a logical possibility? What do you think?

 

[Mike Mann]

The correct answer is all of those are clean sales. Once in a blue moon one is returned for credit card fraud. There are a variety of reasons people dont transfer away quickly as mentioned above.