We’re joined by three Domain Sherpas: Adam Strong, Andrew Rosener and Larry Fischer.
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Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/review-20160725/
On today’s review, we get an exclusive — you heard it here first — sales price on the recent YK.com sale directly from the broker, Larry Fischer. The Sherpas tell us what they bought and sold, including HellBunny.com, PWL.com, and ArtStorage.com, and we discuss a great, small portfolio of single-word .IN domain names from India. Check it out.
Michael Cyger: Hey Sherpa Network. I’m Michael Cyger, Publisher of DomainSherpa.com, and this is the DomainSherpa 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. Next, we will discuss and value an investor-submitted domain name portfolio. And finally, we will preview some domains going to auction soon at NameJet.com with no reserve or reserve met.
Joining us today on the DomainSherpa Review are three industry thought leaders. In order from left to right, we have Adam Strong, Co-Founder of Evergreen, a domain name brokerage firm focused on domain acquisitions for startups and management, and Owner of NameBio.com, the service that we recommend all the time to find comparable sales; Andrew Rosener, CEO of the domain name brokerage firm, MediaOptions.com; and Larry Fischer, CEO of GetYourDomain.com, a domain name brokerage consulting firm that was just recently in the news for brokering YK.com for a reported seven figures. Welcome Sherpas.
Larry Fischer: I have got to say hello, but I have got to say one thing. It was slightly less, and today I will actually announce on your show how much it went for.
Michael: Oh, so before we get to that, Larry, I am seeing my picture is frozen. Does it look frozen to you guys?
Larry: Yes.
Michael: Okay, so let’s see here. I want to make sure I get this. My shock and awe on screen. Okay. Now is it working again?
Larry: We got you.
Michael: All right. Larry, for the first time ever, announce what was the sale price of YK.com.
Larry: The price was 900 thousand dollars.
Michael: 900 thousand dollars. Wow. Congratulations.
Larry: Thank you very much.
Michael: Hey Adam and Drew, what do you guys think when you hear 900 thousand dollars for YK.com?
Andrew Rosener: So, did that go to an end user?
Larry: No, it actually went to what I believe is a Chinese investor.
Andrew: Okay. I think, in the current market, that is a pretty strong sale price. Most of the offers I have been seeing have been in the 700 to 800-dollar range. 850 for really, really strong names, which I do not necessarily think YK is a particularly strong one, although it could be in China or seems to be in China since they paid 900. Yeah, solid price.
Michael: So, it is a solid price for an investor purchase of it. If it were an end user, like YK Zippers or something like that, it would go for seven figures easily, right?
Andrew: Yeah. So, what is easily? Nothing sells for seven figures easily. We got seven figures for ZS.com, selling it to an end user, but that was far from easy. The Chinese buyers were actually less than 900 thousand. They were all in that 700 to 800-thousand range on ZS, and we got substantially more than that from an end user, but I think we were brokering that easily for six months.
Michael: Yeah. How long were you brokering this deal for, Larry, working on it?
Larry: I was working on it for about four months. They were looking for slightly more. Most of the Chinese investors were definitely under the 900 range, as Drew said, and more likely in the 700 to 800 range. Actually when I do go out, we were going out, but we were getting a lot of end users that were balking at the current price. Now, we could have waited. We could have waited a few more months, even a year. You just never know when that higher number would come out, but it would go higher to the right end user.
Andrew: At the right time.
Larry: At the right time.
Andrew: The right buyer at the right time.
Larry: Right. Exactly. So, it is really a decision that you have to analyze with the seller what their goals are, and in this market, they felt that the money they were getting that I was able to get for them would help their end cause. And they are not domainers, so they needed the money and I wanted to get them the top dollar this time for it, and I feel I had.
Michael: Yeah. And so, it is not you were negotiating the deal for four months. You were only working on it for four months, and within that four months you negotiated and closed with the buyer.
Larry: Yes, sir.
Michael: Wow. Nice.
Larry: Thank you very much.
Michael: Yeah. So, that does not count as your buy or sale, Larry. We are going to get another domain from you hopefully. Drew, good to see you on. We missed you on the last DomainSherpa Review. How are things in Germany?
Andrew: Very good. The sun is finally shining on Deutschland.
Michael: Every picture I see on Facebook, you are like out in the wilderness. You are enjoying the sunshine. It all looks like it is good over there. I do not see a lot of rain.
Andrew: I know. Well, that is because I do not post pictures when it is depressive and gray.
Michael: Yeah, the Facebook filter.
Andrew: Yeah.
Michael: Only the good news gets posted there. Yeah, well, great, and so you are enjoying that. You are planning to go back to Panama soon.
Andrew: Yes, as soon as this baby arrives.
Michael: All right. Well, good luck with the rest of that. And Adam, welcome. First time on the DomainSherpa Show. It is great to have you joining the Sherpas that we have and as a Sherpa of course, you then get to drink out of the DomainSherpa mug, so that will be coming in the mail to you soon. You do a ton of personal investing. You have got a lot of activities. We were chatting just before I hit record on the show that you have so many endeavors, projects, businesses that you are running. We had a hard time figuring out how to announce you. How do you keep all those balls up in the air? What do you like to focus on the most?
Adam Strong: I think it is partners that help keep it all running, so yeah, it is good people to work with.
Michael: Yeah, and your new venture, Evergreen.com. That is a pretty fantastic domain.
Adam: Thanks.
Michael: I think I tried to name one of my companies Evergreen years ago. Evergreen Management or something like that and I probably looked up Evergreen at that time. How did you buy that domain name?
Adam: That was actually owned by Wells Fargo. I acquired Strong.com before purchasing Evergreen, and obviously Strong.com was the more important domain to me, but Evergreen was another name they had and I think they had acquired a financial company. Something that was also named Evergreen.
Larry: A bank.
Adam: A bank.
Michael: Yeah, Strong.com. I looked that up because I was thinking I thought I remember somebody mentioned you owned Strong.com. I was like that is a phenomenal domain. Who would not want to own that brand as a domain name? And then I went and looked it up and I think it is under WhoIS privacy and it does not even resolve.
Adam: Yeah. I tell people it is like the dog that chases the car. Once you catch the car, what do you do?
Michael: Exactly. Man. So, if you are new to Adam Strong and you are wondering what kinds of domain names he has, those are the kinds of domain names Adam has and that is why he is on this show.
Adam: Those are the only two I have.
Michael: Those are the only two. Everything else is under privacy. I know because I think I have tried to look up your other domains and I cannot find them either. Yeah, so welcome, Adam. It is great to have you on the panel.
Before we jump into the show, I wanted to give a quick shout-out to Dwayne Walker and Jason Thompson, who are putting on the Inaugural DomainStartupSummit.com this Saturday, July 30th, in Santa Monica, California. It is a one-day conference. It is going to have a mix of startup people, startup entrepreneurs, and then domain name experts from the industry. It is sort of a combination of the two. You will hear Morgan Linten, who has got his startup down there funded by Mark Cuban. He is going to be talking. Bradon Pollock. Paige Howe. Andy Hill. Frank Schilling. Bill Caramous is my boy there. Daniel Negari. Bruce Marler.
Even Daniel Levi, who was on the DomainSherpa Show a few months ago for flipping PirateShip.com for 18.5 thousand dollars profit in 21 days. He texted me last night. He is down in the L.A. area. He is going to show up for the event. I cannot wait to meet him in person. I am going to be there moderating a session, and actually I have got a new startup idea that I have been working on as well and I am going to pitch at the Pitchfest. So, go get your tickets before they are sold out. One day only. We will probably have an after party Saturday night in Santa Monica. It is going to be a ton of fun. DomainStartupSummit.com.
I also want to give a quick mention to today’s sponsors. Six awesome sponsors make what I do possible at DomainSherpa possible, and those are EstiBot.com, Escrow.com, DavidWeslow.com legal services, DomainIQ, where you try and look up all the domains Adam owns, but he has got them all under privacy, so you cannot figure it out, Efty.com for portfolio management, and DNAcademy, my own little academy to help you figure out how to do valuations. I am going to tell you more about them later in the show.
