Registrars Holding Back Expiring Names.. The Grass is Always Greener
DCMike77 writes:
“”At NAMEJET, Have you noticed that the thousands of “pre-release” names aren’t showing up at DomainTools.com and other dropping services?
It’s very interesting and thought you’re users could use the tip…
Cheers,
-DCMike77″”
***FS*** I’d be surprised if Jay (domaintools) was intentionally shielding something from you.. he’s a fairly open-book kind of guy. But you’re not alone.. there is a great deal of chatter coming from all quarters that Network Solutions (and others) have started holding back significant expiring domain name inventory that they did not do when their deal with Snapnames.com was on.
I had a recent phone call with a colleague who mentioned example names of his own.. then in the last few days you’ve got assorted forum threads which intimate something is afoot:
http://domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=6fb595ecfcb3be699ee2744a3b659db7&threadid=83160
http://domainstate.com/showthread.php3?s=6fb595ecfcb3be699ee2744a3b659db7&threadid=83640
Additionally.. I have it on good authority that one of the big $ chasers is leaving the building.. Stopping bidding and taking his wallet out of the auctions. This particular individual writes me:
“ Pricing is crazy at snapnames, new players drive the decent stuff to xxxxxxxxxx (last name) 20k. So there comes a time, when you make a shift and for me the shift is now. I will still try to find deals on xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com, xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.com, but the drops are crazy for bad to ok domains. The public auctions are enough as well, Jay is doing another in 45 days, DomainSponsor.com in January, etc. So I would rather just over pay once a month than every day.”
Big bidders do more than spend $500k+ per month on domains.. They run folks like you and I up another 500k to $1mm each month, so when you take one of those whales out of the picture, it has a significant impact on the auction spectrum.. Will be interesting to see what happens in November. If other comers backfill bids or if the vacancy changes the market dynamic.
It’s a nutural progression I suppose.. investors aren’t dumb.. they see returns dwindling as registrars seperate the good names out pre-drop and then auction the chaff to the suckers.. A few months of that and the smart bidders go away… You’re left selling the chaff for the price of chaff. In the end, many registrars were selling their names for full value.. it might be a long wait till a retail customer ponies up 20X - 30X PPC for a name they were selling in the heat of the moment at Snapnames.
The grass is always greener tho. 
This make me wonder if this practice is illegal/immoral or whatever you what to call it but does not set well in my book
If myzine.com expire and I don’t renew it for some reason, who has
Legal ownership of the domain? is than , Last Registrar, ICANN or Just General Public
I real can’t get my head around this, why last Registrar should have any right to the domain?
First I come up with the Name, and pay them reg fee to look after it, that does not give them automatic ownership of the domain if something happen to me
What I think should happen, for any drop domain, which was not renewed by owner should go back to ICANN, and have a system in place to auction those domains and the money from the auction can go to improve the domain name system at ICANN.
The register shouldn’t have right to the domain they don’t own, this sometime make them not to bother to alert the owner or next kin of the owner of very valuable domain if there is a death or illness involved as they know If it drops will make them a BIG Profit, But if they know that if drop, they are possibility of not getting it then they will make sure they alert the original source by any means so they can continue to collect reg every year.
This is still young industry but I think ICANN should move fast and collect any loophole
So I am calling for ICANN to look at this issue, hope someone at ICANN read this blog
I am not a lawyer but my common sense tell me if the domain drop it’s a public domain and everyone should have the same chance to bid and get it. Period
MyZine.com
Share Video Audio & Photo
Hi Frank,
A couple follow up questions:
1. Do you really think removing one person from the daily auctions will have a material impact on pricing? If so, that would mean the market is more illiquid than most domainers would imagine if one signifigant buyer could bring prices down by themselves.
***FS*** Yes.. on a certain segment of the buy.. they would feel it. The wholesale market is plenty ‘liquid’ it’s just the height of the prices I’m speaking to.. Advertisingweb.com doesn’t sell for 20k wholesale without competition.. remove the competition and $500-1200 might be the price.
2. Your last line says…it might be a long wait till a retail customer ponies up 20X - 30X PPC for a name they were selling in the heat of the moment at Snapnames.
Does that mean you would sell some of your names for a 10X, 20X or 30X multiple? I have seen some names sell over the last 3-6 months where I say to myself, if the domain investor is paying this, what would the “true” end user pay and sometimes come up with the same number or less. At times, the pricing just seems ahead of itself IMO.
3. What the criteria for a Rumcake?
***FS*** Certain names (product / service names which are easy to buy, ship, package, sell products and services through) transcend the obvious PPC value.. I group names like rumcakes.com in that bucket .. In retrospect I paid 50X PPC for rumcakes and have turned down an offer of 150X PPC revenues before I ever spoke openly about the name… that only goes to show that the PPC market isn’t mature yet, that my implementation/execution is poor or that the type-in traffic is so very low. I’m not a kook.. If somebody offered me a big number for the name I’d consider it. But my point is that “multiples are maleable” and don’t often reflect intrinsic value well.
Just…getting it now?…chaser…?
Over paying in auctions….been a problem for at least 1.7 years now.
How about the ‘quality’ of drop’s?
Been on a steady decline.
Time to do something with the domains already in the nest…^^^%$ Pool and Snapnames…do something with what you already have!
Anyone that has seen the (QUALITY) of the ‘drop pool’ over the last 3 years…knows that it has been on the serious down hill chart.
‘The Domain game’…is moving from the ‘back lines’…to the ‘front lines’.
There will always be a few good drop’s in the future…It’s just not going to be even close to what the market once was.
Which…in the long run is good.
Peace,
Dan
I’ve heard that domains are addictive. I bet he will suffer a relapse
The time has come for ICANN to step up to the plate and to prevent the registrars from keeping names and release every single name. A central auction site should be setup to auction the names and the proceeds should not go back to the registrars, but go into a fund managed by ICANN to improve the internet infrastructure. Everyone is tired of the greed shown by the registrars while ICANN looks the other way.
My question in number 3: What’s the criteria for a Rumcake? It was intended to be a joke regarding how can I get added on the Holiday list for a special Frank Schilling Rumcake.
***FS*** Ha! I’m slow.
If it’s time for ICANN to step up to the plate, did anyone at their LA meeting complain in public?
For some more perspective on valuation, in the last several months I’ve sold two .com domains; each for more than 1000X their respective annual PPC revenues.
Did the buyers pay too much?
No way; because in both cases (and here’s the key) they are using them to sell actual products…which, given the respective profit margins of each of these product (categories), allowed them to recoup their investments in just 3 months or less.
So were the buyers foolish to pay more than 1000X?
Nope; if anything, it could reasonably be argued that I sold them too cheap.
So what is any given domain really worth?
Some percentage of how much money it can/will generate for someone who knows what to do with it.
Valuations based merely on some multiple of PPC income serve no purpose other than to set the floor value of domains.
LOTS of domains can be bought directly from registrants. If the drop market is dying off, why not chase domains that you really want because you typed them in only to find they have godaddy default parking on them.
A name like that can probably be bought cheap. It’s not as easy as catching a snap drop but the pool of good domains at reasonable prices is still out there…you just have to be a bit more proactive.