It’s just about every domain investor’s dream to turn a relatively inexpensive purchase into a hugely massive profit, but the chances of that happening are very slim. This story played out earlier in the year, and it’s my pick for the story of the year in the domain business.
Earlier this year, ChatRoulette.com was one of the most popular new websites online. People could visit the site and video chat with others throughout the world. Millions of people visited the site, and the only thing that really slowed the growth was that many users apparently thought it was appropriate to turn their video feed into a softcore porno.
In December of 2009, a domain investor hand registered the domain name CamRoulette.com. Shortly thereafter, he sold the domain name in private to Adam Strong for a reported $1,200, reaping a huge profit margin on this hand registration.
The madness didn’t start there.
In March of 2010, Adam Strong listed the domain name at DomainConsultant.com’s Domain Madness auction, where it sold for an even more massive $151,000.
To make this an even more amazing story of riches, traffic to ChatRoulette has waned since hitting its peak earlier this year, and it’s likely that if the domain name had not been sold at the time it was sold, it would not have the same value today. It’s the stuff domain investors’ dreams are made of.
Every domain investor dreams of turning a hand registered domain name investment into a huge payoff. In 2010, this happened right in front of our eyes.
This is my favorite domain name story of 2010.
One of my favs too! ;o)
Aww shucks. thanks!
Nice to see Adam turn $1200 into $151,000. Yay, Adam. Sounds like 2010 has been very good for you.
It was definitely a series of perfect timing and events that made it all possible for that sale. An extreme example of what a hand reg can accomplish in a short time. Even if your hand regs could get 5% of that end price you’d be laughing. My best this year was selling a group of 8 hand reg domains in a related subject for $4200 (domains were less than a year old), still not too bad.
The $10 to $1200 is nice, but run of the mill, no?
Nice job flipping that name Adam.
Although, it’s a shame that average domain holders will read this article and create more of in imbalance in the system with their inflated prices.
I’ve inquired to purchase some mediocre domains this year, and every single time I get a response for $xxx,xxx
Articles like these will cause the average domainer to go through the endowment effect where they create a situation of artificial scarcity for their domain name.
It’s almost as if it’s their last straw to make something of themselves. If they cant sell their $x,xxx domain for xxx,xxx they are nobody in the business and therefore convince themselves they cannot sell until they get 6 figures.
My favorite inquiry of this year was bling.com – It could of been mine, for only 25 million!
The Strong man virtually caught “Lightning in a Bottle” on that one.
That’s Hot !
Pretty nice going and definitely an interesting episode, but of course very far from run of the mill – for example I own a related name to those mentioned, camdj.com which could be argued is much better than those jackpot domain names on many factors, so far noone has ever even offered me equivalent of reg fee for it.
(btw that does not mean its for sale at that price, I recognise sometimes you have to hold something for a long time before it shows profit)