Walmart Acquires TechBetter.com from Michael Krell

[Arpit131]

Michael Krell is the most prolific seller on BrandBucket, month in and month out Michael racks up at least a dozen sales.

One name that was reported sold in May was TechBetter.com, the name apparently sold for $2,395 according to DNBolt.com. The whois has updated and the buyer is WalMart.

The fixed pricing of BrandBucket may have saved WalMart some money and cost Michael some. It stands to reason they had a bigger budget than $2,395. Now you can’t get caught up in the hype of some that think a Fortune 500 will pay six figures because they can afford to do that.


Source

So, the learning is, you should know who you are dealing with.
Of course you can't do that when putting a Buy Now price on your names on marketplaces, and also on brandables when putting them on sites like brandable marketplaces, but the buyer research can be done in other cases, which helps you determine the final price for the domain.

 

[Haroon Basha]

I think with such petty news, we are unnecessarily giving publicity to Brandbucket, as if Brandbucket is the leader in the market. There is too much facts is hidden here with Brandbucket. Innocent domainers are cheated. Only its owners are benefiting by selling their own domain names. I have been with them for the last several months with 20 domain names, but so far not even an inquiry came. And the same story is with most of us too. By talking about Brandbucket we are indirectly promoting the domain names of the promoters/owners of Branndbucket. A thorough investigation on the sale of domain names will reveal the truth. Michael Krell, is the Managing Director of Brandbucket and he is the only one who sold most of the domain names belonging to HIMSELF.

 

[Billy Wagner]

Domaining is more or less gambling. You gamble to put a fixed price on your domain, you gamble to put your domain up for auction with no reserve, you gamble to renew domains, ect ect. So the seller gambled that someone would buy the domain at a fixed price. Had he known it would have been a major company like WalMart purchasing it, the price would have been higher, or the domain would have been at auction with a high reserve. Either way, I'm assuming he made a pretty decent profit, so worrying about what "could have happened" is a waste of time.

 

[equity78]

There are people selling brandables at plenty of places besides BB, BR and Namerific. Just ask @Doron Vermaat @hookbox and @AbdulBasit.com recently BrightEnergy.com sold for $28,000 on Sedo, TechTemple.com for $16,000.

The brandable boutiques are all good places but far from the only game in town. The less experience you have in domaining the stronger the sentiment about the Brandable Boutiques. I believe @michaeljkrell would be successful wherever he sold names.

 

[cdboard]

.....TechBetter.com, .........The whois has updated and the buyer is WalMart.

that sound you hear is NP'ers rushing to check their accounts for "tech" and "better" domains.

 

[enlytend]

Just because a company HAS a lot of money doesn't mean its budgeted for a domain purchase. Or that they didn't have a list of alternatives if the sale didn't work out.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

I've said it before and i'll say it again: the fast majority of domain name sales happen via direct navigation. So if you have great domain name portfolio you will be successful at BrandBucket or anywhere else where you point/park your domains for that matter

If you're successful at BrandBucket it says more about your skills to pick up great domains than it says anything about the marketplace.

If I start pointing all my domains to Sedo today I will start getting more sales at Sedo, If I park them all at Afternic tomorrow i'll suddenly start selling domains at Afternic.

Great domains is what sells domains. If you have the time and skills to self broker your domains you really should use a For-Sale landing page service and stop paying commissions.

 

[Brandables]

equity78 I completely agree with you. but do you find @DoronVermaat @hookbox and @AbdulBasit.com cribbing about brandable marketplaces. They simply work hard selling names and earn money. I am talking about the ones cribbing all over namepros that BB BR is not giving them sales. They need to know that just buying domains and submitting to BB is like a lottery ticket if you get a sale be happy. If you dont get one dont start the blame game. Work hard and try selling them yourself.

 

[Olayinka Oladele]

He made profit. The End.

 

[DomainVP]

The fixed pricing of BrandBucket may have saved WalMart some money and cost Michael some.

Michael Krell is also a good buyer!

Joseph Peterson said it best; "this guy gets a salary, disproportionate listing privileges, and a big marketing budget supplied by other domainers!"

