IT.COM

discuss Some differences in domain sales I have noticed in 2022.

Spaceship Spaceship
Watch

twiki

Top Member
Impact
30,339
I have just posted one $788 sale in the reported sales thread, I'm re-posting part of the comment here for everyone to be able to discuss. Feel free to comment and please do share your insight as well.

Note, this is just my own perspective / observations AND is a bit related to my portfolio as well. So it might not be the same for everyone else. But I'm very curious to hear your current perspective too. Anyway, see below.

1) For some reason, discounting domains to clear in the low-to-mid XXX range has gradually faded in the last part of 2021 and died this year.

At least for me. And in 2022 it has basically stopped. Whenever I discount a domain below $788, even if thousands of names are discounted at the same time, the effect is the unintended one - there is no sale further.

I have therefore decided to stick to the following prices:

- Regular price: above 1.48k: $1488 (the cheapos, non-renewables), $1688 (meh ones), $1988 and more ( good) etc etc.

- Discount price: $788 (but feel free to use $799 as well). Fixed price. (Edit - although I sometimes play with adding some min offer there but it still doesn't do anything)

I have no pricing between the two or below $788 anymore. Reason? They don't work anymore. Even at 1K, 1.2K, $500, whatever, everything in these price points did NOT sell anything for me (guess I had some measly $499 at some point but not worth noting).

Side note I only use Afternic and the GD lander (ns5/ns6), because this setup brings me the best results.

The $788 price has worked great in the past and it still works well for my clearances.

2) Having a min offer no longer brings offers.


My current strategy is to use fixed price everywhere (min price = floor = BIN). If someone wants a discount, they will reach me anyway via the broker. I sometimes get offers via DomainAgents, GD etc, but having a min price at Afternic is pointless nowadays.

Please note that I also have the ability to switch to the Afternic Bin and min lander I talked about in the past where there is both min and bin but even there there is no offer. (note, I get most sales via Fast Transfer anyway, so lander based sales are still a minority).

3). $299 and $199 prices = zero results. This is in sharp contrast with the past. And it doesn't depend on domain quality, good or bad, if you put such price you're wasting time (at least I'm wasting time).

And I know 100% sure that Afternic still promotes and sells such domains (for example at GoDaddy Auctions they are still listed in 45-day ranking increasing order until the 45-day windows resets).

I'm not sure what the reason is exactly for this. I can assume though that this was the pricing where small businesses and individuals purchased my names (it's the market range anyway) AND they either don't have purchase power now, OR, more likely, are to scared (or stingy, or can't afford etc etc) to spend $300 on a name anymore. So this market segment might be having a stroke or something.

The more I discount below $788, the worse it gets. Fast.

This has never been like this and I'm still baffled about why this thing which started in 2021 has gone here. I blame the pandemic effect (economy) + the war now. Anyway I personally also see a big reduction in XXX range sales in the reported sales thread too.

4). 4-fig sales still rock. Especially high ones up to 5-fig. It appears this segment has grown, while going weaker and weaker the lower you get with the price.

Takeaway = get less, but higher value names.

Edit: Also try a bit higher pricing - you might be surprised to see it actually increases the sale % as the domain might be perceived as having more value.

5). There is a weird (or not?) correlation between NASDAQ and domain sales. Whenever NASDAQ goes up, Bitcoin goes up, well, guess what - domain sales start going up. Whenever it goes down even by small percentages (say 3%) sales halt - at least for me.

Yeah, it was like that in the past too, since I have tech and finance names mostly anyway. But it hasn't been that strongly correlated before.

I bet its market panic, mood swings and the fight between greed and fear = the only 2 emotions that matter in life.

6) This is not new, but it has sharpened in comparison with the past: If you put a price just a bit too low on a domain you have, it will kill the sale. It used to be like, you reduce the price and it sells faster. Not anymore. If I have say a domain at $1488 (meh domain) and I put it at $1200 or $1K it won't sell anymore, but if I put it up I get a better chance to sell it (but not if I get too high up).

