Ten Recent Acquisitions

Elliot Silver
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54

I want to share ten recent acquisitions with you and hope you do the same in the comment section. I haven’t hand registered many names in the past few weeks, but I have been focusing on private acquisitions and auctions.

Here is a selection of new acquisitions from the past few weeks. I am keeping a few acquisitions private, mostly for competitive reasons. My corporate website lists additional investments of mine.

  • EventPlanner.com
  • EventPlanner.net
  • Tourmaline.com – (1995 registration, Tourmaline is becoming a popular gem for  jewelry)
  • OnlineAuctioneers.com
  • Jotters.com
  • ChelseaRealEstate.com
  • Choirs.com
  • CoalAsh.com
  • HousekeepingCompany.com
  • LivingDonor.com

What are some of your recent acquisitions and purchases?

Thanks to Afternic for Helping with an Acquisition

Elliot Silver
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24

I want to give a big thank you to Afternic for helping me complete a private acquisition this past week. With the help of Neil Kavanaugh, Aaron Visaggio and Becca Clifford, I was able to purchase CallCenters.com (for an undisclosed sum).

When I worked at AIG, I managed direct marketing programs, which included telemarketing campaigns among other things. When we launched a new product or needed to make significant modifications to a campaign, I would occasionally fly to the various call centers we used in West Virginia and Florida. I am not all that familiar with call center operations, but I do know there is big money in call centers and it’s a very competitive market in the US and around the world.

Back in 2006-07, I made a large offer for CallCenters.com, but I didn’t receive a reply from the owner. There was a website on the domain name, so I assumed it wasn’t available to purchase and I moved on to other domain names.

A few days ago, I was reviewing some names on BuyDomains when I saw a listing for CallCenters.com. Although it was after business hours, I called the company and asked if Neil was still in the office. Luckily he was. I told him I wanted to buy the name but needed him to confirm that the listing was completely legit. He did some research and made contact with the owner, confirming it was a legitimate listing. He put me in touch with Aaron who helped complete the transaction. It was handed off to Becca who works in the escrow and transfers department, and she was able to complete the transfer in less than one business day.

Frankly, this was one of the smoothest transactions I’ve had in quite some time. I appreciate the help I was given to ensure an easy transaction, and I also appreciate the fact that Afternic agreed to keep the transaction price private. It’s nice to have Afternic as an advertiser on my blog, but it’s even better to work with them on a deal like this.

Why Publishing an Acquisition May Be a Good Idea

Elliot Silver
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21

I have a couple of colleagues who buy great domain names in specific verticals. We’ve done business before, and it seems that whenever I bring them a great domain name, they always balk at the price at first and refer me to a report about a great purchase the company made within the past two years.

That purchase was a steal of a deal in my opinion, and they now use it as a comparable when someone brings them a name to purchase or when they are in the midst of negotiations.

Recent comps are a great tool to use when negotiating. Without a MLS system, there are few ways to really value a particular domain name, and a comp shows actual market data. If you can show a buyer or seller a comparable sale, that person might be more inclined to negotiate in your favor, and it’s a great way to say, “your asking price isn’t in touch with reality.”

When you buy a specific type of domain name and are continuing to buy without plans to sell, it might behoove you to report your lower priced acquisitions to an outlet like DNJournal. If you snag a steal of a deal, you can direct future negotiations to that sales report in the hopes that they will see it as a comparable sale. The seller may do his or her own research to find other comps, but if there aren’t many out there, it could be a great way to get a domain name you want at a terrific price.

Personally, I haven’t done this before because as a domain seller, I don’t want my purchase price disclosed. I do think someone who has no sales plans but wants to buy more names in a particular vertical could benefit from having “beneficial” comps reported.

Recent Acquisitions & Registrations

Elliot Silver
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81

I haven’t done this in a while, so I thought I would share a few domain names I recently acquired (that I still own) and several that I recently hand registered. I am always buying great domain names at solid prices because my business model requires me to keep buying and selling.

