Here’s what you could have paid for these incredible domains back in 2004.
Last week Alcove.com sold for over $100,000 in a DropCatch.com auction, spurring discussion on twitter about the escalation of wholesale pricing for domain names.
George Kirikos pointed out that if you really want to feel like you missed the boat, go back to DNJournal’s 2004 top sales report:
If you want to cry, go look at the sales under $100K in 2004:https://t.co/hWFCSW9i7r
— George Kirikos (@GeorgeKirikos) May 22, 2021
Indeed, you might cringe today to learn what you could have picked these domains up for in 2004:
MR.com $125,000 (and mister.com for $38,800)
Stop.com $62,500
Harmony.com $50,000
Actor.com $30,000
Gray.com $30,000
NQ.com $27,000
LH.com $27,000
Band.com $26,000
OW.com $22,250
Jacket.com $20,000
Grip.com $20,000
Loco.com $17,500
GZ.com $16,000
Warrior.com $15,000
AOM.co $14,502
FEM.com $14,000
PBI.com $12,500
Lust.com $12,269
Glossary.com $11,000
Mind.com $10,000
Before you kick yourself, here are a few things to think about.
First, a domain you bought for $25,000 in 2004 would need to sell for $125,000 today to represent a 10% annualized return or $270,000 for a 15% annualized return. (Granted, the two letter domains on this list would have returned more like a 25% annualized return at their peak.)
Second, it would also be hard to turn down some of the offers you’d have received on these domains since then. It’s like pointing to someone who bought bitcoin for $10 back in the day and then assuming you would have held onto all of it as it hit $1,000, $10,000, and $50,000. Or held on when it dropped to $30,000!
Third, people who sold these domains might have reinvested the proceeds into other domains that have appreciated.
David J Castello says
2004 was still in the long shadow of the dotCOM crash. Everyone was still talking about Pets.com (and that crashed in 2000). 2005 was the turn-around year and by 2006 prices were taking off.
Michael Anthony Castello says
Exactly. You beat me to it.
Andrew Allemann says
You guys think like you’re brothers or something
John says
Hmm, might be interesting to see if you two guys would care to disagree with me over here:
https://onlinedomain.com/2021/05/24/domain-name-news/music-signs-registry-agreement-with-icann/#comment-554214
David J Castello says
John,
On a personal level I like dotMUSIC, but on a business level I street clear of all TLDs except dotCOM. The marketing advantages of dotCOM are simply too great. At this point, dotCOM is more than a TLD. It’s an intuitive brand synonymous with the Internet.
snoopy1267 says
Agree, it was a low market, if you look at the same chart from 2006/2007 50% of the names would be underwater if sold now.
That is especially the case for EMD’s, traffic names, plurals, .Info/.TV/.US which have done pretty badly.
JZ says
I bought a bunch of “good” domains in 2007 from snapnames when i first started using the platform. they look cheap compared to today (though by 2007 they were not 2004 numbers..) however, i’ve sold none of them thus far. I am asking six figures for them and have pretty much since I bought them but its not like just because you got something “cheap” that you will be able to cash out for big bucks easily or quickly.
Tony says
I love me some one word dotcom’s but to be fair, if you invested $50,000 in Google stock in 2004, your shares would be worth $1.875M today. For Amazon, they would be worth a cool $4.275M. It was clear even back then that those two companies were gorillas.
I don’t think you have to go as far back as 2004 to get good deals on single word dotcom’s. They were still relatively cheap even in 2018 or so. Since then, it’s been slim pickings.
snoopy1267 says
Prices were fairly stagnant on one word names from about 2006-2018.
David Castello says
Depends on the name. We sold Whisky.com for $3.1 million in 2014 and we had others in that time period we can’t discuss because of NDAs..
Tony says
We’re talking wholesale not end user sales. The gap between them has closed substantially the last couple of years.
thelegendaryjp says
One thing I always find interesting about the ” if I bought X for X dollars such and such many years ago, look what I would have now ” is that it just isn’t true for most anyone.
While there are always exceptions to the rule a healthy profit usually means a healthy profit TAKEN at some point.
Again always exceptions (people) that we can point at but that is not the masses.
We only are here for one round people, thinking you held a one word or LL for 30 years and are knocking on deaths door makes you a winner is just flat out puzzling to me.
Those types usual say “I can pass it on to so and so”, then so and so can dump it after probate and do what you should have done, enjoyed its fruits while alive.
I have sold a handful of LL and do not regret 1 trade, you know why. I took those profits, bought more names and profited further, perhaps more than just holding on period. I met a lot of people, had a lot of fun and still do (quietly).
All along enjoying the fruits, reinvesting and giving.
snoopy1267 says
Hmm, 7 paragraphs about how you have no regrets? Dude everyone has regrets on domain sold!
thelegendaryjp says
I know we usually follow a similar train of thought on topics but honestly Snoop, no regrets.
It could just be I ended up working harder trading names over and over to reach a similar number than if I had just held but the journey has value (to me any way).
One lesson I am continuing to learn as I age is giving value beyond monetary to other things.
The Banana man is still very active Snoop, doing things for people and businesses I never imagined I would 15-20 years ago. That isn’t happening because I sat on my hands and domains.
Steve says
yeah, and we could’ve invested in dogecoin early this year… 🙂
in 2004 i invested in real estate with the proceeds of my startup getting acquired…prob should have bought some domains like thiese, as well…no property taxes, or insurance, maintenance
but i didn’t see the long term value of premium .com domains…yes, i was a complete idiot and no excuses as premium domains were presented to me on platters by brokers between 2002-2004
AbdulBasit.com says
It’s Mind.com and not .CO so you may want to fix that Andrew.
Thanks for sharing.
Andrew Allemann says
Thanks. Indeed, the .co relaunch wasn’t until many years later.
Gregg P. says
The fun was pre 2003 where you could get better names at handreg on drops. Auctions messed up the equation.