Buying Domain Names

“Or Submit Your Best Offer”

When inquiring to purchase a domain name, I often receive a reply that includes a price along with my favorite phrase in this type of scenario: “… or submit your best offer.”

Why do I love this phrase? From my perspective, it means that the price is flexible, and while the domain owner would like to sell the name for a specific price, it isn’t a firm price. Without a doubt, I always reply to this with a lower offer. It really makes no sense not to do that, unless you really need the domain name and can’t take a chance that the owner doesn’t reply.

One thing you can take from this is that when you’re asked about the price of one of your domain names, you probably don’t want to encourage the potential buyer to submit a lower offer. Perhaps he will do that anyway, but why encourage it? If he doesn’t respond positively to your price, you can always follow up at a later time and ask him what he was thinking in terms of price.

This may seem pretty obvious to an  astute  domain investor, but I see it happen all the time, and I love it when it happens when I am buying!

Recent Purchases… How About You?

I haven’t hand registered many new domain names lately, but I’ve been bidding on quite a few at NameJet as well as buying in private. I want to share some of my recent acquisitions and would be interested in hearing about yours.

Some of the names have been sold already, some have been purchased to flip, and at least one is going to be developed by me.

  • DogGroomers.com (almost launched)
  • SlipperyElm.com (Google it)
  • BootWarmer.com
  • AlpacaFurs.com
  • AntiqueCollections.com (1996 registration date, predates Antiques.com)
  • VegetableGarden.com
  • DogWasteDisposal.com
  • NashuaJobs.com
  • LimestoneTile.com
  • OffshoreWebHosting.com
  • VineyardEquipment.com
  • SchoolPsychologist.com
  • VisitSaoPaulo.com
  • HorseCorrals.com

I don’t really have a specific interest as you can see, but looking more for aged, exact match product or service domain names in .com only.

What have you bought recently?

What to Do if Your Domain Name is Owned by a Domain Investor… Not

It’s a fear that many small business owners have when they want to go online. “Their” domain name is already owned by someone, and even worse, it’s owned by a domain investor. They can either try to buy that domain name, which will probably be expensive, or they can register something else creative.

SEO Bill Hartzer commented on an image of a domain name posted to Flickr by Michael Dorausch. I thought the domain name was unique, and you have to give props to this  ingenious  Philadelphia chiropractor whose customers must have great memories.

Yes, it really is ChiropractorPhiladelphiaPAChiropractorPhiladelphiaPA.com. I wonder what it’s like for him and his staff to direct people to the website.

This is an example of what I don’t think you should do if your ideal domain name is already owned by someone else.

Wanted: CityJobs.com Domain Names

I have a buyer looking to acquire US CityJobs.com domain names, such as BostonJobs.com, PhiladelphiaJobs.com, SeattleJobs.com…etc.  The domain names must meet all of the following criteria to be considered for acquisition.  If one is not met, please do not waste your time or ours since this is a very specific purchase:

  • US city with a population of 90,000 or more in the city limits
  • Exact city name like Boston or Detroit, not BostonMA or something else
  • .COM only
  • Domain registration must be pre-2004

Please post the domain name and price in the comment section or email it to me. Domain name must be priced. I am not taking a commission on the sale, so don’t mark it up for that purpose.

If you have any questions, please read above. Again, please do NOT waste our time with a domain name that does not meet all requirements. I can guarantee you that the buyer will not be interested in anything else right now.

Francois Carrillo Launches DomainHacks.com

One of the more popular web 2.0ish website branding ideas from startups is to use domain hacks. Many companies do this in lieu of the standard “web 2.0” creative names that reside on .com, most likely because even these domain names aren’t available to hand register.

In case you aren’t aware, a “domain hack” is a domain name that uses the ccTLD extension as part of the branding instead of .com.  For example. the url shortening company known as Bitly operates primarily on Bit.LY, using the .LY extension, which is overseen by the government of Libya.  Smartly, the company also owns Bitly.com in the event of consumer confusion.

Francois Carrillo, the owner of Domaining.com, has recently launched DomainHacks.com as a marketplace to buy and sell domain hack domain names.  This comes on the heels of other marketplace and website launches, including NumericDomains.com, CAX.com, and Flipping.CO, which have both launched in the last several months.

Carrillo’s network of domain investing investing websites is impressive, and it wouldn’t surprise me if one of the larger domain companies makes a play to acquire it because of the traffic and eyeballs it commands.

If you are interested in looking to buy domain hacks, Name.com offers some competitive pricing on many ccTLD extensions. I personally don’t own any domain hacks, but it’s an opportunity some people might be interested in researching.

What’s the Least Valuable Domain Extension?

Aside from some small speculation in new TLDs, I don’t really buy anything other than .COM domain names. In fact, I looked through my Moniker account where the bulk of my domain names are registered, and around 2% are not .COM names. 2% may even seem him to some people, but keep in mind that this includes personal names like ElliotSilver.net/.info and other protective registrations rather than investments.

I recently saw a couple of decent keyword domain names for sale in a domain forum, but because they were in an “alternate” (not ccTLD) extension, the price was pretty low and there were still no bids.   One name would be a high 6 or low 7 figure city.com domain name, but the owner was asking for under $2,000 without any interest or public offers. I also think this domain name in its country code ccTLD would be worth several thousand dollars.

It got me thinking about the value of non-.com domain names (I was not considering ccTLD domain names). In your opinion, what is the least valuable domain extension? Feel free to post the reason you think the extension doesn’t have much value. This is more out of morbid curiosity than anything else.

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