Sell or Hoard ?

[Skinner]

I keep seeing people with 1000s of domains some nice names but crazy valuations on them.

So i can't help but wonder if its better to hoard and hope or grab the cash and run ?

I mean for a £5 investment, it maybe worth £10,000 to the right buyer but surely there are dozens of buyers waiting with £1000, how long do you do you wait for Mr Right ?

I have been in that situation, seen a domain I'd like for my own use thats valued at £2500 but it aint worth that to me, to me it was worth about £800, and the domainer says no offers under asking price, I can't help but wonder if hoarding them is a good idea.

I mean if ICANN make it easier to start up a TLD or Extention, aint .co.uk's going to take a hit if someone sets up say .gb or .uks or something, is hoarding them a bad idea ?

 

[mat]

.gb failed along time ago and .co.uk's are .uk's!!!

All the new TLD's are going to do is clutter and make a complete mess of the internet. Mainly all bought up in the first few seconds by people hoping for the next big TLD that will just end up in the .mobi, .me, .cc pile etc. Im not looking forward to it to be honest, its a money making scam.

As for hoarding if the seller wants to hoard its fine, they obviously dont need the money and know what they want for the domain. Secretly im sure you know its true value aswell, but ofcourse like all of us you would prefer to have a bargain

 

[rob]

I mean if ICANN make it easier to start up a TLD or Extention, aint .co.uk's going to take a hit if someone sets up say .gb or .uks or something, is hoarding them a bad idea ?

I believe the rules state they wont allow extensions that conflict with an existing one.

Besides you could setup .eng .cym etc tomorrow and I doubt they would fly very high at all compared to .co.uk .

 

[Skinner]

The domains I have seen are my Equivilent to your Matthew name, just a personal address, or names I'd like for my own use rather than to buy and sell, so the value I place on names like is what its worth to me personally and I can justify spending £10,000 on an investment if I can see it getting big, but not on something I'm going to keep.

I guess I wonder if they are actually trying to sell them or putting the price so high that they won't sell ?

Mat, if you had a domain name up for £2500, and lets say its due to expire (so you had likely had it 2 yrs and still its sat there) would you likely entertain lower offers behind closed doors ? By lower offers I mean in the 40-60% mark not like 10% area. To sell while the money is there rather than wait and hope ?

Secretly im sure you know its true value aswell, but ofcourse like all of us you would prefer to have a bargain

I guess your right, if you have the money then you can wait forever since eventually Mr Right will come.

 

[rob]

The domains I have seen are my Equivilent to your Matthew name, just a personal address, or names I'd like for my own use rather than to buy and sell, so the value I place on names like is what its worth to me personally and I can justify spending £10,000 on an investment if I can see it getting big, but not on something I'm going to keep.

The arguement could be if its a long term thing, spread the cost over several years and it becomes cheap. I paid £2050 for my name .co.uk in open auction back in t'day which split to date means £400 a year ish. Well worth it Back then a few had said I was nuts and it was overpriced. Today the cost would be a fair few quid more no doubt, and even higher if a bloke with the same name as me owned it from that sale!

I guess I wonder if they are actually trying to sell them or putting the price so high that they won't sell ?

Or playing the percentages that if they own 1000 names and sell 1% a year they are doing well Likewise the cost of holding a domain is very low so unless the incentive to sell is high, they dont shift.

If it is a forename or surname I would advise nabbing it sooner than later.

 

[Skinner]

I'll get worried when I have 1000s in rolling stock unless they are 1 word generics or pronouncable 3-5 letter names.

I also wonder if people get hooked to the hoarding of names rather than the buying and selling.

the Forename isnt for sale the surname the chap at giaffe.co.uk has and his starting prices are so high KY Jelly is a prerequisite

Just my curiosity more than anything.

 

[accelerator]

I see domains as excellent long term investments. You can just park them or build a minisite and let the ad revenue come in as a useful dividend, whilst (if you have bought a decent name) the underlying value of the asset slowly increases. Obviously any market conditions that adversely affect the value of the asset could be bad news for those with large portfolios, but if you originally acquired the domain for reg fee or a modest sum, as many have, and you have a reasonable sized portfolio which is generating ad revenue, why be in a rush to sell?

Obviously it depends completely on what your investment strategy is, but I find myself wondering more at why people will sell good domains early at a relatively low price rather than the other way around. With the low cost of domain ownership, and the potential for ongoing profit, you have to have a good reason to sell.

Rgds

 

[Skinner]

I think alot are having the same thoughts I am, about hoard it or snap someones hand off with a reasonable offer.

I mean you could drop dead tomorrow and end up having hoarded them, so I think if the offer is reasonable then sod it, its cash in my pocket sometimes.

 

[Juniper]

With domain renewals at between £2.50 - £5, it makes sense to hold on to them, particularly if they are parked and covering renewal fees.

Last week I was offered a low end reasonable amount for a domain I own, I wanted a nearer top end reasonable offer for it , so I'm going to keep hold of it - no sale, I can wait for a better offer.

 

[Edwin]

It costs you less than 50 quid to keep a domain for a decade, so why would you rush to sell it off at a massive discount to the value you see in it when it's about to expire.

For instance, in your example scenario... the owner of the domain could sell it for 800 pounds now and save a 6 pound renewal fee, or he/she could hold off for the asking price of 2,500 pounds. The difference between the two prices is 1,700 pounds, which will buy 350 years of domain ownership! So there's the luxury of plenty of time to get the desired price. Believe me, it's not the renewal fee that's going to turn a domain investor holding thousands of domains into a desperate seller!

Think of it another way - it's a numbers game. Assuming that the names we're talking about are all so-so, ok or better generics, then someone with thousands of domains will only need to sell just over 1 in a thousand per year at 2,500 pounds to pay to keep all the others for another year.