Up. Down. Up. Down. Up.
AbdulBasit Makrani is a successful domain investor with a portfolio of over 8,000 domain names. Today, he wrote about some of his recent domain acquisitions. But something else in his post stood out to me:
…I would like to tell you that as of today I’ve 8,250 domains. There are still a lot of inconsistencies in sales like in December 2022 I just had one sale only! That month was the worst month in sales in over 6 years! Then in January 2023, I had 10 sales. This is just mind boggling. I’ve been consistently adding around 100 domains every month and fluctuation in sales keeps happening but December was a shocker to me.
Domain investors need to consider some of the randomness of domain name investing. AbdulBasit has a large portfolio (at least compared to many readers), yet he still sees significant fluctuations.
There’s little consistency in domain sales. Sometimes I make a few sales in a week, and I start to think I’m a maestro. Then there are months like last November 2022 when I didn’t sell a single domain.
You should talk to other domainers to get a complete sense of the market. Most of our portfolios are too small to see trends. I sold 32 domains out of the 2,000 in my portfolio last year. That’s not enough domains to understand if the market is going up or down in any given quarter.
And one more thing. Look at AbdulBasit’s portfolio size. When you see someone report a sale on Twitter or NamePros, remember that sales are anomalies. Most names never sell.
Listen to this podcast to learn more about AbdulBasit’s domain investor journey.
It is all about how your price your domains.
They will sell, if all depends how much you willing to sell!!
Thanks Andrew for the shout out.
I’ve personally noticed this so far and have discussed with many investors who’ve clearly witnessed the sales have increased starting this year. I’m not sure what’s the reason behind this.
One thing which I’ve learned over the years and have been working is to grow my portfolio at such a level where the inconsistency is almost over.
I’ve had a good start to the year, too. Regarding growing your portfolio to the level that inconsistency isn’t an issue, it seems like it would have to be at least 10s of thousands. Would you agree?
I’m glad to know you had a great start to this year as well 🙂
I believe in both quality + quantity together and if I maintain the same quality of domains that I currently hold, I’m hopeful to reach my target of getting rid of inconsistencies after I’ve 12,000 domains.
There is 0% consistency in domain sales, large or small portfolios. Buy and sell quality domains priced reasonably.
Then ride the wave of inconsistent domain sales.
With all due respect, I tend to disagree. I’ve very carefully worked on building my portfolio for over 12 years and have been slowly on the path to getting rid of inconsistency almost completely.
I believe it will happen when I reach 12,000 domains considering the quality of domains I’ve gathered so far, a more mature endusers market with more demand and of course the numbers play a big role when you’ve a balanced (quality) portfolio. I believe it is quite possible to be consistent in sales.
Just crazy…my Jan 2022 and Dec 2022 were 2 of my best months in domain sales in years
So far in 2023 – just one sale
But I received offers on SEDO for 2 domains that I sold on Afternic and forgot to delist on SEDO as MAKE AN OFFER domains
1 Sedo offer was 100 USD and with dropdown “This is my final offer”
(I sold this domain on AFTERNIC for 35 K USD in 2022)
Another offer on a domain I sold on Dan in 2022 for 7500 USD received an offer of 50 USD on Sedo yesterday and the comment “This is my best offer”
LOL
and even crazier – I did sell a domain on SEDO in december , a 3 word domain I was surprised I even owned as it wasn’t that great of a domain…the buyer paid 2500
it was prob the worst domain in my portfolio of circa 2000 domains
So much of this is pure luck
@Steve Some of it is luck.
Some is you have to think outside of your own bubble and what someone else might buy. That’s not easy to do.
i agree, mike…some of it is luck
and some of it is following trends
i loaded up on 2 word .com domains with cloud as keyword in 2006…i regged or bought about 30-40…only 7 are left…some were bought by funded startups or rebranding companies…a few by companies by microsoft
i have some great domains…i’m turning over a portfolio of domains to one of our industry’s top if not the top domain broker this week…my negotiating skills have faltered in recent yrs
pollack. rick, ahrens. booth, abdul – great negotiators…
my last 7 figure domain sale was in 2001….seems like a 1000 yrs ago
i still have a great roi…but for the quality of my domains, I suck
lots of lowball offers every day…i’m tired of all the “We’re pleased to…” or “Price request for___”
it’s a bad patch now…but things turn fast in this industry…i’m bringing in a top gunslinger to try to put some sales on my bare table
I’m glad to know you sold a 7 figure domain and that too in 2001. That’s pretty amazing considering you sold way back in 2001!
Would you like to share that domain name?
their outside counsel had me sign an NDA…i can say: this name was supposed to be the name of the telecom conglomerate’s spinoff…with much marketing testing: tv commercials, print ads…etc…then after much focus group testing, they went with another name
they also filed trademarks for the name they acquired from me in over 12 classes
lots of money thrown away by Big Corp
negotiations for this name started in april, 2001 and ended in mid june, 2001…the broker of the buyer was Marksmen
Thanks Steve for sharing your experience. It’s always interesting to see what’s happening with fellow investors considering they’ve a similar number of domains. It’s funny to see people saying “This is my final offer” yet on the other hand, the domain is already sold for 10K or has a similar offer from a different buyer.
yes, i agree…when these people say, “final offer” to a domain’s final selling price was about a year ago w/ 100x what their “final offer” was
on sedo you can find brief info about potential buyers…both were newbies, having joined sedo in late 2022
congrats on your super january, Abdul!
Glad you and your family are safe in Turkey after the horrific earthquake!
I totally understand that it’s under NDA but still thanks for sharing whatever you could. That’s nice to know.
Thank you so much Steve and I wish you all the best 🙂
“Most names never sell.”
^Never forget this.^
Seller: “But it’s worth $XXX/XXXX”
There IS a reason why domain investors have a bad reputation – it is NOT totally unfounded.
Just saying’. It’s important to see both sides of the coin.