Archive for the ‘Personal’ Category

My experience with numeric domains

Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,

Usually I don’t invest in any type of domains where I don’t have a good grip and that’s the reason I never bought domains in huge quantity in short period especially when most domainers when coming in business simply start buying too many domains without doing their due diligence.

During the hype of 3L, 4L CHIP domains, we saw numeric domains got registered even 9Ns which was just ridiculous. Anyhow, I made a mistake of investing in 6N .com and bought around 15 for $7000-$7500 altogether. Since last couple of months I’ve been trying to offload all those domains at GoDaddy Auctions for less than $100 a piece and most of the time no one bothers buying it. So far I’ve sold half of them for little over $500 including GD commission. I don’t normally sell any domain for less than $1,000 but these were the names I just wanted to let expire and thought to give them try selling at GoDaddy and see if I can recover anything.

So in short, I lost few grands by investing blindly and at the peak time of 6N domains. The lesson is not to invest in any niche without studying, researching and putting in lot of efforts before you take any step further. I’ve seen Shane who’s been very vocal about his sales especially when he has lost money in any domains and most people don’t share their losses so that’s good from him to be open publicly. Appreciate that!

Now it’s time for 5N .com domains which I was lucky to invest some years back and bought at cheap prices when there wasn’t much demand for it. Unfortunately I didn’t had good knack on numeric domains so the focus was just to acquire at cheap prices and got ALL 5N domains which either had 0, 4 or both together!

I’ve been selling them as well at GoDaddy and was having around 10 of those and just left with one. Hopefully will sell that one in coming days. Overall, I didn’t made any profit on these and I see it break even while considering my time spent on finding, buying, money stuck for years, GoDaddy commission.

In future, I’ll try to be more cautious while buying domains as I don’t like to buy too many domains for test and trial. My buying strategy is to focus on those domains which I think will ultimately land in the hand of endusers.

It would be nice if any one likes to share their experience (losses) for others to learn, understand and not to repeat such mistakes in future.

Very important and bad news by Escrow.com

Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,

It looks like Escrow.com is getting worse as the time goes by… After we all heard about Payoneer Escrow getting shut down so I started again Escrow.com which I had stopped due to their poor service.

I started couple of transactions at Escrow.com in a period of one week both for different domain and buyers. One of the transaction got completed on 30th August with last status “Inspection period ended, Buyer accepts merchandise.” 

On 3rd September, I receive an email from their Payments department which says the following:

“Dear Seller, Unfortunately we do not support disbursement to accounts under First Century Bank, Payoneer accounts, or any other third party payments service. Please kindly select or add a new disbursement method. Please inform us when your disbursement information has been updated.”

This came as shocking to me. First, they should have at least informed all their clients that they no longer support disbursement to accounts under First Century Bank and/or Payoneer accounts. Secondly, even if they didn’t bother sending emails to every of their concerned client, they could’ve updated somewhere in the middle of transaction whenever they got aware of this new changes at their end. But their so-called great support team didn’t bother to inform and waited for the transaction to get completed.

I’m forced to complete my second transaction with them as the buyer just said yesterday that payment have been already made so I’m waiting for this to be completed as well. I just didn’t wanted to receive funds via wire that’s why I started Escrow.com to receive funds via Payoneer.

Instead of improving their service, they’re getting worse as the time is passing. Now I shall be looking for better alternatives who not only support payment via Payoneer but also other options like PayPal.

I’m sure there are plenty of domainers who likes to receive funds via Payoneer and are using Escrow.com so please make sure to either change your funds disbursement method or start using another better escrow service.

Now I’ve sent an email today for disbursing my funds via wire option which is the only one left for me to choose.

**NOTE** In past, I’ve received good amount of funds in Payoneer account/card through Escrow.com several times.

It would be great to hear from fellow domainers which escrow service is very reliable, provides great customer support and offers several disbursement methods including at least Payoneer.

