advice Who is the Greatest Domainer of All Time?

[Whizzbang]

I read an interesting article on The Domains asking the readers who they thought was the greatest domainer of all time. Why was it interesting? Because it didn’t ask the most important question, “By what measure?”

For instance, are we measuring someone’s success by the amount of money they earn or amount of profit? Whether they have built a sustainable business or sold one off high value domains? How about whether they actually give anything back to the industry versus take, take and then take some more? Or, how about how they treat others that may not be as monetarily successful as they are?

Can a person be regarded as “the greatest” if their personal life is a complete mess? They may have even sold a lot of high value domains and yet not have much to show for it after multiple family failures.

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[Peak.Domains]

"Can a person be regarded as “the greatest” if their personal life is a complete mess?"

Well, you're changing the question.

"Can a person be regarded as “the greatest domainer” if their personal life is a complete mess?"

I'd say yes. Best wife? Best parent? Best neighbor? Maybe not. Best domainer? Sure, why not?

 

[Whizzbang]

I was asking the question, "What does greatest mean?" For me, greatness is more about character than the size of a person's wallet.....for others, this may be different.

 

[platey]

Rick Frank mm

But I would say

Frank

 

[Peak.Domains]

I still think you're talking about apples and oranges. Defining "the greatest" is one thing, defining "the greatest domainer" is entirely another.

Let's put it this way.

Let's hypothetically take two imaginary hockey players. These aren't based off real people whatsoever.

The first one has played professionally for their entire adult life, has won the Stanley Cup numerous times, holds every major record, and is widely regarded as the most skilled player to ever step on the ice, and is incredibly unhappy in their personal life.

They never found love, they never started a family even thought they wanted to, they get into arguments at the grocery store with strangers, they're rude to waiters, they speed up when cars next to them try to change lanes, they take up two seats on the bus so senior citizens have to stand, they lie for no reason at all, etc. Just a miserable person in every sense and they regret all of their choices, except when it comes to being the absolute most skilled, most celebrated hockey player to ever live.

The second hockey player is beloved by their friends and family, they do all sorts of charity work, they sleep perfectly every single night, they have raised two beautiful children who are at the top of their classes and very kind to everyone they meet, they take great pleasure from the little things in life, they anonymously donate to important causes, they've traveled the world and helped people every step of the way, they life an incredibly fulfilling life and are thankful for their blessings every day. But they can barely skate, they can barely shoot the puck, they hit the ice on the rink at the end of the street a few times each winter to play with friends.

There's not much of an argument to be made about which one is living a greater life overall, right? I'll give you that. We've defined "greatest" in that sense.

But are you really saying there's an argument here about which one of them is the greatest hockey player?

 

[offthehandle]

"Or how about a person that ran arbitrage traffic on top of their clients domain names and then skimmed off the revenue before passing on the balance?"

Who was that? You can just drop me a hint and I will figure it out.

 

[BionicMan]

Rick Schwartz
Mike Mann
Frank Shilling

In that order imo. But all are legends.

 

[Whizzbang]

I still think you're talking about apples and oranges. Defining "the greatest" is one thing, defining "the greatest domainer" is entirely another.

Let's put it this way.

Let's hypothetically take two imaginary hockey players. These aren't based off real people whatsoever.

The first one has played professionally for their entire adult life, has won the Stanley Cup numerous times, holds every major record, and is widely regarded as the most skilled player to ever step on the ice, and is incredibly unhappy in their personal life.

They never found love, they never started a family even thought they wanted to, they get into arguments at the grocery store with strangers, they're rude to waiters, they speed up when cars next to them try to change lanes, they take up two seats on the bus so senior citizens have to stand, they lie for no reason at all, etc. Just a miserable person in every sense and they regret all of their choices, except when it comes to being the absolute most skilled, most celebrated hockey player to ever live.

