news Verisign Blog Calls Us All "Domain Scalpers"

[Bob Hawkes]

It appears that Verisign are feeling pretty secure now that they have their 6 year agreement with 4x7% price increases on .com and their stock popped up 18% today. In a blog post today Verisign say:

"Flipping domain names or warehousing them to create scarcity adds nothing to the industry and merely allows those engaged in this questionable practice to enrich themselves at the expense of consumers and businesses." - Verisign today​

Andrew has written an excellent column on it here, or you can read their blog post (I wonder if it will get revised?) here.

As Andrew points out:

Verisign has been catering to this market for years. Sponsoring its conferences, promoting domain investing, creating the very tools designed to let domain investors know which domains to register…and now it wants to pretend it has nothing to do with this “questionable practice”. C’mon.
​

This is almost unbelievable and I can't believe it will not anger many. At least for those of us who were trying to decide whether we call ourselves domainers (not a dictionary term),domain investors, domain service agents, domain experts, domain originators, etc. no longer need to worry about that. We are all scalpers according to Verisign.

Seriously, amazingly insensitive of Verisign.

Bob (grrrr... feeling angry )

ps I always try to find the bright side of everything. A good day for ngTLD and country code extensions I guess?

 

[Yusupbabay]

http://www.ricksblog.com/2018/11/the-biggest-threat-to-domain-investors-are-domainers/

 

[Yusupbabay]

https://www.internetcommerce.org/ve...till-unjustified-despite-diversionary-tactic/

 

[sattanclaus]

As much as I hate to admit it, Verisign is technically correct. We are the very definition of the scalpers: buying things we don't need in order to profit by selling them at a (ridiculously) higher price. People hate us for a reason. Of course stating that we add "absolutely nothing to the industry" is going a bit too far, but the value we bring to the industry is grossly disproportional to the profit we earn or at least expect.

 

[namelancer]

buying things we don't need in order to profit by selling them at a (ridiculously) higher price.

What would you call art, antique or collectors of classic cars then who buy these objects as assets for investment purposes?

 

[namelancer]

How is what domainers do is different from the tiered pricing model widely adopted by many registries within the sphere of new extensions where the most valuable of domain name assets either get premium pricing or are reserved by the registry with the intent if being sold to the highest bidder? When it's done on the registry level it's considered an accepted policy that doesn't cause any raised eyebrows!

 

[lock]

Mine are domains used not to their full potential. Domainsused. is such a better term than scalper.