So you have to hit the nail in the head with the right price, and the window seems narrower than it used to be. (note I have mostly 1-word, 1-word modified and 2-word .COMs if that matters.)

7) There are huge variations from one month to another and there are gaps of say 2-3 weeks where I sell nothing (zero or say one sale) then in a few days I sell quite a lot of names. Is everyone getting paid in the same day over the world? (just kidding) .

Had a brief DM conversation with Abdul Basit (thanks again, @AbdulBasit.com for all your posts and advice etc) and he also said last month was really weird with no sales for some reason; which is not common for him. I had a slightly different interval but it overlapped with his pretty much.

Note, also in the last 2 weeks this month I had very few sales (I can consider that zero), and it seems to be driven by the NASDAQ wind. So now I watch this index closely and hope for some fresh sales when it gets momentum (heard Meta is up 15%, that woudl be good for us ). I had good sales though in the first 5 days of the month which covers my monthly profit. But then there has been an eerie silence.

There might be other things as well but this is what I recall at this point.

As a side note about my own portfolio size, I have reduced it to 8k and intend to go below 5k names while improving quality. I'm focusing on .coms mostly and at least for the near future, intend to keep it that way. 95% of my names now are .coms.

Feel free to ask me anything and comment. Thanks!
 
Last edited:
45
•••
The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
2
•••
Yet some very disappointing NASDAQ news (BTW NASDAQ went tumbling down today, 5.5%) :

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/05/tech-selloff-puts-nasdaq-on-pace-for-worst-day-since-june-2020.html

This is not good for most domainers, including myself.

Buy the Dip™. I had shares in VIG which I think most people hold long term...it was at 163 a couple weeks ago and I was going to dump it because I could feel it was going down. Now it's at 153. I'll wait a little bit more and increase my position. Should be a new dividend next month :D
 
Last edited:
0
•••
I have just posted one $788 sale in the reported sales thread, I'm re-posting part of the comment here for everyone to be able to discuss. Feel free to comment and please do share your insight as well.

Note, this is just my own perspective / observations AND is a bit related to my portfolio as well. So it might not be the same for everyone else. But I'm very curious to hear your current perspective too. Anyway, see below.

1) For some reason, discounting domains to clear in the low-to-mid XXX range has gradually faded in the last part of 2021 and died this year.

At least for me. And in 2022 it has basically stopped. Whenever I discount a domain below $788, even if thousands of names are discounted at the same time, the effect is the unintended one - there is no sale further.

I have therefore decided to stick to the following prices:

- Regular price: above 1.48k: $1488 (the cheapos, non-renewables), $1688 (meh ones), $1988 and more ( good) etc etc.

- Discount price: $788 (but feel free to use $799 as well). Fixed price. (Edit - although I sometimes play with adding some min offer there but it still doesn't do anything)

I have no pricing between the two or below $788 anymore. Reason? They don't work anymore. Even at 1K, 1.2K, $500, whatever, everything in these price points did NOT sell anything for me (guess I had some measly $499 at some point but not worth noting).

Side note I only use Afternic and the GD lander (ns5/ns6), because this setup brings me the best results.

The $788 price has worked great in the past and it still works well for my clearances.

2) Having a min offer no longer brings offers.


My current strategy is to use fixed price everywhere (min price = floor = BIN). If someone wants a discount, they will reach me anyway via the broker. I sometimes get offers via DomainAgents, GD etc, but having a min price at Afternic is pointless nowadays.

Please note that I also have the ability to switch to the Afternic Bin and min lander I talked about in the past where there is both min and bin but even there there is no offer. (note, I get most sales via Fast Transfer anyway, so lander based sales are still a minority).

3). $299 and $199 prices = zero results. This is in sharp contrast with the past. And it doesn't depend on domain quality, good or bad, if you put such price you're wasting time (at least I'm wasting time).

And I know 100% sure that Afternic still promotes and sells such domains (for example at GoDaddy Auctions they are still listed in 45-day ranking increasing order until the 45-day windows resets).

