I was the one that had sold fixedloans.com at T.R.A.F.F.I.C. in 2006. I remember that date well. Moniker had just started doing auctions and nobody really knew how well it would go over. I had a strategy of putting 10 decent names in all at no reserve that I had nothing into. I figured that there would be more people in the room that could afoard 5-20,000 dollars than there would be bidding on the really big names. I didn’t want them to be left out. I did about 180k in total sales at that show and I thought I had really done great! When I finish an auction at that number now it is a disaster.
Over the last two days I’ve counted more than 20 blog posts out there about this particular name being auctioned at Bido. They are talking about it being an auction that determines how much domains have appreciated in the last few years. After all, I sold it for $10,000 so if it sells for $20,000 than the market doubled, right? Right?
Let’s look at something that hasn’t been pointed out because only two people know it. I bought that name along with 24 other finance related names in 2004 for $25,000. In otherwords, I paid $1000 per name. Does that mean that for the domain business to maintain it’s growth rate it should sell for $100,000?
Who the hell really knows? Personally, I hope it proves that Bob’s Rug Syndrome is a horrible disease and that you should sell your names from time to time. After all, I couldn’t have purchased those 25 names had I not sold names before them and you can bet your bottom dollar that I have made more off that $8500 (after Moniker’s fees) than I ever could have made keeping that name and never having time to do anything with it.
It’s a good name. Personally, I think now it is worth more than $20,000 and I hope for Sahar and others that it does that or much more.
© 2010
I concur with you that we should sell some of our domains from time to time. It just helps us keep doing more deals by maintaining cash flow.
But I have to admit that I had been pretty bad in selling mine over the years. I just kept buying and holding. Only sold when someone agreed to pay me what I want. Didn’t like to lower my prices.
But I was wrong and I started negotiating better about a year ago and have sold a lot more this year than before.
Its so easy to fall in love with your domains but as you said, we need to sell some all the time.
Good post….thanks.
RKB
I too have sold the most domains for the highest prices in the last 12 months. This is due to many things including BETTER NEGOTIATION skills and also the quality of the names I guess. All my big deals have been to end users too which is fantastic.
I also meant to say – I don’t agree with selling for the sake of selling (i.e. just because there is profit to be taken). I prefer to wait until my funds build up naturally before acquiring more domains. Then again you have to also believe that the domain market won’t crash!
Most sellers are completely unrealistic when it comes to prices they believe their domains are worth.
I get hundreds of emails every week from domainers looking to sell domains. I’d say out of every 100, usually only 1 to 5 sellers are willing to price their domains so they are sellable.
On my Domains Newsletter I always include about 10 to 20 of my own domains priced in the $100 to $5K range so others can see there’s nothing wrong with selling at fair and marketable prices so buyers can get a steal or a real bargain.
Selling at reasonable prices keeps the marketplace active and alive. More domainers need to get on the bandwagon with this strategy. It will insure liquidity in the market and it will generate much for cash flow for the industry. It will make domains rise in “real value” much more steadily. If one guy buys a domain for $1K and can sell it a few months later for $1.5K that’s good business and a nice return. If he just sits on it waiting to get $10K the market is deprived of a transaction. When you have tens of thousands of domainers holding out for high prices, the market is deprived of tens of millions of dollars of transactions that could have been done had the prices been reasonable.
Lasting wealth is best created in markets where there is steady continuing growth. Real estate was a classic example of this, up until a few years ago. But when real estate prices went into insane growth mode due to rampant and irresponsible speculation and lending practices, we all saw what happened, it turned into a ponzi scheme and made houses more and more unaffordable until it reached the breaking point where there were more houses for sale than buyers to purchase them and the market collapsed and continues to get back to reality.
So the worst thing we can do is turn domains into that kind of market where prices become crazy and ponzi like. Inevitably you end up with a “bubble” market that will burst and destroy all the wealth that had been created or a stalled market where not enough buying and selling occurs to keep the market durable. Sure it’s good to see crazy sales every now and then, as you need those too, but you don’t want a market totally dependent on crazy sales.
The best thing we can do is all buy and sell at reasonable rates of growth. This will create lots of sales, lots of market and participant expansion, and genuine lasting wealth for everyone’s domain portfolios.
Kevin
BigTicketDomains.com
Ouch. Went for $5,281. Looks like selling when the market’s hot is a good strategy.
^^^ Nope… they cancelled the auction
Kevin, have you started to include more prices in your newsletter? I found when I signed up most just send contact for bin, which defeats the purpose.
My mistake. Apparently, it broke the site.