We’re joined by three Domain Sherpas: Ammar Kubba, Andrew Rosener and Shane Cultra.
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Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/review-20160418/
Big props to Jamie for submitting it because it actually takes a lot of balls, unless you are a woman. Then I apologize for that. It takes a lot of balls.
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Michael Cyger: Hey everyone. I’m Michael Cyger, Publisher of DomainSherpa.com, and this is the Domain Sherpa Review. This is the show where we get into the minds of successful domain name investors using real examples, so we can learn strategies and tactics.
We have three segments to the review. We will start off learning what the Sherpas recently bought and sold and what they paid or got. Next, we will discuss and value an investor-submitted domain name portfolio. Finally, we will preview some domains going to auction soon at NameJet.com with no reserve.
Joining us today on the Domain Sherpa Review are three past Sherpas and industry thought leaders. In order from left to right, we have Ammar Kubba, domain name investor, serial entrepreneur and angel investor; Andrew Rosener, CEO of the domain name brokerage firm, MediaOptions.com; and Shane Cultra, Publisher of the blog, DomainShane.com, and Owner of the Country Arbors Nursery in Illinois. Sherpas, welcome to today’s show.
I said Illinois. Did you hear that, Shane?
Shane Cultra: I was going to blast you after the show. It is a silent letter.
Michael: Sometimes it just comes out. How many times have I read that intro?
Shane: Do you say lasagna too?
Michael: Ew. All right. First off, you guys know this better than anybody else that business is done through relationships, right? If you cannot build relationships, you are less likely to be able to do any business. So, I have started talking about the Sherpa Network. It is my hashtag. I am going to put it down here in the lower right-hand corner of the show to remind you guys that any time you have an opportunity to get together with people, to talk about domain names, to form relationships, you need to take advantage of that. That is what the Sherpa Network is.
It is a group of investors worldwide. We all get together. Sometimes it is at NamesCon. Sometimes it is at a Domain Conference. Sometimes it is Panama. Sometimes it is down in LA. But I want to give a quick shoutout to Lt. Kernel Jank Aral (Unclear 02:03.6), who drove across Seattle, hopping on a ferryboat, walked across Bainbridge Island and joined me for lunch at the Harbor Pub on a glorious, sunny, spring day in the Pacific Northwest last week. That is us. That is my view every day when I go to the pub and drink there. We are drinking some Hefeweizen. It was a beautiful day. Jank, thanks for coming out.
Sherpas, I know you guys do the same thing. Hell, I called up Ammar. Do you remember, Ammar? I called you up like four or five years ago and I said hey, we should get together, and you were like I do not know who this Mike Cyger guy is. I think I will meet him for a hamburger or something. Maybe just a coffee. I do not want to invest too much, but that was a great lunch. I really enjoyed myself down there. I cannot remember where we got together in LA.
Ammar Kubba: Yeah, you wanted to be closer to where you were staying, so we went out in the Valley somewhere, in Woodland Hills I think.
Michael: Yeah.
Ammar: Big place.
Michael: Yeah, totally.
Shane: I want to repeat my story with Aaron though. When I met Aaron, my partner at Domain Shane, he rode his bike from Colorado to Illinois.
Michael: Illinois, yeah.
Shane: Rode his bike. Not a motorcycle, but a pedal bike. He rode it across country. He was going to see his family up north and thought hey, I read your blog. We have talked on email. I thought I would stop by. And I go: what did you get here on? Bike.
Michael: Yeah, that is cool. And it does not even need to be online. Do you guys know that game, Words with Friends?
Shane: Yeah.
Michael: I call it Words for Nerds. I play with Josh over at Domain Shane. The guy freaking kicks my butt every single game. Look, he did a 48 last one. Like who scores a 48 on a regular play? So, anyways. It does not take much. So, he owes me because I let him beat me game after game after game, so when I want to buy a domain off of him, I know he is going to give me a good deal.
Ammar: That is right.
Michael: All right, let’s hop into the first segment of the show, called What’s New Sherpas, where we get to find out about a purchase or sale that they have made over the past few weeks. We learn what they paid or received for the domain, why they thought it was a good deal, and how the negotiation progressed. I am going to lead you through the questions, Sherpas, and the other Sherpas will get to comment before we actually find out the domain price. We are going to go Drew, then Shane, and then Ammar.
Drew, what is one domain name that you have personally bought or sold, or your company? Tell us the domain name and not the price yet.
Andrew Rosener: Okay, just bought a domain that I have been trying to buy for like probably five years. PTY.com.
Michael: PTY.com. All right, three letters. PTY.
Ammar: Yeah, that is an Australian something.
Michael: Yeah. So, Ammar, let’s start with you. So, PTY is something Australia. It is like a business or something. Is that what it is?
Ammar: It is like the equivalent of LLC or Incorporated, or something like that. Is that right, Drew?
Michael: All right, Ammar, what do you think Drew paid for PTY.com?
Ammar: That is a really good name. And every time I say Drew underpaid, he always pays more because he pays up for good names.
Michael: I know, but then you do not want to say high and insult his negotiation skills, so it is a little bit of a balancing act here.
Ammar: Yeah, it is a six-figure name anyway though, so I would say he probably got at least a decent deal. I am just going to say 50.
Michael: 50. Okay, Shane, what do you think Drew paid for PTY.com?
Shane: I am going to say this is the only part of the show that makes me nervous.
Michael: Well, Drew already told you it was one he has been chasing for five years, so he is not lowballing them, and we know it has got a double meaning down in Australia. So, what do you think?
Shane: The first number that came to my head was 60. I think that it has more meaning, but that does not mean that to everybody. There are a lot of people that own names that do not really know the true, but this one did. If you have been trying for five years, I think he figured out on year four that Drew might want it. So, I will just say 60.
Michael: 50 to 60 thousand. Drew, what did you pay, buddy?
Andrew: So, you want the backstory or you want the price first?
Michael: I want the price first.
Andrew: Okay, price was 58.
Michael: Oh my God, you guys. You Sherpas are freaking rock stars. 58K. On the dot. All right, what is the backstory?
Andrew: So, the backstory is kind of —-ed.
Michael: Not to sell. Beep out at 8:10.
Andrew: PTY, like Ammar said, means like LLC or Inc. in Australia. It is a type of company formation, but it also is the airport code for Panama. And I know that does not mean much in most cities, but in Panama, PTY is maybe even more objective than Panama itself. Every single company in Panama is like Yoga PTY or Breakfast Buffet PTY. Advertisement PTY. Everything is PTY. It is just ubiquitous.
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: So, I missed out on the sale of Panama.com, which was unfortunate, but they paid a hell of a lot more than what we just paid to get PTY.com. But what is crazy is the guys that I was trying to buy it from, I was offering them for years between 25 and 40 thousand dollars. And then they just kept saying no, it is not for sale. No, it is not for sale. Then it expired and it was about to go to a NameJet auction, and somebody must have gotten a hold of them and explained to them how to – actually I know who got a hold of them – renew it and actually pull it back, and so it was supposed to go live on NameJet and it got pulled back. And in that same moment, it was sold to somebody else.
