Domain investors aren’t averse to risk. Many people who actively invest in domain names have experience with other types of investments. Some investment classes are fairly standard and others may be more exotic.
What types of investments do you have in addition to domain names?
I think there are many people who unknowingly registered trademark related domain names. Some of these domain names may be egregious while others were registered and an obscure or unknown company claims to have a right to the domain name.
Domain name owners receive all kinds of legal threats. From simple email exchanges to cease and desist notices, from UDRP filings to Lanham Act lawsuits, the types of threats run the gamut. I would imagine there are many domain investors, perhaps even the majority of investors, have received some sort of legal threat.
For today’s poll, I am asking readers if they have ever received a legal threat related to their domain name:
Yesterday, it was reported on NamePros that a blockchain company called Swarm acquired the Swarm.com domain name for an undisclosed sum. I have noticed quite a few cryptocurrency related businesses (platforms, exchanges, wallet, and other blockchain related entities) acquire high value brand matching .com domain names in the aftermarket. Some sales have been public (Token.com and Tokens.com) and others have been private. Most seem to come after raising capital.
From my perspective, many companies start out on inferior .com domain names or alternative extensions. Owning the exact match domain name is good for branding and can help convey trust. That is just my perspective, so take it for what it’s worth.
Today’s poll question is do you think a cryptocurrency / blockchain entity needs its exact match brand .com domain name, or do you think they would be fine without it?
At one point and for quite some time, I believe DNForum was the most widely used and perhaps most “popular” domain investing forum. I don’t think that has been the case for quite some time though.
As Domain Name Wire shared this morning, DNForum is under new ownership. Andrew wrote about the new owners of the forum and their backgrounds.
For today’s poll, I want to know if readers think they will use DNForum. I presume many people already have accounts on the forum that they would return to while others might register for a new account.
I was reading Ray Hackney’s article on TheDomains.com as well as the NamePros thread regarding DomainNames.com. Although it was later reported that the domain name was listed for sale in error, there was some talk about it being a pricing error. Some discussion then centered around whether a seller should be able to rescind a sale in the event of a pricing error.
There have been quite a few times where I inadvertently mispriced a domain name and was fortunate to catch the error before a sale was made. In fact, last week when I was repricing some of my names, I noticed one was priced at $230 instead of $2,300. I caught it in time, but it could have been frustrating for me had it sold for $230.
My company owns around 500-600 domain names. When I list them for sale with BIN prices, I am very careful to double check the prices. When I am on Afternic, I tend to add the floor price first because if I miss a 0 on the BIN price and it is lower than the floor price, Afternic will not let me post the listing. Even with a smaller domain portfolio, I can make errors, and I am sure others with larger portfolios can make errors, too. If I were to put a LLL.com domain name on the market for $25,000 and accidentally price it at $250, I would hope to be able to cancel a deal because of an obvious pricing error. Of course, if I was buying a LLL.com domain name for $250 I would hope the deal would go through!
I am curious what you think… should a seller be allowed to cancel a deal because of a pricing error?
I am sure there are lots of people who would like to sell their entire domain name portfolio. Perhaps this is to enable them to start from scratch and rebuild it based on what they have learned over time. Some might sell their portfolio for a substantial amount of money and simply retire or move on to other investments.
If a major company or investor approached you and asked to purchase your entire portfolio, what number would it take to get a deal done? As always, you are welcome to share some additional thoughts about this in the comment section.