We are going to kick off the segment called What’s New, Sherpas now, where the Sherpas share one purchase or sale that they have made over the past few weeks and we get to learn what they paid or received, why they thought it was a good deal, and how the negotiation progressed. I am going to lead you through the questions, Sherpas, but the other Sherpas will get to comment during the process as well and guess how much you paid and sold and things like that. Drew, let’s start with you this segment. What is one domain name that you have personally bought or sold in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain name and not the price yet.
Andrew: Okay, I had a different one in mind. I thought it was going to be closed by the time we filmed this, but it has not closed yet, so I am going to go with a backup. PWL.com.
Michael: PWL.com. Did you buy it or sell it?
Andrew: I bought it.
Michael: You bought it. Okay. And I appreciate you not going with the one that did not close yet because I am totally big on jinxing deals and I suggest people do not talk about deals until they are done because they can fall through.
Andrew: Yes, they can.
Michael: Yes, they often can. Hey Larry, what do you think Drew paid for PWL.com?
Larry: Knowing Drew he had the seller pay him.
Michael: Exactly.
Larry: Solid name. I would say somewhere in the 40 range, like most letters can easily. Not say easily, I should not say, but are worth over six figures.
Michael: Yeah, okay. Thanks, Larry. Adam, what do you think Drew paid for PWL.com?
Adam: Yeah, I would agree with Larry. It is probably inexpensive. I am going to say probably high five figures.
Michael: High five figures, okay. Drew, what did you pay for it, bud?
Andrew: 35,500.
Michael: Nailed it, Larry. 35,500, so that means that if you bought it at that amount, you think the retail price is what?
Andrew: 150 to 250.
Michael: Yeah. Why do you like PWL so much?
Andrew: Very strong letters. Very common acronym. Lots of search volume. Seems to have good traffic. Very old domain. 1993 registration.
Michael: Wow.
Andrew: And even a basic Google search without digging very far there is maybe ten, 12 end users without qualifying who they are and that they are big enough to buy it. They certainly would be interested in it. And I am kind of the mindset recently that when it comes not just domain purchases, but really any productive asset purchase, you kind of have to lower your expectations on return and get ready to pay up. I mean basically I think all asset prices are on the rise. There is a lot of cash out there. A lot of cheap cash looking for a home. Home prices are up and they should not be. Stock prices are up and they should not be. Domain prices are up and they probably should be, but they are up. So, across the board.
I mean I was talking to a friend of mine who is a very, very large private equity investor here in Germany. They have over 800 million dollars with a mandate to invest that over 24 months. They, over the last 14 months, have only been able to invest 150 out of 800 million dollars because they just cannot find deals that meet their mandate criteria. And every deal that they come on, there is 20 to 30 companies competing to buy that company or take an equity stake in that company. It is getting very, very difficult to find investable assets, and so I think 35,500 was actually a great price for this domain. I probably would have paid a bit more.
Michael: Because you see the retail value, but if you had to flip it for whatever reason.
Andrew: My point is when I look into Google and I see ten to 12 companies that use the PWL acronym, even without qualifying that they are like a ten-million-dollar or bigger company, somebody that would be willing and able to pay 150 to 250 thousand for that domain, in a worst case scenario, shit hits the fan. I know you can find one of those companies that will pay you, and again, this is not going to be a great return on investment, which is the point of this whole story here, but you are going to find somebody that is willing to pay you 500 dollars per month, 1000 dollars per month. And if you have got 50 or 100 of those assets that are a no-brainer for some company to pay you 50, 100 to 1000, 25 hundred, five thousand, something that gives them a path to ownership down the line, however long that path might be.
Michael: That is a fantastic return on investment because yeah, compare it to a house, where you might get two thousand dollars per month, but you have to pay 200 thousand dollars for it. This is a much better return on your investment if you were to lease it out, and you would only be able to lease it out for a great domain like this.
Andrew: Having assets like that, that have any type of potential return.
Michael: Yeah. So, who did you buy this domain from, Drew?
Andrew: I bought this actually from another domainer.
Michael: Okay.
Andrew: James Booth actually.
Michael: James Booth. Shout-out to James.
Andrew: Shout-out to James.
Michael: So, did you try and negotiate it down or was 35 his asking price?
Andrew: No, I negotiated it.
Michael: What was the initial offer?
Andrew: I do not even remember. It was higher.
Michael: Awesome. All right. Thanks, Drew. Let’s go to you, Adam. Adam, tell us a domain that you bought or sold or brokered in the past couple of weeks. Tell us the domain and not the price yet.
Adam: All right. I have got an odd one, so a curveball.
Michael: Love it.
Adam: It is HellBunny.
Andrew: HellBunny.
Adam: HellBunny.com.
Michael: HellBunny.com. Larry, HellBunny.com. Didn’t they used to call you that in college?
Larry: Actually, Adam, you beat me out on that one.
Michael: Yeah, I forgot to ask. Adam, did you buy it or sell it?
Adam: I sold it, so Larry could have been the buyer.
Michael: That would have been awesome.
Larry: Since he sold it, my guess would be about 25K, thinking there was an end user. The one end user that had that name that wanted it.
Michael: HellBunny. All right, 25K, Larry. Drew, what do you think Adam sold HellBunny for?
Andrew: I do not know if bunnies are getting paid as well as they used to be. I do not know. I am going with 11 thousand dollars.
Michael: 11K. All right, so the same order of magnitude there. Adam, what did HellBunny sell for?
Adam: It sold for seven.
Michael: Seven thousand dollars. Wow, so these guys were giving you the benefit of the doubt there, huh?
Adam: I mean no, I think it is one of those names, like Larry said, that if there is an end user that just has to have it, you could squeeze it. The timing on this one was right, where they came up with a decent offer and I paid two digits for the name.
Michael: Yeah, so HellBunny. You either hand registered it or you picked it up on the drop because you thought it was a funny, brandable name. How long have you owned it for? A number of years.
Adam: I think I bought it in ’08 maybe.
Michael: So, a while. And you have probably never gotten any offers on it before, have you?
Adam: Actually I have.
Michael: Seriously?
Adam: Yeah.
Michael: Wow.
Adam: But very lowball offers. So, this company came in and they actually I am pretty sure there might have been some marks, so again, it is a difficult negotiation.
Andrew: What do they do? Do you even know who they are?
Adam: Go check out their website. Actually there is nothing adult on the website that I can tell. It is a fashion, kind of retro. I do not even know how to describe it. A retro fashion site for women in the U.K., so I do not know.
Andrew: You mean clown costumes.
Adam: No, it is like these, gosh.
Michael: All right, I am going to go there and check it out.
Adam: Yeah, go check it out.
Michael: HellBunny.com. So, do this owner right. If you are watching this show, go type in HellBunny.
Andrew: Only the British would have clothing like this.
Michael: If they have a newsletter, sign up for their newsletter. Check it out. Let’s give them some love here. HellBunny. It is loading. Oh, that is kind of cute. Ten percent off. I do not know if I would buy that for Erin for her birthday or anything, but they are kind of cute I guess. Retro sort of, yeah.
Andrew: If you are into British women.
Michael: Yeah, ’50s dresses. So, when they reached out to you, did they make an offer to begin with or was it the typical ‘hey, we would like this domain name; is it for sale’?
Adam: I think it came in with an offer. I do not quite remember what the offer was.
Michael: A hundred bucks probably or something like that because most end users do not know. So, how did you respond? What was your first offer counter?
Adam: I do not really remember. Probably the ten to 15 range I think on this one. So, it is summertime and I am not really focused on sales. I am not really focused on my portfolio right now. Focused on growing the company, and so this was just a quick sale and it was a good price for what I had into it.
Michael: Yeah, totally.
Adam: You think well, this could be the only buyer and this is the only buyer that actually came to a reasonable price, so it was time to move it.
Michael: Yeah. All right, so on a domain like that you will typically counter or provide a price, ten to 15, and then they will go through their sticker shock and then they will offer you two, and then you sort of somehow meet in the middle. Is that typically how it goes?
Adam: Yeah. Actually now that I think about it, this guy came to me in LinkedIn, and I think he masked himself as a web developer and I tracked back and found out that he worked for this company that has this fashion brand. Another fashion brand, and then I managed to track down the trademark type stuff that was going on with this name. So, I think he might have started out with two thousand pounds, is what his first offer was, and then I countered with five thousand pounds, which at the time was worth (Unclear 22:02.9) U.S.
Michael: Yeah, well, that is a pretty strong offer to begin with. Clearly the guy knows the value of domains.
