Can I say I 100% agree with
@Ategy.com to never buy any domain you do not understand. I would add though that randomness is in the eye of the beholder sometimes. Many of the $600+ mixed mode sales I see to me seem like random collections of letters. But just because I do not see a pattern, does not mean there is not one. In particular, it appears some of the ones in end use and that sold for good amounts went to Chinese market, so keep in mind the caution Ategy gives.
I would repeat again what I said earlier and is the key point I think.
If you see realistic end-use possibilities that are not random, it may make sense at right price. If they are random to you, you probably should stick away from any domain.
I think there is also some caution here though to not be too regionally biased in our view. Clearly certain regions like numbers and mixed much more than the US, and other regions like hyphens. Don't invest for those markets if you don't genuinely understand them, but also accept that each of us bring our own biases to the discussion.
Bob
PS Can someone tell me why JS is so attractive in LLNN names? It has sold about 10 times with good average price of almost $4000 but to me JS seems random. It must have a meaning I do not see.
I was wondering if anyone was going to comment on the Chinese aspect of these combinations. We can't have tunnel-vision when valuating in the U.S. We are not the only ones who visit websites. There is a world out there larger than us and they utilize the web as well. While other countries may have their own extensions, they do use the irreplaceable .com.
My opinion: how many 4L, 4N, or a combination of either can we come up with? While it may not make "sense" to us in our own world, someone may see what we do not. I do not think we can value domains based on historical data alone. While it is a benchmark and measurement tool, we need to factor in "change." The world is changing & always has been progressive-thus we have gone from horse & buggies to autos to who knows what's next...ask Elon.
If you see a domain that has 4 of anything only, I recommend buying it. There are hard to acquire and desireable to someone. Especially if there is a root word, acronym or something you see that can be marketable. Think of other countries, research terms, near terms, and try to make sense of what it all means or could mean. You could have an angle on something big.
While not a good comparable "apples to apples," etsy is a prime example of a nonsense type "word" or acronym that I don't think has a meaning. There is former Etsy employee who claims that the name was a resultant of logarithm searches and combinations. Thus, the company name was founded based upon value of combinations of 4 letters of consonants & vowels.
Now the very strongly branded "Etsy" has a meaning that we associate a prime shopping experience with by that combination that 15 years ago was garbled to our ears. Nike is synonymous with shoes, much like etsy has succeeded in becoming synonymous with online shopping. many use to make their livings & has become a go-to for unique products.
Thank goodness we cannot measure everything, or we would repeat ourselves over and over in history and extinguish change & progress.
Just like the wise Bob here has pointed out the Chinese language, I would have a different recommendation for domain investors. The best advice I have ever heard about the topic of how much any domain is correctly answered with, "whatever someone is willing to pay."
How much would you pay for etsy? How much would you pay for evye? I just made that last one up. I don't know...neither does anyone truly. The future will hold the answer. I have a practice of thinking forward.
If I follow the current lessons in domain investing, I will pay a lot for many highly sought and fought over domains. That's stressful and no fun. I instead, look at the domain as a visionary. Yes, a visionary. Whatever value is placed upon my idea today could be less than $100. In 5 years, that could be a million-dollar site.
I have one for example I bought from godaddy after it expired. I looked at it and thought, "hmmm I see something." I wasn't really sure what I saw. I have not paid it much attention until last month. I have been reviewing my portfolio and this is the only domain I have at godaddy and nearly one hundred I own.
As I remembered my one little godaddy domain to review, I looked again, and it hit me. Now, I know why I bought it. I see it more clearly now. I created a logo, tagline, and it was so easy to see it! It was, in fact, too easy!
I looked and began singing, " It's so easy, it's so easy, yeahhh so doggone easy, to fall in love, it's so easy to fall in love...
You are singing too, aren't you? I was reviewing my domain tooesy.com
I have it for sale. I don't have a price and I will listen to offers. It's tooesy to fall in love, it's too esy to fall in love with tooesy.com.
While we base good decisions on the available historical data as that is what is available, let us open our minds instead of researching facts, tidbits, email blasts, and canned information. There is always a better cat house (notice I am tired of the "mouse-trap" example), and I want to find that. I don't want to fight over what everyone else "thinks" is hot and miss the opportunities of tomorrow.
One of the richest men I ever personally met gave me the best advice: Be a visionary. Visionaries become wealthy. Practitioners make a living. That is my copyrighted quote.
I took parts of his advice and coined my own quote, copyrighted quote by Tina Bacot:
"Practitioners make a living, but Visionaries become wealthy."
Cheers! TB.