The name was offered to me from that guy through another party who I am really good friends with. Actually Sam Dennis, and Sam was like hey, are you interested in this name, and I was like how the hell do you have this domain for sale. And so, then I was like yeah, go ahead. Make an offer for me, and I offered like 35. They were asking 45. I offered 35. They came back with 39, and I was like nobody is going to pay that. Make it 35, and then ten minutes later, it is like oh, no, it is sold at 39. And I was like uh, no, and so I am kind of freaking out, and then it sold to a Chinese guy and then it sold again to another Chinese guy, and then that guy just would not respond to my emails.
So, then I finally actually hired William Lynn of XZ.com to negotiate on my behalf with this guy, and he got a hold of him. The crazy part of the deal is that this was really at the peak of the three-letter craze a few months ago. And I agreed to pay 79 thousand dollars for PTY.com, because the market rate was 65, 68, and so I was like all right, 79. —- it. It is a little premium, but there is a reason I want it. I will pay it. And the guy got all greedy and he was like no, now it is 85, and I was like all right, go pound sand, and I knew nobody else was going to pay that. And so, then the market kind of tanked and now the market is like 45, 48. Really 50 would be like top, top end, and the guy came crawling back. Do you want to do a deal? 79.
I was like no way. I was like now the price is 50. And so, this literally took weeks of negotiation. This was not like a one or two-day thing. This was weeks of back and forth. Weeks of just playing stone cold, and finally the guy came back and was like 60 and I said I will do a deal at 55 and pay the escrow fee. And then we ended up at 58 and he paid the escrow, but definitely a big thank you to William Lynn for helping me in that negotiation.
Michael: All right, so a couple things I took away. It is a triple benefit. We often talk about like make sure that when you are buying a domain name, it has got an acronym, so maybe the Eastern or maybe the Western will want it. That is two right there, but then you also had PTY, which could be like the equivalent of LLC in Australia, plus it is your airport code, so this is like four ways that you could potentially sell this domain name in the future.
Andrew: And it is short for party.
Michael: That is a bit of a reach, but I will give it to you. All right, so that is number one. Number two: the amazing Drew Rosener could not close a deal with a Chinese investor to get this deal done. You needed to go to somebody else to help get this deal done.
Andrew: So, the owner actually spoke no English.
Michael: No English.
Andrew: No, zero English.
Michael: Got you, so you hired somebody who could speak.
Andrew: I was getting nowhere.
Michael: Yeah. All right, great story. So, you were bluffing when you were like the market rate is 50 thousand. The market rate is you will pay a hell of a lot more because you want your airport code for Panama.
Andrew: Yeah, but he needs another buyer that is going to pay more than market rate to make that relevant.
Michael: Yeah, but he is only paying eight buck per year to keep it.
Andrew: No, because he is carrying 50 grand.
Michael: Yeah, that is true.
Shane: It could be worth 38 next year.
Andrew: Yeah.
Michael: Yeah. All right, well, congrats Drew. Awesome domain. What are you going to do with it?
Andrew: Get to be (Unclear 12:53.1), but we own every city in Panama and a couple of them are built out. I do not know.
Michael: Yeah, goes into the development portfolio. All right, thanks, Drew. Congrats on that. Shane, what is one domain name that you have bought or sold in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price.
Shane: All right, I sold 50X.com.
Michael: 50X. Drew, what do you think Shane sold 50X.com for?
Andrew: I am going to say 75 hundred dollars.
Michael: 75 hundred. That was pretty quick. Ammar, what do you think?
Ammar: I do not know anything about this.
Michael: Yeah, take a swag.
Ammar: Just like I underestimate what Drew pays, I also underestimate what Shane sells for, so I am going to say he sold it for nine grand.
Michael: 9K. Shane, what did you sell 50X.com for?
Shane: Not as much. I sold it for 62 hundred.
Michael: Not bad.
Shane: And I will tell you why. Because when I bought it, I have been in short names forever, because I think 50X is a good brand. Short names. They mean all kinds of different things. P90X. There are all kinds of names. And when I bought it, I liked 50X. I thought it was a nice, round number, but then the Chinese came along and zeroes were not quite a popular. I would have been better off buying 55X or something like that. And I was in it for 45 hundred because I bought it at auction, and somebody privately offered me four thousand. And once I got to 62 hundred, I said in a year I can make 17 hundred dollars and keep moving and get out of it, and that is what I did.
Michael: One year. 17 hundred dollars profit.
Shane: Yeah, and then I did it in a year. And if I can do that on every single name, I would be happy. So, I took the profit. Everything is not a home run. If you make a profit, you keep moving. Some people would hold for more, but the goal of this is to make money and 17 hundred dollars is a pretty good profit.
Michael: Yeah, definitely. So, did you sell that private or did you list it on a marketplace?
Shane: Private. Somebody emailed me.
Michael: Nice, so your WhoIS information was visible and they just emailed you, or did you have a landing page through Domain Name Sales or FD or something like that?
Shane: Yeah, that one actually was Domain Name Sales. Honestly yeah, that was Domain Name Sales, and the buyer is a startup. Pretty much a serial entrepreneur. He is based in LA, but I think he was in Shanghai, so I had that I do not if he is Chinese and he went through an intermediary as well. So, I thought well, maybe I could go for more, but at the same time, hey, money is money. I do not care who it is honestly.
Michael: Yeah. You know I am pretty competitive, Shane, because I still have a better PR than you in my marathon. When P90X came out, I did a bet with one of our employees at the time. Have you ever done P90X?
Shane: Oh yeah, I know what it is.
Michael: It is hard! It is like an hour and 15-minute workout and you have got to rotate through all these different workouts. So, I did a bet that whoever could do the P90X the longest – the most number of consecutive days – would win the bet and the loser has to dye their hair blonde. That was a fun bet.
Shane: I thought my wife was cheating on me with somebody. Whatever that guy’s name is, like Mark. I come in and I hear my wife going oh no, Mark, not one more. Not one more. I was like what the hell is going on, and I see her doing crunches to the television with some Mark guy.
Michael: But she is thinking about you, Shane.
Shane: Yeah, when she is calling his name out, I know that.
Michael: All right, if we can make Ammar laugh at 8:20AM, man, it is a good show. Thanks, Shane. Ammar, let’s go over to you. What is one domain name that you have bought or sold in the past few weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price.
Ammar: Okay, so this is pending. It is not signed, sealed and delivered yet, but it looks like it is going to happen. The domain is DogEatDog.com.
Michael: Oh, nice, DogEatDog.com.
Ammar: I love those brands.
Michael: Love these. Freaking Berkins sells these like they are going out of style and seems to get like 80 thousand dollars for every single one of these euphemisms or colloquialisms that he registers, if he is not selling his portfolio for 35 million dollars to GoDaddy. Shane, let’s start with you. What do you think hopefully Ammar is going to close DogEatDog.com for?
Shane: It is a great name and it is a very good marketing name or site. That is always a tough one though. Berkins really set that bar so high that you cannot put them in that range, but I would say 15 thousand. Yeah, 15 thousand. I mean it is hard to say. It is one of those names you can hold and get whatever you want. It depends who is buying.
Michael: Yeah.
Shane: We will go with 15.
Michael: All right, Drew, what do you think? DogEatDog.com.
Andrew: I am going 35. I am going to give Ammar the benefit of the doubt here. I do not think he would have come out with that one before closing unless it was a good price.
