Which domainer started out the earliest ?

[gazzip]

I was just looking at an amazing bunch of country names and TOP quality one worders that are owned by one person.....which got me thinking :blink:

I know Sahar & Frank started out around 2000 but many top names were long gone by then, I'm not sure when Rick Schwartz or Yun Yee started ?

So, Does anyone know who is the "first Domainer" (known to the public) and when did they start ?

Thanks


.

 

[RJ]

The term "domainer" is only a few years old you know. Wikipedia entry says "Domainers are individuals whose profession is the accumulation and dealing of generic internet domain names." Sounds like a fair assessment. I wouldn't consider guys like Gary Kremen that simply got good names early on to be domainers.

The term "cybersquatter" was much more frequently used to describe people who bought mass quantities of domains back then, regardless if they contained trademarks or not. I'm glad to see the domaining business make such strides towards legitimacy since then.

Rick Schwartz is the earliest that I know of who was actually out there publicly talking about buying domain names as investments in the mid 90's. Maybe it's him.

RJ

 

[onewordonly]

interesting stories... I think someone could make a great movie on this goldrush period in the Internet history.

 

[domainer50]

wow that sure is a beautiful portfolio.

:lol: I almost started drooling at the list when I just saw it. I wish I had those names.

 

[Seabass]

The term "domainer" is only a few years old you know. Wikipedia entry says "Domainers are individuals whose profession is the accumulation and dealing of generic internet domain names." Sounds like a fair assessment. I wouldn't consider guys like Gary Kremen that simply got good names early on to be domainers.

The term "cybersquatter" was much more frequently used to describe people who bought mass quantities of domains back then, regardless if they contained trademarks or not. I'm glad to see the domaining business make such strides towards legitimacy since then.

Rick Schwartz is the earliest that I know of who was actually out there publicly talking about buying domain names as investments in the mid 90's. Maybe it's him.

RJ

True the term "domainer" is fairly new (who coined that?), but what we did in 1995 was still "domaining", just different. The label has gravitated from "Cybersquatters" then (mostly extreme jealousy) to "domainers" today (some admiration, some negativity).

And... it was work back then, unlike what some might think, b/c you could not look up mass lists and had to do it all on dial-up, one at a time, on Network Solutions' slow, new system. Also, if you did not do the regs yourself back then there was pretty much a standard $50 per domain "application fee" that you had to pay an ISP, or equivalent type of company, to fill out and submit for you. You also needed someone, or yourself, to run your own DNS servers or you could not complete an application.

So, without your own servers for your own DNS entries, you were looking at $150 per domain expense, just to get started. $100 for two years reg. and $50 application fee, payable to your ISP, or whoever could get you those DNS entries needed to make a domain purchase.

So, you can see that it was "Domaining" except that what we do today is entirely different. Just like a good domainer has to be versatile today, you had to be then as well to make the pieces fit together.

I fail to see your point of characterization of the two types of buyers (old school/new school), whether mass quantities were bought back then or today - it's all the same. There was no domain tasting in 95 either, remember. We paved the way for new guys and gals b/c we became a recognized force that snowballed into what exists today, with more entrants coming on daily.

In terms of Rick, I know of folks that can show earlier regs dates on their domains, that is, if he started in Dec. 1995 as I am thinking. I believe I read that, but don't crush me Rick if I'm wrong!

I actually know of a guy, that runs some sites today, that says he regged many domains in 1990 but gave up in 1992 when he came to the conclusion that the Internet would never take off. I have not been able to ever confirm his story though.

 

[RJ]

Seabass, I'm really enjoying your posts. :tu:

True the term "domainer" is fairly new (who coined that?), but what we did in 1995 was still "domaining", just different. The label has gravitated from "Cybersquatters" then (mostly extreme jealousy) to "domainers" today (some admiration, some negativity).
...
I fail to see your point of characterization of the two types of buyers (old school/new school), whether mass quantities were bought back then or today - it's all the same. There was no domain tasting in 95 either, remember. We paved the way for new guys and gals b/c we became a recognized force that snowballed into what exists today, with more entrants coming on daily.

My previous post didn't convey my thoughts very well. There are two different kinds of domain buyers. Some people buy a domain as a tool, others buy a domain as an investment. Being a domain owner doesn't automatically make you a domainer.

Proctor and Gamble owned a ton of valuable generic domains in 1995. Great ones like HEADACHE.COM, PUNCH.COM, SENSUAL.COM. Would you consider them domainers?

I didn't start understanding the potential of domains until 1996, and didn't start "domaining" until 1997 so I can't definitively answer the question of who the first domainer was from my own experience. I was a web designer before being a domainer, so I do remember what the perception of investing in domains was back then. Anyone of us could have purchased great domains like TV.com on the aftermarket for $5k. How come we didn't? Very few people realized how big this sleeping giant was. We were blown away when business.com sold for $150k! It was unreal.

