Hello and Assalamo Alaikum,
Like many of us are noticing the number of inquiries and sales are on slow side and it’s been the case for quiet some time now. As the regular readers of this blog knows I stopped outbound marketing at the very beginning of 2014 until last month of this year. However, I recently started again for low quality domains to sell them and buy some higher quality of domains.
Both the recent sales were inbound sales. First sale was of Ravan.com whose initial inquiry came in Jan 2017 with $1,000 starting offer. I countered with 20K and after exchanging several emails, buyer finally stopped at 5K. I declined and later forwarded the lead to Uniregistry broker and we ended up having $7,500. I acquired this domain in 2013.
Another sale was JonathanLee.com which I had put up BIN for $6,888 at Afternic but received an offer of $4,500 through Afternic. I countered with $5,888 but eventually accepted the initial and max offer presented by buyer of $4,500.
Although I like investing in 1-2 word person names and both above sales were person names but it’s really been difficult to sell them like we can move on with brandables, products and service related domains. I would especially suggest to newbies not to invest in person names heavily and focus on other types mentioned earlier.
Both domains were acquired in 3 figures in total so it was a great ROI. Like many of you ask how much I paid for my sold domains, so let me share this time with you. I paid $485 for JonathanLee.com in 2014.
Feel free to give your feedback and if you like to share your recent sales.
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Congrats on both sales, good to see the purchase price also. What type of names are you buying off late?
Noor
Thanks Noor!
My focus has been shifted from person names, low quality keyword names to 1-2 word brandable and service related domains. As most of the time an inquiry coming in for person names is looking to buy the domain just to develop personal site so there are high chances of getting xx to xxx offer.
It’s bad faith to register first last names like that, o feel it’s bad taste, if that person is significant you could face legal issues.
That’s just your personal opinion which I respect it but you are wrong. Suppose a domain which is available or getting dropped (DonaldTrump.com) and I grab it, in such case you could be right because the situation won’t be in my favor in future. But investing in normal 1-2 word person names isn’t wrong.
If you think your theory is correct, then buying any upgrade domain for xyzcompany.com is also wrong.
AbdulBasit, unfortunately I think you are wrong this time. IMHO purchasing person names, particularly famous people or celebrities, is always a no-no. Often those names carry common law rights, even if the TM has been registered after the domain name, as the recent case of ArneJacobsen.com, where Mike Mann lost the UDRP, and pretending not to know a “well-known” people doesn’t help either. In your case, “Jonathan Lee” is a quite common name, so let’s say you have been lucky to find someone who offered you 4,500 USD instead of filing a UDRP … I don’t think “ransom”/”extortion” is an… Read more »
Hi Andrea, Thanks for your feedback which I really appreciate it. I respect your opinion but I don’t agree with it. Like I mentioned earlier, “If you think your theory is correct, then buying any upgrade domain for xyzcompany.com is also wrong.” MM lost that UDRP and many people loses UDRP for the upgrade domain of products/services/person names domain like we see every day but that doesn’t mean the domain owner bought for some misuse or did any unethical behavior to tarnish someone’s image/mark/business in all cases. IMO, buying/selling of common person names whether it be Thomas.com or MarkThomas.com is… Read more »
Congrats on these very good sales. Market is slow and I noticed that it’s quiet some time you didn’t post any sales report but here you go. All the best in future brother.
Thanks! Yeah, it seems overall slow. Hope to hear some sales from your end too 😉
Congrats on your sales, ‘Lee’ is a popular surname so no surprise there was interest. I agree it has been slow in April and May, not sure what is going on out there, though you see lots of sales still happening in domain news. Good to focus on 1-2 word brandable and service related domains.
Many thanks for your feedback which is appreciated.
Completely agree with you 🙂
two things your asking price, and gtld options could be hurting your sales.
Thanks for your feedback Trent.
I completely agree on gTLDs part but for asking price the answer is yes and no. Yes in a sense that my asking price is always retail and not wholesale which is most of the time difficult to get. No because most of the endusers are not aware of the real value of domain names.
Nice sale but…
Please tell the average joe how many domains you own and the yearly cost…
If you own about 1200 domains, your annual renewal cost alone will be about $10,000.
A lot of people with larger portfolio of domains post that they bought x for $10 and sold it for $1000 but never tell the average joe that they own 10,000 domains which has an annual renewal cost of $75k+.
That’s a real good question and I too wanted to know the same from others when they share their sales.
I own around 1350 domains and makes into 6 figures for the last consecutive 3 years in sales.
Hope this will clear your questions 🙂