Adam: Actually I did not go up high on this and I actually just wanted to get a quick deal done now that I am thinking about it because he came in through LinkedIn, which is kind of an odd way to hit me up, but he found me that way. So, maybe it was trying to be stealth.
Michael: Yeah. Well, congrats on that sale. That is a nice one. Larry, let’s go over to you. What is one domain name you have bought or sold in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price yet.
Larry: Bought at auction, so these guys might know, but it was ArtStorage.com.
Michael: ArtStorage.com.
Larry: It is funny. Two days before that I bought it, I am reading the New York Times about high end art storage is very profitable, and when people buy these 60 to 70-million-dollar paintings, let’s say they by it at Sotheby’s or Christie’s in New York, it gets transferred to an overseas facility, so therefore they are not paying any tax currently unless they take it out of storage or bring it back to the U.S., so these people are saving taxes in excess. Say on like a 15-milliond-dollars, they are saving four million dollars by sending something to an art storage unit, and I am like okay, I think somebody with an art storage could definitely use ArtStorage.com.
Michael: Wow.
Andrew: In Panama, baby. It is all storage in Panama and Switzerland. It is all there. Panama and Switzerland.
Michael: And the people that have these really expensive art collections or card collections and they do not have the wall space or the space to store them, yeah, they put it in storage and then maybe once every five years, they rotate their artwork on their walls and maybe they bring it out. It is crazy.
Larry: Oh, it is insane.
Michael: So, I love this because Drew had the acronym, Adam had the brandable, and you have got the keyword domain name, so we have got all three right here in the first section. So, let me go to Adam. Adam, what do you think Larry paid for ArtStorage.com?
Adam: I just cheated.
Michael: Do not tell me. Drew, let’s go to you.
Andrew: Adam is not invited back.
Michael: I know.
Adam: I have got it right here. I just cheated because I wanted to see how close I was. I would have said a couple grand.
Michael: Two grand. Drew, what do you think Larry paid for ArtStorage?
Andrew: I am going to say five grand.
Michael: 5K. Adam, where do you go to look it up?
Adam: Just a website that I use every once in a while.
Michael: All right, NameBio.com. It is what we recommend to go do the comps, so you can see what things are selling for what prices. You can type in your pattern and search for them. You tell me, Adam. What did NameBio say Larry bought ArtStorage.com for?
Adam: It was like 4851 I think.
Michael: Does that sound right, Larry?
Larry: Within a dollar, yes.
Michael: So, you read the article in the Wall Street Journal. You know there is an upper end market for art storage. 4,851 bucks. What did you think that it was going to go for before you started bidding on it at NameJet?
Larry: If I was going to an end user, I would have thought somebody would be saying 20 to 30 grand for the domain, so I was in for at least ten.
Michael: You were in for at least ten, and so you are stoked that you got it for 4850, huh?
Larry: Oh, extremely.
Michael: Now, do you plan to market it? And you bought it at NameJet. Is that right?
Larry: I bought it at NameJet, and I have got to say for some reason when I look at you, I think of NameJet.
Michael: Why? That is weird.
Larry: It is right behind you.
Michael: Subliminal messaging, baby. Yes. So, NameJet does have some great domains. Do you know if this was an actual expiration that went through the NameJet process and they grabbed it or was it another investor selling it on NameJet?
Larry: Off the top of my head, I believe it was an expired name.
Michael: Yeah, for some reason I love it even more when I get them expired at NameJet.
Larry: Yeah.
Michael: And so, do you plan to just sit on it and wait for an end user to come to you, or are you going to market it?
Larry: Oh, it will be marketed. It will definitely be (Unclear 26:29.0) outside.
Michael: Nice. All right. Well, I look forward to hearing what you sell that for. Good luck to you.
Larry: Thank you.
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Michael: Hey Adam, when you sold HellBunny.com for seven thousand dollars to the company in the U.K., did they want to go through an escrow company or did they trust you enough to just sign an agreement and transfer the money and take the domain?
Adam: I thought it would be easier to handle it, so we used Escrow.com.
Michael: Got you. So, you just started the escrow. And did the buyers know what Escrow.com was? Were they familiar with the process?
Adam: I do not really think so, but I think it provided a level of trust that they can quickly get the deal done. And the currency issue was another thing too. Everything they were recording was in pounds, so the currency issue kind of came up.
Michael: Yeah, how did that work out at Escrow.com when they wanted to pay in pounds, but you being the U.S., you wanted dollars?
Adam: Yeah, they kept quoting me back pounds, and so I quoted them back dollars and kind of let them figure it out I guess. So, I setup the escrow transaction using dollars and however they funded it.
Michael: Got you. So, when you are setting it up at Escrow and you put in their email address and the domain name and the purchase price, then it goes to them and they transfer the number of pounds that needs to fulfill that dollar requirement at Escrow.com.
Adam: Yeah, I assume so.
Andrew: Good thing you did it in dollars because the pound just took like a 30 percent hit.
Adam: Yeah, actually this deal closed right before Brexit.
Andrew: Well, so then they did well. Then they got a 30 percent discount on their money.
Adam: Right.
Michael: Yeah, exactly. Nice. All right, we are going to move on to the next segment of the show,
In the Domain Portfolio Review, we take user-submitted domain name portfolios and provide honest and constructive feedback so that the owners can either cut their losses on the domains, continue to hold them long-term, or figure out a sales strategy going forward.
Today’s portfolio was submitted by Paul Sing. As part of Paul’s submission, he made a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center up here in Seattle to help us all find a cure for cancer. And Paul mentioned in his email to me that his family recent lost a loved one to cancer, and so this was a very special donation that he made in his family member’s honor and it was very generous, and so I want to thank you, Paul, for making that.
I also received a package in the mail just on Monday, and I am always a little worrisome when I get packages in the mail to Mike Cyger at DomainSherpa, but it was from Paul and he sent me some nice t-shirts. I guess he owns Price.com, so he sent me this t-shirt. Empowering shoppers to make better shopping decisions. That is a pretty nice domain name, right? Price.com.
Larry: Yeah.
Andrew: I think that was for sale recently. I do not know if he is the buyer or if he was the seller, but I am pretty sure Price.com was for sale recently.
Michael: Adam will check it out while I am doing the intro here. He has also got a big .IN portfolio that we are going to talk about, so he sent me another .IN. I am sure all my friends are going to be like what is that cool symbol on the front of you shirt there, Mike. So, Paul, thank you for sending that over. Adam, did Price.com just sell?
Adam: I am not showing it as a sold name.
Michael: Yeah, I do not remember seeing that one either, Drew. Anyways. Paul’s list of 25 submitted domains starts with EtailerRatings.com and ends with a small portfolio of 12 .IN domain names, .IN being the country code for India. This segment, we are going to go Adam, then Larry, and then Drew. Adam, let’s start with you. When you look at Paul’s list of domain names, what is your general impression of this portion of his portfolio that he submitted?
Adam: It seems to be a little bit all over the place I guess, but he has got some great keyword domains in these country code extensions. I am not super familiar with the .IN in terms of investments. From what I have seen, they sell, but not very consistently. So, if I had this portfolio, I definitely would hold on to those. It seems like there is probably some potential there as India becomes a stronger force and maybe we see that coming in the next three to five years, but I like some of his .IN holdings.
Michael: Which ones do you like best?
Adam: I think some of the ones that kind of make a little bit more sense. Paid.in I think is probably one of the stronger ones. I like Team.in. I do not really care for Login.in. It seems a little bit redundant. Logging in.
Michael: Oh yeah.
Adam: For a hack I guess that seems a little bit. It should be Log.in. So, that section of the portfolio – that is pretty much about half of his portfolio – I like. I like those. I am not an investor in that space, but just checking out NameBio and looking at the .INs that have sold, I think he has got a good stash there.
Michael: Yeah, and so I did the same thing as you. When he submitted his portfolio, I went over to NameBio. I typed in .IN as the country code top-level domain because I wanted to see are any .INs selling because I have no visibility in that market, and I like to compare them to other country codes that I see like .IO, which I understand better. Tell me what you saw. I saw .IN selling for more than .IOs, but they are selling less frequently.
