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Spaceship Hits 10 Million Domains Under Management

Pardon the pun, but Spaceship is flying through milestones as it hits the 10 million Domains Under Management (DUM) mark. It was less than a year ago that Spaceship hit the 5 million DUM milestone. Spaceship is the three year old sister company of Namecheap, which is also one of the largest domain registrars in existence.

According to the company’s announcement this morning (posted below), Spaceship hit this “milestone faster than any domain registrar in history.” According to Domain Name Stat, which has Spaceship’s DUM above 11 million, the company is closing in on becoming one of the top 5 largest domain registrars. If it continues its growth trajectory, I think that will be within reach next year. You can track Spaceship’s DUM count on its website.

Leaves.com Launched with Help from Claude

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I bought Leaves.com in 2019. Shortly thereafter, I received and declined a $100,000 offer for the domain name. Depending on who you ask, perhaps I should have taken the offer. I’ve had numerous inquiries and offers since then, but $100k was the highest offer.

Last week, I received an offer for Leaves.com, but it wasn’t enough to get a deal done. The offer put the domain name at the top of my mind, and I thought it could be a great platform for a website that tracks fall foliage across the US. Living in New England, I have always loved the fall season as the leaves slowly change color before eventually falling as winter hits.

Domain Investing Tools I Use Daily

I use a handful of domain investing tools on a daily basis. The primary purpose is evaluating domain names I want to buy in auction, but I also use some of these tools to price my own domain names and submit educated offers on domain names I want to buy. I also use some of these tools to do background research for domain name related articles on my blog.

About half of the tools I use every day are available for anyone to use for free. Some offer paid account options as well, but have free versions that come with limits on searches and functionality. Other tools are paid and have different fee structures, primarily based on usage and the tools that are used on the platform. One tool I use is paid, but I have been given a journalist account that allows me to use it for research at no cost.

Here is a list of the domain tools I use just about every day:

‘Look for a less valuable domain name’

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I receive many lowball offers. I’ve done some things on my landing pages and inquiry forms to try and reduce the tire kickers and silly offers, but I still get them on a regular basis. These days, my standard response to someone who submitted a lowball offers is along these lines:

“You should look for a less valuable domain name.”

Succinct and to the point without the “thanks for your interest” niceties that sort of run counter to my abridged reply.

SoldNames.com Launched by Estibot

Estibot launched SoldNames.com, a new platform that tracks and reports domain name sales and live auctions. SoldNames.com is free to use, and visitors do not need to create an account or log in to access its data and track live domain name auctions. The platform reportedly has hundreds of thousands of domain name sales at the $250 price point and above.

Estibot shared the launch news on its blog, along with more information about SoldNames.com and the tools available on the platform. I also understand there is an API available for people who want to use it for larger searches or to integrate its results within other platforms.

Fractionalizing a Domain Name is an “Encumbrance”

A couple of years ago, the valuable MJ.com domain name was offered up in fractionalized shares on the Rally platform. People could buy shares of the domain name at a $950,000 market cap via Rally in the hopes the domain name would one day be sold profitably.

Apparently, that day has come. According to Andrew Rosener, who helped bring domain names to the Rally platform, people who invested in MJ.com at the start made a little more than 40% return on their investment. I understand that Andrew agreed to sell MJ.com for the $1.4 million price because over 70% of investors (not including Andrew) voted to sell.