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Realizing domains still sell for 800k+ has changed my domain squatting tactics
I recently saw the thread about a company using part (or maybe all) of their series a funding to purchase the domain name covers.com for $825,000 dollars. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534468)
Neat! And excellent news for me as a domain collector. I also use the term collector because while I average holding ~150 domains at any given time (including my prized possession, e.ht), I rarely set them up to be exposed on a potential market. Anyone who has shown interest in a domain did the dirty work of figuring out how to reach out to me. This has worked out and I've actually sold quite a few to some noteworthy groups. For example, the Mormon church sent a broker after LDSMatch.com, and i was able to have a great ROI on a domain that cost me a handful of years worth of ICANN fees.
Fast forward to today. I have a domain that is currently being chased by a Godaddy broker representing a client. It's a good domain, consisting of two words and a .com. My intentions before I read about the covers.com sale were to accept the second offer (I typically ignore the first fishing offers), but woke up this morning and changed my email draft. If a single word .com is worth sub one million dollars, with every other TLD option out there right now, two word .coms are definitely worth at very least more than four digit offers. Change my mind.
- mtmail 8y ago> I also use the term collector And in the title you use "domain squatting tactics". It sounds like you buy/register domains purely for profit, so squatting seems a good term.
- mcv 8y agoSquatting sounds like he's using it without having paid for it. This is the opposite. This is domain name speculation.
- ASalazarMX 8y agoA collector that hoards and sells when enough money is offered is just a speculator.
- 1337biz 8y agoThis reads like a diary entry. What do you want to ask / tell / share with us, except that domains are bought and sold?
- mcv 8y agoMaybe he's fishing for an offer on e.ht?
- JustSomeNobody 8y agoI don't understand why this domain is "prized". Is it because it is a single letter?
- _eht 8y agoIt's personally prized because I've been a domain geek since I knew what domains were. No inferred value to anyone else.
- bsvalley 8y agoPeople like you make our lives really painful... I wish there was a rule saying that if a domain name has been purchased and hasn't been used after X months, then it should be automatically cancelled and available for other people to use. Just to avoid domain squatting.
- mcv 8y agoSounds reasonable. In Amsterdam, if a house has been empty for over a year, it's legal to squat it. (Note that in that case the squatter is the one making actual use of it, whereas a "domain name squatter" is more like a real estate speculator who buys a house and keeps it empty hoping to sell it at a profit.)
- _eht 8y agoWhat am I actually doing to make your life painful? Let's say I collect beanie babies because I really just like them. I'm not in control of the market supply or demand, so when someone wants to approach me with a $10k offer for my Princess Dianna 1st edition, sudden;y I'm the bad guy for displaying it on my shelf?
- pritambaral 8y agoDoes the fact that you have a Princess Diana Beanie Baby, 1st Edition mean that no one else has one, or can have one without buying it from you?
- _eht 8y agoI don't quite understand your question, but I'll take a stab at it. When art prints are limited to 1 of 10, does it mean the 11th person is SOL? I'd say yes, unless one of the 10 relinquishes ownership in one way or another.
- pritambaral 8y agoYou're only stretching already over-stretched analogies. Art prints are not, by their nature, limited resources, nor do they hold important inherent value. Housing, public transportation, land etc. are better analogies to specific domain names. The ethical ramifications of a person hoarding a specific piece of art and a person reserving and not using seats on public transportation are quite different.
- angersock 8y agoDomain squatters are scum. You're scum. Congrats.
- Veen 8y agoThis attitude puzzles me a little, especially on Hacker News where there is a good-sized contingent of libertarian free-market types. Domains are an asset with value. What's wrong with buying them and then selling them for as much as you can. How does it differ from the sale of any other item or piece of information with value?
- true_religion 8y agoDomain names are an artificial monopoly that does not work, unless we all agree to play fair. Otherwise, Oracle could have bought every common word domain at the birth of the internet.
- angersock 8y agoWell put.
- ASalazarMX 8y agoThe problem is that speculators are not adding value to the market, they're subtracting from it. They've become parasitic actors.
- _eht 8y agoHonest question, why should I worry about adding value to a market which I'm not actively pursuing? I'm a developer and buy domains on whims of various service/fun ideas. I've been interested in domains since early highschool and collecting them is a hobby of mine which has happened to earn me some money from people reaching out to me.
- ASalazarMX 8y ago
- sharemywin 8y agoWhat does it say? https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal/appraisal/?checkAvail=1&tmskey=&domainToCheck=cooldomain https://www.godaddy.com/domain-value-appraisal/appraisal/?ch... I added dummy value.
- Veen 8y agoI wonder how accurate these appraisals are? I've bought a few two-word .coms over the years for projects which have since lapsed (like a travel blog). According to this they're worth a few thousands dollars and I have no real use for them.
- jhwang5 8y agoDepends - if it's a non sensical, hard to pronounce 2 word domain, then it might be worth only a few hundred bucks.