Adam: Yeah, actually I was looking at .CO.IN versus .IN just to see what the differences there were, and it seems they are pretty much on the same level in terms of sale prices, and the frequency is very low though. I think there was only maybe a dozen or so this year so far that sold in .IN. So, that lack of frequency is what would worry me a little bit about the holdings, but he has good, solid keywords here. So, it is just that you have to have buyers and the Indian market does not. I am not very familiar with it, but it is not showing signs of a whole clamoring to buy these.
Michael: Yeah, and Paul makes a reference to that. I will read that after we go through the rest of the panel. So, you mentioned Pay.in you like. Team.in you like. Any idea what you would price those at retail-wise if you owned them in your portfolio? I know it is hard because you do not even know .IN, but maybe you have NameBio still up and you are looking at some .IN sales.
Adam: I do not have it up right now, but just from what I checked out, my expectations I think in this market right now, I would be happy to get five to ten for those, and that is kind of where I would price them at. It just depends on the name. Those are pretty strong and I might hold out longer for those. I have a whole bunch of names that I carry like that, and so I would probably just carry them rather than sell them for five to ten right now. But if I had them right now and needed some cash, five to ten would probably be what I would be asking for those.
Michael: So, if you look at the rest of the list, the .COM at the top of the list there, is there any one .COM that sounds out to you that is like yeah, I would hold that in my portfolio?
Adam: I am not really thrilled about those. It looks like if he owns Price.com, PriceAsk, PricePile. It seems to be kind of up his alley. I like Ooze. I like it, but it actually sounds like ooze. I just kind of like the way it looks and it is a four-letter and it is a word, so I kind of like that one. I would buy that one and probably hold it for 25 to 50K range. Maybe more depending on who the buyer was. I just like that one as kind of a brand. I would not use it myself as brand, but I would sure sell it as a brand. It does have a little bit of problems.
Michael: With the radio test, yeah.
Adam: That kind of thing, yeah. I am not caring too much for the new TLD stuff. Again, I am just not an investor in that space. They are cool. E.Link is cool. IGot.Rent is cool. GetYour.Property sounds cool. CashBack.Cash, I do not get it. I would dump it. I guess that is my overall assessment. There are some good ones in here. I picked three. Again, the .COMs on the top that he has are kind of those brandables. They are HellBunny type names. They could sell for seven to 25. You have got to have the right buyer, the right timing, and if you are cash strapped, dump them.
Michael: Yeah, cool. So, a lot of them are those middle range domains that you just hold on to long enough. Maybe an end user will come to you. You sell in the mid-price range. You like the better .INs for five to 10K. You like Ooze.com for 25 to 50K retail. What is one domain name? You mentioned CashBack.Cash you do not get, but if you had to look at the entire list and you are like that is one I would drop, which one would it be?
Adam: WasupDoc. That has kind of seen its day and there is an S missing. My Ebonics tells me there should be two S’s.
Michael: Yeah, when I write wassup, I spell it double-S too.
Adam: Right. Yeah, I would dump that one for sure.
Andrew: I would put a Z.
Adam: Yeah, or double Z. I mean there are just too many ways to spell it I guess. And I might dump CashBack.Cash unless it is like one of these new TLDs that is just giving them away.
Michael: Yeah, all right. Thanks, Adam. Larry, let’s go over to you. What few domains on Paul’s list do you like that stand out to you?
Larry: Not many. My advice to Paul would be go back and buy more generic .COMs. These could have a potential. Like Adam said, there are some good keywords on .IN. I am also unfamiliar with .IN resales. I am not seeing a lot. The one of the new domains he has here, I do like Beachfront.Property. I like I.Rent. One letter. As Adam also pointed out, since he owns Price.com, PricePal and PriceAsk.com would be two potential domains that you can build off of and go from there.
Michael: Yeah. If you owned PricePal.com, what would you ask for it, Larry?
Larry: Well, first of all, since he owns Price, if I owned Price, I would not sell it, but I could see asking somewhere in the 25 to 75 range. You could ask anything, so I would probably put it somewhere around there.
Michael: Yeah. You mentioned you like the single letter. E.Link. I.Rent. Maybe you did not mention the E.Link. Adam did. Single letters are hard. If you get them low enough, it is hard to say it is a bad investment. It is a single-letter domain name. You do not know how they are going to be used in the future.
Larry: And I looked at .RENT. I have no idea what the renewal costs are, if they are higher costs, and that definitely would factor into the equation.
Michael: Yeah. But if you owned I.Rent today, what do you think the retail value would be? Do you have any idea?
Larry: No idea.
Michael: You do not have any investments in the new gTLDs.
Larry: I am familiar with pricing a number of the TLDs, but .RENT I have not really seen much. I know NameBio. Have you guys seen many on .RENT go through?
Adam: I have not seen any personally.
Michael: Yeah, I have not seen it either.
Adam: I have no clue.
Larry: Yeah, so right now it is really for speculators. And one speculator will buy. You hope another speculator will pay more for it.
Adam: I actually have the price that he paid for I.Rent.
Michael: Oh, what did he pay?
Adam: You ready?
Michael: Yeah, it is public information.
Adam: Nine thousand dollars.
Michael: Nine thousand bucks, wow.
Adam: There has been two other .RENT sales that we have recorded. VPS.Rent sold for 250 on Flippa.
Larry: Dollars.
Adam: Yeah, 250 dollars.
Andrew: 250 Matchbox cars.
Adam: DocLands.Rent sold for three thousand in April.
Michael: That is weird. What?
Andrew: Somebody went after a TM and then contacted them.
Michael: Or it was one of those things that is like we are making 100 thousand dollars per month and yeah, whatever. All right. And Larry, what is one domain name on the list that you would definitely drop if you owned this portfolio?
Larry: One?
Michael: Yeah, just one. What is the one that stands out the most to you that is like no resale value?
Larry: Oh, definite WasupDoc.
Michael: All right, give me another one because Adam already mentioned that one.
Larry: Probably either EtailerRaitings or PropertyAlive.
Michael: PropertyAlive.com. All right, cool. Thanks, Larry. Drew, let’s go to you. What do you think about Paul’s list here?
Andrew: So, if he really owns Price.com, then I am kind of shocked that he would invest into some of these other names, but I guess, as I said before, I think we all do it. I have some pretty ugly names in my portfolio as well.
Michael: I am appreciative that you would say that because often times I see what you are selling on NameJet. I am like Drew, and yeah, you are blowing it out. So, he probably just wants a second opinion on stuff.
Andrew: So, look, I think a lot of these .INs are certainly worth keeping. I really do not know anything about the .IN market. We own one .IN. We own Seafood.in, and I have never received an inquiry on it despite there being like probably a billion-dollar seafood market in India. So, I have no idea. I mean these are great keywords. If they were in .COM, they would be some of the best .COMs you could own, so I have to assume that these have the potential to be really strong domains.
I guess of the .INs, I really like VPN.in. If India is like any of the other sort of third world countries, you have to use a VPN service in order to access some first world online stuff, like Amazon or Netflix or whatever. So, VPN.in I think serves a purpose. It does not necessarily have to be limited to India. It actually kind of almost works as a hack. VPN.in, meaning access through VPN. I kind of like that name regardless of the .IN.
The only other name that I really liked that stands out to me here is PricePal. I think that that is a really nice brand. I think that could very easily be a well-funded startup. Somebody that took some time to think about a domain name. A brandable domain name.
Michael: I agree. What would you ask for PricePal.com if you owned it?
Andrew: Probably like 25 to 35 grand.
Michael: Okay. So, Larry said 25 to 75. You would not go as high as 75.
Andrew: So, if somebody is willing to spend 75 grand, either they have already committed to PricePal.com, and in that case, nobody is going to commit to a name like that unless they have already got the domain in most cases. And if you are willing to pay 75 grand for a domain, they would probably pick a better name. So, I think it is going to be somewhere in that 15, 25, maybe 35 at the upper end would my opinion. Okay, all grand is PricePal. You would not commit to that without having the domain. And I think if you have not committed and the price is 75, you are going to move on to a different name. So, while I do think it is a great name, it is not irreplaceable. There are a million different versions where you could sort of achieve the same thing.
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: Yeah, I mean I guess from the new gTLDs, Beachfront.Property obviously. If these things turn out to be something, then that is a great domain.
Michael: But even if they do not, today you would probably ask for (Unclear 46:27.5), right?
