It's like a domain boot sale!

[denchomsky]

A lot of last minute (renewal) panic selling going on at the moment. Some great bargains to be had, but not that many sales considering, buyers concerned about the cost of keeping a large portfolio????

Must be pretty stressful for large portfolio holders, I just renewed my definite keepers for 2-5 years and will make a decision on the others when the time comes to renew. Glad I cut my portfolio from around 200 to about 50 over the last couple of years.

 

[humble pie]

On this point I have to agree with you David, on the whole, when I see the stuff people are renewing at the moment it beggars belief, these guys must be out of their minds, or on to something real special. I hold my hand up, I've hand reg'd, bought, caught, dropped some absolute shite. I've easily wasted 25k/30k on dross in last 15 years (hey I'm still doing it now, but there is no shame in making a mistake is there

Anyone can play this game, but its a hard game to play really well.

 

[ian]

Agreed, but so much fun trying

 

[accelerator]

Drop everything apart from the ultra high quality stuff.

Thank me in 10 years time.

 

[accelerator]

There isn't enough truly ultra high quality in .uk for everyone so it follows that those that still wish to trade in domain names will resort to other inventory. Some will do okay and others won't. When is it sound business and when is it an addiction?

The party is well and truly over.

 

[Blake]

The party is well and truly over.

That's a sad fact....

 

[baldidiot]

The nominet price change has definitely rocked the boat - think it's made people take a hard look at their portfolios and realise there's a bunch they don't want that have been accumulated of the years.

We're mainly buyers (can count on one hand the number of times we've sold, and it's usually been to friends in the industry) but we're doing an audit today of what we have, what projects they're assigned to, and what is unlikely to get developed (by us).

The latter may end up on Acorn...

 

[baldidiot]

Also from a buyers perspective the past couple of weeks have been brilliant - there's definitely a lot of people offloading their tattier domains, but we've picked up a few good interesting buys.

 

[humble pie]

Can't much left that won't have been through the system in a year or so, that'll be pretty much two decades. We must be at saturation point by now?

 

[denchomsky]

What I can't quite believe, looking at some of the huge lists of domains, is how much rubbish some people have reg'd/bought.

I have reg'd some crap domains in my time but in nowhere near the volume or consistency being displayed on some of the sales threads.

 

[Lovekraft]

We all have different size portfolios, are of varying means and having differing business ideas. Some may appear to have made crazy registration choices but I still believe there would have had to have been reasons for those. Obviously without sale values and transfer statistics from each portfolio holder I don't believe one can reasonable begin to understand motives or ascertain whether past decisions made were sensible or emotional.

In my history of registering domains, i don't recall any registrations i made as falling under "emotional".

 

[Skinner]

Its also possible the sales threads are listing their "tattier", second or third tier domains not their premium names.

 

[denchomsky]

Its also possible the sales threads are listing their "tattier", second or third tier domains not their premium names.

Tatty or not they still reg'd or bought them in mass volume.

 

[denchomsky]

A difficulty when you make this sort of statement is you seem to be too polite to provide actual references perhaps because it's considered not nice or unprofessional or possibly even bullying. Since you don't nobody can be sure exactly what you are referring to, even though it may seem obvious.

I don't want to get into a slagging match about the quality of specific members domain portfolios. There have been many times in the past where I would love to have left a negative comment in or in reference to a sales thread, but it is not allowed and yes, it's unprofessional.

It would be interesting though to ask some people what their motivations were behind some purchases.

 

[humble pie]

Let's face it, there's probably only about 1000 'premium' strings in the whole .uk namespace.

 

[humble pie]

The list is in my head.. I can mind meld it to you later

There are lots of 'good domains' but not that many great domains (left?).

It must me an undeniable fact there are only so many words in the English dictionary that will lend themselves to being suitable investment for a website/brand project, and, is that not what it all boils down to at the end of the day - but I fear many of us are living in false hope?

I've adapted this poem by Yeats a 20th-century Irish poet to emphasize my point..

But I, being poor, have only my domains;
I have spread my domains under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my domains.”

On that basis do you have the list of them?

 

[Murray]

There are lots of 'good domains' but not that many great domains (left?).

What are some examples of good and then great? just out of interest

 

[humble pie]

A good domain might be a two worder that has value, a recent example might be something like PublicSpeaking.co.uk £500+

leaflets.co.uk is obviously the beginning of the other end.

What are some examples of good and then great? just out of interest

 

[bonusmedia]

Clearly there are different views about what makes a good domain.

Domainers can guess at prices, only end users know the actual value to their businesses

 

[ian]

Well I just picked up a domain dropped by one of the big portfolio holders and resold it to an end-user for high 3 figures, so I guess one man's rubbish is another man's treasure.