Likely TLDR but if you are beginning your domain investing journey this is a worthwhile read.
Not my highest but one that still annoys me...
Acquired W e-d-e-l-ver --- wine .king (correct the spelling) here on NP for 12 bucks. I was still in my very early days and I didn't yet appreciate how difficult it was to garner offers this high on a domain of that quality on outbound, never mind general interest.
Offered 1500, I countered to 2k and blew the deal, all follow ups at agreed price and even lower pricing failed.
I ended up selling it here on NP for a tiny ROI and I see it's still listed for sale.
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I had two other domains which received 5 figure offers that I turned down and I knew end user sales were inevitable. There's some names where you just know the right buyer will eventually come knocking.
It was as though the Universe conspired to force my hand to liquidate. Right before Christmas medical related bills started racking up along with a huge PP chargeback and a 200 domains to renew, I was forced to liquidate on the reseller market.
I made a great ROI for the reseller market (approx 1000%), however both resellers ended up making end user sales less than a year later.
However, you can't focus on the negatives, you have to learn from these experiences and appreciate the silver lining.
The silver lining for me was that 1 year in to my domain investing career I managed to identify and acquire quite cheaply two domains that were worth 6 figures combined and that tells me that my instincts were right and that my skill at identifying commercially valuable domains was drastically improving. (Thanks to Namepros!).
I sold them here via NP via the wanted section. I pmed 15 resellers on wanted threads and only three responded to my PM. Amazing as the value was glaringly obvious imo. This also taught me that valuations and opinions from other domain investors (unless value is liquid) are to be taken with a pinch of salt.
If you do your homework and you identify the value to a market and you can foresee a domain being branded out. i.e by who and how it can be used, trust your instinct and ignore the noise. However, don't be delusional and be open to criticism. If your research is sound and your instinct is right, you will have no issue countering any criticism with sound logic. If you can't then maybe your domain does suck.
I don't post valuations any more and I don't offer my opinion unless I know the niche/market the domain is in, otherwise a valuation is worthless. Sure you can go through comparable kw sales, but the fallacy here is that you assume that all those sellers had in depth knowledge of said market and that all those comparable sales were in the same niche/market.
Three names i asked for valuations on here were deemed reg fee yet all three sold to end users in a very short space of time.
Finally, this taught me the value of focusing on niches and markets that you know inside out, this will give you a massive edge over other domain investors who use the scatter gun approach. Great names in the niche I now focus immediately stand out and when the value isn't obvious to general investors I can often acquire them on the drop uncontested. Lastly, it's important that what you focus on is a cash rich market.
Please don't mistake this post as "I've reached the mountain top". Far bloody from it! I've got so much more to learn.