Michael: I know it is pretty risky. I really hope you close it before Monday, when this show airs, Ammar.
Ammar: Well, the guy wants the name bad, so I mean it is fine.
Michael: All right.
Shane: New information. I am switching.
Michael: What is it hopefully going to sell for, Ammar?
Ammar: I was going for 50 and what we ended up was he has three options. 40 cash, 44 over six months, or 48 over 12 months. So, it is one of those three.
Michael: And so, he has not decided yet.
Ammar: No. Well, he is leaning towards the six months, so a big down payment and then five payments after that.
Michael: Yeah, that is smart, and then you are going to use Escrow.com for the domain holding if they pay it off over time.
Ammar: He does not seem like he even cares about it. I mean he looked me up and he is a nice guy out of Toronto, and so I do not know if we are going to use escrow or not, but I am happy to if he wants to.
Michael: Yeah, nice. So, you asked 50, but if he came with cash today, you would take 40 for it.
Ammar: Yeah, that is what I told him. I said 40 cash is fine, but if you want to pay over time, 44 or 48.
Michael: Yeah. Now, people are watching this show – newer investors – and are thinking how did Ammar come up with 50 thousand when Shane said 15 thousand and Drew said 35 thousand, and I have not even typed up EstiBot, but if I did, it would probably come in at a thousand dollars for DogEatDog.com.
Ammar: No, it is higher than that, but it is definitely not 50.
Michael: So, how did you come up with 50 thousand?
Ammar: So, brands are very, very difficult to value, but I think the strength of the brand is how you get there. And that is a brand that everybody understands. Everybody knows. It is very memorable. You cannot misspell it. And it is .COM. So, I mean truthfully if somebody told me they paid one hundred thousand for it, I would say that is a lot, but if it is a big company and they want to use that, it is not ridiculous. And if somebody said they paid 10 thousand for it, I would say you know what. That is a great deal. So, with brands, it is very, very difficult to value. What does EstiBot say about search volume?
Michael: First let me tell you the EstiBot value. 250 bucks. I hope the owner does not see that. It has nothing to do with reality, buyer. 15 thousand unique searches per month. Exact match searches per month. So, that is a pretty good search volume. It is a colloquialism. It is not just a brand because I think a lot of newbies would say well, I have got DogEats.com and you cannot misspell that and it is a great brand, but it is not a colloquialism. People do not say it. Dog eat dog world or doggy dog or whatever.
Ammar: Exactly, and I actually bought that name when I was thinking of different brands for my blog and I thought that would be a cool blog name back in the day. But that reminds me. So, Shane mentioned that I sold another dog name recently and I just bought another dog name yesterday, which I love. I bought PuppyCam.
Shane: Like Super Bowl. They have a puppy cam. For the people who do not watch the Super Bowl, they just put ten dogs in a pen and put a camera on it, and then for 24 hours there is just puppy cam.
Ammar: Well, my idea what I want to do is create a network of people that put these puppy cams on their dogs and you can select. Basically bring the adult model to puppy cams.
Andrew: It was like – what was that – cam roulette. Cam roulette for dogs.
Ammar: Cam roulette for dogs and/or for cats. So, do not go after this. There is another one obviously that I want to get that I am working on after, but I hope that person is not watching. I have got to get to them before they see this.
Michael: Got lock them down, Ammar.
Shane: Just tell them pussy cam.
Michael: Not that one.
Andrew: You can buy Pug.com from us. You can have Pug.com.
Michael: Pug.com. Yeah. I do not know if you guys watched the recent GoDaddy commercial. I think it might have been on Elliot’s blog or Domain Name Wire. One of the two. Anyways. It was GoDaddy’s new commercial with CatswithHats.com. I thought it was pretty darn funny. Like anything to do with cats and dogs, yeah, people are going to love. So, cannot wait for that to come out, Ammar. All right, thanks, Sherpas.
We are going to move on to the next segment of the show. In the Domain Portfolio Review, we take a user-submitted domain name portfolio and we provide honest and constructive feedback to the owners, so they can either cut their losses, continue to hold the domain names long-term, or figure out a sales strategy or disposition strategy going forward.
Today’s portfolio was submitted by Jamie Hinds. As part of the submission process, Jamie made a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help us all find a cure for cancer. If you do not have anybody in your family with cancer, God bless your family. I do not know a family that has not been affected by cancer, and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center up here in Seattle is doing phenomenal work with immunotherapy. My father died from cancer. He was given six months to live. He went on to an experimental immunotherapy concoction down at UCLA Medical Center over a decade ago and it allowed him to live like two years. Go to my sister’s wedding. Just phenomenal stuff.
So, that is why Domain Sherpa supports Fred Hutchinson. That is why we are helping to try and find a cure for cancer. We have already sold out DN Seattle, coming up May 12th. We have raised over five thousand dollars for Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research, so thanks Jamie for making your donation as part of this portfolio review.
Jamie’s list of 25 domain names starts with – wait for it – AssadRegime.com and ends with WestportLots.com. Here is the order for this round. We are going to go Shane, then Ammar, and then Drew. Hold it back, Drew. Shane, let’s start with you. When you look at Jamie’s list of domains, what is your overall impression with the portfolio?
Shane: I think the best investment they made was a donation to the Fred Hutchinson society. That was the best move that they have made so far. They are going to get the most use out of that.
Michael: Yeah, I know.
Shane: You can read a lot about people on their domain names, like what they like. We know Ammar loves cats and dogs. We know that Drew is in the ganjapreneur and his cities. You can look at people’s portfolio. You can see my plant names. I cannot figure out where in the world Jamie. I cannot even tell if Jamie is a guy or a girl to be honest.
Michael: You know what. I had to write my script because I was not sure if Jamie was a guy or a girl either, so I am trying to just use Jamie.
Shane: I am going with guy from the whiskey.
Michael: Maybe. I do not know. Jamie, post in the comments. Male or female.
Shane: Male or female, not that it really matters. You are going to ask us are any of these names that I would want to own, and there is just not a name on here that I would want in my portfolio. And if I had it, I would look at it and think about dropping it constantly. None of these make sense to me. I do not even know what a Halloween petume is. Is that French of costume?
Michael: I think it is a pet costume. Ammar would know because he is into dogs and cats. A petume could be a costume for pets. That is what I am going to go with.
Shane: Okay.
Michael: Ammar, you concur.
Ammar: I do not know either, but I think it is a kind of a costume. I do not think it is for pets. I think it is a type of a costume. I believe.
Shane: I am sure somebody will let us know on this.
Michael: Yeah.
Shane: But the only one that would be fun to build out, like the WorldsLargest.com could be kind of fun. I mean it would be to build out. Something that is the biggest of everything.
Andrew: It is the WorldLargest, not WorldsLargest.
Shane: There is not even an S in there. This is getting brutal. Yeah, there is just nothing here. One of the best things that we did here is when we were talking about hand registering we could do a better job and then Josh, who you play Words with Friends, posted in the comments a one hour’s worth of work on names that were better than the portfolio. He could do that here. He could do that, because the names that he posted all sold for 25 dollars a piece. They sold on NamePros.