Andrew: Beachfront.Property. Even though I am not a huge fan of these new gTLDs, I do like individual names. Sort of the consensus is okay, .Something is a shit extension or .This is a shit extension or .Something is a great extension. I think you have to look at individual names and say this has a purpose. You could use this for a marketing campaign. You could use this in an ad campaign. I think it is a really terrible idea to brand your entire company around one of these because of security reasons, because of confusion reasons, because of a lot of different reasons, unless you are like a mom and pop if you are not really relying on International, global traffic or national traffic.
If you are a local business, then I think these make phenomenal alternatives. If you cannot get a great .COM, you can get one of these that is cute, clever, and serves a purpose and solves a problem.
Michael: What would you ask for Beachfront.Property if you owned it?
Andrew: There are just not enough comps to really establish a market.
Michael: Well, there is no comp for HellBunny.com either, but.
Andrew: Well, there is. There is sort of an established market of like okay, you have got some crazy name like that and you are willing to go five, 15, maybe 25 at the really upper end. I think I would probably price it like a brandable. I would probably say okay, how easily could I replace this if I sell it with something comparable, and it would probably cost me a couple of grand to replace that. So, yeah, I probably would not sell it for less than five to ten grand and I would probably ask for 15.
Michael: Yeah. I am looking through Paul’s notes. PropertyAlive. Could that be a realtor service that lets you live cast walkthroughs of a home or drone over flies of a home, or a good brand for that type of service to realtors?
Andrew: Yeah, but this is the only thing to keep in mind. Same exercise I just walked through. So, let’s say you are that realtor. You want to do some live cast. There are so many options. PropertyLive or LiveProperty is a way better option. Property.Live. There are just a bazillion different options for somebody to go with that they can pick up for registration fee or a few hundred dollars, and so when that company is trying to choose a name and you reply back oh, I want seven thousand dollars or I want five thousand dollars, even if you want 25 hundred dollars, they are going to go okay, 25 hundred dollars noted and I am going to go find the price for PropertyLive.com and I am going to find LiveProperty.com, and one of those is going to be two hundred dollars or it is going to be available and they are going to register it.
And so, why are they going to pay you 25 hundred or five grand? So, if that is the case, if what you are up against is registration fee or a few hundred dollars or even one thousand dollars, even if you are up against domains that might be two grand, why hold on to it? Why continue paying the registration fee? Why renew it? So, there is no return on that. It is a one-in-a-bazillion chance that you are going to sell it period, and if that buyer comes, they are not going to be willing to pay much, so it is not worth holding.
Michael: So, let me just be the devil’s advocate because I think with all brandables you could argue that there are plenty of alternatives, but people sell brandables for two thousand bucks every day.
Andrew: Yeah, but there are different levels of brandables, right? Even HellBunny is a couple levels above PropertyAlive. HellBunny at least makes me laugh. It is like at least enough to make me have some.
Michael: It has got some shock and awe value to it. You are going to remember that, yeah.
Adam: What is the alternative to HellBunny though? If you have got a brand like HellBunny.
Andrew: HellRabbit.
Michael: No, so I think they want the bunny from the ’50s, but then they want some badass. So, it is some sort of negative adjective attached to bunny .COM.
Adam: We go through this exercise with clients all the time. We were working with a client that wanted a name. They wanted an animal and then a noun that I cannot say, but we went through this exercise with them. They picked out this one and it was an alliteration, so it did not matter what animal it was. But we went through this exercise with them and we found this name and they were just dead set on it and it was crap. And they got back this price. They did not like the price, so we were hammering on this guy and the guy just kept saying no. I mean that is what a broker who is doing these buys might be faced with. They are getting someone who has got a name like PropertyLive and they are just strong-arming you.
Michael: Yeah.
Adam: Dealing with somebody like Larry or Drew selling a name is brutal.
Andrew: So, that is the thing. I mean if you are going to hold on to a name like that, you have to play that game.
Adam: You also have to know that we left. We said bye. It is too high and we went looking for another name. Now, clients will come back. We have got a client right now working on the God awfulist name. Awfulist name. It is hard to pronounce. Hard to say. It is made up. In my personal opinion, it is an awful name and we advised against them going with this name and they are just going to do it. And they cannot get it for the price they want, and so they are stuck. And I just kept telling them. The seller in this case is a fortune five hundred company. You are not going to get it from them for cheap in the first place. So, we are battling some of those things too.
So, I mean if you are in the position where you could just keep saying no, that is great, but a couple times you are going to say no and they are going to walk. I am sure it has happened to Drew and Larry multiple times. And so, as a buyer, you also have to be aware of that too. You do have options, like you said, and in some cases you do not though. I think when you hold an asset like HellBunny, if they are coming at you for HellBunny, they have made a decision on that name. A name that is a little bit more generic that has more options. PropertyAlive does have a lot more options than HellBunny.
Larry: Adam, quick question. HellBunny. Were they using a .CO.UK name or was it a brand new company when it started?
Adam: I do not know. When I did the digging, I think they may have actually been just started out on the .CO.UK. I am not one hundred percent.
Michael: Well, and it is interesting because they are showing the money in pounds. They are clearly in the U.K.. Unless they have aspirations to grow worldwide, they do not really need the .COM if they are serving the U.K. market.
Adam: Right. I think there are some aspirations there. The company that I got put with is called Pop Soda, and they actually got on the PopSoda.com name. It was right away from LinkedIn. You knew he was coming from the U.K., so I think the first thing I did was definitely look at the (Unclear 54:04.1).
Michael: Yeah, so it is important to do some research.
Adam: I do not think it was launched yet.
Michael: Hey, I want to be respectful of your guys’ time. We are running a bit late, so I am going to run through, but I have one more question from Paul. He wrote, “The problem at this time is that large Indian CTOs do not value the credibility of premium .IN domain names, the value that they can bring to the company. How do you go about changing this mentality?” He is writing this. “How do I convey to a carpet owner that owning the domain Carpets.in will bring instant recognition to their establishment? They will recoup their costs in leaps and bounds by the amount of sales and inquiries they will receive.” Who wants to take this and what is your general feedback to Paul on how to convey the value of a single-word, generic, category killer .IN to a small business owner in India?
Andrew: So, I cannot necessarily speak specifically to India, but we actually just published a blog post yesterday kind of addressing this specific topic. And it is all about efficiency. So, every time somebody has to click, you have decreased your chances of converting that person to a customer. Every time somebody has to give a second thought, you have decreased your chances of converting that person to a customer. If your domain name, which is most often the first point of contact that you have with a potential customer, is not something clear that instills trust or at least tells your customer what you do, who you are, and that you are somebody, then you are already operating with a disadvantage.
And so, the domain name has to convey your message. It has to convey who you are and that you are somebody to be trusted, that you are somebody that does exactly what this person is looking for. So, that could be an exact match .COM. That could be a brand that just shows strength. It could be a word that is so recognizable that people feel like they already know you, or it could be not even a word, but just something that conveys a positive feeling. So, cute like Jojo or something of that nature. Something that is just cute and clever and rolls off the tongue and conveys a positive message. It at least creates a sense of curiosity.
And so, all of those things, if the domain you are trying to pitch conveys those things, that is your message. And then you compare that to what they are operating on now. I think the trick is understanding who is the buyer, and it is not always the fortune five hundred. In fact, most of the time it is not. It is not the guy that is the leader in the market. Usually they do not need to buy your domain. They are already the leader. They already have the market share. You are going to have a brand and it is probably a household name within the industry that they serve.
And so, what you are looking for is the guy that wants to be him. The guy that wants to be that market player that wants to eat his market share. The guy that is looking for funding. The guy that is looking to grab market share from the big player and is looking for any tool that he can put in his toolbox that will help him achieve that, and that could be an upgrade in the domain. That could be an additional domain like n the case of VacationRentals.com being bought by (Unclear 57:42.0) at the time. You are looking to find somebody that is looking to grow to become somebody bigger than what they are today, and then conveying all of the things that I just said and saying this is what this domain will help you achieve. Somebody who Googles carpets and Carpets.in. If I am a guy in India and I am looking for a carpet, I type in carpets into Google and Carpets.in pops up in one of the first five positions, I am going to go. Of course they are going to have what I am looking for. I am looking for a carpet. Carpets.in is going to sell me a goddamn carpet.
