Morning Folks!!
Since Day One I always believed that domains would be traded
like other collectibles. So far that has proven difficult. See, I would rather
trade one unique asset for another as opposed to a dollar value. So I am in the
midst of compiling a list of domains I would sell that don’t fit into my
overall business plan. Now what does not strengthen my collection may fortify
somebody else’s.
Most of these are prime one and 2 word domains. I am not a .net guy but I have some
superb .nets because when I could not register the .com, that may have been a
backup or I may have had the .com and wanted the .net and .org. Men.net,
Ladies.org would fit into domains like that. I have a number of NNN and LLL
domains. Once in a while I will sell these. Last month I sold 273.com for
$50,000 and this is the first time I am disclosing that. (Ron)
But when I go through my list of what I call “Orphan
Domains” they are only “Orphan” to me because I may be weak in that particular
sector and only have one domain that is related. I certainly would trade that
one which could be prime as a domain can be for another because it fills a
need.
Problem with domain trading is you have to have really good
domains to trade with. Back in the
1960’s I used to collect baseball cards. I had thousands and thousands and
thousands. We would “Flip” them in a game and win 100 or more at a time. We
would trade we would do lots of things. But there was this “Bob Uecker” card.
Number #195 I believe it was. In almost every pack you would buy you would get
the dreaded Bob Uecker card. That card was like a crappy domain. They were everywhere
and he was nowhere. Nobody ever heard of him. He did not make a mark on the
game and was a .200 career average which is about as bad as anyone next to a
pitcher. He did however make a name for himself as a broadcaster and did many
commercials. Mostly always making
fun of his unremarkable big league career.
My mother tossed those cards in the garbage when we moved to
Maryland. Cards that would have been way into the 6 figures or more today. But that is
another story for another day. Point is we traded cards. We filled in our
collections. We understood the value of the cards we had but at 12 years old,
we did not understand future value.
I am CERTAIN that if I assembled a group of domainers with
prime domains that could segregate a couple dozen that they would consider
trading and then pass that list around we would witness multiple trades. Some
domains could be traded for 5 others, like baseball players or baseball
cards. Some with cash. Some with other consideration. Since 2004 and many years
before that I have really wanted this to happen and there has just been no
appetite in the industry to do it. I always believe it is timing. So I will try
once again. I think being creative in this area is key.
The key to trading is if you want a domain that somebody has
you have to give them more than equal value. That is what motivates them to
sell to begin with. If I wanted a Mickey Mantle Rookie card I could hardly
trade for a Bob Uecker card. But a Bob Uecker and a Pete Rose and maybe we have
something to talk about. Or maybe 200 Bob Uecker cards to use for flipping
because they have little value and you don’t care if you lose some of those.
Point is there is a way and we are all missing a huge opportunity to grow our
businesses in a meaningful way. It really
is time to do this.
I have 7000 domains. Not a lot in the scheme of things. But
I could isolate 100 or 1000 of them that I would not get excited about to sell
for $10k or $20k or even $50k, but
would get very excited if I could trade one of those type domains for a plural
of what I have. Maybe a misspell.
Maybe just a close match.
But there is opportunity there that has yet to be exploited. Great
opportunity. I would even trade
income producing domains for ones with no income if I think it helps solidify
my portfolio.
This time I am going to do something different. I am going
to make that list of domains I would trade and make them public. I will
probably do it over the summer. I started a few months back. Maybe I will post
a list soon to see if there is any desire to do this finally. There truly is a
great opportunity here.
Have a GREAT Day!
Rick Schwartz
Recent Comments