Domain investing is a wacky world
I had a funny email come in from someone who I take it was not born in the 90’s and is disgruntled. It falls in line with some other reader emails over the past few months.
“Congratulations you were alive in the 90’s how much brain power did it take to reg sex.com or porn.com?”
I replied back asking if they were ok? Because I did not register or claim to register either one.
“I’m ok bro, i am tired of all these old hats, boomers as we call them, acting smart because they got domain names in the 90’s, blogs should point out that most of these mf’ers have done nothing for the little guy!!!”
Ah yes the old what have the rich domainers done for the newer or poorer domainers. I think some people have done a lot by sharing info. Rick Schwartz certainly does not need to blog and give insight for free. I also partake in fantasy sports a lot of people at Rick’s level in that gig want to be paid for information.
To the first point many people were alive in the Nineties and of legal age to register domain names and did not. I started registering domain names in 1997 not to be a full time domainer, and to keep it real, when I got an email for domains I owned in 97-98 I did not even know people were selling them.
I honestly dealt with one registrar and did not even know how to initiate a transfer, I bought the domain name FXY.net on the old Afternic, the seller said just initiate a transfer and I was like what is that?
Whenever I speak to a disgruntled younger entrepreneur who tells me they are pissed a hoarder has the name they want. I tell them you were never getting that name. You are 25, you would have been 13 in 2009 and that name would have been long gone.
Don’t get upset. A company not in the business would have owned a great one word name if it was just sitting there for reg fee since in your hypothetical utopia, hoarding is prohibited.
Finding opportunities is more expensive today, competing in the aftermarket is expensive. Someone purchased Q99.com retail for $1,500 in 2013 and with the name expired 8 years later it closed at $20,528.
This can be a very lonely and frustrating business, before emailing rants to strangers, take time to be sure it’s for you.
I read about people blaming others like they owe them.They had parents, why didn’t they get the domain and hold for them ?Why blame others for having a vision when their parents could also have used same vision to plan for them?
I am thankful for Rick and others who give out knowledgeable tips on how to make it and most will never get it until they do something.
I spent 5 figures last year upgrading my portfolio,paying good 4 figures to purchase names I see more values in on the long term than those selling it who need the cashflow or can’t hold longer.
The get rich quick newbies think it’s all luck for those who were there before them and they got in early, well its a vision to think ahead and opportunities are still there .
I made more than a $100k last year and did not make noise about it but I priced my names well and not for $200 but good 5 figures and closed sales and smiled to the bank.I didn’t blame anyone for not getting in early, I put in the work. Lots of lazy domainers out there ,they sell cheap and less cashflow,I sell high and more cashflow to reinvest.
Thank you Raymond.
I took a lot of balls for someone to register a name and pay $35 or $50 annually to renew. That was decent money then. Godaddy was not around. There was no domain marketplace or even parking per se.
I know, I know, some were free registrations, which involved much work too. So what?
Call them visionaries or lucky or maybe something in between. It took balls.
Crybabies…we will always have them. What are they doing? What chances are they taking?
I agree 100% with this. Somewhere between visionaries and lucky. Also about the $35-50 not being a certain positive investment at the time.
But some of them found out quickly it was a great investment as they flipped a few early on for $25k or $100k which more than removed the risk of holding and saying “No” to average offers for the next 5-10 years.
I also agree with not being a crybaby about this.
Personally, I think it’s a fine line between what a few folks did then by taking this risk and what some folks are doing today with new TLDs.
Obviously it can be a risky strategy to invest in new Gs, but it seems a little shady (for RS who benefitted from early risk taking with .come) to go out of his way to promote any negative new TLD bad news, while ignoring all the positive news about new TLDs. While calling these folks morons and much worse.
They are doing what he did and others in the mid-late 90s!
Raymond, I think that this is multifaceted.
The folks who were early to the game had luck as well as skills. I don’t begrudge that at all. But it should be acknowledged that even Bezos, with Amazon has admitted that he was in the right place at the right time, and that’s from a guy who is clearly a genius – talent, and mainly his incredible focus.
One of the early “experts” to domaining never acknowledges that and he attributes success 100% to skill, or worse still he talks badly about others who aren’t as successful and contrasts his successes without acknowledging the timing of his purchases or how being in the right place at the right time, led him to sell a domain for several million early on, which affords him the comfort of saying no to offers that others cannot. It’s really disingenuous when he does that and offers no help, insight to folks new to this industry. At best, his commentary is sometimes entertaining, but most of the time the put downs appear to be the guy trying to boost his ego.
There are other folks who got in early and do share amazing information that can help folks. Some of them seem like they have been around from the start, because of the quality of the information they share, when really they are more recent. I’m thinking of Andrew Alleman, Alvin Brown, Morgan, Michael Cyger, Elliot Silver, even Shane Cultra – even though they are in it to make money, they share useful information and seem to be honest and open minded to debate/discuss. There isn’t the double speak like from the other guy.
As for the email that you quoted, yep the guy’s pissy and thinks that life’s unfair. He doesn’t understand the appreciation of domains and doesn’t even consider them assets.
