5 ms·

I wanted a specific domain name of a deceased loved one. I approached the domain parker and asked what they wanted for it. He wanted 200k and escrow. I offer

I wanted a specific domain name of a deceased loved one. I approached the domain parker and asked what they wanted for it. He wanted 200k and escrow. I offered $50. He took my $50.

chance_state 7y ago
How common was the name? I assume at least fairly common if he had such a high initial ask.
- 72deluxe 7y ago
  21st Century Fox?
- duxup 7y ago
  I ran into a small community of domain squatters or speculators or whatever you want to call folks who buy them up purely in order to sell them at a profit. The level of amateurism / folks just looking for a quick couple dollars was pretty high and what they asked for / got, even based on their own stories, was all over the map. Many of them didn't care about what they initially ask for even at the risk of scaring off a sale. A lot seemed to be kids or folks with limited resources playing it as a game for fun / in the hopes of striking it rich.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - zebraflask 7y ago
    It's largely a game or done for the novelty value, I think, for many of them - kind of like buying a certificate that says you named a star or an asteroid. I ran across one that had my name as a .com (something I'd obviously want), had a bunch of back and forth for several years, once or twice every year, and eventually they realized - ya know - nobody with this name is ever going to pay the exorbitant price they wanted, then they let it lapse. Picked it up for $10 or so, instead of $15,000+. Some of the very short domain names that map to abbreviated company names in China can still be valuable, or if they're somehow truly unique, but for the most part, domain squatting is a dead end for 99% of the domain names at anything less than a very large scale.
    - franga2000 7y ago
      You only need predict one startup or celebrity name right and you can do all the squatting your cold evil heart desires for the next 20 years. Everything after that is pure profit. Domain names are cheap and companies are rich. It's not that unlikely.
legohead 7y ago
I've been looking for a new domain since my main one is really hard to tell people in person, and I'm annoyed at having to spell it out every time. So, the TLD .family was coming to the public, and I kept my eye on it. I wanted <my last name>.family. I learned a lot about TLDs during this time (which I've now forgotten). There is some kind of pre-buy period where you can buy domains before anyone else at an increased price. It was too much for me though, so I waited for the public release. Then it went public, but, my last name was marked as premium for $1000/year. I felt this wasn't fair, as I can't control my birth name! So I emailed the company in control of the domain, and they got back with me with a deal. $1000 one time payment and $20/year thereafter. Still too rich for my blood...
- mcguire 7y ago
  Ah, but picture this: then you would control "legohead.family". You could sell subdomains for more than $20/yr.
loftyal 7y ago
.com domains really need to be more expensive. If the price was $100 or $200 a year, that would significantly decrease the amount of squatting.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- skissane 7y ago
  Ideally, you'd pay more for a domain you weren't actively using than one you were. That way, squatters pay extra but real users aren't disadvantaged. Of course, determining whether a domain is really in use or not is hard, and whatever criteria are adopted, squatters will try to game them.
  - davchana 7y ago
    Yes, agreed, many domains are just used for email only, for redirects, for in-code variables or data collecters.
  - franga2000 7y ago
    Determining that is not hard at all. Is there a big buy button and a million ads on the front page? Then it's not being used. Done. But of course, ICANN and registars make way too much money from these people to do anything about it. Isn't capitalism just wonderful?
    - skissane 7y ago
      > Determining that is not hard at all. Is there a big buy button and a million ads on the front page? Then it's not being used. Done. It is easy to detect the egregious cases like you describe. But, not all cases are so egregious. I might have no website on the domain, yet still be using it for email. Or, I might be hosting some sort of intranet on the domain and all the public can see is a login page, with no idea of what content lies beyond it. Or, I might not be using the domain at all, and just waiting for someone to contact me with an offer to buy it. I might even hook it up with email that I never really use (but which redirects to my actual email), and a login page with nothing behind it, in order to make it look like I am really using it. How to distinguish these cases?

I wanted a specific domain name of a deceased loved one. I approached the domain parker and asked what they wanted for it. He wanted 200k and escrow. I offered $50. He took my $50.

chance_state 7y ago

How common was the name? I assume at least fairly common if he had such a high initial ask.

72deluxe 7y ago
21st Century Fox?
duxup 7y ago
I ran into a small community of domain squatters or speculators or whatever you want to call folks who buy them up purely in order to sell them at a profit. The level of amateurism / folks just looking for a quick couple dollars was pretty high and what they asked for / got, even based on their own stories, was all over the map. Many of them didn't care about what they initially ask for even at the risk of scaring off a sale. A lot seemed to be kids or folks with limited resources playing it as a game for fun / in the hopes of striking it rich.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- zebraflask 7y ago
  It's largely a game or done for the novelty value, I think, for many of them - kind of like buying a certificate that says you named a star or an asteroid. I ran across one that had my name as a .com (something I'd obviously want), had a bunch of back and forth for several years, once or twice every year, and eventually they realized - ya know - nobody with this name is ever going to pay the exorbitant price they wanted, then they let it lapse. Picked it up for $10 or so, instead of $15,000+. Some of the very short domain names that map to abbreviated company names in China can still be valuable, or if they're somehow truly unique, but for the most part, domain squatting is a dead end for 99% of the domain names at anything less than a very large scale.
  - franga2000 7y ago
    You only need predict one startup or celebrity name right and you can do all the squatting your cold evil heart desires for the next 20 years. Everything after that is pure profit. Domain names are cheap and companies are rich. It's not that unlikely.

legohead 7y ago

I've been looking for a new domain since my main one is really hard to tell people in person, and I'm annoyed at having to spell it out every time. So, the TLD .family was coming to the public, and I kept my eye on it. I wanted <my last name>.family. I learned a lot about TLDs during this time (which I've now forgotten). There is some kind of pre-buy period where you can buy domains before anyone else at an increased price. It was too much for me though, so I waited for the public release. Then it went public, but, my last name was marked as premium for $1000/year. I felt this wasn't fair, as I can't control my birth name! So I emailed the company in control of the domain, and they got back with me with a deal. $1000 one time payment and $20/year thereafter. Still too rich for my blood...

mcguire 7y ago
Ah, but picture this: then you would control "legohead.family". You could sell subdomains for more than $20/yr.

loftyal 7y ago

.com domains really need to be more expensive. If the price was $100 or $200 a year, that would significantly decrease the amount of squatting.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
skissane 7y ago
Ideally, you'd pay more for a domain you weren't actively using than one you were. That way, squatters pay extra but real users aren't disadvantaged. Of course, determining whether a domain is really in use or not is hard, and whatever criteria are adopted, squatters will try to game them.
- davchana 7y ago
  Yes, agreed, many domains are just used for email only, for redirects, for in-code variables or data collecters.
- franga2000 7y ago
  Determining that is not hard at all. Is there a big buy button and a million ads on the front page? Then it's not being used. Done. But of course, ICANN and registars make way too much money from these people to do anything about it. Isn't capitalism just wonderful?
  - skissane 7y ago
    > Determining that is not hard at all. Is there a big buy button and a million ads on the front page? Then it's not being used. Done. It is easy to detect the egregious cases like you describe. But, not all cases are so egregious. I might have no website on the domain, yet still be using it for email. Or, I might be hosting some sort of intranet on the domain and all the public can see is a login page, with no idea of what content lies beyond it. Or, I might not be using the domain at all, and just waiting for someone to contact me with an offer to buy it. I might even hook it up with email that I never really use (but which redirects to my actual email), and a login page with nothing behind it, in order to make it look like I am really using it. How to distinguish these cases?