reviews Your biggest FLOPS - Let's talk the other side too.

[vickyhunter]

There are two sides of a coin. It's amazing to discuss the FLIPS, but there will also be a few FLOPS in our lifetime. This thread is not to discourage - far from it - but to be aware of what kind of domains did not do well over the period of time - and what not to do when selling them - and so on. There is a lesson to be learnt from everything, even from the flops.

So, go ahead. Share your biggest FLOP over the time and add a small comment why that happened and share your advice with the fellow domainers.

Cheers !
- Vicky

 

[James Rodman]

So, basically, it's not a flop.

lol no. my point is flops will happen . you can't become rich without taking risks unless you win the lottery which you paid $5 for the winning ticket lol.

 

[GoWeb]

My biggest flop was buying B.bike domain at $650 with $250 annual renewal.
Bought it thinking it's a single letter name and would fetch around $1500 at least. Big mistake.
Realized it was a loser, I let it go @ $115 few days before expiry. Was happy, I could recoup at least $115.
Ah, the new gTLDs !!

 

[vickyhunter]

Hmmm... We hope to hear from more people here. As I said we learn from our mistakes

 

[chloe321]

bought a domains for $40 bcos of the fake traffic the seller presented to me here @ namepros. To bad not even a visitor. Lost my hard earn cash

I hope you reported to the mods about this? We don't need people like that here!

 

[humbug1s1k]

Never had huge losses, more having to let domains drop which havent sold due to financial constraints at the time of renewal......I've let a domain drop before and then seen it sell for high xxx months later, also let my own name drop and lost it to another guy when I went back to reg it a few months later....

 

[garptrader]

Every day one can see a huge list of flops by reviewing the expiring domains lists - thousands of domains which someone once thought were valuable which eventually they realized were not so valuable.

 

[SirDrago]

The feeling of buying a "premium" domain name then realising that it's not a "L"etter O but a "N"umber zero in the name.
Needless to say I should've showed more patience instead my greed for a quick great deal got me burnt.

 

[GoWeb]

@SirDrago Was it you who bought 0il.com ??

 

[SirDrago]

@SirDrago Was it you who bought 0il.com ??

Haha, I struck mud instead!
But no, that wasn't me.

 

[DavidH]

My biggest flop was missing the renewal date for a NNNN.com

 

[Domainace]

My biggest flop was missing the renewal date for a NNNN.com

Ouch.

I have sold names for considerably less than they buyer might have paid. We all do, though. As long as the ROI is there, better not to dwell on such things.

For a flop with a moral, I bought a domain pertaining to ereaders for about $20 in an auction, just before ereaders took off. I made great money in an affiliate program for a few months, and turned down at least 2 mid-xxxx offers for the name. (I figured I could make that in a few months from the affiliate sales.)

Then Christmas ended, my name got axed by Google, then eventually by Bing and Yahoo. Meanwhile, tablets came along and ereaders suddenly seemed like yesterday's news. Now, I might be lucky to get a hundred bucks for the name. But I just can't bear to sell it now.

The morals?

1- When buying tech names (or any name that rides a trend), sell while they are hot - before the peak. If you miss the peak or a better technology comes along, value drops overnight.

2- If your income is based on being on Google's first page, sell it fast, while you are still there. One algorithm change at Google and your flow of cash will become a drip of pennies. Don't assume that income will continue.

Luckily, the margins are so high in domains that one flip can cover a lot of flops.

 

[alexdon82]

I sold one nnnnn.com on namepros for $30 but forgot to remove it from 4.cn.
One month later got 15 000 RMB(~$2500) offer there, but name was not mine anymore...

 

[JyotiG]

I registered a .com and got an offer on that after 2 weeks for $150. I didn't sell it then thinking that it would sell for more and listed it on Flippa with No Reserve. I only got one bid on it and had to sell it for $1! Yes only $1. This was my biggest flop and I still curse myself sometime for not taking that offer.

 

[Kate]

Not sure if it qualifies as a flop, but I sold one LLL.com for 14K, then while the sale was pending I got a 20K offer, then another 20K offer came though later. Should have been more patient

I also missed an opportunity to secure a nice 1992 domain for 10K.
In fact these are the flops: all those missed opportunities in the early days.
More flops: domains that I let drop a decade ago, because I didn't realize the value of the domains back then.
The good news: I have since recovered almost all of them

 

[KDN]

[Biggest flop so far]

I regged 800800800800.com hoping for a Chinese end user to contact me after 10 minutes and offer $100,000. What was I thinking?

 

[NameFit]

I think we have to look at our successes and failures at another angle as well - are you profitable over the years. I believe in few things
- invest in only quality names, do your research
- do not expect to sell immediately or 'undersell'
- make your mind that you are ready to sell only when you get the right price
- stay away from trademarks, or 'hot' names (they are going to fizzle in few weeks if not earlier)
- it takes considerable time, may be decade, for someone to have the same thought as yours and come to you for buying
- do not let them drop (that is just lame)
- and lastly, have faith in your names!

 

[Sukhvir-Singh]

I am lucky that I have no FLOPs so far in 2 years.
some domains I am not able to renew makes some loss of $2-$10 roughly no major FLOP!!

E.g.

Few months back, I purchased 52 LLL.biz (in $6) which were nearly expiring within 1-2 months. I sold 40 of them in $565 and rest 12 got expired and I dont renew them and let them expired.

So this kind of flops sometime happened with me.

I invest very calmly and always with low investment though returns are always profitable and some are more profitable.

Those names which I think cant flip like new extensions I will not invest in them and stay focus on .com, .net, .org and .info only as research says its still much lovable than other extensions!!

 

[imadoer]

My biggest flop was spending $400 on hand regs that i paid full price for.
I think i ended up with 38 domains. a month later i figured out they were crap i sold them all for 2 bucks a peice so i lost 300 and change..... i wish i had some gd coupon codes at that time lol....

 

[Domainace]

- do not let them drop (that is just lame)
- and lastly, have faith in your names!

Dropping is good. You should drop names every year - or else you are going to waste money renewing flops.

Dropping is a form of ritual purification and humility - much better than wasting time and effort getting a couple dollars each on a fire sale. Dropping teaches you to recognize and acknowledge your mistakes. It teaches you that you can be wrong, no matter how much faith you had initially.

Dropping makes you a stronger domainer.

Drop away

 

[chloe321]

I sold one nnnnn.com on namepros for $30 but forgot to remove it from 4.cn.
One month later got 15 000 RMB(~$2500) offer there, but name was not mine anymore...

Yikes sorry to hear!