Many six-figure domain purchases haven’t been put to use yet.
One of the arguments I hear from people who think big .xyz sales are faked is that the most expensive domains haven’t been developed.
Indeed, when a domain is developed by the buyer, it’s a good sign that it’s a legit sale. And it’s worthwhile to inspect big sales that don’t get developed. So I looked at sales for $100,000-$200,000 on DNJournal’s top sales chart for last year. Here’s what I found:
6 .xyz domains sold
- 1 developed
- 1 forwarded to live website
- 1 with a coming soon page put up by the buyer
- 3 undeveloped/parked/don’t resolve
15 .com domains sold
- 5 developed
- 2 forwarded
- 0 coming soon
- 8 undeveloped/parked/don’t resolve
7 other domains sold
- 2 developed
- 1 forwarded
- 2 coming soon
- 2 undeveloped/parked/don’t resolve
It’s a small sample size to draw conclusions from. Especially in web3, where many companies fail to get their ideas off the ground.
One thing I can say with certainty is that sometimes people spend six figures on domains and don’t develop them in short order. The same can even be said for seven figure domains.
Mark Thorpe says
Many people and businesses have ideas but most do not follow through.
TheDomainNews says
Really? many people purchase a 100-200k domain and not follow through?
Even not investing extra $100 to build a website on the ultra expensive domain acquired.LOL!
and in .xyz!
FAKE
Steve says
my domains seem to attract builders or rebranders
i had no 6 figure domain sales in 2022
but many 5 figure domain sales…all but one are robust well-developed sites…the one not developed is a one word .ai domain that redirects to the same one word .com…i assume they bought the .ai even while having the .com because it’s an ai centric company
i often cringe after a domain sale not because i fear the domain hasn’t been developed, but that it has been developed and the owner is a billion dollar behemoth…this happened 3 x in 2022 – i sold for prob less than they were willing to pay
so i’ve decided not to check out the “new homes” of my former domains
Michael Anthony Castello says
Many of the NDA .com domains sold last year can not be evaluated in your study. We sold Seasons.com a few months ago to a startup and they had it developed within a couple weeks. For the .com domains names I sold over the years, I could say that at least 80% are developed.
Andrew Allemann says
You’re correct, I can only show domains transactions I’m aware of.
Yinan Wang says
I have sold a .com via Sedo for more than $3m to a web3 buyer 2 years ago, it never got developed so far. Also sold another 7 figures .com domain name via Andrew Miller almost a year ago, it never got developed, DNS never changed, it’s still pointing to my server. It happens, although they are not .xyz
TheDomainNews says
This comment of yours could be written by Andrew Miller itself.
Your “3 millions in sales to web3” argument is completely worthless, unless you share the names you claim sold.
MarkMajor says
I find it VERY hard to believe that a buyer would spend $3m on a domain name 2 years and never developed it. Same for your 7 figure domain sale of a year ago that never got developed, DNS never changed and is still pointing to your server.
If there was no NDA, please share the names.
Yinan Wang says
The $3m+ name has NDA of cause. The 7 figures name is Affiliate*com, which Andrew has announced the deal.
Squarely says
I don’t see any big sales of xyz anymore…..what is happening?
Andrew Allemann says
The web3 crash
J.R. says
Too much exposure of $1.5M XYZ deceptive practices settlement with FTC (2022).
Many reasonable people started asking questions about potential for deceptive practices connected with public ‘sales’ to close Q4 2022.
Crypto Winter has made it more difficult to cover the deceptive practices history.
Andrew Allemann says
Plenty of people asked questions, and I understand not giving Daniel the benefit of the doubt. But all of the evidence I’ve seen points to this being 100% legit.
Yinan Wang says
$3m+ name with NDA signed, latest 7 figures deal is Affiliate*.com which Andrew has announced before. Just FYI.
Michael Anthony Castello says
Affiliate.com is a great address. Congratulations on the sale.
Yinan Wang says
Thanks, Michael. Congrats to your Seasons.com sale too. Andrew did great work for both sides!
Zik says
Have you newbs never heard of Money Laundering?
Domains and physical gold — THE two biggest laundering tools of criminals over the past 20 years.