 

[bashariqbal]

We are giving more exposure to Brandbucket than it deserves as if it is the only place where we can sell brandable names. NO. Certainly not, a common man, cannot easily sell his name through Brandbucket, however good his/her name is. Moreover, they are very very secretive, they are not transparent. May be they fear that if they release the real numbers, they will not be getting the same kind of free publicity. Brandbucket is a product of hype, and so many innocent people like me, fall for the hype, just to keep our domain names in dead stock.

I think its Domaining which is a hype. Success is elusive to most of the people in this industry. We mainly hear about the people who are successful and not about the failed ones. So when newcomers sees about these sales they thought replicating this is easy-peasy and failed to see the underlying effort, understanding and the head start have most of these already successful domainers have. A newcomer should understand that replicating what others have done before them needs a lot better effort, understanding and luck. Of course there are and there will be the lucky ones who will succeed in a short time but for most of us have to traverse a long and laborious path with diligence to able have some sort of success in this industry. So not just read but also understand before you start investing heavily.

 

[Brandables]

I feel fixed price marketplaces attract more customers and requires less investment which in turn results in more profit. Imagine yourself walking into a supermarket and having a "make an offer" tag on everything. within 15 minutes you'll be mad negotiating on each and every product and leave the place. It just makes sense to have a fixed price so that customer can search within his budget, evaluate his options, and make a decision with minimal negotiation.

And lets just face it. Brandable names are like SHIT sold at Biogas prices. There are millions of options available and the customer is actually paying just for saving his time of racking his brains and looking for name that is available. For which I feel 2k's to 5K's is a justified price from a customers point of view. and more than happy price from a domainer's point of view.

And those cursing BB BB and other marketplaces should very well know that they wont be able to sell their brandables at even a $100 without these marketplaces.

 

[Haroon Basha]

It is plain n simple why MK has most number sales at BB bcz he has the biggest portfolio there with high quality names. You can not compare his 5000+ portfolio of quality domains to yours of 20.

Even if an outsider has more than 5000 names and of similar quality like MK's, he will not be getting the same sales results like that of MK. This is purely, unfair business practice. Do not try to argue without knowing the facts. Here are some burning questions from the those people who have listed the domain names in Brandbucket:
(1) He’s paid by BrandBucket, since he’s the Managing Director;

(2) He gets his own inventory listed on BrandBucket without the same hurdles faced by customers (i.e. submission, rejection, and listing fees);

(3) He owns a very large share of domains listed at BrandBucket;

(4) He contributes commissions and listing fees that are (in percentage terms) lower than the percentage of BrandBucket domains he owns. That means his inventory benefits from BrandBucket marketing to a disproportionate extent;

(5) He’s ultimately in charge of BrandBucket marketing campaigns, which spend money provided by other domainers;

(6) He is more likely to interact with BrandBucket buyer customers personally than BrandBucket sellers (who don’t get emails and phone calls);

(7) He will naturally think of his own names first because he remembers them, which naturally causes him to recommend his own names to buyers who approach him via BrandBucket.

(8) Michael Krell would be able to influence BrandBucket’s algorithm in subtle ways to bias it toward his own domains if he chose to do so.

(9) Michael Krell gets a salary, disproportionate listing privileges, and a big marketing budget supplied by other domainers!

 

[Silentptnr]

that sound you hear is NP'ers rushing to check their accounts for "tech" and "better" domains.

I regged DomainBetter(dot)com some time last year.

 

[Doron Vermaat]

As for Michael Krell - the guy is just really good at picking up great domains which is why he's making sales. People tend to forget he has almost 5500 domains listed on BB so if he didn't had a dozen or so sales a month that would be worrisome.

 

[frank-germany]

I think with such petty news, we are unnecessarily giving publicity to Brandbucket, as if Brandbucket is the leader in the market. There is too much facts is hidden here with Brandbucket. Innocent domainers are cheated. Only its owners are benefiting by selling their own domain names. I have been with them for the last several months with 20 domain names, but so far not even an inquiry came. And the same story is with most of us too. By talking about Brandbucket we are indirectly promoting the domain names of the promoters/owners of Branndbucket. A thorough investigation on the sale of domain names will reveal the truth. Michael Krell, is the Managing Director of Brandbucket and he is the only one who sold most of the domain names belonging to HIMSELF.

just because you didn't have success with BB
I see no reason to hate them


a few month ago after beeing with BB for more then 1 year
and no sales I was tired of waiting and desided to take one of my names
and sell it here for $xxx USD - floor price at the time.

but I forgot to do so

that same name sold only a few weeks later
for $x.xxx USD at BB

and 2 aditionally sales after that

domaing is about patience
and following your own instincts

and yes you will leave money on the table
once in a while

 

[DomainVP]

The main advantage MK has over us is that he knows which names sell.