Michael: Yeah, so you are saying that if Jamie put these up on NamePros for free in the marketplace area, you are saying that Jamie would probably not get any offers on these.
Shane: No. These guys can answer, but if these went in at a 12-dollar opening bid on GoDaddy, I am going to say nothing.
Michael: All right, and so the takeaway for Jamie from your perspective, Shane, is that these are not the types of domains that are investment quality because they are not what – fill in the blank.
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Michael: All right, and so the takeaway for Jamie from your perspective, Shane, is that these are not the types of domains that are investment quality because they are not what – fill in the blank.
Shane: They are not of quality that people can use. If I were advising a customer to buy a name to start a business or a site, these are not the kinds of names that I would advise them to buy, regardless of cost. There is either some confusion in spelling, does not make sense, or a better name or a lesser price. So, that is where these all domains come. It does come down to end user. These domains are supposed to be used by somebody for something, and that is what makes them valuable, and none of these names should be used for a site, for a company. I would not advise it, so therefore I do not think it has any value.
Michael: Okay, so no commercial viability for these domain names, so they are likely not to resell to somebody else.
Shane: Correct.
Michael: All right, thanks, Shane. Ammar, let’s go over to you. Welcome back. Can you hear me, Ammar? He is frozen. Okay, we are going to have to skip Ammar and come back. Drew, let’s go over to you. Any domain names that stand out to you that Shane is wrong, I see the value of this domain name, and I would definitely keep this one?
Andrew: Yeah, I mean there really is not anything in here, but if we are going to stretch it, I am going to go with RussianWhiskey.com. I mean that is the only name on this list that if I owned this list, I do not let it expire, just because whiskey is hot right now. Everybody is trying to produce their own whiskey. I am sure Russia makes whiskey. Russian whiskey might be a thing, just the way that 20 years ago Japanese whiskey was not a thing; Japanese whiskey now is the thing. So, Russian whiskey. Maybe it will be the thing. It is between Ireland and Japan, so it has as good of a chance as being the next good whiskey.
Shane: But he is not even consistent on how he spells it.
Michael: The EY versus the Y.
Andrew: Here is a neat, little trick though, and this is actually the correct spelling because if the country where the whiskey is coming from has an E in its name, then there is an E in the word whiskey. So, for instance, that is the differentiation between Ireland and Scotland. So, Scottish whisky does not have an E. It is whisky. The way that Michael and David sold Whisky.com. Generally, a higher quality whisky. Japanese whisky. Irish whiskey, generally speaking, a cheaper whiskey than a Scottish whisky or a Japanese whisky, is spelled with an E, but there is substantially more search volume for whiskey with an E than there is without the E, but also for a lower quality, lower price product.
Michael: That is a pretty cool trick. No exceptions to that E in the country name and E in the whiskey.
Andrew: There are no exceptions that I am aware of.
Michael: Wow.
Andrew: But again, this is only taking into account countries which are known for making whiskey. So, you have Canada. Also spells it with no E. In America, your whiskey really is a bourbon. Rye is mostly Canadian.
Michael: Yeah. Hey Drew, I know you like your cars. GTOCar.com.
Andrew: So, GTOCars.com. First off, what the hell are you going to do with that? I mean GTO. One of the greatest American muscle cars ever made. The classic.
Michael: So, we see where Jamie is going with this.
Andrew: Yeah, so GTOCars. I mean literally that has no meaning. There are other GTOs, but no meaning. No value. And even if you wanted to associate it with specifically one type of GTO, then you are infringing on somebody’s trademark.
Michael: Right, exactly.
Andrew: No value. I did some math. So, you have got 22 names here. I took into account. I said 25 bucks a year in renewals because he has got a lot of .WINE and .CLUB. These are expensive renewals. I am assuming – I am giving him the benefit of the doubt – these are hand registrations and he did not pay any type of premium to buy them in the first place, so you are looking at about 550 bucks he has probably got, assuming only one year of renewal has gone into these. And literally because I am a multitasker and cannot sit still, in the course of being on this chat, in this thing, I bought a domain name for 450 dollars that has an infinitely greater chance of ever selling for a profit than the entire list of names here, selling for a single-dollar profit.
Michael: What did you just buy? Tell us the domain.
Andrew: I just bought YBVC.com.
Michael: YBVC.
Andrew: The only reason I bought that one is because it is a four-letter. 450 bucks, but it ends in C. It ends in VC, venture capital. So, YBVC, so I thought it has got several different angles where it could end up having some value. 450 bucks. Thank you very much. Have a nice day.
Michael: Yeah, it has got liquidity, like you could sell it today if you wanted. And it has got the potential to go up.
Andrew: Yeah, I could probably sell it for 550 right now, within ten minutes, and that is a domain that anybody could have had the opportunity to purchase as well.
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: You have got to put in the work.
Michael: Well, it costs more, so I think a lot of people are more risky averse. Well, I do not want to spend 450 bucks on one domain and they will think like well, I will buy 22 domains and maybe I will get lucky on one of them and it will pay for that, but you are saying maybe that is not the right way to think about it.
Andrew: Yeah, to a certain extent, domain names is a numbers game, but the chips you are stacking have got to have value, and this guy is stacking 22 chips. At least 21 of them are a liability.
Michael: Yeah. All right, let’s go over to you, Ammar. Final thoughts on Jamie’s portfolio. Let me start with a question to you. Friar.Club. I do not even know what a Friar is.
Andrew: Big props to Jamie for submitting it because it actually takes a lot of balls, unless you are a woman. Then I apologize for that. It takes a lot of balls.
Michael: To put yourself out there.
Andrew: You have got a crap portfolio. You probably know that it is a crap portfolio, I hope. And you are saying look, I know I have got a crap portfolio. I just want to be told why it is a crap portfolio, so I could do something smarter. So, big props for at least stepping up.
Michael: Exactly. I agree with you. Ammar, Friar.Club had a 29-hundred-dollar EstiBot value. I am not even user what a Friar is, but I know you do. Is that worth keeping or not?
Ammar: First of all, I think it is Friars.Club. I do not think it is Friar.Club. It is a group. Some kind of association that is the Friars Club.
Michael: Friars. You are right.
Ammar: I think it is a trademark, first of all, so I think you have got a problem there, but I am not sure. And it is called a Friars Club, not a Friar Club, so that is wrong. So, I was trying to think of a couple of one-liners, so I am going to give him the ColdHardFacts.net about his portfolio, and it is not a good portfolio, obviously as I know Shane and Drew already said. There is nothing in here that I think is monetizeable. Nothing I would develop. I mean I do not know what a pole stick is. Is it a pole or is it a stick?
And there are too many ifs. Like TaiwanWhiskey could potentially be good, except in China, I do not know if they spell it EY or just with a Y. There are two spellings of whiskey.
Shane: We just learned a couple minutes ago that China has no E. They do not put an E in it.
Michael: So, it is the wrong spelling. Drew just gave us a master class on that while you fell off due to technical difficulties there.
Shane: Meanwhile this guy was buying names, so he is explaining this and buying names at the same time, all while on the show.
Ammar: Right, so that one could have been good if it was the right spelling, and so it is the wrong spelling, so that is no good. AssadRegime. I do not know what the hell that is. It is like I own SaddamHussein.com. I have never gotten a single offer on it, and I think that is a much better name.
