Streak of dead transactions

[polyromcom]

Not sure if this is a trend, but have had 2 DAN transactions and 1 domainagent transaction die on the vine after agreeing to price in the last month. Feels like this is odd. Not sure if it's a streak of bad luck or if hackers are looking for vulnerabilities to take domains? Anyway, thought i would mention it...

 

[Mister Funsky]

Feels like this is odd.

In the last 4 months, I've had more 'buyers' and deals fall through than the last 4 years combined. Maybe the end is near.

ADD: The inquiries came through several different marketplaces. For the reason you describe, I never respond to inquiries with any email address that has anything to do with registration or payment providers. I 'burn' that email address about every 6 months or so out of habit.

 

[NickB]

It has happened a few times to me on DAN - I personally have very few names now pointing to their landers as a result of this issue

 

[polyromcom]

Interestingly on DAN its been the higher priced domains which leads me to believe that people are finding "portfolios" which i don't think are very valuable to end-users / buyers and trying to pick off the most expensive ones. Think they should hide portfolios even while i understand their intent there.

 

[JB Lions]

Not sure if this is a trend, but have had 2 DAN transactions and 1 domainagent transaction die on the vine after agreeing to price in the last month. Feels like this is odd. Not sure if it's a streak of bad luck or if hackers are looking for vulnerabilities to take domains? Anyway, thought i would mention it...

With DomainAgents I think it's just bad luck. People have to pay to make an offer, doesn't work out, you can get paid yourself $10 just for responding to the offer.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

I doubt they would be willing to share the statistics, but I assume that each marketplace knows their own percentage and how it compared to the previous year.

I too have the impression it is getting worse.

Bob

 

[namemarket]

In the last 4 months, I've had more 'buyers' and deals fall through than the last 4 years combined. Maybe the end is near.....

Maybe! I am also real concerned about the market declining a lot. A few years ago I could make a counter-offer and feel confident buyer would respond and increase offer. Now that is rare, almost every counter-offer I have made in past several months has resulted in buyer walking away and then going silent along with some falling thru and non-payment

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Now that is rare, almost every counter-offer I have made in past several months have resulted in buyer walking away and then going silent

That is very interesting, and concerning, if indeed there is, for whatever reason, a softening of demand so that more potential buyers walk away rather than negotiate.

They do have more domain choices, as well as more non-domain choices for those who consider social media sites or Wix etc. on shared domains.

Bob

 

[Samer]

Sounds like you hit into a cold streak...

Which reminds me, I have ColdStreak /s for sale

Samer

 

[NickB]

Makes you wonder how/where/what/who they are they targeting with their ad spending to unearth these non payers.

It can't be all direct type in offers.......

 

[twiki]

Not sure if this is a trend, but have had 2 DAN transactions and 1 domainagent transaction die on the vine after agreeing to price in the last month. Feels like this is odd. Not sure if it's a streak of bad luck or if hackers are looking for vulnerabilities to take domains? Anyway, thought i would mention it...

I'm having a similar situation. Several transactions never completed.

 

[namemarket]

....They do have more domain choices....

That's exactly what it is Bob. As time goes by everyone is doing a better and better job by offering similar names or other extensions. It is tough to be asking say 4-figures for a dot-com when they are told by Godaddy or Dan and so many others they can buy .xyz .biz .nl .site and 100s of others for reg fee or spend only $200 to buy the .dot-net or whatever, which is also listed for sale.

So even though there's a link on their platform to your sale page buyers may not bother with it and go to a low cost option instead. Dan, GD and all the others are mostly desiring to help themselves with a more likely sale by suggesting the options instead of pressing the buyer to look at your listing. They obviously care more about the likelihood of buyer buying a different name, not your domain.

How can we have loyalty or even like a place who prefers to promote other names to the negativity of your domain you have listed for sale with them? I know this is not going to happen but believe to be considered a good partner and trustworthy place to do business they should NOT offer any alternate suggestions to the buyer, especially since your landing page sent the business to them so they make money from your hard work and traffic and you often get nothing in return

 

[twiki]

That's exactly what it is Bob. As time goes by everyone is doing a better and better job by offering similar names or other extensions. It is tough to be asking say 4-figures for a dot-com when they are told by Godaddy or Dan and so many others they can buy .xyz .biz .nl .site and 100s of others for reg fee or spend only $200 to buy the .dot-net or whatever, which is also listed for sale.

So even though there's a link on their platform to your sale page buyers may not bother with it and go to a low cost option instead. Dan, GD and all the others are mostly desiring to help themselves with a more likely sale by suggesting the options instead of pressing the buyer to look at your listing. They obviously care more about the likelihood of buyer buying a different name, not your domain.

How can we have loyalty or even like a place who prefers to promote other names to the negativity of your domain you have listed for sale with them? I know this is not going to happen but believe to be considered a good partner and trustworthy place to do business they should NOT offer any alternate suggestions to the buyer, especially since your landing page sent the business to them so they make money from your hard work and traffic and you often get nothing in return

The market is shifting, and for good reason.