That's total horse s***.

The only reason his names sell is because he owns good names.

Also a manure statement.

If MK owned ordinary names he would not be selling any names. As the saying goes..."you can't polish a turd".

Extremely untrue... the whole BB marketplace is an exercise in polishing turds.

If you want to swing from both Krells, that's your prerogative, but let's not confuse your love affair with facts.

 

[mad409]

Personally I think it's an ugly domain, BB was lucky to even sell the thing. Hey WalMart I've got some ugly ones too, let me know if you need more redirects...

 

[Haroon Basha]

We want regular sales data from Brandbucket, at least on monthly basis.

 

[bashariqbal]

If you go to weekly sales chart at DNJournal or go through the sales of brandable marketplaces you would see many names what most of us think are crappy or do not worth that much money but still they were sold for a decent sum. So it depends on what is available in the market, how much time and money they have for choosing a name (because they do not want to waste weeks or months on negotiations so they see BINs as a good option), accessibility and efficiency of the aftermarkets in finding what they are looking for and the most it depends on what is the buyer is seeing in that name as beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.

I think its one of the good names with the word "tech" in them, worth at least low to mid xxx$ in the reseller market considering scarcity of good names (with 'tech' in them), wide range of prospective buyers in various industries/businesses and mammoth size of this market in terms of both money and size.

It is good for like "equipping or arming you with a better tech(nology)". At the end of the day it is a way better name than Walmart if you see Walmart just as a brandable name and not as a MNC .

 

[DNScholar]

As of now the domain forwarded to http://careers.walmart.com/

 

[wwwweb]

I think the title is misleading, their monitor company just used the checkout of where the domain was pointing.

 

[Justin Matmor]

I think with such petty news, we are unnecessarily giving publicity to Brandbucket, as if Brandbucket is the leader in the market.

If BB was not the leader there wouldn't be so much obsession with BB on NP's.

 

[domeen]

If I start pointing all my domains to Sedo today I will start getting more sales at Sedo, If I park them all at Afternic tomorrow i'll suddenly start selling domains at Afternic.
.

Thats not 100% correct. I have parked domains at sedo, and listed at afternic also at buy now price, and this year I have made more sales via afternic - where the domains are not parked actually.
they have integration to godaddy, thats probably it.
The money is where the end-users are.

 

[Justin Matmor]

Even if an outsider has more than 5000 names and of similar quality like MK's, he will not be getting the same sales results like that of MK. This is pure, unfair business practice. Do not try to argue without knowing the facts. Here are some burning questions from the those people have listed the domain names in Brandbucket:
(1) He’s paid by BrandBucket, since he’s the Managing Director;

(2) He gets his own inventory listed on BrandBucket without the same hurdles faced by customers (i.e. submission, rejection, and listing fees);

(3) He owns a very large share of domains listed at BrandBucket;

(4) He contributes commissions and listing fees that are (in percentage terms) lower than the percentage of BrandBucket domains he owns. That means his inventory benefits from BrandBucket marketing to a disproportionate extent;

(5) He’s ultimately in charge of BrandBucket marketing campaigns, which spend money provided by other domainers;

(6) He is more likely to interact with BrandBucket buyer customers personally than BrandBucket sellers (who don’t get emails and phone calls);

(7) He will naturally think of his own names first because he remembers them, which naturally causes him to recommend his own names to buyers who approach him via BrandBucket.
(8) Michael Krell would be able to influence BrandBucket’s algorithm in subtle ways to bias it toward his own domains if he chose to do so.
(9) Michael Krell gets a salary, disproportionate listing privileges, and a big marketing budget supplied by other domainers!

Your comments are baseless. The main advantage MK has over us is that he knows which names sell. So in effect he owns names that have potential to sell. Given his transparancy we can copy his strategy.

The only reason his names sell is because he owns good names. Period. He also owns 5000 hence his chances are greater than our chances.

If MK owned ordinary names he would not be selling any names. As the saying goes..."you can't polish a turd".

Maybe non sellers should review their turds???