Hello everyone,

With the overwhelming response for the Afternic experiment of last month, I’ve decided to continue and see how it goes.

I’ve been working hard for the last several years mainly in order to get rid of inconsistency in sales but I realized that I cannot completely get rid of it. However, I can work on reducing it as much as I can. And for this I believe to increase both number of domains along with quality of domains.

Like I mentioned about inconsistency, the first sale for this month happened on 7th February. I’m sure some investors would think that a week of gap is nothing unusual but not to me. In my last month post, I shared that “I’ve invested in 7 figures (USD) for acquiring and holding those 9,200 domains. Also just the renewal cost is approximately $100,000 annually.” Considering this only, I need to have a good amount and number of sales every month to keep things moving smoothly.

Coming back to the first sale of February, it was a complete blast and the best one of the month:

GoWash.com – This one had a BIN of $50,000. The opening offer was $30,000 but the Afternic broker negotiated and brought the buyer to $40,000. All credit goes to the broker and my AN rep Adam Ramsdell in making this sale happen for that price. Very professionally and smoothly handled sale. Hold time around 4 years.

BeAHero.org – Sold for $4,888 via AN BIN. I’ve had a very little success with .org domains but I still like to keep buying sensible .org domains. The most I love to invest is 3L .org domains. Hold time around 4 years.

SpeedFloor.com – Acquired 4 years ago for low-mid 3 figures. This one was a negotiated sale at $4,300 and I think the BIN was $4,888.

FireBirdMusic.com – This domain hold time was 1 year and had a BIN of $2,988. The broker negotiated and it sold for $2,500.

5Hearts.com – Acquired via GoDaddy Auctions 5 years back and the buyer hit the BIN at $2,988 via GD shopping cart.

BeaconConstruction.com – Another domain acquired 5 years back and the buyer hit the BIN at $6,888 via GD shopping cart.

Blacom.com – Another GD shopping cart BIN sale for $4,888. Acquired this one almost 5 years ago.

Ciircle.com – A letter less or an addition in a strong keyword are always good to invest in. The buyer hit the BIN at $3,988 via GD shopping cart. By the way, since January 2020, I’m having easily more than 50% sales via GD search path.

EntrepreneurAdvisors.com – Another GoDaddy search path BIN sale for $2,988. Total hold time was a little less than 4 years.

VeaGroup.com – I love this sale because the ROI is fantastic. Acquired via DropCatch almost 5 years back uncontested at normal backorder price. The BIN was $19,888. The broker did a fantastic job making the buyer agree at $18,000.

MedList.com – This sale came via GoDaddy’s reseller partner registrar and it sold at the BIN price of $19,888.

PoolMagic.com – Hold time 4 years and buyer hit the BIN at $3,988.

SophieDavies.com – As always two word person names are in demand but you’ve to carefully check which ones to invest in and price it reasonably. This one sold for $1,988.

BaranTech.com – The last sale of the last month was a negotiated one which sold it for $2,500. It had a BIN of $2,988.

So a total of 14 sales excluding a couple of more sales happened via Afternic but I won’t mention it because once again my sons sold those domains.

The number of inquiries for February was slightly less than 1,700 and the total number of domains at the end of February 2024 were a little more than 9,200.

Total acquisition + holding costs was around $3,500 and total amount of sales was $119,792.

Feel free to share your sales and give your feedback on mine if you like to. It doesn’t matter how good or good the feedback is 😉

Hello everyone,

I started the Afternic experiment series in January 2020 and did it for almost a year. Those were the most demanding posts from my readers so I thought to give it a go again. I’m not sure how long I can continue this but let’s start with January 2024.

It was a great start to 2024 and I hope it continues at least this way or even better. So coming back to the sales of January are as below except 2 sales which both my sons had each:

MarbellaEstates.com – A sale of $2,988 which is a bread and butter of my portfolio. A little over 46% of my portfolio consists of $1,988 and $2,988 pricing of domains. Hold time for this domain was around 6 years.

GrayBuilders.com – Another $2,988 sale via Afternic Fast Transfer and the hold time was around 5 years.

Smart-Control.com – A privately acquired domain around a year back for low 3 figures and sold for $2,988.

SeedSocial.com – A sale of $1,988 which is the minimum BIN price I set for all of my domains.

MikesTreeService.com – A closeout domain acquired a couple of years back which sold for $1,988.

CreativeDept.com – Acquired this one in 2019 and this was the first sale of 2024. Sold it for $9,888.

ClaimsHub.com – Another Fast Transfer sale without negotiation which sold for $19,888. Hold time around 4 years.

NutriFarma.com – Undersold in my opinion after negotiation due to some mistake in not updating the old price. Sold it for $10,888. This domain was acquired in 2014 via SnapNames for $69.

iTravel.CO – This one I backordered via DomainMonster.com and got it successfully in 2012. The renewal cost are a lot but eventually sold this one for $1,988.

Hotels.im – Can’t even recall when I last sold any .im domain but it should be around a decade back. This domain sold for $1,988. I’m holding 11 .im domains now including Travel, Cars, Law, Media, Mobile and a few more.

Creiamo.com – This one is a difficult to pass radio test but when it comes to buying non-English keywords, then a lot of times domains do fail the radio test which I believe is fine as far as the domain is valuable. Sold it for $1,988. Acquired it in December 2023.

ClarityPay.com – “Pay” keyword domains are always hot in demand and after going back and forth of negotiations, I let this domain go for $12,500. Hold time around 6 years.

BioTuning.com – The last sale of the month which had a BIN of $4,888. Negotiated and sold it for $3,750.

The number of inquiries for August was close to 1,700 and the total number of domains at the end of January 2024 were 9,200.

Total acquisition + holding costs was under $4,000 and total amount of sales was $75,818.