Michael: How much did you pay for SaddamHussein.com?
Ammar: I bought it at an auction while he was still alive.
Michael: And that is when it had the most value.
Andrew: Steve (Unclear 37:43.5) sold that I think. I think that was Steve (Unclear 37:46.2) and he sold it in the auction.
Michael: Stevie K. How much did you pay for that?
Ammar: I think I paid 2K, but it was more just kind of a cool thing to own. It is a trophy.
Michael: Yeah, it is like Drew’s 1994 domain names. You cannot reproduce them.
Ammar: Right. So, I just thought it was a cool name, but anyway, back to this portfolio.
Andrew: I am thinking like a digital dartboard.
Ammar: Yeah.
Andrew: You pay a dollar. You get to throw a dart at Assad’s face or something.
Ammar: The one that I do not know about. (Unclear 38:27.1). If that is an actual place, maybe that has some value, but I am guessing it is probably Conner’s Pass maybe and he skips the S’s. So, MoneyBukaki. That is I do not know.
Andrew: You know that is your favorite name in this list.
Ammar: MouthFloss is redundant. I mean I do not know what else you are going to floss. And for the records, it is not cats and dogs. It is pussy and puppies. That is what I like.
Michael: All right. This is degrading quickly. All right, so here is the final question for you, Ammar. So, this is Jamie writing in. “So, I am not quite sure what to do with these domain names. I placed some domain names for sale here and there, like at Sedo.com and GoDaddy.com, and sold a two-year-old, ten-dollar yoga domain for four hundred bucks, but never really gave selling much attention. Well, I am in debt and I would like to know if this portfolio could possibly help pay off my debt, or should I just let it drop?” Your answer is…
Ammar: I would probably drop every name, or I do not know. I would have to spend a little bit of time. Maybe you can find a couple of names to hold on to.
Michael: Well, Drew suggested RussianWhisky because maybe Russian whisky is going to have some commercial offerings and somebody might want to buy that. Whiskey is hot right now.
Ammar: You can sell TaiwanWhiskey to the person that has it without the E.
Michael: Yeah, so it is a defensive purchase.
Ammar: Right. So, there may be like two or three that you sell that you hold on to, but I would drop most of them. As Drew said, a lot of these that are the alternate gTLDs are probably more expensive anyway than the .COM, so you are just throwing more bad money, so I would drop probably almost all of them.
Michael: Yeah. All right, Jamie, there you go. Drop them. Save that money for renewals. Put it into your debt or some better domain names. Drew also suggested sometimes it is better to buy less domain names of a higher quality because you know they are going to have some liquid value. If you get it at a good deal, you could probably get your money out today if you needed to, but if you hold on to it long-term, it will likely appreciate.
Shane: And holding cost is eight dollars versus the holding cost of this is you are doubling the cost of your portfolio every year.
Michael: Exactly.
Shane: On one name it is eight bucks.
Michael: Yeah, all right, so think through that. Jamie, thank you for submitting your portfolio and making your donation to cancer research. We hope this review has been helpful to you and your domain investing activities going forward.
We are going to move on to the Marketplace List. This segment is sponsored by NameJet. We will be reviewing 12 domain names heading to auction soon. For transparency, I always ask the Sherpas if any of the domains on the list are being sold by them or brokered by them. I do not believe, and as I was just saying that, I think there might be one, Drew, that might have come from the Media Options. Now I cannot remember. Do any of them look familiar to you?
Andrew: None of these look familiar to me.
Michael: Okay. Then probably not.
Andrew: Yeah, I do not think so.
Michael: All right. If you like one of the names on the list below, click through soon because once they go to auction, you lose your chance to put in a minimum bid and watch the auction action. If it has already got a 69-dollar bid, you can put in a 69-dollar bid and you will not win the auction unless you bid higher. If the auction is higher than 69 dollars, you can put in your 69-dollar bid and watch the action or you can just go to NameBio.com tomorrow and see what they sold for.
The links do go directly to NameJet to that page. They are not commissionable links. They are just trackable, so NameJet can see if we are sending traffic. The list starts with BecomeSomething.com and it ends with WorshipServices.com. This round we are going to go with Ammar, then Drew, and then Shane. Ammar, let’s start with you. What do you like on the NameJet list and why?
Ammar: Well, I kind of like BecomeSomething. It might be a little bit too long, like I have IBecome, but BeSomething would be much better. So, that one is okay. I like CashQuick. I think that is a great name. DallasBroker is a great name. And RiverStones are an actual product, so that is a great name, although I would say they are probably expensive to ship.
Shane: I will buy the palate.
Ammar: A palate.
Shane: A palate at a time, yeah. I sell a lot of river stones.
Ammar: Yeah, so that is a great product name and it is a nice brand. Those are probably the three that I like. I do not like ComputerPrivacy even though privacy is really hot. Nobody thinks of it as computer privacy. They think of it as Internet privacy or online privacy. BuyTradeSell is in the wrong order. It should be BuySellTrade, so I do not like that too much.
Michael: All right, so let me ask you, Ammar. These are all either no reserve or reserve met. So, of the four that you said you like – BecomeSomething, CashQuick.com, DallasBroker.com, RiverStones.com -, what do you think is the best investment opportunity for newer investors? Get it low, hold on to it for a long time, and sell it for a profit. What would you think?
Ammar: That obviously depends on how much they go for what the return is. II think CashQuick and DallasBroker are probably the two easiest to flip, I would think. Those are I would say the two most liquid names.
Michael: Yeah, and so who would you sell CashQuick to and who would you sell DallasBroker to? Who would you go after if you bought them?
Ammar: I mean CashQuick. There are a bagillion cash advance guys that would be buyers for that. Any kind of financial institution. It definitely passes the radio test. Out in Vegas, there is a big building I drive by on the freeway and their domain name is DontBeBroke.com. That is an awesome brand, but CashQuick has that kind of memorability.
Michael: Well, but just a second ago you said BuyTradeSell.com was in the wrong order, so it did not have value and you would not want to buy it. Isn’t CashQuick in the wrong order as well?
Ammar: No, I would say I want my cash quick.
Michael: Oh, but I could say quick cash also.
Ammar: Yeah, you could say. It goes both ways.
Michael: Okay, so it is not necessarily the same.
Ammar: Where is my money?
Michael: All right, so what would you buy CashQuick.com for, and then what would you expect to sell it for? Or maybe we should start there. What do you think you can sell CashQuick.com to a cash advance company around in the US?
Ammar: I would not sell that at less than 5K or 10K, at the minimum. I think it is worth a lot more, but that would be the bare minimum.
Michael: Yeah, so you would want to pick it up for what?
Ammar: I would probably pay up to 5K. Probably 25 hundred to 5K for it. It just depends how fast you want to turn it. I think if you got that for anything under a thousand bucks or two thousand bucks, you have got a pretty good deal there.
Michael: Yeah, cool. And then what about DallasBroker? Who would you try and sell that one to?
Ammar: So, the nice thing about broker is it could be a real estate broker. It could be a loan broker. It could be a car broker. A lot of different brokers. Dallas is a big city. A lot of money there. You cannot misspell it. I think that is also at least a 10K name also.
