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Domain appraisals on .com.au's

snoopy

Top Contributor
Think it is very difficult to make money on "trend names", most of the time is doesn't take off, even then what is the chance of landing an enduser? Things are now extremely sifted over for anything available.

Better off going for stuff that people want right now, i.e. good quality names on the drop that people actually tried to buy in the past but were unavailable.
 

Scott.L

Top Contributor
Better off going for stuff that people want right now, i.e. good quality names on the drop that people actually tried to buy in the past but were unavailable.

100% agree -

The trend is always now but the timing of a decent purchase is the key. I'm not talking about speculative "creates" I'm talking about emerging markets. Example: BTC was $20 per coin in 2012 no one knew if cybercurrency would be good to those who invested in it, but look today $1,300.00+ per coin, its the future, now some might say "it’s over" but if Bitcoin-com-au were to drop tomorrow who would not be inclined to bid $50K+ for it.

It’s not always about the drops, many people out there simply do not know the true value of their held names. Some people register domain "creates" in a speculative sense because they heard about a new technology or emerging market on TV or online. New domain investors need to know that they may overvalue the domain that they seek due to their own perceived value bias whilst, those that hold simply have no idea of its value, anything around $500 is probably "good" for something they registered for $20.00 about 4+ years ago. So, timing the purchase is essential to a good investment, get in whilst the emerging market is simmering, building, unifying. A good example is, the Graphite battery or energy storage sector, it is a new emerging market globally. Government policy makers are active today in trying to implement this technology, 100's of Billions of dollars invested into Europe to bring about its commercial reality. Soon, the next generation of "grid balancing tech" will be offered, incorporating the BTC or ETH block chain. Tesla is building a community with solar roof tiles in Melbourne; the list is endless as technology grapples with its speed of efficiency. Now, looking back in the good old days of 3D LOL...what is that today? perhaps 3d-com-au is worth $10K+? is 3DTV-com-au worth the same? So, the question is, how long will it take for this market to take off and or, what new technologies are on the horizon that utilise 3D tech? VR and AR and Hologram TV. These domains remain speculative because the market continues to emerge slowly whilst the speed of new technological advancements in this field are rapid and sporadical. More importantly, the business connections required to make these types of domain names a commercial success can only really belong to those active in this market, so buying it at the drop just because you can afford to do so may not be a good investment.

Established markets, food, clothing, real estate, insurance and banking these are hard and expensive markets to get into but if anyone is serious about it $20K + for a good keyword domain within an established market is worth every cent. Domains like, money, flowers, food, sport, or bet...I would not hesitate to bid $20k on those domains; what if Cybercurrency-com-au were to drop? or Cryptocurrency-com-au?
Am i going to get it cheap? yep!

So, the drops do offer opportunity for good domain names but are those domain names worth it from an investment point of view? Do those domain names contain a commercial outcome for you now or in 5 years from now or, are these domains simply beyond your own capacity to connect with its market? I'm not 100% sure that all major corporations are looking at the drops or scouting about for good domain names, so the onus is on you to plan your pitch and make your own way in - I'll leave you with a short story; Melbourne 1999, I started up a lighting company with a licence to sell a "daylight" triphosphorous tube, back then it was cutting edge tech, power saving and bright, I got into an argument with one of the sales guys who was under performing and I was challenged, I said, "fine, let’s go door to door" he replied, "that’s mental, nothing but high rise buildings no one is going to let you in" well, one building did, we went up the elevator and onto the floor and up to an unattended counter, to the right was an office, I walked in and there was a well-dressed man at his desk and I said; "Hi, I'm here to show you some new lights, do you mind if I install them above you?" Ok. I got onto his desk and installed them into the box cleaned the diffuser and said "well, you don’t need 3 lights you need only 1, now that’s a huge saving on electricity" this guy started thinking - He said, "exactly how much would I save if you did the entire building?" I calculated the savings and gave him a quote and he said, "done" I spent the next 14 days installing over a thousand lights. I changed the way I sold these lights and went door to door and we went on to install lights into Prouds, Just Cuts, Myers, Schools ... until, I was made an offewr and sold the business in 2003. You never know what door you will walk through next or who you will actually speak to next. It could be a CEO of a Billion-dollar corporation or the Son, Nephew, Wife of a wealthy businessman? it could be a well-dressed janitor who happens to "know" the person you need to "know" - so where is the true "value" in a domain name? the "TRUE" value is in your own effort to procure the best possible financial outcome for your domain name.