You described him as a disgruntled entrepreneur but usually I find that entrepreneurs are less disgruntled because they understand that part of the game is looking for opportunities to exploit or make money. Usually the disgruntled folks are those who have an idea and want to put up an interest site, something that has little chance of making significant money. Their idea is their passion, emotion is involved and then they find out the price of the domain and that emotion comes out.
These types of domain registrants will rarely pay more than reg fee. Maybe they’ll find out when the domain was registered and they offer $10 x age of domain – because they think that’s compelling. I had a guy email me recently wanting to buy a first name domain in a new G and he quoted comps from namebio (so somewhat educated about domains). He picked comps with a .me TLD and said that for his name, because it’s longer, it should be cheaper because more letters mean the domain should be cheaper. His name wasn’t uncommon, it was William! So obviously more valuable that less common domains (no matter which TLD we’re comparing).
My point is that even when people are trying to be objective about the price/value of a domain, when there are passions mixed in, sometimes the emails get a bit weird.
Usually those who feel wronged by the domain not being available at their price, will never buy the domain and will switch to an alternative TLD. This is another reason why I think new TLDs will continue to be used and in some namespaces, they’ll thrive.
Who is the bigger douchebag Snoopy or Shane Cultra?
I vote Cultra!
C’mon Charlie. I think we both know it’s not Cultra.
“Congratulations you were alive in the 90’s how much brain power did it take to reg sex.com or porn.com”
/////////////////
Would have taken an incredible amount of brain power, few even knew what the internet was at that point let alone being able to understand domains, successfully predict what was going to be valuable and then funding it. That is why very few people actually did well from that era.
Look at what most domainers register today, they area still buying completely worthless domains even with 2021 knowledge. Even if they had known all about domains in 1994 they would have passed on sex.com and bought cannedpeas.com instead.
Snoopy you are wrong…….
They would have bought KannedPeaz.com :-))))))))
First of all, I agree with Snoopy in the vote. Not even close! Snoopy is knowledgeable about domains and business and when he speaks the truth, many get angry while they go BROKE!
Second, Matt is a total FOOL stuck with worthless gTLD’s and blames me for telling the TRUTH about their value and why they have been failing and have no future.
Let Matt list all his sales so we know exactly what he is about other than being a colossal loser with HATE in his heart and a misleading agenda!! He owns PIGEONSHIT!!
Just a note Snoopy and I did not always get along. But we found common ground in TRUTH about domains and the CRAP and HATE that the Matt’s of the world spew!
The next time you mention me, I am going to make you a hobby! I will make you cry in public. I have had enough of your abuse and crap. Matt you are a low-life POS and that is NOT namecalling. Those are facts!
You are a disgusting and hateful person that pukes hate all day with every post. Go get some help. If I am all you think about, you are sick!! NO MORE!!
I will expose you! I don’t need or want to but enough is enough Matt. You want a rumble? you got it!
You have not done one thing for the domain community but spew hate!
Can you stop saying that you are going to expose me? Unless you have something really juicy on me and then go for it.
Why are you obsessed with me? I hardly mentioned you above? I gave you a pat on the back for having skills to seize the opportunity while acknowledging that some luck, being in the right place at the right time assisted.
That’s not spewing hate. It’s reality.
Your constant name calling, attacks, threats and over use of CAPS isn’t how a successful person behaves. Why are you so angry? What specifically have I said that bothers you so much?
I’m serious. Stop the name calling and say exactly what I said that has upset you.
Matt, you do have an obsession with Rick, the following him around stuff is very much on the weird side. Not sure how many times this needs to be said before you will realise it.
Following him around? Can you tell the time and can you read?
@Matt, how does “luck” as you call it, happen? Sitting around waiting for it to happen? Typing sniveling letters bemoaning the date you were born? Or has it got something to do with going out and testing things, trying new things?
I’m far too old to have been a teenager in the ’90s, even older than Rick, and envy my teenage grandchildren because this is a great time to be young. So everybody, even a diehard optimist like me, bemoans when we were born. But most of us don’t bother to snivel out loud about it.
@Snoopy, @Rick, thanks for helping to get my week starting off with a smile! 🙂
I think that you need to re-read what I wrote. No sniveling or bemoaning from me, I’m quite the optimist 🙂
BTW Mike, the website linked to your name is “unreachable” so Chrome says. Ironic really.
What made you think it was all about you? I answered the thread in three parts, which I would have no need to explain to the majority of people. Here, just for you:
1. What you said about luck.
2. The thread’s general topic.
3. Thanking Snoopy and Rick for making me smile.
You’re taking yourself and the jesting and jousting far too seriously. That makes you a natural target, like it or not.
I think you still may be unreachable! 🙂 Do you need to renew that domain?
Me saying re-read it was precisely about the luck comment.
Me saying “no sniveling…” wasn’t because I thought you were aiming for me, but because you said everyone feels that way – I don’t.
Maybe a lot of the tone is missing from both of our comments.
While being an optimist the stalking that RS is doing, is starting to freak me out on another thread he seemed to threaten to slice me, all because I like *some* new Gs.
A little unnecessary don’t you think?
“Congratulations you were alive in the 90’s how much brain power did it take to reg sex.com or porn.com?”
One day we will look back at the twenties and say man that domain was cheap, I should have bought it then.