The second hockey player is beloved by their friends and family, they do all sorts of charity work, they sleep perfectly every single night, they have raised two beautiful children who are at the top of their classes and very kind to everyone they meet, they take great pleasure from the little things in life, they anonymously donate to important causes, they've traveled the world and helped people every step of the way, they life an incredibly fulfilling life and are thankful for their blessings every day. But they can barely skate, they can barely shoot the puck, they hit the ice on the rink at the end of the street a few times each winter to play with friends.

There's not much of an argument to be made about which one is living a greater life overall, right? I'll give you that. We've defined "greatest" in that sense.

But are you really saying there's an argument here about which one of them is the greatest hockey player?

You raise some interesting points here.....and you are right, I am looking for a definition of greatest.

In Australia, we have a sport called Aussie Rules. Not sure if you've seen it but it's a great game of football that is really fast paced. As a part of the awards each year the highest honour that a player can receive by their clubs is called the "best and fairest" award. This award is given to players that not only excel on the ground but also off the ground. They represent the game in all aspects of their life and this takes into account:
1. Skills and results.
2. Character
To me, the "greatest" is a person that has both of these.

 

[wot]

Yun Yee

 

[Lite]

I was asking the question, "What does greatest mean?" For me, greatness is more about character than the size of a person's wallet.....for others, this may be different.

I think the top guys [Rick, Frank, Mike B] have the character too. They are very accessible in spite of being worth millions of dollars. They even respond to your twitter questions.

 

[Fancy.domains]

Rick is my man!

 

[Ategy]

This is one of those open-ended questions where there is no real answer.

Seriously .. there are so many different opinions on what factors make up a "good domainer" that even if you ask the same words to different people, their perspective on what traits to count at what weight will drastically vary. Meaning essentially that people are each answering a different question without realising it.

I suppose the question you're really asking here is "How do we define how good a domainer a person is"

That being said .. there is one person usually overlooked who theoretically destroys all of the above mentioned combined on pretty much every metric that exists:

Bob Parsons ... (Although I don't think his elephant killing ways would place him very high on your alternate list)

 

[Marka]

Rick, Mike, Frank

 

[Jman92]

i nominate the legendary @Ali

 

[Ategy]

i nominate the legendary @Ali

One could certainly argue that today's domaining environment is significantly more challenging than that of yesteryear (that's the first time I wrote word that in my life .. lol). So one could certainly make an argument for @Ali and @MediaOptions (although MO is theoretically a team to some unknown degree) as they are thriving very high in an environment where few are.

On the other hand you also have @Domain Shane who is really a great role model for most of us as he has slowly grown his portfolio over the years all the while running a real business full time.

Or @Michael Cyger of @DomainSherpa who has helped countless new domainers enter the domain game which some could argue brings liquidy for all of us (although I guess some would argue he just brings more competition .. lol).

Then in a similar light we also have @Eric Lyon and the entire team here at NamePros who help maintain this amazing platform for us to trade and learn on.


But at the end of the day, our favorite domainers should be the ones that buy/sell from/to us at prices that help make us money!

 

[Jman92]

One could certainly argue that today's domaining environment is significantly more challenging than that of yesteryear

exactly what i had in mind.

 

[Whizzbang]

What does surprise me is that as far as I can tell there aren't many or if any non-USA based domain investors being suggested as being great.....I know for instance, there are a LOT of fantastic domain investors in Europe which are excelling at what they do.

 

[dntaps]

What does surprise me is that as far as I can tell there aren't many or if any non-USA based domain investors being suggested as being great.....I know for instance, there are a LOT of fantastic domain investors in Europe which are excelling at what they do.

The ones being mentioned use social media a lot especially twitter, share recent sales quite often, some of the information includes domain names, purchase prices and year acquired, for some of us to learn from. Some of them have shared some valuable information on domainsherpa or blogs in the past. So, they share valuable information for free on a regular basis.

 

[NameOmnia]

definitely @Haris ...

 

[DNGear]

I have these people in my mind. Because i did not know the past.
@hookbox @NameClerk.com @Doron Vermaat @wormfood @Nick V