Mike Mann’s company owns one of the largest private domain name portfolios, which he sells via his marketplace, Â DomainMarket.com. This morning on Twitter, he announced that this has been “the best month yet” in his 20 year career selling domain names:
Ive been selling domains for 20 years. This is the best month yet.
— Mike Mann (@mikemanndotcom) March 30, 2017
While the success of one person or company doesn’t necessary mean much for the entire industry, I think Mike’s tweet is notable given the size and broad nature  of his company’s domain name portfolio.  It would be more notable for the domain name resale market  at large if other large portfolio owners also shared that they had a great month.
My company has  a relatively small portfolio of 500+/- domain names, so my monthly sales results wouldn’t be any kind of barometer for the industry in general. A few  anomalously large sales can move the needle. Essentially, the velocity of my sales and offers wouldn’t be any kind of indicator of the health of the domain name resale marketplace.
Have you had a great month for domain name sales?
Not a great month for me. Sorry about that.
I think the industry should be very careful here. The statement coincides with Mike Mann’s open marketplace debut and unless is backed-up by real data, has little to no value. Mike had every right to send out laconic statemets before, when he didn’t try to take our business, but now he simply has to abide to different rules.
Good advice, although (in my opinion) the marketplace has less to do with sales than the types of domain names that are listed for sale.
My uneducated opinion is that most of the sales are from people typing in their desired domain name, getting to the “for sale” landing page, and either buying it at the list price or negotiating a deal. Essentially, I doubt that people land on one domain name’s marketplace listing and search the marketplace for other domain names. I have zero data about this, so that is just a guess/opinion.
It would be interesting to know his average price point… Does he mean volume or earnings? His post is vague and subjective even if it’s accurate.
Its backed up by data obviously and should be clear enough just from the huge flow of posts I do with buy price and sale price. Im sorry others in the industry havent figured out the secrets, not.
Best bet is to capitulate before I actually get better code and data and capital. Right now its by the seat of my pants.
I dont have to abide by rules of scammers that is for sure. That is best thing about domains, no regulation. ICANN is just a scam and the entire industry is based on monopolistic fraud with DC payoffs.
“entire industry is based on monopolistic fraud with DC payoffs.”
No different than almost every other industry unfortunately.
I prefer to fight it out rather then let people lie and steal from me in the shadows
Good luck! Keep closing those sales!! Persistence and focus always wins.
Do you do any outbound sales or just reply to inquiries?
http://mail.5skilledgentlemen.com/Newsletter/FactSheet0619.pdf
http://www.circleid.com/posts/domain_registrars_file_lawsuit_against_icann/
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/domain-justice-coalition-members-file-lawsuit-against-icann-in-federal-court-seek-temporary-restraining-order-on-wls-70787982.html
http://myhost.org/Newsletter/PressRelease0619.pdf
256,000 domains at $7.87 = $2,014,720 annual renewal fees / 12 months = $167,893 just to break even thru renewals, not including operational expenses, maybe commissions thru other venues.
Round up to $200K per month break even?
Key here, ICANN sought the support of Department of Commerce, controlled by Senator Warner of Virginia, in bed with Network Solutions/Verisign forever, and tied to CIA, huge scam whole time, why your domains are so expensive
Godaddy was even a good guy back then
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/turner-decl-17jul03-en.pdf
I’ve been managing a portfolio of 40-45K domains for the past 2.5 years and this has been one of the best, if not the best month I’ve had to date. When I say this, I’ve not included months where there’s been an outlier sale (6-figures or higher). My comment is based on volume of sales in the $1,000 – $20,000 range.
Congrats to Mike!
Personally things are quite well, when I look back my bigger months always look like Dec/Jan/August.
Odd perhaps but I suspect for tax reasons I see this and then buyers are ready to go again by summer. Just a theory…
While I do agree that Mike’s best month may have been influenced by his premium portfolio and recent push in evaluations, I don’t think we can rule out the fact that his brand/marketing campaign has been pretty strong the last 60 days on social networks. His social campaign is a viable metric when factoring in a months success rate.
Congrats on a record breaking month Mike! 😉
This month I only have one sale at BrandBucket..
Last month I had 3 sales at BrandBucket 1 at Uniregistry and 1 at Afternic.
I have a portfolio of about 1,000 Names.
This year is going well so far.
No sales (yet) for March. Had sales in December, January, and February.
I can’t help but think all you domainers are doing it all wrong.
Now is NOT the time to sell. Now is the time to BUY. BUY. BUY. BUY.
I have not sold one single domain in 2017. And believe me, I get a couple unsolicited offers every single week.
If you can afford to (i.e. you have a “day job” that takes care of the bottom rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy) then it would be wise to buy and hold.
Just like ole land, they don’t make that stuff anymore. Same with choice domains. Sit on it and eventually the world will come knocking.
As well, think outside the box. Why sell at all?! I have over a hundred domains that I acquired with the intention of developing into standalone companies. I will never sell them (unless the offer is enough for me to retire). In all likelihood, I will pass on these “prime time all the time” domains to my loved ones.
Happy Domaining!