The above costs and sales amount may look out of the world for some investors but there is one important thing to keep in mind that I’ve invested in 7 figures (USD) for acquiring and holding those 9,200 domains. Also just the renewal cost is approximately $100,000 annually. So there are a lot of expenses and money is invested. But overall, I’m in profit and happy with the progress.

Feel free to give your feedback no matter how good or good it is 😉

Hi everyone,

Today I’m very pleased to share that I sold another 4L .com domain in 5 figures. Before I share any details, I wanted to say that I’ve close to 450 4L .com domains, most of which are random letters combinations similar to the one I sold.

Also to note that I’ve heavily invested like well into 6 figures to build such a size of quality 4L .com domains.

Coming to the sale, the domain in question is GWMS.com which sold for $29,888 via Afternic BIN a while back.

According to NameBio.com, this domain was sold in 2008 via NameJet for $150 and then in 2018 for $621 and that’s the amount I paid for in 2018. So the hold time for this was a little more than 5 years.

The interesting thing is in 2020, the price I set was $9,888. In 2021 I priced it $50,000 and kept the same price until early March 2023 when I changed it to $19,888. But with the recent price change in the last couple of months, I revised the price to $29,888. I’m happy with the current sold price. It’s a lot better than $9,888 and $19,888 😀

Feel free to share your recent sales and if you’ve any feedback to give regarding this sale.

Thank you!

Hello everyone,

For the last couple of months or so, I was pretty busy playing around with the domain portfolio which as of today just crossed over 8,900 domains. I’ve worked hard in repricing almost the entire portfolio and have slashed it down from 20% to 60%. I saw incredibly good results last month which I believe was due to this change. However, to my surprise, I’m seeing exactly the opposite result this month. This shows how unpredictable the domain business is and how much one has to be patient to keep it going.

More than half of the sales happened for the domains I recently lowered the prices which shows that this tactic has worked very well. But I was wondering the reason behind the slowness in sales this month. I had 17 domain sales last month which is the most in numbers to date! So far this month there have been 3 sales and half the month is already over!

In January 2023, I’ve had a little over 8,100 domains and at NamePros I shared this:

“I’ve some 42% of domains priced at $9,888 and above.

Remaining some 58% are priced between $1,988‐$6,888.

My STR in 2022 was around 1.5%

My average sale price last year was over $6,000.

Had the worst year (2022) considering the numbers and quality of domains.“

As of today, a little over 68% of the domains are priced between $1,988-$6,888 which is a major change from the start of this year considering the addition of 800+ domains so far. Only 31% of domains are now priced at $9,888 and above unlike 42% in January 2023. I’m fully confident of seeing some great results in the coming months due to this major change. I’ll try to share the results.

It would be nice to know how sales have come up for you in the last couple of months and so far this month?

On the other hand, I plan to share my sales more actively starting next year. I know many of my readers are anticipating that and I won’t disappoint you all.

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

Recently I received an email from dechem.pttrs@gmail.com with the subject “Special Offer (4L domain .com)” – the 4L .com I removed from the subject. Below is the message I’ve copied:

“Dear Domain Owner,

My names are Sandra Schulze, a representative of a private firm and I am reaching out to you to inquire about the possible purchase of your domain name 4L .com (domain removed).

We have a very lucrative offer for the domain which we know you have held ownership for a very lengthy period and our hope is that the offer meets your expectation.

I will furnish you with more details including the financial offer, agreement, and payment procedures as soon as I get your continuation response.

Warmest regards,
Sandra Schulze”

I asked this scammer what’s their offer and in response, I received the following message which has several red flags:

Thank you for your speedy response to my email notification on the proposed acquisition of your domain name 4L .com. We know that you have had ownership of the four-letter domain since 2000 and my clients are more than willing to offer a lump sum final offer of five million United States dollars.

Furthermore, I’d like to inform you that I work on a commission with my clients on the successful acquisition of the domain name which will be of great benefit to me and to you if the proposed sum is agreed.

Our mode of payment will be via  escrow.com and I will be setting up the new transaction with your email address, please specify if you are conversant with escrow.com so that I can elaborate if you are not.

Escrow services require a fee that will be shared by both buyer and seller and I will draw the agreement indicating the roles of both buyer and seller which will be signed by all parties before we proceed to escrow to make payments, the transfer of the domain name and conclude formalities.

Looking forward to your response to continuing this acquisition.

Regards,
Sandra Schulze“

Now the first red flag is that the domain is listed for sale at $50,000 and the scammer offered to buy it for 5 million US$ which is outrageous. At least this person should’ve done some research like what price this domain is listed for, also who the domain owner is, whether it’s a seasoned domain investor or someone with 1-5 domains only.

I responded the scammer with the following message:

“The domain is available for purchase for $50,000 only so you’ll save $4,950,000.

You may start the escrow with escrow.com using our email address xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.com (redacted) and we’re frequently using their services and don’t require any external agreements to sign it.

If your client is a serious buyer, then go ahead and initiate the transaction.

Best regards

AbdulBasit”

It’s been more than a month now and there is complete silence whereas I received the first two emails within 24 hours. It was very obvious

My point of saying it’s a creative way of scam is because before these scammers asked to use some escrow service and behind the scenes they themselves own it and provide with less appraisal value and don’t even bother buying the domain and usually just run away with the appraisal amount paid by the domain owner. But this time, this scammer said to use escrow.com to look like a legit person but eventually would’ve asked to use some shitty appraisal service before initiating the escrow at escrow.com which would’ve never happened.

So Sandra or whatever your real name is, just do some research next time like checking the prices and stop bothering domain owners especially with a lot of domains as they won’t come in your trap.

To my loyal readers and followers, please feel free to share any scam email addresses or messages you’ve received in recent times to make others aware of it.

Thank you!