discuss Why Do So Many Sold Names Not Resolve to Buyer Long After Sale?

[namemarket]

Have you ever noticed how sold names often take a very long time to resolve or be used by the buyer? I have seen some which allegedly sold for as much as well into 6-figures but still not working after 2 or 3 years!

So today as an experiment RANDOMLY selected 20 names listed as sold on the latest dnjournal.com report and typed-in the URLs. Out of 20 domains I was surprised to see 19 did not resolve to the buyer, with most still going to its old parked page, or to its past for sale page, or a browser error page.

How is that possible? These 20 names sold for 4, 5 or 6 figures but the buyers are in no hurry at all to get the domain resolving by forwarding to their other website, to a coming-soon page, or whatever. Making it more odd to me is when buying/reg'ing myself I get it working right away, usually on day-1.

 

[xynames]

Gotta get that website juust right! before launch.

 

[Domain Crazy]

Maybe they are not end users

 

[xynames]

If not end user definitely would not leave all the old dns as is would want to resolve the domain as For Sale.

 

[Ostrados]

If you go to top sales of all time in multi million dollars you will find many are still not used, for example dudu.com was sold for $1 million at Sedo but it does not resolve.

Apart from abandoned projects and unfinished websites, maybe some of reported top sales were never actually completed.

 

[iAdam]

Another possibility is Money Laundering through domain names

 

[Bob Hawkes]

Thanks for the analysis @namemarket and I am not surprised. In this case, perhaps, it is not that surprising since they were recently acquired. But even if you repeat with long sold names, a surprisingly high percentage seem totally unused.

In some cases there are good reasons such as...

1. They were purchased for some future aspect of the business which is still under development.
2. They were purchased for a specific use in the future (e.g. what seems to be a phrase might be for a forthcoming movie or book or advertising campaign, well in the works, but not release ready).
3. The purchaser is undergoing financial problems and unable to proceed.
4. They were purchased for defensive reasons, and the plan was never to use them.
5. They were purchased as an early stage of a major naming just to keep the options open.
6. The plan was that they would be used as a digital asset investment, and monetized or resold in future.

There are of course other reasons, such as a means of effectively transferring cash and digital assets between two companies that are not truly independent in terms of ownership.

Whatever the reason, I think it extends across TLDs and across price levels. It is worrying to me, because if domains really are so valuable, why do so many go unused for so long?

Thanks for your research.

Bob

 

[koolishman]

Seller agrees to hold the domain till buyer requests transfer. Like any other business deal, this is a possibility.

 

[namemarket]

If you go to top sales of all time in multi million dollars you will find many are still not used, for example dudu.com was sold for $1 million at Sedo but it does not resolve. Apart from abandoned projects and unfinished websites, maybe some of reported top sales were never actually completed.

There's a big widely reported and talked about mid 6 figure crypto name sale from 2 or 3 years ago allegedly sold by Mike Mann which still goes to the sellers page, last time I checked. Very strange to say the least. P.S. I highlighted the above, not OP.

Even if a non-complete website is it, why not at an absolute minimum send it to a coming soon page, another site buyer runs, etc?

 

[bobo4us]

Some seen the future and bought them earlier. Next 10 years, they may flip it or use it. Its not every domain at high price must be developed.

 

[bobo4us]

Seller agrees to hold the domain till buyer requests transfer. Like any other business deal, this is a possibility.

Is there any paper work that will be used? If not, can't the seller do fraud on that?

 

[koolishman]

Is there any paper work that will be used? If not, can't the seller do fraud on that?

This has to be between owners who know each other, ideally. Chance of fraud is high otherwise.

A lot of business is done on trust without a contract.