.mobi Purchased for $200,000 Sold for $6,500

[dande]

Probably some you have seen this information but I haven't seen it till today.

Someone purchased Flowers.mobi for $200,000 and later sold it for $6,500 ???

If this happens to ordinary Domainer, heaven will not forgive the person.

 

[dande]

.mobi was hyped. By the way, it was released golden time of domaining. Everything was selling like hot cake (crappy coms) !

As hyped as it was, I didn't register not even one mobi. It seemed odd to me from day one because mobi sounds awkward. And as a webmaster, I found it hard to accept that splitting my site traffic into two separate domains was a good idea.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Exactly, 2005-6 was the height of the e-bubble. Then the crash in 2008 ruined alot of lives and dreams.

I agree that economic forces in general obviously impact the domain market, and the financial collapse of 2008 was huge.

I wonder whether those active at the time can comment on whether the ..mobi bubble collapse pulled down other TLDs.? That is, did people in general shy away from investing much in domains because they were reading in the popular press of the money lost in .mobi as opposed to reading a few years earlier about the money made in some of the big .com sales?

Bob

ps Came across this article from popular press re the money lost in .mobi that I found interesting (LA Times from 2010) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-09-la-fi-domains-20100609-story.html

 

[SirDrago]

Your right .mobi's release of premium names actually broke sedo, people were lining up, fighting each other to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for generic .mobi. That auction ended very badly, especially for music.mobi, which I believe sold for like $600K or something, as the second highest bidder claimed technical issues with the site.

Now the page doesn't even resolve and mymusic.mobi can be hand regged for 6.99
Sad really. Even today if developed with adsense/affiliate links the right person could still earn with either domain.

 

[SirDrago]

I agree that economic forces in general obviously impact the domain market, and the financial collapse of 2008 was huge.

I wonder whether those active at the time can comment on whether the ..mobi bubble collapse pulled down other TLDs.? That is, did people in general shy away from investing much in domains because they were reading in the popular press of the money lost in .mobi as opposed to reading a few years earlier about the money made in some of the big .com sales?

Bob

ps Came across this article from popular press re the money lost in .mobi that I found interesting (LA Times from 2010) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-jun-09-la-fi-domains-20100609-story.html

All domains extensions were affected, I wasn't in the "flipping" aspect of the game but noticed the bargains to be had. Honestly I grabbed some really great names back then. 4L's for $25/$35 and so on.
Everything was on discount, I purchased a mint 1963 Lincoln continental convertible for $3,200 (suicide doors).

 

[SirDrago]

@Bob Hawkes
May I ask if when you got into the domain name industry? You seem very versed in the topic.

I remember those "Ready made website scripts" were selling at $3,000+ after the crash in 08 they sold for $19.99

 

[Bob Hawkes]

@Bob Hawkes
May I ask if when you got into the domain name industry? You seem very versed in the topic.
I remember those "Ready made website scripts" were selling at $3,000+ after the crash in 08 they sold for $19.99

I was sort of indirectly involved in websites even a few years earlier, but the first domain name I personally owned (and still have!) and managed the website for was in 2001 (Aug 27 to be exact . The first domains I bought for potential resale were a few years after that but I had no clue so they basically sat unsold the ones that I did not develop. I only became active in NPs and things domainer wise a couple of years ago, and had ramped up my domain holdings and activity in general just under 3 years ago.

At the time of .mobi I viewed myself as a developer rather than a domain investor so never considered buying any .mobi. But I do recall reading articles in tech magazines, etc. about how each website would need a .mobi counterpart, and was worried I needed to invest in developing mobile hosting, so I followed the discussion. So I followed the discussion, but as a web developer (an amateur one ) and someone who was in leadership in organizations with web assets.

I have no idea why it stuck in my mind, but I actually remember where I was when I first read of .mobi. I was waiting in a medical waiting room and reading a tech magazine there.

Bob

 

[dande]

I wonder whether those active at the time can comment on whether the ..mobi bubble collapse pulled down other TLDs.? That is, did people in general shy away from investing much in domains because they were reading in the popular press of the money lost in .mobi as opposed to reading a few years earlier about the money made in some of the big .com sales?

No. .mobi did not affect the market in general beyond .mobi itself. The growth of Google and Yahoo on less fancy domains made people realized they could do without spending big dollars on fancy domains.

 

[dande]

I remember those "Ready made website scripts" were selling at $3,000+ after the crash in 08 they sold for $19.99

I remembered an EzineArticles clone script I liked so much but could not use because it was priced $5,000

 

[SirDrago]

I remembered an EzineArticles clone script I liked so much but could not use because it was priced $5,000

I remember paying over $300 for one which I reused over and over on different sites regardless the extension,.mobi included. Running PPC campaigns with approximately 700 private IP's collecting massive income with bots lol
This is before ad blockers and captcha. Those were the days I tell you.

Sadly I wasn't aware of the domain "flipping" aspect of the domain industry. If I was I would've exploited that as well. Like Bob I was focused on development and next day profit. Being in my late teens, early 20's I didn't understand "long term investment" until I purchased my first property.

 

[DomainRecap]

Reminds me of one of NP's best cartoons:

 

[dande]

LOL.... I need this right now. ^^

But mine is in a form of joint venture. Who's with me?

 

[lock]

There have been a few crazy priced .dot mobi domains sold. You can ask silly money and keep referring to previous sales. Many people have lost on speculation but some have influenced others to buying into it. There is a thread on popular forum with domains listed for tens of thousands from large broker now with about 50% of them dropped.

