Hat do you think about recentb ascii sales?

[abram lincohen]

I personally think that this is another example of clever market making (not supported by anything of value), hype, fear of dollar going down and need to buy something which at least ofers some kind of return. When I look at some domains sold I gasp-why?-sales are completely unreasonable-it will never even returnn the investment.
I think we should dedicate then part of this site to marketing. At this point we are not doing this.
Lets discuss this.

[mulligan]

Well if you offer, lets call it 'Part A' to 'Party B' but 'Party B' usually buys from 'Party A' but 'Party C' (The seller) is offering 'Party B' a really good deal and is even gonna throw in a new fitted kitchen .. for free ... then 'Party B' is in something of a quandry (He is Godfather to 'Party A's' daughter and they get together on Friday nights for a few hands of poker) but the deal being offered by 'Party C' is actually a wolf in sheeps clothing coz once you have one free fitted kitchen you want another one, and then another one and who knows where it will end.
So should 'Party B' deal with the devil he doesn't know or the devil he does?
Hmmm ... :o

[Rubber Duck]

I personally think that this is another example of clever market making (not supported by anything of value), hype, fear of dollar going down and need to buy something which at least ofers some kind of return. When I look at some domains sold I gasp-why?-sales are completely unreasonable-it will never even returnn the investment.
I think we should dedicate then part of this site to marketing. At this point we are not doing this.
Lets discuss this.

If you are going to be in charge of marketing, the rest of us might just as well slit our throats now.

Who gives a f*ck whether the domains sold are worth the price or not? At least most of the recent ones are probably genuine sales.

I think we are wasting our time even thinking about trying to talk US domainers around. Only an elite few of them understand even the basics about domaining. Chances of getting them to understand what IDN is all about let alone getting them to accept the commercial merit is probably a very long shot indeed.

The point is that large numbers of my domains are paying for themselves just being parked. As yet nothing like enough, but it is not difficult to see that reaching critical mass in the near future, with all the developments that are likely to occur before the end of the year and the knock on effect of the publicity and hype that will surround them.

Selling domains has only ever been a fall-back strategy. As the bottom has almost dropped out the market, people are tending to consolidate back to a sustainable core. Some domains that would otherwise drop are coming to market, but basically there has hardly been a half decent domain on offer here for months. Sellers are shy of the market and have just battened down the hatches. When the traffic comes the imperative to sell at all will simply evaporate. At that point, unless the ambience changes significantly the key players are likely to forum private covens and any real information is likely to go underground. Probably the inevitable consequence of having to deal with a load of time wasters and losers.

[xxbossmanxx]

Besides, the end users that we all seek are not people trying to make big bux because that is what the name does, they want the name cuz they need it.

[rhys]

I'd say nothing stops folks from marketing IDN to US domainers if they like. Please feel free to do that if you think it is important. US domainers are a legitimate source of capital, they are already proven to spend irrationally, and frankly the market would only benefit from more liquidity irrespective of the source.

But like RD, my end game has never been about selling domains, it has always been about monetizing natural traffic. I might sell a few here and there on the margins for shts and giggles but make no mistake I'm in it for traffic.

The people I would rather educate on IDNs as a whole are reporters and the media. I'd like to see one article that doesn't refer to the lot of us as cybersquatters. What we need is postive treatment of this entire asset class by the likes of CNBC or the WSJ. Hah!

[abram lincohen]

I know somebody at WSJ. I'll speak to her this week.

[touchring]

I'd say nothing stops folks from marketing IDN to US domainers if they like. Please feel free to do that if you think it is important. US domainers are a legitimate source of capital, they are already proven to spend irrationally, and frankly the market would only benefit from more liquidity irrespective of the source.


I've not seen many "US domainers" spending irrationally on IDN on this forum.

Every good marketer must know where the money and market lies. For IDN the main market is not from the US.

[jacksonm]

I wonder how long until this fool decides to reincarnate himself and start to spew sewage once again.

.

[Rubber Duck]

I wonder how long until this fool decides to reincarnate himself and start to spew sewage once again.

.

Have some sympathy. Nobody likes this guy and because he doesn't have anything intelligent to say the BS is somewhat inevitable!

Frankly, this is a strong argument for not marketing to US domainers. Ask yourself whether this guy is actually so unrepresentative of what you will find at Namepros and DNF. Do we really need so many of these complete plonkers polluting this already disfunctional site?

[jacksonm]

Have some sympathy. Nobody likes this guy and because he doesn't have anything intelligent to say the BS is somewhat inevitable!

Frankly, this is a strong argument for not marketing to US domainers. Ask yourself whether this guy is actually so unrepresentative of what you will find at Namepros and DNF. Do we really need so many of these complete plonkers polluting this already disfunctional site?

Aparrently it didn't take too long - he's back as Abraham Lincohen now, and he also created an account as AolneyAbramLincohen (or similar).

Kind of strange for a person who hates jews to use the string "cohen" in his handle.

.

[rhys]

I've not seen many "US domainers" spending irrationally on IDN on this forum.

Every good marketer must know where the money and market lies. For IDN the main market is not from the US.

Actually Touch, I was referring to what these domainers spend on ASCII as "irrational" not necessarily IDN. Many of those guys are in love with ascii crap right now and aren't into IDN yet.

[zenmarketing]

I happen to be bullish on English ASCII .com domains and IDN's, for different reasons. The markets are at totally different stages of maturity -- it makes little sense to try to compare them at this point.