Michael: Yeah, so then what would you pay to buy it knowing that you would not sell it for less than 10K?
Ammar: For that, I do not know. Probably a couple grand.
Michael: Yeah.
Ammar: I just think there are so many opportunities, just like Drew pointed out when he bought a name for four hundred bucks. I am seeing a lot of opportunities out there to buy names because now there are so many marketplaces or auction platforms and different venues. If you kind of take the time, NameJet is not the only game in town. It probably has the most inventory, and it has the best inventory, but you can find stuff. There is a bunch of other places you can find. Other expiring marketplaces and just doing your homework you can find a lot of stuff. So, maybe I would rather buy four names for a thousand dollars – 250 each – that might have more upside than spending a thousand dollars on DallasBroker.
So, I just think you have to kind of look around and figure out the best place to allocate your investment.
Michael: Yeah, all right, good advice. Thanks, Ammar. Drew, let’s go over to you. What are your favorite names on the NameJet list this week?
Andrew: So, I also like CashQuick, but I will not harp on that one. I did not mind BuyTradeSell as much as Ammar did. I mean BuySellTrade is like the expression, but it is still a pretty good brand. I guess yeah, I made a note here for DallasBroker also. I am pretty much saying that exact same thing that Ammar was. Literally what I wrote was five to ten grand quick cash. DallasBroker is like you are going to make ten to 20 phone calls or emails and somebody in Dallas is going to give you five to ten grand for that easy.
Michael: Yeah, so then what would be the price that you would pay if you could only get 10K out of it?
Andrew: Just because we are probably looking for a little bit higher return in most cases than what most people would probably require, just because we are buying so many names, I probably would not want to go more than a thousand bucks. Maybe 12 hundred or 15 hundred. So, if I were in a different position, where I wanted to make 15 hundred or 25 hundred or five grand right now, like I had a couple grand to spend, and I had the time to invest into it, I would pay two, three, maybe even four grand to buy DallasBroker.com and I would put in the time. I would spend one whole day marketing the shit out of that name to every broker in Dallas, whatever type of broker they might be, and you will find somebody that will give you between five and ten thousand dollars for that name.
It is a money thing. Just like if it was ChicagoBroker.com. HoustonBroker.com. MiamiBroker.com. LosAngelesBroker.com. Those are money names. You are going to find somebody in that market that is going to pay you some money. So, if you put in the work, you are going to make some money. I do not have the time to try and sell that for five or ten grand. I am going to wait for the guy to come to me, so my return on that investment is going to take longer probably, so I am only going to get into it for a thousand bucks. Maybe 12 hundred or something.
Michael: Yeah, and if somebody came to you, what would your opening ask me on it?
Andrew: So, if somebody is knocking on my door, I am asking 25 for that name.
Ammar: Exactly.
Michael: Yeah, and then you will negotiate down and try and sell for between 15 to 20.
Andrew: Yeah, you are going to see what he is going to pay. I mean you will probably take anything over ten, but if they are knocking on your door, generally speaking, you are always going to get a better price than if you are knocking on theirs.
Michael: Yeah, all right. Anything else on the list.
Andrew: MDC.org. Great name. Phenomenal domain name. Those are the kind of three-letter .ORGs you want to own.
Michael: Why?
Andrew: I mean we just sold SBC or SBO. I should know this. We just sold it for a pretty good, very top of the line four-figure price. I do not remember the last letter. It was SB something. And then not only that. So, it was a legitimate non-profit organization dedicated to natural biodiversity, and so I got a good price out of it and a lifetime membership to the organization.
Michael: Which you do not even know what it is, but you will take it because you are supporting them.
Andrew: I like to get my kicker in the deal.
Shane: Hey Drew, is the membership transferrable? You could try selling that too.
Michael: Did I ever tell you about the first domain I ever sold, and this was like a decade before I even realized there was a domain name industry? I bought SunPill.com. I bought a Pool.com domain and I did not get the one I wanted, so I was just looking through the list and I picked it up, and I thought someday somebody is going to come out with a pill that you just pop in your mouth and it makes you like tanner, so you do not have to go out in the sun. Turns out the guy that started Banana Boat sunscreen came up with a pill that you take and it protects you. It gives you sunscreen protection from the inside out, which sounds a little weird, but I ended up selling that domain that I picked up for 60 bucks back then for 75 hundred bucks and a case of Banana Boat sunscreen.
So, yeah, same sort of thing, Drew. He was not even listening. Jesus. All right. So, you are a big supporter of SB whatever, and so you like MDC.org.
Andrew: The end point is MDC.org is a great three-letter .ORG.
Michael: And it could sell for a high four, maybe into low fives at some point in the future. It is a long hold though.
Andrew: Maybe.
Michael: Well, you have got to wait.
Andrew: I mean I think we bought that three-letter we just sold. We bought a package of three of them and it was only maybe six months ago.
Michael: Oh yeah, all right. Okay, you like MDC.org. What else do you like? What are you doing there, Drew?
Andrew: The only one I really do not like is NeonBot. What?
Michael: What were you doing? You got something.
Andrew: I am looking at my list here. I have got the list here. I am looking at the list.
Michael: Okay. All right.
Andrew: The one I do not like is NeonBot. That is the only one I really just think is bad, and then ItsGuaranteed is not bad, but I just generally try to avoid names that have an apostrophe unless it is like really a front of mind phrase that everybody would understand that it is with the apostrophe S and not with the it is. ItsGuaranteed as opposed to it is guaranteed. I am not sure that as common a phrase enough that you are not going to lose out on the brandability, if it is going to pass the radio test basically.
Michael: Yeah. Drew, what do you say to some newer investor that is like WorshipServices. Everywhere I go I see the signs for churches and they say worship services and they have the times. What is your response to them on the value of this domain name?
Andrew: I do not know. I see no value in that name. I have to go let my wife in. She is pounding on the door.
Michael: Go get it. Ammar and Shane, I picked NeonBot.com because this struck me as a domain name that would sell on BrandBucket or one of those sites. You two do not really buy those brandable domain names, do you?
Shane: I do.
Michael: You do.
Ammar: I do too.
Shane: Yeah, I do.
Michael: Okay, so what do you think about a NeonBot? Is that something that is worth buying at like registration fee, drop fee, maybe under one hundred bucks and then holding on long-term or trying to get it on to a BrandBucket or BrandRoot or one of those sites?
Ammar: I just bought a bot name the other day. I bought DIYBot. And I think bots actually have good potential because we are moving into a lot of new robotics. Everybody is going to have a personal robot at home. I just do not love neon.
Shane: They do not go together.
Michael: Wait a second. Shane, in prior shows, you were like any color plus a word. RedBot.
Shane: Neon is not a color. It is a light.
Michael: It stands out even more. I am going to see a cool logo.
Shane: I said any color anything, but when you start reaching like into the 245th color, then it does not work as well. I do think color animal is gold.
Andrew: I think we just got a killer. Talk about color animal. Just yesterday, on drop catch, I bought PurplePelican.com, which I thought was a great name. You got the double P with the purple and then pelican, and it was like for 150 bucks. Something cheap.
Shane: I mean even weird animals, like you can get BlueAlligator. As long as you can spell the animal easily, yeah, all those names work. There is always going to be something named that eventually.