So, that is the message.
Michael: Yeah, and a great message. Adam or Larry, anything to add to that before we wrap up?
Adam: Actually there is a study I just read about yesterday. It said the average human attention span is now eight seconds and a goldfish has the attention span of nine seconds, so our attention spans are less than a goldfish. You have got to grab somebody’s attention right away and you have got to grab it quick.
Michael: And is Carpets.in going to do a better job grabbing that?
Adam: What were we talking about?
Michael: Exactly. Yeah. Larry, anything to add?
Larry: I think these guys got it covered pretty much. I totally agree. One of my sons is still in college. He had three of his friends over this week. Two went to the same school and one goes to a different school, and I was talking about domains with them. And they basically said three things that I thought was very interesting. When they see a domain that has a .COM, they feel it is authoritative. They feel that just the .COM itself. They also look for, and my son’s friends have no interest. They are not domainers or anything like that, but they basically felt that keywords were important and only one was aware of the new gTLDs and what they were. Otherwise they looked sketchy.
But when I asked them about if you are in a different country and I explained to them the country codes, they also said oh, then I would definitely consider it if I was there and I saw it is in India, .IN. That (Unclear 1:00:11.7), but I would think it is positive to click on something like that if the keyword was let’s say carpets as opposed to Online-Carpet-Sales-whatever. So, you are looking for nice, clean, and I think the purpose of what I am trying to say is even the younger generation, there are certain things they look for and keywords are that. Not country codes, but .COM are something also that they are more interested in. And the other thing they mentioned is .ORGs. They felt comfortable clicking on .ORGs. So, a little off the mark of what we started talking about.
Michael: No, I think it is right on the mark because if I was in India, I would look at Carpets.in as authoritative. I am not looking for a .COM. I am in India. I want to buy it from an Indian company, where I know it can be delivered through the sort of logistical system.
Andrew: The only other thing I am going to add – sorry to interrupt you, but my attention span is so short that if I did not say it now, I would forget. I already forgot. No. You have got to keep in mind the industry that you are approaching too. So, when it comes to carpets or kitchen cabinets, none of you could tell me – Adam might be because he is weird – a brand of carpets or a brand of kitchen cabinets. No household name. Keep your mouth shut, Adam. But if you are talking about sneakers, even though Sneakers I think is a great band, I do not know that it is a great brand for selling shoes. If I am buying shoes, I already know Adidas. I already know Nike. I already know Reebok. I already know Puma or Sketchers or whatever. I do not need to go to Sneakers.
If I am doing a Google search, Sneakers.com is not adding any value to my search. The point is if you are targeting an industry that has a household name in it already or a lot of household names, then the super generic domain, whether it is .COM, .IN, or whatever, does not necessarily add a lot of value. In those industries, the domains that sell are the ones that represent a new brand in the market. Not the generic domain. But if there is no household name, either among the public or in the industry that they are serving, then the generic domain does serve a huge purpose. Does have immense amount of value.
Michael: Yeah, great tip, Drew.
Adam: To a point. I mean Hotels.com is a strong term. It is a great site. I could go to Marriot or I could go to Sheraton, but let’s say I am going to Vienna in the near future. I go to Hotels.com as one of the sites because I want to see what other hotels are in that area. So, I do not have to go to the Marriot or the Sheraton or what have you.
Andrew: That is a good point, and I think that that could be said for any market where people are going to instinctually want to do price comparison. Even if they know Marriot and they know Sheraton, they want to compare prices.
Michael: Definitely. All right, we are going to move on. Paul, thank you for submitting your portfolio and making your generous donation to cancer research. We hope this review has been helpful to you in your domain investing activities going forward.
Before we jump into the last section, the NameJet Auctions, I want to tell you about our three other sponsors. Three more quick sponsor messages.
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Michael: We are going to jump into the Marketplace List. This segment is sponsored by NameJet. We will be reviewing 15 no reserve or reserve met domain names heading to auction soon. So, the idea is that if you are a newer investor, these could be domains that you might want to look at, and so the Sherpas are going to tell you which ones to keep in mind. Maybe it is out of your price range and you just want to watch it to see how the market is going. Keep an eye on these. I might have. I cannot remember if I picked some domains just to throw a wrench into the system to see if the Sherpas do not like one and why.
But if you like one of the names, click through soon because once they go to auction, you lose your chance to put in a minimum bid and just watch the results. Most of these already have at least one 69. Well, it is going to be 79-dollar bid by the time this show comes out. And so, if it is over that price and you put in your 79-dollar bid, you can just watch the auction and you are not going to win it.
The links below go directly to NameJet. They are not commissionable links. They just want to see how much traffic we are sending them. The list starts with Awesomefest.com and it ends with the Xenos. This segment, we are going to go Larry, then Drew, and then Adam. Larry, let’s start with you. From an investment perspective, what do you like on this NameJet list and why?
Larry: The two names that come to mind are Biologic and Xenos. Biologic. There are a number of companies with biologic in its name. It is very easily pronounced and you would definitely, typing it in, be able to type it in based on radio tests. Xenos I like because it is a common Greek name. When I was looking up, I think it means something like stranger or lone or something like that, but I just thought it sounded like a powerful man that a branded company would want to be called. I mean there is a .ORG established. I am going to skip on that for now, but those two names I think are.
Michael: Yeah, and so what I heard from you coming from an investor perspective is that you want to buy the domain names that either have a number of companies using a similar type of domain name, and this is a better alternative, so they might want to upgrade at some point, or a great generic domain maybe from another language that could be a brand for a company.
Larry: Exactly.
Michael: Okay. And what do you think that these two domains are going to sell for on NameJet? You are on there pretty often.
Larry: Biologic I could see hitting eight to ten thousand. Xenos maybe one to two. That is what I would think.
Michael: Are you going to go in on either of these.
Larry: I might. I have just got to compare it with other names I am looking at, but I thought those two were very nice.
Michael: Yeah, cool. Thanks, Larry. Drew, let’s go over to you. What do you think of the NameJet list? What do you like?
Andrew: Biologic is by far my favorite name in the list for several reasons. So, I think just biologic in its generic nature, meaning organic, is a great brand, or let’s even say not brand, but it is a great domain. Any company that wants to emphasize the fact that their products are natural, biological, organic, or whatever, great domain name, but I also like it because it is a play on words, like bio logic. Logic as a suffix has been widely used by software companies, tech companies, consulting companies, and so I like that sort of play on words. The sort of bio and logic combination.
And I like CompanyX just because it is one of these sort of low hanging fruit ways to get some traffic. How well you can convert it is sort of up to you, but just publishing company information online, creating a massive directory with publicly available information, it is sort of tried and true. It is a lot of work. It is not for an investment, but over time if you keep publishing and you do your organic SEO, you can drive a lot of traffic, and then it is up to you to convert it. But I think that is a great brand for sort of publishing corporate information online, and that information is all public information, which can be gathered and put into a website.
Michael: Yeah, definitely.
Andrew: And whether you want to do that, which I am not encouraging anybody to actually do that. I am just saying that there probably would be somebody out there that would want to do that, that would buy the domain from you.
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: And Xenos. So, pretty much in line with Larry.
Michael: Hey, so as I was sitting here listening to you guys, I am like yeah, clearly Biologic I like. That is why I put it on the list, but then I was just thinking well, it is a generic word. I wonder if there are some trademarks on it, so I went over to Trademark247.com and I see eight exact match trademarks for Biologic, meaning that there are companies in the bicycle helmet space and the sleep product space and the micronutrient space and the backup lights for land vehicles space. Does that worry you guys as investors? Let me start with you, Drew. Would that worry you to buy Biologic.com knowing that there are seven trademarks out there for companies?
Andrew: So, I actually kind of look at that backwards. So, I actually am surprised that there is not more trademarks and I would prefer that there was more trademarks. If there is like one or two trademarks, then that means that somebody actually really kind of owns that name. It is hard to say that it is so widely used and how could you possibly have the rights to that name when there are a hundred other companies that have also used that name. So, I actually am surprised there is not more trademarks for that name, and so it worries me that there are not more, and so that actually would probably cause me to pay a bit less than I might have originally thought I would pay for that name.