In terms of Rick, I know of folks that can show earlier regs dates on their domains, that is, if he started in Dec. 1995 as I am thinking. I believe I read that, but don't crush me Rick if I'm wrong!

I actually know of a guy, that runs some sites today, that says he regged many domains in 1990 but gave up in 1992 when he came to the conclusion that the Internet would never take off. I have not been able to ever confirm his story though.

Rick was the first guy I remember seeing publicly buying domains at a premium and evangelizing what I would consider to be real domaining. I don't know who proceeded him. Hopefully we can dig together and find out.

RJ

 

[doggyowner]

Wow what a thread, one of the most interesting reads Ive had on NP in a long time..

Sahar Sarid mentions this thread on his blog and shares what he knows/thinks, read it here: http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/19/which-domainer-started-out-the-earliest/

Cheers
:santa:

 

[Seabass]

Rick was the first guy I remember seeing publicly buying domains at a premium and evangelizing what I would consider to be real domaining. I don't know who proceeded him. Hopefully we can dig together and find out.

RJ

I guess he really was the first domainer in the truest sense of the word, meaning being out there as you say, unafraid, saying, "This is what I do", and then proving it by purchases.

If you read the Gary Kremen story on DNJournal.com he stated that he totally saw he future laid out for him back in 1994. He regged Sex.com and several others that were mindblowing.

So maybe we can say, Rick Schwartz was the first public domainer and Gary Kremmen was the first private domainer, until someone comes along and tells us we are wrong.

Wow what a thread, one of the most interesting reads Ive had on NP in a long time..

Sahar Sarid mentions this thread on his blog and shares what he knows/thinks, read it here: http://www.conceptualist.com/2007/12/19/which-domainer-started-out-the-earliest/

Cheers
:santa:

Wow, maybe it is Chris Harnett then. It would be nice if Sahar knew of a handful of the domains used by this guy.

The story about this guy sure does not sound as fun as the Gary Kremmen, Rick Schwartz, Frank Schilling, or Leland Hardy type stories.

 

[gazzip]

Wow, maybe it is Chris Harnett then. It would be nice if Sahar knew of a handful of the domains used by this guy.
.

What a Fantastic post that was on Sahar's Blog, I just found this about him on http://www.reinvent.com/about_directors.html

"According to ICANN ( Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ) , Dr. Hartnett was the largest private owner of Internet Domain Names (URL's) in the world in 1994.

His collection currently contains over 3500 "Global" domains and 28,000 other premium domain names, most of which were acquired in 1992-1996, long before most were aware of the internet and its vast potential. Dr. Hartnett also serves as Chairman of Tedhens Limited, ( www.Tedhens.com ), the oldest and largest provider of International domain names on the internet serving the international insurance, e-commerce, exchange, banking, organic and jewelry industries with world class, one-of-a-kind domain names".

Wow, - early bird or what !

great quote on his website:

"Hesitation, when one is confronted with a great business idea, is without a doubt, the single largest obstacle to wealth. It is only through dynamic action and financial risk that great fortunes are amassed and multiplied"

J.P.Morgan 1902



The Castello Brothers is also a great story too from early on

“Over the next few weeks I started using Telnet to do WhoIs checks. Just about every domain name was available. At the time all I needed was Powwow.com but as the months rolled by I noticed that many of the names I originally checked on were being registered by others. It dawned on me that I was missing out on something huge!” Michael said.

“This was now early 1995 and I quickly sent out registration requests for PalmSprings.com, Whisky.com and several others. To my surprise I was the first to register these names...

according to whois.sc (Domaintools.com) PalmSprings.com was first Created in : 1995-04-19, although it also shows it was dropped once surely not !

The Castillo Brothers story for those that have not read it > http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2006/december.htm

http://www.ccin.com/local.html



.

 

[Seabass]

according to whois.sc (Domaintools.com) PalmSprings.com was first Created in : 1995-04-19, although it also shows it was dropped once surely not !

The Castillo Brothers story for those that have not read it > http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2006/december.htm

http://www.ccin.com/local.html

.

He may have let it drop and then reregged it immediately. There was a lot of that going on when folks did not have the money, but then later came back to reclaim a domain they had found money for.

Back in 95', and maybe up to 98', Network Solutions had a number next to the domain indicating how many times it had been dropped and reregistered.

It would read something like xxxxx.com - 6 . The number six being the number of times it had been registered. If I am correct, there was a period where you could reg a domain and they would wait for payment and many folks did not make the payment but the reg. number still stuck and advanced one more number. Sometimes it would go up to 15 regs. or more and therefore you could see the level of excitement behind a domain.

The numbers ran high on many domains b/c everyone wanted the domains but most people did not have the money to maintain all the domains they wanted.

I think I remember Tobacco,com circulating around like that, up to 12 times or something similar.

 

[PowerUp]

interesting stories... I think someone could make a great movie on this goldrush period in the Internet history.

Which producer will want to fund a movie with no baddies and no guns?