“Investors were selling to one another, inflating prices. When the market figured this out in late 2005, it retreated with punishing speed.”
While this quote from a New York Times article is in reference to the real estate market in Cape Coral, Florida, I think this should strike a chord with some domain investors. I believe some parallels can be drawn between the Cape Coral real estate market and the three letter .com domain market, where many domain investors speculate on these names by purchasing them for great sums from other domain investors.
As strong as the domain name market has been, the three letter .com market may be susceptible to dropping in value, and domain investors should use caution when buying at current levels. On average, three letter .com domain names have made incredible leaps in valuation over the past few years according to the price guide at 3character.com. From just a few hundred dollars a few years ago to several thousand dollars today, average prices for three letter .com domain names have seen extraordinary increases in valuation. In my opinion, we are in a period of inflated pricing, not really supported by any reasoning, other than the perceived rarity of the names (there are 17,576 in existence).
These short, easy to remember names might have tremendous value to a few companies, but many of these end user companies wouldn’t be willing to pay close to the current sales value for them. It can also be difficult to monetize these domain names. Frequently, consumers are looking for a particular product or company who may use that particular acronym officially or unofficially when they navigate to that domain name. If the domain owner uses the domain name for parking, and the parking company shows links for the company who uses the acronym, the domain owner may be at risk for a UDRP.
Inflated prices may also be affecting other types of domain names within the industry, however, it seems that this is one area where people are paying large sums simply because of the type of name, rather than what can be done with it, especially when the 3 letters don’t necessarily mean anything or stand for anything particular. In my opinion, this is like people buying houses in Cape Coral, Florida simply because the values continued to increase without a real impetus for the jump in perceived value.
I am not saying that all or most three letter .com domain names may be overvalued. I am merely suggesting that domain investors proceed with caution as the values of these names continues to increase. I would also say that like most nice generic domain names, I am a buyer if the price is right.
What do you guys think? As always, I welcome your comments…