It's like in cars. Ordinary people would buy a Honda, but not everyone would buy a Rolls Royce.

.COMs are the Rolls Royce of domains. They are more expensive, and you can't really lower the price, it's not sane - as the supply is low. It's diamonds, why would you sell them for ruby price.

Such domains will always be in demand, but for the more upscale customers. Everyday people will buy .xyz or whatever because they DO NOT NEED .COM.

But who does NEED .coms?

Well, in most cases companies with enough cash and brand awareness to think globally and go for the best premium domain. Big firms will always aim for .com but they also usually buy out other extensions. Or, at least, someone starting with a budget, thinking that way, and able/willing to pay up.

So there's time for a new strategy, to adapt to these changes. As I'm writing this, I'm also rethinking mine.

Hold on to your best .COMs. Hold on for years if necessary. Since the rate of sales is like 1%, you'll need 100 years to sell'em all (not gonna happen). But make sure you ditch everything else, everything that a brand would not aim for. If the name cannot be turned into a brand, you need to ditch it.

Lighten your portfolio and in this way you can sustain it. Sales will be rare but with a very good margin. Those top of the line domains will sell, eventually. The mid-value-ish ones, too risque.

That's what I see seasoned domainers doing mostly, nowadays. Time to follow suit.

 

[NickB]

The market is shifting, and for good reason.

It's like in cars. Ordinary people would buy a Honda, but not everyone would buy a Rolls Royce.

.coms are the Rolls Royce of domains. They are more expensive, and you can't really lower the price, it's not sane - as the supply is low. It's diamonds, why would you sell them for ruby price.

Such domains will always be in demand, but for the more upscale customers. Everyday people will buy .xyz or whatever because they DO NOT NEED .COM.

But who does NEED .coms?

Well, in most cases companies with enough cash and brand awareness to think globally and go for the best premium domain. Big firms will always aim for .com but they also usually buy out other extensions. Or, at least, someone starting with a budget, thinking that way, and able/willing to pay up.

So there's time for a new strategy, to adapt to these changes. As I'm writing this, I'm also rethinking mine.

Hold on to your best .COMs. Hold on for years if necessary. Since the rate of sales is like 1%, you'll need 100 years to sell'em all (not gonna happen). But make sure you ditch everything else, everything that a brand would not aim for. If the name cannot be turned into a brand, you need to ditch it.

Lighten your portfolio and in this way you can sustain it. Sales will be rare but with a very good margin. Those top of the line domains will sell, eventually. The mid-value-ish ones, too risque.

That's what I see seasoned domainers doing mostly, nowadays. Time to follow suit.

What has this got to do with the high percentage of non payers on DAN?

 

[urlurl]

could be front runners

 

[twiki]

What has this got to do with the high percentage of non payers on DAN?

This is an answer to @namemarket 's comment above, see the comment. Not necessarily tied to Dan, but can be part of an answer.

I don't think the issue is entirely Dan related. I believe it's also a gradual market shift going on, due to the availability of new extensions and steep discounts making strong portfolios of very memorable names available to the market at low prices. People simply locate other names with different tld, before paying up, and they change their mind. I know from experience they will generally not say anything at all when they just changed their mind. Few have the courage to admit it publicly.

Edit: Oh, and yes - momentarily can be anything including bot bids or whatever, but this does not negate what I've said above. I expect we will discover more here on NP as more information will be added by other forum members (big thanks for that). It is a thread to follow as this impacts the bottom line of Dan marketplace users.

(edited for clarity)

 

[twiki]

could be front runners

Got hit by a front runner recently. It stings when you lose the name like that and you know you've been conned and your query data is being siphoned out.

 

[namemarket]

....People simply locate other names with different tld, before paying up, and they change their mind. I know from experience they will generally not say anything at all when they just changed their mind. Few have the courage to admit it publicly.....

I know very few buyers will admit it and they usually go silent. However, recently I had a buyer admit it to me in a platform message giving the name he ended up with. Soon after he offered 4-figures for my .com (which I was slow in accepting after my counter-offer) he tells me it's too late now because he just got the exact same name in a little known and obscure county code ext saying he liked the way it looked and saving money.

Very ironically, buyer is in Europe and the name he got is oddly a South American cc, I am almost positive he noticed it on the DAN web-page as available, or possibly someone there recommended it to him. When I asked about that he never replied again.

 

[Blitzpotz]

Not sure if this is a trend, but have had 2 DAN transactions and 1 domainagent transaction die on the vine after agreeing to price in the last month.

Thanks for opening this thread.

I have listed all my names with DAN now for a few months and had two sales after negotiations to ensure buyer´s real interest. Both buyers didn´t pay though, one sale is still pending but who needs more than a week for payment of 250 USD between two EU countries.
I like Dan for its easy portfolio management and its stats but these two starved sales have been the only offers, too.

