A Hugh

aZooZa · Apr 12, 2017

The last thing I want to hear about is Schwartz and the .com market. You have to take all that with a pinch of salt as you never hear about the dogs he's registered. So much bravado and hubris across the pond. As @Marcoose says, he's too far off the radar and he DOES sell occasionally to balance renewal fees. Anyway, I'm sticking with (1) in my theories above.

Marcoose · Apr 12, 2017

"People can sell 100 domains at £1,000 each or 1 domain at £100,000 each and end up with the same amount of cash. But the effort and expenses of doing the latter are much much less."

I get that completely, but when 99% of people who are interested in your domains can't get hold of you, and just 1% of them would pay the high asking price, you would be missing out on numerous extra £100,000 sales each year. Like I said, hire a sales person to filter out the crap.

Example scenario: I want to buy word.co.uk from him and can see he is the owner and am willing to pay xx,xxx for it. I can't find any way of reaching him so i decide to go for wordshop.co.uk or wordgroup.co.uk, etc. Considering the size and quality of his portfolio, how many instances must there be of this every year?

You might be right, but for me it doesn't compute IF he is interested in selling his portfolio, even at high-end prices.

Marcoose · Apr 12, 2017

aZooZa said:
The last thing I want to hear about is Schwartz and the .com market. You have to take all that with a pinch of salt as you never hear about the dogs he's registered. So much bravado and hubris across the pond. As @Marcoose says, he's too far off the radar and he DOES sell occasionally to balance renewal fees. Anyway, I'm sticking with (1) in my theories above.

I've never met him but will go with 1 or 2 - risky strategy imo considering what could happen to the UK.

Edwin · Apr 12, 2017

What you may not see is that despite all the "obstacles", he does end up making sales.

I happen to have an old list from 2005 of 23 "solid" domains that he used to own (as part of some research I was doing into the various large portfolio holders back then - and no, I won't be sharing the list)

Of the original 23 domains, he still owns just 5 now. I recognise the names of many of the current owners as entities which have meaningfully invested in the aftermarket (I've sold a few names to some of them myself) and others are obvious "end user" businesses.

Marcoose · Apr 12, 2017

Edwin said:
What you may not see is that despite all the "obstacles", he does end up making sales.

I happen to have an old list from 2005 of 23 "solid" domains that he used to own (as part of some research I was doing into the various large portfolio holders back then - and no, I won't be sharing the list)

Of the original 23 domains, he still owns just 5 now. I recognise the names of many of the current owners as entities which have meaningfully invested in the aftermarket (I've sold a few names to some of them myself) and others are obvious "end user" businesses.

That's fair enough. Congratulations to them for being able to get hold of him

.

Edwin · Apr 12, 2017

If your email didn't bounce, but you got no reply, try adding a zero to your offer. I assume if you do that enough times you may eventually get through.

Marcoose · Apr 12, 2017

Edwin said:
If your email didn't bounce, but you got no reply, try adding a zero to your offer. I assume if you do that enough times you may eventually get through.

Haha. I'll bear that in mind when I do try the email above.

Edwin · Apr 12, 2017

Marcoose said:
Haha. I'll bear that in mind when I do try the email above.

Good luck! You'll be in excellent company if you succeed.

aZooZa · Apr 12, 2017

I happen to have access to a list of the entire UK zone file ownership (NOT PRSS) as of 5 months ago - I also won't be sharing that. All you're saying is that he sold a few - we know that - and 2005 is yonks ago. As I suggested, he does sell to cover renewals.

ian · Apr 12, 2017

I'm in agreement with @Marcoose on this; I can understanding wanting to be a little harder to find to avoid the low ball offers, but being so far off the radar, you wouldn't think that would benefit him but I assume does. Unless of course he has no interest in selling domains, but then we know that not to be the case. I made a significant offer on a domain (on behalf of a wealthy client), which from what I recall got through to an associate of Andy, who in turn said he'd pass the offer on. Never heard anything back, only to find the domain sell on Sedo for low 5 figures months later! Doesn't suggest sound business strategy to me, but then I don't hold the portfolio he does, nor know how his business operates.

aZooZa · Apr 12, 2017

@ian Maybe there's a psychological problem we haven't thought of. Agoraphobia sounds like a good candidate given the scenario you describe. Seriously.

Edwin · Apr 12, 2017

Now this discussion is becoming unfair. We know nothing about the guy, so how is it acceptable to speculate about his mental health on an open forum?

Anyway, the OP has his answer.

aZooZa · Apr 12, 2017

I'm not the only one @Edwin. I think you alluded to a 'baffling psychology' earlier, but not verbatim. I don't know why you're being pedantic here.

Yes, I think this thread is 'done and dusted'.

keys · Apr 12, 2017

To give this some context, the person in question made a public four figure charity donation years ago, in relation to domain names. From this and his location we might assume he is well funded.

Skinner · Apr 12, 2017

Visiting his business domain it, has the same email i last used on it.

Looking at the 2 times i spoke to him, (2008/2012) the email replies were quite quick, the emails i sent with no offer were ignored, so were the ones asking for a price.

Alternatively has anyone here tried, writing a letter and sending it ? When I'm tracking a ghost owner down, that's what i do ?

Id imagine big business like sainsburys looking to buy Taste.co.uk would have sent a letter rather than email ? (I think taste was his not stj).

Edwin · Apr 12, 2017

I've sent paper letters, Christmas cards (yes, around Christmas), faxes - even doorstepped companies a couple of times (when I could find an address for them) when we were actively pursuing geo domains.

Sometimes none of it works, but when it does it feels pretty good!

keys · Apr 12, 2017

Under previous management this thread would have likely been removed by now, under orders of AH. It will be interesting to see if the same happens this time

ian · Apr 12, 2017

Well just fyi, my original post from August last year got bumped, I not part of the name calling or spat between members here

TallBloke · Apr 12, 2017

Skinner said:
Alternatively has anyone here tried, writing a letter and sending it ? When I'm tracking a ghost owner down, that's what i do ?

Not to AH but to other name owners I have.

It worked once too! A lovely old lady rang me back and said that her husband had passed away but she didn't know how to access the name. She gave me permission to use the content (a local interest website) as she wanted to see it kept going.

Unfortunately I didn't catch the name on the drop, some other person did and just scraped all the content from archive.org!