Daily Poll

There is growing talk about GDPR compliance that will likely cause major changes to the Whois database. Most of the changes are still up in the air, and there have been discussions about what to do in the short term while a long term solution is hammered out.

From my vantage point, this is going to change the business of domain investing. I don’t know if it will have a major impact or if the Whois change will end up simply adding a step or two to the process of contacting domain owners or performing due diligence.

Perhaps it is just me, but it does not seem like most domain investors are concerned about this. Perhaps it is a lack of awareness or maybe people think things will work out in the end. I am curious if you are concerned about Whois changes that are likely coming as a result of GDPR compliance. I invite you to vote in the poll below and share your thoughts.

There have probably been dozens of times where I noticed the exact match .com domain name of someone famous expired and it had been previously owned by them or someone associated with them. On occasion (very rarely), I have reached out to the person or to their representatives to let them know about the expiry and what will happen if the domain name isn’t renewed.

For whatever reason, people don’t always respond kindly. I guess some people think I am trying to scam them or think I am somehow trying to take something from them. I guess domain name ownership is still a bit foggy for most people, and they have their guard up when someone emails them out of the blue. This has made me a bit reluctant to contact people because I don’t really want a nice “head’s up” to turn into a time suck.

If you noticed the domain name of someone famous expired and was going to auction if not renewed, would you contact them to let them know?

In a tweet over the weekend, George Kirikos shared what appears to be the purchase price for the Purple.com domain name, which sold last year. According to the SEC document George referenced, it appears that Purple.com sold for $900,000 although I don’t know if there was any confirmation beyond the SEC document. After George’s tweet, there was some discussion about whether this was a good deal for the buyer or seller.

In looking at some color .com domain name sales, it seems like a pretty reasonable price. In addition, Black.com was listed for sale for $750,000 last year, and it subsequently sold for an amount that was not publicly reported. Personally, I think Black.com is a more valuable domain name, although I can’t think of a major brand called “Black” off the top of my head (the AmEx “Black” card is my first thought, although that is branded as Centurion). On the other hand, there are very few domain names of the caliber of Purple.com, and in the back of my mind it just feels like a seven figure domain name.

I can see why people might believe it was a good deal for the buyer, and I can also see why this was a good price for the seller.

Today’s poll asks whether you think the Purple.com sale was good for the buyer, the seller, or a fair deal for both parties based on the information we know (update: from my reading of this tweet, there may be more to the story that is unknown to me). You are always welcome to share additional thoughts beyond voting in the poll:

When I sell a domain name, I don’t usually know how it will be used. I can make an educated assumption based on the buyer and the domain name, but I don’t always have a clear picture of how it will be used. On occasion, I will look back to track how a domain name is being used, but for the most part, I don’t really keep track of domain names after I sell them. I guess I don’t want to know if I undersold a name or not!

Do you track your domain names after you sell them?

Although my domain portfolio has grown from around 400 – 500 domain names to 500 – 600 domain names over the past 5 years, I still keep a relatively small portfolio. I have always tried to keep a tidy portfolio to keep operating costs low and focus on higher value acquisitions. My acquisition rate is probably similar to my sale rate, which explains why the portfolio size has not grown much over the years.

I have met people with portfolios of all sizes. I know people with a couple of dozen domain names and I know people who own or manage portfolios with hundreds of thousands of domain names. How many domain names do you have in your portfolio?

Ron Jackson published an article about the Crypto.com domain name referencing an article written earlier on TheVerge.com. As one might imagine, the owner of Crypto.com has been inundated with purchase inquiries and offers to buy Crypto.com. In the article published on TheVerge.com, several people gave their valuations of Crypto.com, and I want to open that question up to more people.

The owner of Crypto.com seems to have made it very clear that the domain name is not for sale. I can only assume that the owner won’t budge from that position, but things can change when larger offers are made. Maybe it is easy to turn down $5 million for a domain name if you don’t need the money, but perhaps a $25 million offer would mean generational wealth and change the owner’s position. I have no idea if a large enough offer would get the owner to sell Crypto.com, but I thought I would ask readers what they think the domain name is worth.