Here is what happened:
My friend and I had been talking about a press release that Network Solutions put out that said "First come, first serve" on domain names. All domains were still free at this point in early Aug. 1995. Two days after the conversation, where we had been just blown away by the opportunity staring us in the face, I quit work in the middle of the day b/c I got too excited about thinking about what I could do with the domain "Lawyer,com" and I went home and called my friend on the phone and ran over to his house b/c I did not own a computer. So I used his computer to compile lists. I got some of my first domains free, but they soon changed it. I began to see others grabbing the PRIMO domains and I got even more excited. I had a lot of room on my credit cards and I put together a list of about 300 domains I wanted and ran up $30,000 on my cards. I continued to purchase domains in 1996 and never stopped. But, I must say it took all I had to keep those domains b/c it was $100 a domain for a two year registration. After awhile part of the registration fee was ruled illegal by a judge and Network Solutions had to drop their fee to $70 for a two year registration. That saved my ass and I was able to hold on until I could cut deals for "redirects", affiliate programs, and I also developed out some sites too. I am glad to say I have held onto all but three or four domains to this day. My friend owns some of the biggest domains out there ; I went a little different direction, I own sets of domains in categories that form "niche domain collections". So, you could say, for example I might have grabbed all domains relating to "Mountain Climbing" (just an example). But I still own some biggies too.
You were there!!! I can tell.
True, there was no indication that .COM would be king, but there were ONLY three extensions to chose from and .org is was non-profit and still is regarded as such today, .Net was for ISP's, web developers, etc... so all the guys doing the serious regs back then were concentrating on .com b/c that is where we saw the business going.
Yes, I do remember struggling for about three weeks and also others struggling with whether to buy plural or singular. Folks.... you got to remember it was a HUGE decision b/c at $100 a domain, if you made the wrong decision it was forever. Buying the singular and plural back then set your wallet on fire it was so expensive for domains that made NO, NO money, no silly pennies from parking, NOTHING. You had to make deals happen.
Most of the "category Killer" domains were gone before 1996 rolled around.