Few recent interesting domain sales

Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,

My last post about domain sales published earlier in January so I thought it’s the time to share some of the recent past sales which hopefully be encouraging and helpful in some way…

GreenPest.com – I bought this domain from a fellow domainer couple of years back in a package deal. This was sold via Afternic BIN at $3,888.

Younifi.com – Acquired this domain for $xx couple of months back and had BIN of $3,988 at both major platforms Sedo and Afternic. However, got direct inquiry and after I quoted price, got an offer of $2,000 for a quick deal to be done that day itself. I wasn’t tempted to sell it as that wasn’t an acceptable offer. I revised my asking and gave my final price of $3,500. Going back and forth for at least couple of times more and sticking with the same price of $3,500, buyer agreed and bought the name. All in all, it was really nice dealing with buyer. Great person to deal with.

CosmoChem.com – This was an interesting sale completed this month. Acquired the name less than two months back for $xxx, got direct inquiry via Uniregistry lander. Buyer was from Korea and if I remember correctly, I sold my first domain to a buyer from Korea. Funny thing in the entire deal was the buyer kept talking completely in Korean language which I needed to translate every time at Google Translate to understand what buyer says. After which I always responded back in English. It was good the buyer understood English language and I had no problem if he was responding back in Korean language 😀

Initially buyer asked for the price for which I quoted $7,888. Buyer offered with $3,700. I reduced to $7,250. And then there was silence for a week period… I usually don’t follow up unless I sense the seriousness from any potential buyer. In this case, I followed up and buyer improved the offer to $6,000.

I gave my final price of $7,000 and took the entire escrow fee at my end which in almost all my transactions, my buyers pay. Eventually $7,000 was accepted and deal completed through Escrow.com

TheNordic.com – Bought this domain several years back. Afternic broker (Will Black) contacted on behalf of their client with an offer of $5,888. It was having BIN for $6,888 both at Sedo and Afternic. He asked if I’ve any flexibility, would like to counter or accept. I responded to remain stick at $6,888. Few days later, got accepted and payment on the way! Many thanks Will as you’ve done good job in getting the buyer to accept $6,888. It’s been great doing business with you in past and this time as well! Hope to do many more deals with you in future 🙂

VELO.org – I’m sharing this particular sale because surprisingly this was my first .org sale and was sold for $5,888 through Afternic BIN.

Feel free to share your past and/or recent domain sales and if you like can give feedback on my sales.

Some of my recent best acquisitions of 2018

Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,

Going through the posts, I found that I haven’t shared any acquisitions this year and recently I have bought some top class names which I would like to share with my fellow domainers.

EquityTrading.com, CapitalTrading.com – I wouldn’t say anything about these names and would love to hear feedback from you guys if you like to give any…

MicroBox.com – Last month MicroMobility.com sold for $50,000 and couple of years back MicroCube.com for $40,000. I don’t rely or buy/sell domains looking solely on the comparable sales but MicroBox is great addition IMO. Highly brandable and can be used for multiple purposes.

Gramma.com – Love to have such short and brandable names.

VegasLine.com – Can be related to transportation, sports in Las Vegas. Anything more you can think off?

ResearchPark.com – Universities and research institutions or some science related project.

Bluesfest.com – Great domain for any festival, music, concert, etc.

UsCitizen.com – Some official site related to applying U.S Citizenship or some guide, informative portal to U.S citizen, citizenship.

IrvingPark.com – Neighborhood in Chicago, Illinois with a population of over 56,000 recorded in 2015. Usually I don’t invest in GEO names but this was difficult to leave out.

RunnersEdge.com – Some running shoes business, sports, running store.

PHLI.com, RIBX.com, ICSM.com DLEE.com – I’ve almost stopped buying 4 letters this year and only few acquired this year. Focusing more on quality than quantity. Just trying to keep 4 letter .com share of around 7-10% in my portfolio. Currently it’s at 9%. Not sure but I think Shane Cultra who operates DomainShane.com also likes to have 4L .com portfolio of around 7-10%.

MindsetMedia.com, HustleMedia.com – Media names are hot and will be more in demand as the time goes by.

CoolFresh.com – Spa, Perfume, Body/Face wash, Juice, Media company. Great to invest in domains which can be used for many purposes.