 

[anunt]

yup i am the lucky guy who bought flowers.mobi for $6500 in 2010 from Rick and resold it in 2012 for $5000 to
1800-Flowers.

i wanted to flip it quickly for $20k or atleast $10k thinking 1800-Flowers got deep pockets and would pay up since they owned all the other big Flower domains.
i harassed them for 2 years straight trying to make a profit but those cheap sob would not pay up...so finally sold it to them at a small loss at $5k.

 

[SirDrago]

yup i am the lucky guy who bought flowers.mobi for $6500 in 2010 from Rick and resold it in 2012 for $5000 to
1800-Flowers.

i wanted to flip it quickly for $20k or atleast $10k thinking 1800-Flowers got deep pockets and would pay up since they owned all the other big Flower domains.
i harassed them for 2 years straight trying to make a profit but those cheap sob would not pay up...so finally sold it to them at a small loss at $5k.

Truthfully it could have been much worse, $1,500 hit is nothing.
Can I ask you why didn't you develope it and make recurring cash?

 

[carob]

I wonder whether those active at the time can comment on whether the ..mobi bubble collapse pulled down other TLDs.?

I doubt it. This "industry" keeps drawing in new blood, newbies who jump in, spend like mad, lose money, quit. I'd wager that there is a huge turnover in domain speculators. It's a casino - the house always wins, namely the registrars and now possibly the registries.

Mobi wrote the book on pushing a new extension - reserved premium names, premium auctiions, claiming a unique niche.

Plenty of evidence on NP of people who want to believe passionately in magical new extensions.

 

[carob]

I agree that economic forces in general obviously impact the domain market, and the financial collapse of 2008 was huge.

Mobi was introduced in 2006 requiring a 2 year minimum registration at $60 per year.

There were soon 600k+ registrations, but tons of those dropped at the end of 2008, a kind of premium shower. I was not in at the start, but caught quite a few drops in 2008-2009 that sometimes resold for low four figures - there were still end-users or would-be end-user buyers. It was not till late 2009 that the market really died and nothing sold and later domains previously publicly sold for five figure sums actually dropped.

 

[carob]

I have no idea why it stuck in my mind, but I actually remember where I was when I first read of .mobi. I was waiting in a medical waiting room and reading a tech magazine there.

Possibly that was a warning that mobi would be a sickness.

Mobi was called a "sponsored" TLD and originally Nokia wanted to introduce it on their own but that was rejected, so they roped in others to back it. But WTF was Nokia ever thinking? I mean from a business point of view they argued that making mobile content findable and guaranteed to work on existing phones would lead to increased usage of the mobile web... but how exactly would a phone manufacturer get a business boost from that?

 

[dande]

Plenty of evidence on NP of people who want to believe passionately in magical new extensions.

That's the most annoying of all... believing that these magical new extensions are goldmines. Not learning from .net .web even .org that hasn't made it all these years, despite how well they sounds and fits.

Then, you see these people here who believe that somehow .international .company .network etc will become a hit tomorrow and they will make tones of dollars selling them.

When you look at these people, you then realized why Registrars are in big business. Scan through expiring domains from any registrar you'll faint at seeing thousands of things people actually spend their money on to register.

 

[lock]

That's the most annoying of all... believing that these magical new extensions are goldmines. Not learning from .net .web even .org that hasn't made it all these years, despite how well they sounds and fits.

Then, you see these people here who believe that somehow .international .company .network etc will become a hit tomorrow and they will make tones of dollars selling them.

When you look at these people, you then realized why Registrars are in big business. Scan through expiring domains from any registrar you'll faint at seeing thousands of things people actually spend their money on to register.

End users don't know much either it is generally a keyword that will bring numbers to new extensions and that is what they are being sold. The below may not have bought anything if they knew about domains.
ADVERTISING.mobi SOLD DECEMBER 2007 $12,100 http://dnpric.es/?dn=advertising.mobi
ADVERTISING.TV SOLD APRIL 2010 $10,000 http://dnpric.es/?dn=advertising.tv
ADVERTISING.EU SOLD DECEMBER 2007 €5,699 http://dnpric.es/?advertising.eu
Anything dot mobi won't work as a type in however some gtlds work very well.

 

[Kai W.]

This world will not allow the existence of a fool. So this should not be a joke. I believe there is a possible existence, that is, the seller uses 20W for fraudulent transactions, deducting 20% of the transaction fee, $4,000. Sold $6,500 and earned $2,500. I believe this is the game of the MOBI Registry.

 

[Kai W.]

All domains extensions were affected, I wasn't in the "flipping" aspect of the game but noticed the bargains to be had. Honestly I grabbed some really great names back then. 4L's for $25/$35 and so on.
Everything was on discount, I purchased a mint 1963 Lincoln continental convertible for $3,200 (suicide doors).

really? At that time, 4l.com 35 dollars can be obtained?

 

[Jv1999]

this thread scares me like an omen now that crypto is booming (well only bitcoin and the rest are being towed).

so many ppl bought btc at 20k and lost. Now crypto is booming again, and i feel like there might b a thread in the future with ppl saying how so many "fools" bought crypto and now no one will even buy 1 btc for $1.

 

[FolioTeam]

Wow

 

[frostify]

It's a lesson well learned for all of us I guess.
All we can do is learn from his mistakes and try to apply it to the future.

Sometimes the future is unpredictable though

 

[Zilla]

Don’t see why flowers.mobi would be worth even $6500

yup i am the lucky guy who bought flowers.mobi for $6500 in 2010 from Rick and resold it in 2012 for $5000 to 1800-Flowers.i harassed them for 2 years straight trying to make a profit but those cheap sob would not pay up...so finally sold it to them at a small loss at $5k.

I have to say, u made a good decision to sell to them at 5k back to that time, seriously, I think if this domain put into auction today in NP, I doubt it will fetch $650 at the end..personally, I think I will just avoid any .mobi no matter how cheap it is...