I do not get worried when there are lots of trademarks for a domain. That, to me, is encouraging. That, to me, says that there is wide adoption of that term. That there is a very high likelihood that one of those companies is going to want this name. As long as I do not have to do something really stupid with it, I should be able to sell it to them.
Michael: Yeah, even though there could be the oddball chance that one of these owners does not understand trademark law and domain names and they are going to be like hey, I own the trademark for this; you better give it up.
Andrew: Unfortunately, that is just a cost to doing business in our world right now. There are a lot of stupid people. We just had this problem actually on a domain that we owned, and some idiot who had filed the trademark two weeks earlier actually made us an offer, which is for an absolute crap domain, and he made us a 4,900-dollar offer. I was like sure, you can have it. 4,900 dollars. And he wrote back: “ha, ha, ha, now I am going to take this domain from you. You are infringing on my trademark.” And so, I was like what? So, I quickly looked it up and I found the guy right away. He was the only guy that had the trademark. He filed it like eight days before. It had not even been issued yet. And I wrote him back and was like you clearly are a moron. You have no idea about trademark law. I highly encourage you to contact a lawyer and waste more money, or you could just continue to buy this domain name for the 49 hundred dollars you offered for the next 48 hours. If you do not, then I will die with those domain name and never sell it to you for the rest of your life.
And so, it is just part of doing business.
Michael: Yeah, I thought you were going to respond back that his offer of 49 hundred was a binding agreement that you just made over email and you are going to take him to court.
Andrew: Oh man, taking somebody to court just costs too much. It is not worth it for 49 hundred bucks. And when you are dealing with somebody that is clearly that stupid, nine times out of ten it is just not worth it.
Michael: Yeah.
Andrew: Just let him know he is an idiot.
Larry: I am assuming 48 hours later you did not hear from him.
Andrew: No, still have not heard from him and I will die with that name.
Michael: All right, thanks, Drew. Adam, let’s go over to you. What do you like on the NameJet list and why?
Adam: Not much I could say other than what those guys said. I mean Biologic is obviously the clear winning here. It is easy to find right away.
Michael: Awesomefest. You do not like Awesomefest?
Adam: It is kind of a cool brand, but a couple hundred bucks maybe at the most.
Michael: You would pay for it on NameJet.
Adam: Yeah, I mean I have got enough of those kinds of names, but it looked like there was a few Awesomefests already out there. A lot of these names, if you Google them, there was an EliteWireless. There is a dead trademark on that. GreenSummit. There are people using that term. DeadSoftware. There is probably somebody using that. QuadBand has a tech connotation with WiFi, but it is not really probably a good investment to get into that technology that is already existing because it is just going to go away at some point.
Andrew: Talking about technology that goes away. Ask Larry about DVD rentals.
Michael: What is the story there, Larry?
Larry: I believe DVDs are coming back.
Adam: Betamax too, right?
Larry: No, that is a little too much.
Michael: You are serious about DVDs. You are serious.
Andrew: No, Larry owns DVDRental.com and I have had some laughs from Larry that I think the time to sell that might have passed.
Larry: We all have our own opinions.
Michael: Yeah. So, Adam, newer investors. They are on here. They have kids that are maybe starting high school. They are going into pre-calculus. Pre-calculus is the way that they refer to it. They may look at it and say PreCalc.com. That is like an entire course that most students have to go through. Is that a good investment?
Adam: Yeah, I had that marked down as probably a good site for tutorials and things like that for math. It is a build out project. Again, like Drew was saying with the CompanyX, it is a long-term project that you would have to invest some money into, but no, I could see picking that one up for under one thousand I would say. I would not go higher on that just because, again, I have got a bunch of names like that, but it is a good name. That was probably like third on my list.
Michael: Okay, and I threw a .ORG in there. I do not know. Pending.org. I just thought I do not know. Pending. Things are pending. Either pending delete or pending auction, in multiple industries. Drew, you are shaking your head no. Cyger, why would you do that? Why do you not like Pending.org?
Andrew: You say oh, because things are pending and it is like yeah, you could say that about anything, but it comes down to commercial intent. How the (Profanity 1:17:19.5) do you monetize Pending.org? Pending.com. At least there is a commercial aspect to it maybe if you could figure out what is pending and why somebody wants to pay for it, like pending delete domains. But Pending.org. I do not know where the money is. And if there is no money, why are you going to throw money at the domain?
Michael: Yeah, but you would buy HipHopDance.
Adam: Somebody will probably put down 69 bucks on that.
Michael: Yeah, totally.
Andrew: Somebody is going to spend five hundred dollars on that domain and it is going to go right down the toilet.
Michael: And this is what I want to get from you guys. If a newer investor is watching this show, you are saying it will probably go that way and it will be a waste of money because nobody will inquire about it and if you reach out to try and sell it to end users, nobody will want the .ORG. Is that what you are saying?
Andrew: Absolutely.
Adam: Establish.org falls in that same category I would think.
Michael: Yeah, Establish.org.
Andrew: Although I actually like Establish.org better than Pending, like establish your reputation. Establish yourself.
Michael: But it is a .ORG.
Larry: .ORGs still have value.
Andrew: It implies trust, which is an important variable in that sort of market.
Michael: But if you are trying to create a commercial entity and you are on a .ORG, it is sort of misleading.
Andrew: Man, I have sold a lot of that. Larry can attest. I have sold a lot of .ORGs for six figures, seven figures. In the world of online marketing, there is an inherent understanding that people trust .ORG, as Larry just said from his kids, and people are willing to click on a .ORG because there is an inherent sense of trust. And so, if you are trying to market something and you want to create an authoritative website about that topic, maybe there will not be a clear. Maybe your intent is not to clearly convert that customer directly on that site or maybe it is, but you are trying to capture a lead. You are trying to capture somebody’s information. You are trying to figure out if somebody is trying to figure out how to get their credit score. Somebody is trying to figure out how to get the best price on some type of insurance. You are trying to figure out somebody is trying to figure out how to get a nursing degree.
And if you create an authoritative website on that .ORG, it is a valuable asset. This is a super, proven strategy in lead generation, in eCommerce using .ORG because of its inherent sense of trust. People do not feel like they are being sold to immediately when they click on .ORG, and so there is the sense of trust and they might be willing to give you their information more readily, etc.
Michael: All right, fair enough. Adam, parting thoughts on the NameJet list. Anything that new investors should definitely stay away from.
Adam: QuadBand is one I would stay away from.
Michael: Technology has run its course.
Adam: Yeah, it looks like it is a name that will be on the downhill slide.
Michael: Yea, all right, good advice. We are at the end of today’s show. I like to give the Sherpas the opportunity to share anything that they want about names that are buying, selling, brokering, deals they are offering, opportunities they are looking for, places they will be that they want to meet up, or people they want to give a shout-out to. Let’s start with you, Adam. Anybody want to give a shout-out to or mention.
Adam: Yeah, sure. We have got a new thing on NameBio. I think some people have been aware of it for a while, but we have got a new game called The Domain Game available on your iOS device. The developer happens to be the number one score on it, which is kind of strange to me.
Michael: That does seem a little fishy, Michael.
Adam: Yeah, Michael Somers is the developer of it. My partner at NameBio. It is better than PokemonGo is my pitch, and so yeah, go download that and check it out. NameBio.com. You can see it up at the top. I think we have got a banner up there leading to the download page. And then I have got a new thing rolling out with Domain Agents that I am pretty excited about. It is kind of in BETA right now, but we are rolling out a domains wanted section on our site and instead of publishing domains for sale, we are actually pushing out domains that our customers that are coming in through Domain Agents that are looking for domains, so be on the lookout for that. If you are not a customer of ours, go sign up and you could start receiving emails. People looking for specific categories of domains.
Michael: Cool, so we could sign up to receive the newsletter whenever you have a new buy request.
Adam: Yeah. If you are a customer, the buy requests are actually inside your admin. There is a button on the left to find the buyer wanted section, and then we actually publish a newsletter too that comes out. I believe it is monthly, and that will be filtering the wanted names too. So, we are getting buyers that come in that have budgets that are pretty decent and they are walking away still looking for a domain, so this is a service that our customers have been wanting, so something that we are going to provide. And I think for domainers it is awesome. I think we are going to end up opening up the floodgates a little bit. I am a little bit nervous about that personally, is getting spammed with domains for sale that might not hit the mark, but we are going to test it out and see. Our customers are wanting it, so we are going to do that.