Infoscape.com – Can be used for many different purposes.

MetaSoftware.com – Great name for a software company.

Lonestar.net, Spike.net, Contra.net – 1 word .net are always good to invest which are highly brandable.

Rosemary.CO, Kicks.CO – It’s safe and great to invest in good one word names.

Feel free to give your feedback. Also if you like to share your recent acquisitions.

Some 2017 last quarter sales and 2018 starts with high 4 figure sale

Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,

I think this is the longest gap of posting about domain sales but honestly speaking, I didn’t had much action at my end to post or some outstanding sale of 5 or 6 figures.

Still I would like to share some of the last quarter sales (2017) and this year begins with a bang when I first sold my 3L .co domain and that too at BIN for $8,900.

BPI.CO – This domain was actually registered by someone when .CO was launched but was dropped next year in 2011 when I hand registered. During that time, there was no backordering service for .CO domains and I was lucky to grab it as soon as I saw it was available to register.

Fast forward to 2016, I received an offer of $1,000 on it through Sedo (buyer from US) when I had listed with Make Offer only. I countered with $15,000. It took more than a week of unsuccessful negotiation whose snapshot I have attached below:

 

Honestly speaking, I wasn’t disappointed at the time buyer cancelled the negotiation but I realized some time later that I must have accepted.

A year and half later, someone from China bought it. That was high risk by not accepting $8,250 as we are not sure of how many more years we have to hold the domain and what it will finally sell for. Anyhow, it ended all well and I’m happy with my first 3L .CO sale.

And in last year quarter, few of my sales included:

GmConstruction.com – Used Payoneer Escrow service and I was amazed with their service and swiftness on the entire process. Initially quoted $2,888 and buyer countered with $2,000. Gave him some information about some previous LLconstruction.com sales in similar range and gave my final price of $2,500 which was accepted and ended up selling it successfully.

ScottHall.com – Afternic partner seller executive (Cameron Cortez) contacted with an offer of $1,500 whereas I had BIN of $3,888. He asked if there is any flexibility but I remained firm on it. Later buyer increased the offer to $2,900 which now made gap look closer. I revised my price to $3,500. Buyer countered with $3,200 which I declined. Next came in $3,300 which I accepted.

During that period, I found a great domain listed at Afternic for $2,000 BIN and I contacted Cameron by giving $1,000 as my offer in order to help in getting that domain. He came back with $1,700. Eventually I ended up buying it for $1,500 and was really happy to acquire it. I may share the domain some time later… Thanks to Cameron!

FashionFlooring.com $1,888 (BIN through Afternic).

HYPR.net – This was an interesting sale last year. I saw NamePros member (@Nikul Sanghvi) reported his sale of HYPR.CO for $2,000. I immediately recalled my domain HYPR.net and started research on who acquired and eventually contacted the new owner by letting him know the reason of contacting is since he acquired the .CO so there could be interest of buying the .net as well with a price tag of $3,888 . He countered with $1,000. I countered with $3,000. Received $1,500 by informing with no budget due to recent acquisition of .CO version.

I finally revised my price to $2,800 + escrow fee split between both parties. Also added condition that the price is valid for next 48 hours only. Next… offer was accepted. Deal done and dusted 😉

Many thanks to Nikul for sharing the sale and that’s what keep all of us going forward in one way or another.

x-Road.com – This was my last year’s last sale but my first hyphenated domain sale! Buyer approached directly through Uniregistry lander and I quoted $3,888. Buyer $1,000. As the year was ending, I revised my price to $3,500 with condition of making payment within that month only. Buyer said “the maximum that I can give is 2000. If this is not enough, then unfortunately I will have to look for another option.”

I declined and stick to my offer. Next day, I got an email from his partner of agreeing upon my price and we completed the deal through Payoneer Escrow. A big thanks to Brandon Abbey who is one of the nicest person I have worked in domaining industry and I’m really happy using this new escrow company.

Feel free to share your past and/or recent domain sales and give feedback on my sales.