I'm not sure what the reason is exactly for this. I can assume though that this was the pricing where small businesses and individuals purchased my names (it's the market range anyway) AND they either don't have purchase power now, OR, more likely, are to scared (or stingy, or can't afford etc etc) to spend $300 on a name anymore. So this market segment might be having a stroke or something.

The more I discount below $788, the worse it gets. Fast.

This has never been like this and I'm still baffled about why this thing which started in 2021 has gone here. I blame the pandemic effect (economy) + the war now. Anyway I personally also see a big reduction in XXX range sales in the reported sales thread too.

4). 4-fig sales still rock. Especially high ones up to 5-fig. It appears this segment has grown, while going weaker and weaker the lower you get with the price.

Takeaway = get less, but higher value names.

Edit: Also try a bit higher pricing - you might be surprised to see it actually increases the sale % as the domain might be perceived as having more value.

5). There is a weird (or not?) correlation between NASDAQ and domain sales. Whenever NASDAQ goes up, Bitcoin goes up, well, guess what - domain sales start going up. Whenever it goes down even by small percentages (say 3%) sales halt - at least for me.

Yeah, it was like that in the past too, since I have tech and finance names mostly anyway. But it hasn't been that strongly correlated before.

I bet its market panic, mood swings and the fight between greed and fear = the only 2 emotions that matter in life.

6) This is not new, but it has sharpened in comparison with the past: If you put a price just a bit too low on a domain you have, it will kill the sale. It used to be like, you reduce the price and it sells faster. Not anymore. If I have say a domain at $1488 (meh domain) and I put it at $1200 or $1K it won't sell anymore, but if I put it up I get a better chance to sell it (but not if I get too high up).

So you have to hit the nail in the head with the right price, and the window seems narrower than it used to be. (note I have mostly 1-word, 1-word modified and 2-word .COMs if that matters.)

7) There are huge variations from one month to another and there are gaps of say 2-3 weeks where I sell nothing (zero or say one sale) then in a few days I sell quite a lot of names. Is everyone getting paid in the same day over the world? (just kidding) .

Had a brief DM conversation with Abdul Basit (thanks again, @AbdulBasit.com for all your posts and advice etc) and he also said last month was really weird with no sales for some reason; which is not common for him. I had a slightly different interval but it overlapped with his pretty much.

Note, also in the last 2 weeks this month I had very few sales (I can consider that zero), and it seems to be driven by the NASDAQ wind. So now I watch this index closely and hope for some fresh sales when it gets momentum (heard Meta is up 15%, that woudl be good for us ). I had good sales though in the first 5 days of the month which covers my monthly profit. But then there has been an eerie silence.

There might be other things as well but this is what I recall at this point.

As a side note about my own portfolio size, I have reduced it to 8k and intend to go below 5k names while improving quality. I'm focusing on .coms mostly and at least for the near future, intend to keep it that way. 95% of my names now are .coms.

Feel free to ask me anything and comment. Thanks!
Thanks Twiki for sharing your exp, I always follow you.
One qs I guess you don't share the majority of your sales here but only a few of them, right?
 
0
•••
Thanks Twiki for sharing your exp, I always follow you.
One qs I guess you don't share the majority of your sales here but only a few of them, right?
It depends - on the time I have at the moment. Not all are reported, but many are.

But in general, I sell about ~$20K worth of names per month, with some months reaching $30K and a certain bad month $10K. Sales fluctuate a lot, and my reporting is fluctuating depending on time. But in the last 30 days it has been terrible in sales (minus renewals this is a bad month, profit is small, barely a couple K).

Overall I usually make good profit though (fluctuates obviously), while domaining is still more of a side business for me. I only dedicate like one hour per day on average currently. I'm building another business right now, totally unrelated (construction).
 
7
•••
I have no pricing between the two or below $788 anymore. Reason? They don't work anymore. Even at 1K, 1.2K, $500, whatever, everything in these price points did NOT sell anything for me (guess I had some measly $499 at some point but not worth noting).

Looking at the completed names it looks like you've gone back to pricing below 788 for some clearance names. I was just curious why you didn't try to clearance them at 788 instead?
 
