General Domain Information

Every day when I wake up, I motivate myself by thinking that today is going to be the day a big sale hits. Domain name sales come in with no rhyme or reason. Sometimes they develop from inbound inquiries and sometimes a bit of outbound marketing yields positive results.

Just about every important domain name sale I’ve closed started on a day like every other day. Maybe I was in the middle of breakfast when the inquiry was received. Perhaps I was out running an errand or playing soccer with the kids when a prospective buyer responded to an outbound email I sent. An average day like every other day turned into a great day real fast.

Today is going to be that day for someone – hopefully that someone is you.

Earlier today on Twitter, Rick Schwartz posted something I agree with and want to amplify – cash is king right now:

When people start buying things other people start buying

When people stop buying things other people stop buying

When people start selling things other people start selling

When nobody is buying & nobody is selling: As I've been saying: CASH IS KING!#Domains #DomainNames pic.twitter.com/vKSBJsMROE

— RickSchwartz.com 👑 The Domain King® 👑 Since 1995 (@DomainKing) September 23, 2022

Despite the high rate of inflation that is essentially devaluing currency, having cash on hand is critically important. I think many people are going to be facing tough times in the months ahead, and having cash in the bank is important.

I am in a fortunate spot, but I have been doing a few things to batten down the hatches and fortify my cash position:

Back in the day, I collected Kenner Starting Lineup figurines. There was a point, I recall, that some of them has some value. Even with the rising value of sports collectibles over the last couple of years, I don’t think Starting Lineup figurines grew much in value.  In fact, I gave several of my figurines to my son, who immediately ripped them out of their boxes and began playing with them. There was more value to me in seeing him have fun than there could ever be in the boxes.

In 1991, Hasbro acquired Kenner and has owned the Starting Lineup brand since that point in time. I don’t think the company has produced Starting Lineup figurines in many years though. According to NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, Hasbro is bringing back Starting Lineup figurines:

This morning I received an inbound offer for one of my domain names. The email address used was a person’s name @companyname.info. I did a Google search for the person and the company name, and there was a match. The person is a senior executive at the company in the email. The .info extension set off an alarm bell in my head though.

A Whois search at DomainTools shows the .info domain name was created less than a month ago. The company where this prospective buyer appears to work operates on the company .com domain name. The .info and .com domain names are registered at different domain registrars. The phone number that was left is not a valid number.

A widely circulated quote purportedly stated by Bill Gates has been making the rounds for years in domain forums, on for sale landing pages, and elsewhere in the domain investment space.

“Domains have and will continue to go up in value faster than any other commodity ever known to man.”

This quote may or may not be factual. One thing that is for sure is that it wasn’t uttered or written by the Microsoft Founder and current billionaire. This opinionated statement was once shared by Rick Schwartz, who commented on how the quote came to be attributed to Bill Gates:

2022 started off on a very strong note. I closed some great deals, and things were looking positive, despite some dire economic predictions. The Summer has been quite slow, and I am sure it is not isolated to my business.

As a result of this roller coaster year so far, I have been maintaining the status quo. I am opportunistically buying good domain names, but my priority is to preserve cash for a longer downturn. On the sale side, I am still saying “no” quite a bit, as I am not motivated to move good names for prices I believe are too low. I would say I am more willing to move replaceable inventory for more reasonable prices though.