Ammar: I am going to go buy PurplePlatypus.
Shane: Once you get into the crazy animals.
Michael: I have got to go look that up. Hold on. How do you spell platypus?
Shane: Yeah, see, that is the problem right there. There is a Y in it somewhere and a nine I think.
Ammar: So, Mike, the answer to your question about WorshipServices. It might be a domain that probably has a lot of search volume. It probably has a lot of good stats, but nobody is going to pay for it. A church is a non-profit. Now, we all know they make money or they have money.
Andrew: I just sold CrossTimbers.org. CrossTimbers.org, which was actually we bought a small portfolio of like 20 names and that was one of the domains that I was like this domain has no value and he was like just take it in there. We only put value on like five of the 20 names, and he was like just take it. I was going to actually let it drop. We actually had taken the autorenew off, and then I just sold it to a church called Cross Timbers Church.
Ammar: Oh my gosh.
Andrew: And I got like 35 hundred bucks for it.
Shane: And I have been selling .CC to Christian churches. I sold Denver.CC for 25 hundred dollars. I think the country club. Before .CC became a Chinese thing, country clubs and Christian churches were paying 25 hundred dollars for that name because it is short, it is easy and for both of those.
Michael: All right, that is a quick tip for you, Jamie up in the portfolio review. Do not delete any of those domains. Let them go all the way to expiration. Turn off the auto renew. Maybe you will get lucky and somebody will reach out to you.
Shane: I have to review this stuff. You forgot me. Am I chopped liver here?
Michael: All right. SocialTube. Nobody likes that?
Shane: No. One you skipped is the most liquid of them all. I disagree with Ammar. CYMB will sell in a heartbeat. It is a four-letter .COM. That is 15 to 16 hundred dollars instant cash.
Andrew: It ends in B. The Chinese will like it because it ends in B and it starts with a C. It probably is 15 hundred bucks.
Michael: So, is that worth a newer investor spending 15 hundred bucks on it?
Shane: Well, I have become the poster child for China. I get bashed on it, but these have been popular for 20 years. These Chinese just made it go higher. I mean there is a reason four letters are popular, because it is a good, short acronym. And I think Drew and I personally move the names that end in C a hundred to two hundred dollars higher just him and I bidding on everything. I mean any four-letter that ends in C, if it has any decent letters, I am on the bid. Corporation is such a strong ending. But yeah, I think it is worth it. People are going to disagree and say it is a falling knife, but if it is the right letters that work in the Western market, it will always have value as long as domains have value.
So, yeah, maybe not quick, but it is instant cash. If he gets in a financial jam like he is before and could not sell anything, he will be able to sell that. He may not make money. He may lose money, but he will have money in a day if he needs it.
Michael: Yeah.
Shane: That is value in there.
Michael: All right.
Andrew: I think people got too caught up in like the idea of CHIPs. It does not matter if it is Chinese premium or not Chinese premium. The end goal here is to find out if this thing is going to sell to an end user. If it is a CHIP and the liquid value is a little bit higher, okay, fine, but you are also paying a higher premium. I love four letters. I think what you have to do is just analyze are these meaningful letters and have use in commerce and the potential to sell to and end user. Are there multiple organizations or generic meanings that have commercial value that will likely come and tack some value.
Michael: Yeah, and what is your one tip to find out if there are numerous end users that might want to buy it? For CYMB what would you do?
Andrew: I mean there are a lot of different ways of doing searches in Google, but just throw in some quotes and look on Google. Use acronym finder. I like to always check and see if it is a stock symbol. Usually it will just pop up in Google if it, but you can also just say like ticker: and then the letters and see what pops up.
Michael: Yeah, all right. Shane, any final thoughts on the NameJet portfolio here?
Shane: No, I think they all touched on it real well. I know that the two names used to be money. Three years ago, you could have put anything in front of tube and SocialTube would have done really well, but I do not know if tube is played out, but it certainly is with 3D printers right now. It is not quite as hot as it used to be. So, yeah, everything else I agree. I think the good and the bad of this show is some of these names, like DallasBroker. I think you could have gotten it under a thousand dollars. Not after this show.
Michael: Well, it would have been on your list anyways, and then you would have bumped it up.
Shane: And that is the thing. No different than this show. People say when you talk about it, it goes up and I hate that. Things are going to get found. There is not a name anymore that I do not put a ten-dollar or 12-dollar bid that I used to be able to steal on GoDaddy. I even use backorders and all these things to try and not let the bids go out early. It does not matter. Everything gets found. Almost everything gets found. Sure, there are some hidden ones in there, but only because we think they are hidden gems. Nobody else does. That is what I have found. If you found something that is awesome, it is because people think it is awesome.
Michael: Yeah, and here is the other thing. NameJet is paying to have us review some of these domain names, so of course they are going to get extra exposure, but you, as the investor, need to look beyond just this list of domains and look to hear what the Sherpas are telling you. Drew is talking about DallasBroker.com, but if you get off your ass and you look up every single WhoIS for all the major cities that Drew just said – LosAngelesBroker, MiamiBroker, whatever – and then see which ones of them are sitting with people that do not realize the value and you are able to snatch them up for five hundred bucks and then go sell them, that is where there is some money to be made.
There is a lesson learned in every single domain name that these Sherpas have just discussed. I help pull out the lessons, the wisdom that these guys have from years and decades of experience, but you guys need to actually go do some work. Go do some hustle on top of this list to make some money. We only do this show twice per week. There might be other DallasBroker types of domain names coming up, so take the lessons learned and then go apply them. Drew.
Shane: He was saying twice a month. Not twice a week.
Michael: Oh, twice a month. Right. Twice a month. All right, so that is the end of this list. At this point, Sherpas, this is where anything you want to mention. Anybody you want to give a shout out to. Any auctions you have coming up. Any place you are going to be. Tell us what is going on. Let’s start with you, Ammar.
Ammar: A couple of things. I am finally re-launching the Ad Identity, the vanity email platform that I invested in back in the day. Kind of been stagnant for a couple years and I have a new partner in it, and they are going to put a lot of resources behind it, so I am hoping this time. I believe in these guys. I think they are going to make it work, so I am excited. That should be announced within the next few weeks.
Michael: All right, so let me back up on this. And I have done one or two shows on this in the past, where people who have great domain names – let’s say it is PTY.com – and people want to sell domain names on that, so you can get Drew@PTY.com. This is a platform – at least it used to be that – that will allow domain owners to sell email addresses per year on a phenomenal domain name like that. Is that what it is going to be going forward?
Ammar: Yes.
Michael: Sweet.
Ammar: That is the plan and that was always the vision for it. To be able to give domainers another monetization source, another avenue in addition to parking because all you need is the MX records. You can still have it parked. You can still do all that, so that is one thing.
Michael: Nice, and I know it is not ready and coming out, but to put a domain name in people’s minds so that they can come back or maybe they are watching those show in a couple of months, where will they go to learn more about that?
Ammar: So, we are not sure exactly where it is going to be launched because through this partner, they are going to market it how they want to market it, and so you will hear about it in the next few weeks.
Michael: All right, cool.
Ammar: And then I just got retained to go acquire a two-letter .COM, so that is pretty fun. I have been doing a lot more acquisition side stuff lately and that is really a lot of fun, especially when you are talking about a real high value name. Two letter.