Last edited:
0
•••
Looking at the completed names it looks like you've gone back to pricing below 788 for some clearance names. I was just curious why you didn't try to clearance them at 788 instead?

Good question but more complicated to answer.

One of the factors is time. I had more time to do a full repricing which I haven't done in quite some time. You can't do this without dedicating a lot of time.

The other thing is more clarity. I got more clarity about my own names. For quite some time I had been torn between my retail names (4-fig +) and my low end names (3-fig) which belong to a discovery tier and are less valuable. I recently got the pricing clarity where I can marry each domain with the right price all over the place. So now I'm more confident at that.

The final factor is the re-realization that some of these expiring ones will never sell above $199/299. The weaklings.

Actually I knew it of course. But I had no time to do anything about it in the past. A $788 clearance saves time but obviously if you have many lower quality ones it won't work (if the domain price should actually be less than 788, not many buyers will stretch their buy up to that price). So I simply used that amount to clear whatever was going to be cleared at 788. Those are domains I would normally sell for 1k+. But currently I have several expiring that aren't going to fetch that much at clearance / end of life sales.

You have to always marry the domain with the right price. Too much, even by a bit, and the sale is delayed for a long while. At least in my experience. Too less, and it will make it look cheap and useless and again you decrease the ratio due to affecting buyer perception. So it has to be just right.

So in this way I'm optimizing my clearances by trading in some extra time.

Edit: And it's working well because of the price now being tailored, not just a blanket price that obviously would never be the perfect choice for each domain.

Edit2: The reason for the low xxx range sales disappearing was something I discovered indeed. For these test domains such pricing works. For more valuable ones, such price often doesn't because they address to a higher $ buyer that would probably not pay $199 for a domain because of perception issues.

These days I have the last big chunk of tests expiring and therefore voila' - the xxx range price works again.

I have a few in the future as well, such as various regs (nft names for example never worked for me) but most domains are now in the upper retail category, with some accidental dud here and there but not that much.
 
Last edited:
2
•••
For everyday domains, say mom and pop ones, low tech,less pretty niches, low xxx range works well - but for a longer while I did not have any of that expiring anymore because I got out of doing volume based investing and gone retail only.
 
0
•••
7) There are huge variations from one month to another and there are gaps of say 2-3 weeks where I sell nothing (zero or say one sale) then in a few days I sell quite a lot of names. Is everyone getting paid in the same day over the world? (just kidding) .

This is exactly how my sales go. You are kidding and describing reality at the same time. Thanks for the insight.
 
1
•••
This is exactly how my sales go. You are kidding and describing reality at the same time. Thanks for the insight.

I can also confirm it continues to be like that. Many sales at once, then no sale for 2-3 weeks.

The money pipe is clogged, apparently... fortunately not completely
 
Last edited:
0
•••
Looking at the completed names it looks like you've gone back to pricing below 788 for some clearance names. I was just curious why you didn't try to clearance them at 788 instead?

I'm back at $788 and maybe will switch to $1.5k min in the near future.

Overall, discounting to $199 or $299 did not pay off.
 
3
•••
I only have a small portfolio of about 85 domains for sale. First started to try selling them in febuary. I haent sold a single one. I thought the prices were too high and literally decreased them all yesterday to $499 or $1000 (dependent on the domain). Maybe I need to put a much higher price on them, rather than reducing them!
 
0
•••
I only have a small portfolio of about 85 domains for sale. First started to try selling them in febuary. I haent sold a single one. I thought the prices were too high and literally decreased them all yesterday to $499 or $1000 (dependent on the domain). Maybe I need to put a much higher price on them, rather than reducing them!
I only had one 4-fig sale in my first 1.5 years or so. And I had a few thousands of names by then.

Beginners' luck, that one.

Chances are, since you are a newbie, none of your domains are worth more than low 3-fig, even if that. Sorry for the bad news but it is what it is.

You need to learn domaining. Keep tight. Starting is tough. Time will tell if you're made for this or not.

Note: You should post these things in beginner section, it's offtopic here. This are trends and changes that are intended for those here who frequently sell domains.
 
Last edited:
4
•••
Back