If you’d like, you are welcome to post your aftermarket purchases (auctions or private acquisitions) and hand registrations in the comment section below.

  • Haggadahs.com – Jewish prayerbook for Passover (acquisition)
  • ConferencePlanners.com (acquisition)
  • HealthLoan.com (acquisition)
  • ChestnutHillRealEstate.com  (acquisition)
  • PortugueseWaterDogBreeder.com (hand registered)
  • NorwichTerrierBreeder.com (hand registered)
  • IsraelHoneymoon.com (hand registered)
  • IsraelHoneymoons.com (hand registered)
  • DominicanRepublicHoneymoon.com (hand registered)
  • PreciousMetalsAssayer.com (hand registered)
  • TwoHandTouchFootball.com (hand registered)
  • CasinoFundraisers.com  (hand registered)

As always, if you have stellar domain names you are looking to sell for a good price, let me know. I need to buy some more great domain names.

It’s President’s Day here in the US, and I am going to be somewhere I won’t be able to get good reception, so comments may not be approved as quickly as usual.

Tip to Make a Fair Purchase Offer

Elliot Silver
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9

As a domain investor who flips domain names for a living, I think that making a reasonable offer for an acquisition target is one of the most challenging things I do. If my offer is too low, I likely won’t receive a reply from the owner. If the offer is too high, I won’t make a profit when I try to re-sell the domain name.

Making a fair and reasonable opening offer is the best way to close a deal. For me (and from my perspective), knowing what is a fair offer and what is a lowball offer is mostly gut feel, but it’s also knowing what the market is and has been for similar domain names.

One thing I recommend doing before making an offer on a domain name, especially if you are talking high 4, 5, or 6 figures, is doing some market research on that domain name and other, similar domain names. I recommend checking out NameBio.com or DNSalesPrice.com to see if they have sales in their database you can either use to determine a fair offer or even justify your offer when you receive a response. I recommend checking for the actual name, synonyms, and variations of the name – like -ing, -ed, -es…etc.

Both NameBio.com and DNSalesPrice.com have sales archives for domain names you might not have heard about selling. For instance, you might not see a full sales report on domain sales under $1,000, but they might have been archived on one of those websites. It’s also a great way to learn about other names that sold, and perhaps if you see a name that sold for a great price, you can target that name as an acquisition in the future.

I recommend doing your market research before making an offer because that will help guide you on making a fair offer. Should the domain owner tell you that your offer is way off, you can reply with a link to a sales report justifying your offer amount and telling the owner that you think it’s fair when compared to a recent sale.

TossPillows.com – A Buying Opportunity?

Elliot Silver
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33

I spent the morning at the New York International Gift Fair piers, and one of the things I noticed was that there were a lot of companies selling toss pillows. There were all sorts of fabrics, colors, sizes, and designs – literally thousands of toss pillows.

As I usually do when I come home from a show like this, I did some Whois searches to find domain names that might be of interest based on what I saw at the show (it’s one reason I bought NightLights.com a couple months ago). I saw that TossPillows.com is owned by domain investor Garry Chernoff, and the name is listed for sale at Sedo with a buy it now price of $2,500. I think this is a reasonable price, although I am not planning on buying it. The exact match search volume for “toss pillows” is 1,900.

From my perspective, this is a great domain name, although there are a couple of downsides. First, there are hundreds of manufacturers of pillows and thousands of designs. As a result, it might be tough to sell these pillows online since there’s such an assortment. Second, toss pillows are also called “throw pillows” so there might be a bit of confusion. That said, for $2,500, it might be a good investment.

Disclosure: Although Sedo is an advertiser, they did NOT ask me to post this (nor did Garry) and I did NOT use an affiliate or tracking link. I wanted to post this disclosure because I am sure someone will make an incorrect assumption about my intent with this post.

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