Michael: Oh yeah.
Ammar: So, we will see. I just made contact with the owner yesterday, did a lot of research, and so we will see what happens.
Michael: Is that going to sell for under a million dollars do you think?
Ammar: I think it is going to go into the seven figures, but we will see. It is a great name.
Michael: All right, good luck. I want to hear about that on a future Domain Sherpa Review. You talking about brokering that domain.
Ammar: Yeah.
Michael: Good luck. Drew, let’s go over to you. Anything you want to mention, promote, or give a shout out to.
Andrew: So, we continue to have more auctions at NameJet running. Pub.com is on there, Ammar. You should step up to the plate. Go to MediaOptionsAuctions.com or just click on our banner on NameJet. I think that is it.
Michael: That is it?
Andrew: We also just sold a two-letter .COM that I cannot talk about any details.
Michael: Seven figures.
Andrew: Cannot say.
Michael: Six figures.
Andrew: You can safely assume that if I am mentioning it, even if I cannot mention any details or talk about any details, that it was a good price.
Michael: All right, congrats, man.
Andrew: There was something else. I just do not remember.
Michael: All right, we will come back to you.
Andrew: We actually made a bunch of really good sales. I will make this point. So, I feel like the whole industry, and I am hesitant to even say anything because we are buying some great names at great prices because everybody thinks the sky is falling, but the Chinese market for sure is way down, but I do not necessarily think that is even a bad thing. For instance, we are making better margins buying names at the price we are buying them and still selling them to end users than we were when three letters were trading regularly at 60, 70 grand, 80 grand. Four letters were at two to three grand.
Michael: Yeah, the Chinese market has not affected your business at all it sounds like.
Andrew: Well, I would not say that. The Chinese market was easy money. The point is just that margins are better when you are buying lower, and so a lot of the industry.
Michael: Time to buy.
Andrew: And I only bring this up because it is unfortunate. I had a guy that I kind of was trying to give a little bit of business to. A young guy brand new in the industry, but he was hustling and I like to see people that actually put in the work. And so, I like to give them a little bit of business and he told me today. He was like oh, I am selling off the rest of my portfolio. I am getting out of domain names. The market is dead. And I was like dude, what are you doing. That is not the reaction that you should be having. This is an opportunity. It is not something that you should be shutting your doors over.
And it was not even like he was losing money. He just was not able to sell for the prices he was selling for before. So, I just think that that is unfortunate. I think that people should see this – see every turn in the market, up and down – as an opportunity, not as a hey, the sky is falling. I am getting out. I am going to go start selling petunias like Shane.
Michael: Dude, he is selling river stones too, by the palate.
Shane: 50 cents a pound.
Michael: All right, thanks, Drew. Shane, let’s go over to you. Anything you want to mention or promote.
Shane: Yeah. I mean, again, DomainShane.com. Again, somehow I became the poster child of Chinese names. Now they are falling. Everybody loves to say that I am getting killed. I am not getting killed. I was buying them last summer at four hundred dollars. They have got a long way to go. This is a long-term thing. Four or five months does not make an industry. Things go up and down, and again, nobody was patting me on the back when I was buying four letters. I bought IGHA for like three hundred dollars. That is worth three hundred dollars easy for a long time, so it is great. I like to see things fall.
Honestly I am kind of excited about things falling to the point where people are going to have to sell some of their assets to keep going. That is how I make money. I mean I do not wish any bad on anybody, but the fact of the matter is Drew and I probably purchased some of the best names we have purchased for the best price because people had to get out and get their stuff, and we have cash. Cash is king for a reason. So, there is going to be a lot of opportunity this fall. I think this fall there is going to be some renewals. There is going to be a lot of dropping. If you are out of this business because six-number prices fell, you did not do it right.
You are not doing it right at all. You are a speculator. You are trading options. There are lots of other good ways to do it. So, I am thinking opportunity. I still buy some .NETs. I bought from Sam. Sam Dennis sold Blueberries.net. It is a .NET, but it was a thousand dollars for Blueberries.net. I sell thousands of dollars of blueberries. I am the kind of person that can use those names. There is a reason why domain names exist, and that is to sell product and to make money, and you cannot ever forget that. That is who drives the end market. You have always got to keep that in mind. And I sell petunias. I sell a lot of petunias. I make more money selling petunias than most people do marijuana. They die too.
Michael: Drug of choice.
Shane: You pay four dollars for a petunia and it dies, and they spend hundreds and hundreds and thousands of dollars on petunias, so do not make fun of petunias. There is money in petunias.
Ammar: Well, that was a good point though, is Shane is smart that he is buying low. He is buying on these opportunities when there is a pullback, and there is always an up market somewhere and a down market somewhere else. So, you have got to always be looking out for opportunities to buy and you have got to hedge your bets, and do not put all your eggs in one basket. So, when the five numbers and six numbers, do not go put everything into that. Keep buying the other brands and the generics, and other things.
So, you have got to diversify your risk so that you can survive the downturn, because otherwise if you put everything into the wrong asset class and that asset class goes down, even if it is going to come back in a year, you are screwed because you cannot ride out that one bad year. So, you need to be able to ride out the bad, and so if you have multiple asset classes, hopefully one of your asset classes is always in a position where you can trade it.
Shane: No, I think that is a good point. I mean something always has to be valuable within your portfolio, and some of them are not liquid, so there has got to be something liquid too. If your whole portfolio is not liquid, it makes it a little tougher. It does not mean it is not valuable. It just means it is not liquid, so you have to sit there, and we all know who we are, domainers. We cannot sit there.
Andrew: Unless you have got enough names and you have got a pipeline.
Shane: Yeah, and that is true. That is true. It is a numbers game. I mean I keep bringing up Josh, but he does well on BrandBucket because he has got one thousand names up at BrandBucket and he knows he is going to sell three to five percent of those names. I do not know if it is a year or month, but he has got the percentage down, so he has got this thing down on how it works, and we all need that pipeline.
Michael: And that guy knows how to string the letters together and make words that I do not even think are in the dictionary, but they score on Words with Friends. God, that guy. He beat me by like a hundred points. I am like I am not going to rematch him because that is the customary procedure. It is like when you get your ass whooped on Words with Friends, you then challenge and get to put the first words down. So, I am like I am not even going to challenge him.
Andrew: What is Words with Friends?
Michael: Go get it on your iPhone, man. I will kick your butt on Words with Friends. And so, I am like I am not even going to challenge Josh again and then he goes and challenges me. I am like uh, I will not give up. I will take you down this time, Josh.
Shane: You have got to have time to research.
Michael: Seriously. No, there is no research. If Josh is researching, oh man, I am going to have to take him down. I need to find out if he is cheating. There is no cheating. No lookups.
All right. If you received benefit from today’s show, please post a comment below and thank today’s Sherpas. I want to give a shout out thanks to Jamie Hinds for making the portfolio submission and make a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Thanks also to NameJet for submitting their portfolio and sponsoring that section of the Domain Sherpa Review. And thanks again to our wonderful Domain Sherpas, Ammar Kubba, Andrew Rosener, and Shane Cultra for sharing their experience and insights.
We will see you all next time.
Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/review-20160418/