I don't think it has to be an either-or thing.

... although I am just an "irrational US domainer".

[touchring]

I happen to be bullish on English ASCII .com domains and IDN's, for different reasons. The markets are at totally different stages of maturity -- it makes little sense to try to compare them at this point.

I don't think it has to be an either-or thing.

... although I am just an "irrational US domainer".


Most of us here had a try at ASCII.com, i did that also, made money initially in late 2005 - it was very hot. The ones here like wot that went in 2003/2004 made a lot of money from ASCIIS. I believe it was possible to make a few hundred grand very easily for this batch of people..... But by mid to late-2006, the ponzi had exploded. Seems to coincide with the subprime exploding? :o

As for IDNs, the market is imperfect (at least it was imperfect back then in Jan 2006, many people didn't know about idns, i think fewer than 1000 people was really into IDN investments in the whole world.), so it made sense to register or buy as many names as possible - it was a mad grab then.

There will be a time for ASCII, but not now. :)

[Rubber Duck]

I happen to be bullish on English ASCII .com domains and IDN's, for different reasons. The markets are at totally different stages of maturity -- it makes little sense to try to compare them at this point.

I don't think it has to be an either-or thing.

... although I am just an "irrational US domainer".[/QUOTE

I personally do not think that the explosion in prices at the top end is irrational. A relatively small number of the top domains are literally gold dust. There are going to be domains at the 100K mark, that are going to be worth 1M to 10M in 5 years time or possibly even sooner.

Where is all starts to breakdown a little is the belief that there there are tens of millions of dot coms that are going to be solid investments. There are not. Domains are a bit like car number plates or phone numbers. Most of them have no monetary value. Saw YUT 2 on the motorway this morning. Nice one on a Grand Cherokee!

When it comes to extensions like Dot Mobi and Dot Asia, you have to believe that most US domainers are starting to lose the plot.

[QUOTE=zenmarketing]I happen to be bullish on English ASCII .com domains and IDN's, for different reasons. The markets are at totally different stages of maturity -- it makes little sense to try to compare them at this point.

I don't think it has to be an either-or thing.

... although I am just an "irrational US domainer".

[zenmarketing]

I personally do not think that the explosion in prices at the top end is irrational. A relatively small number of the top domains are literally gold dust. There are going to be domains at the 100K mark, that are going to be worth 1M to 10M in 5 years time or possibly even sooner.


Completely agreed. To clarify, I was referring to the top end of the market in my comments above.

There is definitely a lot of rubbish floating around on the bottom end of the ASCII market, which will never be worth anything. I tend to ignore that and not even consider it a valid market.

[touchring]

Using my search engine, i dug out dnjournal 2003 sale charts. The prices then were comparable to IDN prices today! :o

Especially this - 4. KS.com $10,000 Afternic

Domain Name Journal's Top Ten
Reported Domain Sales - Mon. Oct. 13 through Sun. Oct. 19, 2003
Euro to Dollar Conversion (€ to $) is Based on Rates in Effect Mon. Oct. 20
Domain

Sold For
Where Sold
1. Shopping.at €27,500 = $32,004 Sedo
2. Kreuzfahrten.at
("Cruises" in German) €12,500 = $14,547 Sedo
3. Native.com $10,500 Sedo
4. KS.com $10,000 Afternic
5. Friendships.com $9,000 Sedo
6. Notebook.net €7,000 = $8,146 Sedo
7. Aktentaschen.de
("Briefcase" in German) €5,000 = $5,819 Sedo
8. Felgen.net
("Rims" in German) €4,850 = $5,645 Sedo
9. Jahreswagen.com
(German word that means a used car that is less than a year old) €4,700 = $5,470 Sedo
10. Crawler.net €3,480 = $4,050 Sedo


Domain Name Journal's Top Ten
Reported Domain Sales - Mon. Dec. 1 through Sun. Dec. 7, 2003
Euro to Dollar Conversion (€ to $) is Based on Rates in Effect Tue. Dec. 9
Domain

Sold For
Where Sold
1. GSG.de €35,000 = $42,784 Sedo
2. Licon.com $20,000 Sedo
3. VCD.com $15,000 DNForum
4. Councellors.com $10,000 Sedo
5. Gesture.com $8,500 Afternic
6. Sport.info $7,500 Sedo
7. QuestMedia.com $7,000 Sedo
8. Oesterreich.de
("Austria" in German) $6,100 Sedo
9. Rheumatism.com $3,633 Pool
10. MediaNews.org $3,214 Pool


Domain Name Journal's Top Ten
Reported Domain Sales - Mon. Oct. 20 through Sun. Oct. 26, 2003
Euro to Dollar Conversion (€ to $) is Based on Rates in Effect Mon. Oct. 26
Domain

Sold For
Where Sold
1. Casino.com $5,500,000 Private Sale
2. Enhance.com $20,000 Afternic
3. Charts.com $18,000 Sedo
4. Evangelist.com $9,000 Afternic
5. Vertrieb.de
("Sales" or "Marketing" in German) €6,500 = $7,618 Sedo
6. Freund.de
("Friend" in German) €4,900 = $5,742 Sedo
7. CampingShop.com $5,000 Sedo
8. Shirts.de €4,060 = $4,758 Sedo
9. Webpanto.com €3,333 = $3,907 Sedo
10. Solarium.ch €3,300 = $3,866 Sedo