For justice reasons: two BIN buyers on SEDO in autumn never paid, I reported this in another thread. At Uniregistry one sale fell through a few weeks ago after I accepted buyer´s first offer (via broker).

I don´t believe that the domain market in general is tanking. Instead I believe that marketplaces are increasing attractive for trolls, liars, angry persons. This could be a mirror of changes in societies regarding lies, fakes, hate, selfishness, jealousy, inequality. Or it´s just, as we say in German: Gelegenheit macht Diebe (opportunity makes the thief).

Never experienced non-paying buyers on Afternic BTW.

 

[namemarket]

.

 

[MapleDots]

.COMs are the Rolls Royce of domains. They are more expensive, and you can't really lower the price, it's not sane - as the supply is low. It's diamonds, why would you sell them for ruby price.

Such domains will always be in demand, but for the more upscale customers. Everyday people will buy .xyz or whatever because they DO NOT NEED .COM.

I'm going to give you an opposing view and say there are tons of absolutely superb .com's left. In fact I would be so bold as to say there are millions upon millions of good domains.

All one has to do is combine a business name with what one does. So basically two to three words with ones personal name and what one does.

https://richardscarcare.com/

I picked the above at random but as you can see that domain was no issue to get. Now if he wanted Richard.com or CarCare.com he would be out a significant sum, but by combining the two he has a great domain and probably saved a ton of money.

So personally I think a lot of the walk away deals are people figuring out that with a little bit of a modification and they can get the domain on the cheap, mainly called a reg fee.

 

[Brands.International]

I'm going to give you an opposing view and say there are tons of absolutely superb .com's left. In fact I would be so bold as to say there are millions upon millions of good domains.

All one has to do is combine a business name with what one does. So basically two to three words with ones personal name and what one does.

https://richardscarcare.com/

I picked the above at random but as you can see that domain was no issue to get. Now if he wanted Richard.com or CarCare.com he would be out a significant sum, but by combining the two he has a great domain and probably saved a ton of money.

So personally I think a lot of the walk away deals are people figuring out that with a little bit of a modification and they can get the domain on the cheap, mainly called a reg fee.

There are actually some people who are selling names like richardcarcare or BostonPlumberServices or LosAngelesBestRoofRepair in .com in $100-$250 range every day - I think numbers can add up nicely when you do lot of such transactions.

Anyway, if you wanna quote something in xx xxx range. it's better be a great domain name with no or very few alternatives available - otherwise your buyer can walk away

 

[twiki]

I'm going to give you an opposing view and say there are tons of absolutely superb .com's left. In fact I would be so bold as to say there are millions upon millions of good domains.

All one has to do is combine a business name with what one does. So basically two to three words with ones personal name and what one does.

https://richardscarcare.com/

I picked the above at random but as you can see that domain was no issue to get. Now if he wanted Richard.com or CarCare.com he would be out a significant sum, but by combining the two he has a great domain and probably saved a ton of money.

So personally I think a lot of the walk away deals are people figuring out that with a little bit of a modification and they can get the domain on the cheap, mainly called a reg fee.

Yep, there is this angle as well, modifications. Millions of possible names competing But I was, indeed, referring to CarCare or FastCars kind of names. There are also brandables, inflexions... you name it.

 

[MapleDots]

There are actually some people who are selling names like richardcarcare or BostonPlumberServices or LosAngelesBestRoofRepair in .com in $100-$250 range every day - I think numbers can add up nicely when you do lot of such transactions.

Anyway, if you wanna quote something in xx xxx range. it's better be a great domain name with no or very few alternatives available - otherwise your buyer can walk away

Yes but chances are my business is not called Boston. So if I am a plumber all I have to do is combine my first or last name with plumbing in .com and I have a domain for a reg fee. If the domain does happen to be gone I can use a combination of first last name with plumbing in .com.

There are tons of reasons people could walk out on a sale, but I bet a portion of them are figuring out an alternate as they the time to think about it.

I see so many 3-4 word .com's on vehicles so it's pretty obvious those folks decided to register on the cheap instead of spending big bucks.

I'll take it one step further and say that...

KingsTireRecycling.com is a far better domain than KingsTires.com because KingsTireRecycling says exactly what the business does and when you put it on the side of a truck it looks great.

Common folks don't think like domainers, we think our domains are the end all of end alls. The truth is with a little creativity we are quite often replaced by a simple reg fee.

 

[twiki]

The truth is with a little creativity we are quite often replaced by a simple reg fee.

That isn't our client.

Our client is someone who needs that domain, is willing and can definitely afford that 1 or 2-word name.

These are different segments. You can't target someone who regs KingsTireRecycling with TireRecycling.com instead. It's a totally different class. But you can quote them 123TyreRecycling .com instead for $129.

Edit: If your premium buyer for that domain exists, it will eventually reach you and won't go for something else. The others you mentioned, are low tier clients that can use about anything else instead. Again it is the difference between want, would buy, and NEED + afford + appreciate the premium domain.