Damn, longest post I've ever written.


.
 

Christopher

Top Contributor
Christopher use drop.com.au to get an idea of potential traffic and income; to many people start out enthusiastic about domain name investing and simply fall in love with their own sense of creativity. Most are usually inspired by supply side propaganda or other organisations with agendas to increase “creates” - The lesson learned is not easy because, every domain name you create appears as a "good Idea" this mentality induces newbies into a type of poker machine trance until, 2 years later your “good ideas” were merely $20 dreams to entertain the ego

Advice:
The trend is your friend but these friends only remain for a short period of time whilst new friends are on the way ;) the trick is to see what people need before they need it, get in quick before it catches the eye of others.


.
Question about this, so i have it clear in my head, you guys are saying watch the drops for the sales not the deletions to see the common ones that sell.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
Problem is these were 100k domains 15 years ago!
i don't seem to remember 2002 being a very good year for the internet industry,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dot-com_bubble
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
i don't seem to remember 2002 being a very good year for the internet industry,

Yes, 2002 was the bottom of the market, you could buy 3 letter .com's for under $200. Still .com.au prices have not improved since that point.

As an example one of the domains Scott mentioned, flowers.com.au, sold for $150k in 2002. Would be worth significantly less if auctioned today in my view.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
flowers: suppose i meant the coming together of the buyer and seller price would be to far apart right now.
tim
 

findtim

Top Contributor
if they did the numbers i agree, but for some reason they just do not SEE it !
tim
150k / 52 weeks = $2884, / 7 = $412 per day, / $10 profit per sale = 41 sales, / bris/syd/melb = 13 sales per day = breakeven and then the next 10 years are total profit
AND i didn't consider valentines, mothersday,xmas
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
I see flowers-com-au easily selling for $150K

So if it sells for the same price it got at auction in 2002, is that a good result? I think the .com market is up around 10 fold since then, maybe more than that.

I don't think it would get 150k, but even by some random chance it got double that, it would still be a lousy ROI. 2002 was the bottom of the bust.
 

findtim

Top Contributor
a lot more names are taken in .com, i had a client last month hand register an appropriate 3 word domain for his business.
he rents furniture, paylessrentals.com.au as hand reg.
for him a bargain, nice name, brandable and it says what he does.
tim
 

Scott.L

Top Contributor
So if it sells for the same price it got at auction in 2002, is that a good result? I think the .com market is up around 10 fold since then, maybe more than that.

I don't think it would get 150k, but even by some random chance it got double that, it would still be a lousy ROI. 2002 was the bottom of the bust.

It would certainly set a benchmark - as Tim was suggesting the overall value "earned" over the years would exceed the invested amount so if the domain name were to sell then those buying it would be subject to the potential value that it had earned the owners; if it were to drop, it would "easily" reach $150K + and if I were the only one to bid $150K+ at the silent auction whilst the next bid was $50K then Oh well, I'm certain as the sun rises in the west that the domain name would have the potential to earn close to it per annuan.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
a lot more names are taken in .com, i had a client last month hand register an appropriate 3 word domain for his business.
he rents furniture, paylessrentals.com.au as hand reg.
for him a bargain, nice name, brandable and it says what he does.
tim

Agree, lots of very usable names can just be registered in .com.au. That works against domainers.
 

snoopy

Top Contributor
It would certainly set a benchmark - as Tim was suggesting the overall value "earned" over the years would exceed the invested amount so if the domain name were to sell then those buying it would be subject to the potential value that it had earned the owners; if it were to drop, it would "easily" reach $150K + and if I were the only one to bid $150K+ at the silent auction whilst the next bid was $50K then Oh well, I'm certain as the sun rises in the west that the domain name would have the potential to earn close to it per annuan.

I would bet that the domain doesn't earn much, been a developed site for a long time and they haven't made it mobile compliant as yet, I suspect it is a small earner (under 10k per year) to be not putting much effort into it. Highest auction price in 5 years is 82k for toys.com.au that is a bad market where people aren't willing to spend. Again, it would have sold for more a decade or more ago, even during the .com bust it would have done better. Have a look at the screenshot below and you can see how the number of high sales has been on a sharp decline in recent years.

My gut feeling is this domain would sell for less than the prior price. Are you offering 150k Scott? If so I will contact the owner.

Screen Shot 2017-04-20 at 3.55.30 pm.png
 

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