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Atom.com: “Suspected Phishing” Warning (Update)

I received an email from Atom.com notifying me that one of my domain names has been added to its new Sapphire Marketplace, which was announced earlier today:

When I attempted to login to my account on Atom.com, I saw an alarming message on my Chrome browser with a warning:

Domain Academy Offering Free “Domain Detox” Webinar

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As my portfolio has become larger, I have been spending more time evaluating whether to renew domain names or let them expire and save money. A domain name that looked good to me in 2016 may not look so good today. Renewals for .com domain names may be just in the $10/year range, but there’s no sense in throwing good money after bad money.

When I am evaluating domain names, I look at several factors, some of which are hard numbers and others are gut instinct. Some of these factors include the following:

Samba.com Expiry Auction Winning Bid was $143,000

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Samba.com was the most exciting expiry auction I’ve been following for a while. The domain name had once been owned by a company in Saudi Arabia, and it was auctioned on NameJet. Samba is a genre of music and a dance style that originated in Brazil. The descriptive term is used in branding by many companies around the world.

Before the auction, I was planning to bid and had set aside $50-75k in my mind to buy the domain name. I figured there was a somewhat reasonable chance I would be in contention, but I thought that would not likely be enough to win the domain name. I figured I would try and let the market decide if I would take the name home or not.

Spaceship Offering .coms Below Wholesale Pricing

The wholesale price of a .com domain name charged by Verisign (the .com registry operator) is approaching $10/year. I currently pay a little more than $11/year including the additional ICANN fee for my .com domain names at GoDaddy.

This morning, Namecheap and Spaceship Founder and CEO Richard Kirkendall announced that Spaceship is offering .com domain names for $4.98. There is no coupon or promo code necessary, and apparently there is no limit to how many domain names can be registered.

The promotion was posted on X:

Macro.com Was Acquired for $600k in 2022

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In 2023, I noticed a company called Macro had announced a big funding round, and it was using Macro.com for its website. Its brand matching domain name caught my attention, and I learned the company had rebranded after being founded under the Coparse brand:

Last night on LinkedIn, Macro CEO Jacob Beckerman shared some background about the domain name acquisition, including the purchase price.

My Portfolio is Now 7.5% Non .com with a 10% Goal

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For years, I would almost never touch non .com domain names. Reflecting changes I have noticed across the aftermarket, my viewpoint has been evolving. My portfolio now consists of approximately 7.5% non .com domain names. My goal is to increase that to 10% by the end of this year.

I believe the top 3 extensions I own beyond .com are:

  • .CO
  • .XYZ
  • .VC

I am primarily an opportunistic buyer for domain names in alternative extensions. I don’t go out seeking to privately buy non-.com domain names like I do with .com, but I will bid on good opportunities I see in expiry auctions. I believe I have only spent low four figures on one non .com domain name. Everything else has been below $1,000 and mostly below $500. I am strictly a vulture non .com buyer, so there’s no need to pitch me your domain names.

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