Michael: Awesome. Well, good luck with that. Get over to DomainAgents.com and sign up for that, and then NameBio. I have been playing the game. Love the game, Michael, and you did a fantastic job developing that. I recommend it to DNAcademy students who are trying to go through and value domain names. It really gives you that gut feel based on where the domain sold, the type of domain it is, and the year it sold it. It helps you put things into perspective so you can get your gut feel on the value of domain names, so it is a great app for iOS. Go get that.
Adam: I would like to see the other Sherpas showing up on the leaderboard.
Michael: Yeah, I have not seen Drew or Larry.
Andrew: I actually just downloaded it as we speak.
Michael: Nice.
Adam: Let’s see it, dude.
Michael: All right. Drew.
Andrew: What is the high score?
Adam: I think the longest lead, which means how many people got the domains in a row, is like 25 or 26 in a row correct. And so, it is based on that. If you are on the leaderboard, it is based on how many you get in a row correct and kind of your percentage correct.
Larry: What does it ask? What price a domain sold for?
Michael: Yeah, so if I go to play now.
Andrew: What does longest mean?
Adam: How many times you have gotten them in a row.
Andrew: Okay, got it. Streak is something else.
Adam: Okay, if you are playing the game right now and you have got two in a row right, it will say two under streak. The longest streak so far is six.
Michael: So, Larry, FordIt.com sold at GoDaddy in 2014. Is it a three, four, five, or six-figure domain sale?
Larry: What was the name?
Michael: Out of time. FordIt.com. Did it sell for three figures, four figures, five figures?
Larry: Three figures.
Michael: Yeah, it sold for three figures. So, basically it gives you an idea of the kind of buyers that are buying at GoDaddy, the kinds of domains that they have in the year, and then it is like what I talk about a lot – order of magnitude. When people complain about EstiBot being like I have a domain name. I sold it for seven thousand and EstiBot shows it at two hundred.
Andrew: Man, get rid of the 3X because who the hell sells domains for 3X?
Michael: Plenty of people sell domains for three figures. Do not give me that, Drew. You are out of touch. I only sell for six figures or more. There are plenty of domains that sell for three figures.
Andrew: The only ones I get wrong are the ones that sold for three figures. Who would sell that name for three figures?
Michael: Well, and the ones that are tough are right on the cusp. It is definitely a four-figure domain, but somehow they eked out ten thousand dollars for it. Those bug me, Adam.
Adam: Yeah, sorry.
Andrew: Talk to the developer.
Michael: All right.
Adam: I just pulled up my phone and it is showing me the ranking I am in is number 120. Somehow I went from number five to 120, so I will have to talk to the developer about how that happens.
Andrew: I just started playing five minutes ago and I am number 86.
Michael: Nice!
Adam: Look, I am number 120. You see that.
Michael: Rocking it.
Adam: How does that happen?
Andrew: You must have hit reset.
Adam: I guess. I do not know. All right, Drew, anything you want to mention. Give a shout-out to. Promote.
Andrew: We have got some really stellar domains for sale right now. We are selling Host.com.
Michael: Wow.
Andrew: We are selling CT.com. We are selling JL.com. We are selling Lease.com. We have got some really phenomenal domain names to sell right now. So, if you or anyone you know is sitting on a pile of cash and really needs a phenomenal domain name, you know where to find me.
Michael: Yeah, but can we get reseller pricing?
Andrew: Absolutely not.
Michael: Yeah, so you better have a business idea. If somebody knows somebody that may want to buy one of these domain names, do you do a co-broker commission?
Andrew: Yeah man, there is nothing in the world that I like more than paying a finder’s fee, paying a referral fee, co-brokering with somebody that I know and trust. If you woke up yesterday and decided you were a domain broker, I am not going to co-broker a deal with you, but people that I am willing to go brokerage, who know who they are, probably two out of the five are on this show right now. For this audience, probably a better shout out is if you have got a domain that you need to sell and it is really good and you are looking to move quickly.
Larry: I appreciate it.
Michael: Great domains. Host.com. CT. JL. Lease.com. Nice. All right, good luck with those. Hopefully they are going to be public information when you sell them, just like Larry did for 900 thousand, YK.com.
Andrew: Not going to happen, but we will let you know when we sell.
Michael: Come on, Drew. You have got to do your part for the industry.
Andrew: Yeah. I could buy liquidity in an illiquid market. That is my part.
Michael: All right. Larry.
Larry: Trademark that. That sounds really good.
Michael: Thanks, Drew. Larry, let’s go over to you. Anything you want to mention or promote.
Larry: A couple quick things. GetYourDomain.com is my website. Recent exclusive. EKG.com. Somebody is in the medical field.
Michael: Yeah, your EKG with Drew’s CT.com, the scan.
Andrew: I was just going to say. If we bump into somebody that does EKG machines and CT scanners, let them know.
Larry: And I want to mention something I am going to be doing at the Domain Conference. About ten years ago, we had a game we had play called Domain or No Domain. Ari and I late at night. We were working a smart name and we were bored at two in the morning. We would call each other and say hey, you think this name is available. And we would then look it up. That is the fun things we did at two in the morning. So, years ago at the Traffic Show, we had five people on stage and we had different names, and people picked whether it was available or not available. And we are going to do something similar at the Domain Conference.
We are going to have a number of people on stage that are experts, we are going to be saying names and we are going to try and see if they can guess whether or not the domain is actually available or unavailable. There will be some rules about gTLDs and stuff. And then after the experts go, then the audience is going to go and one person will actually win a conference ticket for the next year.
Michael: Nice. Yeah, that is fun, and you actually told me about that probably years ago, and then we used to do registered or not on one of the DomainSherpa shows in the past years ago. It is a fun game. Yeah, and we should give a shout-out to TheDomainConference.com. Howard Barbara Ray run that phenomenal event. October or September?
Larry: This year, September.
Michael: Yeah, down in Florida. So, if you were thinking about it and you want to get to a conference, meet some people in person. Do some networking. Meet with Larry. I will be there. I do not know. Adam, Drew, you guys planning to go to the Domain Conference?
Andrew: Yeah, I am not going to make it. We are going to have a brand new baby that just arrived and we are going to be moving ourselves after seven months from Germany back to Panama, so not going to make it this year.
Michael: Adam, are you going to make it this year?
Adam: What are the dates again?
Larry: 10 to the 14th I think.
Michael: 10 to the 14th. That sounds right.
Adam: Yeah, I do not know. We just bought a new house, so I am actually in the process of fixing in our house to get out of and then fixing another house to get into it, so it depends.
Michael: All right, maybe. I know I have seen you there in the past.
Adam: Yeah.
Andrew: Which is why you know cabinet and carpet brands.
Adam: Yeah.
Michael: A mill guard came right to mind when you said cabinets. Come on. All right, thanks, Larry. That is going to be a fun show. I am looking forward to seeing it at the Domain Conference.
Larry: Everyone, let’s make domaining great again.
Michael: Who owns that? MakeDomainingGreatAgain.com.
Andrew: I just want to know what is the platform. What is your platform, Larry? What do we need to do to make domaining great again?
Larry: I do not know, but you are my friend.
Andrew: Who do we need to exclude from domaining to make domaining great again?
Larry: We will talk about it when we have our domaining conference and see what were are going to do. That is the platform.
Andrew: I know who should be excluded. Maria.DomainsBuy@Gmail.com. Maria.DomainsBuy@Gmail.com needs to be excluded from domaining to make domains great again because he or she or whoever the hell it is, is worthless. Backs out of deals right away and cannot be trusted. So, Maria.DomainsBuy@Gmail.com should be excluded from domaining. Do not do business with him or her or whoever it is.
Michael: Done.
Adam: Tell us how you feel.
Michael: Make it great. If you received benefit from today’s show, please post a comment below and thank today Sherpas. They spent a lot of time. We went way over. I am really appreciative to them for giving their time so that we can become better investors by learning how they think. Thanks to Paul Sing for submitting his portfolio and making a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and sending me these awesome T-shirts. Thanks to NameJet for submitting their portfolio and sponsoring that segment of the DomainSherpa Review. And thanks again to our domain Sherpas, Adam Strong, Andrew Rosener, and Larry Fischer for sharing their experience and insights. We will see you all next time.
Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/review-20160725/