Game of Musical Chairs and the Failing Domain Game

Morning Folks,

When I talk about domains I am mostly talking about INVESTMENT QUALITY domains and not any other sector. But the term gets a little muddied up over the years. Domain Investors don't control the industry any longer as they once did. There is no real domain  investor show anymore. Shows are presented for the benefit of those trying to sell you something and that is fine! Just don't be fooled or misled.

Ever played "Musical Chairs" when you were a kid? If not, go look it up.

The so called "Domain Industry" is made up of mostly Musical Chair Players. These are the folks flipping worthless domains to folks that know nothing about domains. That is the #1 sector of the entire "Industry". I don't care if it ends in a .com or a .horse, worthless is worthless. The thriving industry of nothingness!

So as we play musical chairs someone will always be left holding the bag and lose. In this case you have thousands of these level players. They are loud, obnoxious and meaningless. They have their crap listed everywhere and spam their brains out. Their only hope is finding someone with less common sense then them. And believe me, that's a REAL challenge at that level.

An epic domain cleansing is about to hit the beaches of the "Domain Industry". They chased shiny objects and swallowed bags of shit presented to them by "Expert Speakers" all with an agenda for 5 YEARS!! That bag of shit is about to explode and when it does, it will be messy and costly.

This is not the "Domain Industry". This is the industry of "Pigeon Shit" traders.

Just like those chairs that keep disappearing, domainers will disappear at a rate that even Houdini would raise an eyebrow to. The jig is up and when it becomes the Mortgage/Rent vs Domain Renewals, it won't even be a close call.

Rick Schwartz



26 thoughts on “Game of Musical Chairs and the Failing Domain Game

  1. Mikey O'Connor

    Hi Rick,

    Really enjoying your latest posts.

    One caveat — I kinda like taking some of these domains to my grave. A great vehicle for passing wealth on to the kids. Especially if they qualify for stepped up tax basis. ;-)

    Otherwise, a big “plus one” from here.

    Reply
  2. Robert

    Hi Rick,

    Isn’t Adam Dicker the kind of person that you mean when you say “Expert Speakers” all with an agenda for 5 YEARS!?

    Didn’t he keynote all of your conferences?

    And he still owes me $10k+ for not delivering a website he promised.

    I’ve never heard you address his fleecing of the industry. Can you?

    Robert

    Reply
    1. Bill Kara

      Rick S is beyond a doubt the most honest person in this business. In the gTLD early days when TRAFFIC was the ONLY show in town, if Rick “blessed” any of these gtld’s even just a little nudge thousands of investors would have followed suit. Right before TRAFFIC was shut down you might as well have called Rick the domain Pope, not the Domain King thats how much sway he had over the industry. TRAFFIC just needed to allow some gTLDs to buy speaking spots as Namescon and other conferences do now and the entire gtld program would have been different. He walked away from millions in endorsements and sponsorships to say what he believed was the truth and that took honesty and guts, because at the time everyone was piling onto the gltd cash wagon. Now you have conferences promoting “expert” speakers from dot horse and dot obviousbulls non stop, its a complete joke.

      I like the gltds (for reasons I won’t bring into this thread) but the point is about Adam (and others) managed to lie to everyone, often times even the people living in the same homes as them. You can’t expect anyone to filter this stuff for you. You should be asking yourself why DIDNT YOU figure out Adam (and others) are full of BS?

      Just like how Rob Monster is full of BS currently. It doesn’t take much to figure out someone of full of it, just anayalize their claims and use your own judgment. If you did that and still believed the hype then some self reflection on why you missed those signs is needed to improve for next time. But thats all on you.

      Reply
  3. Emma

    I have been saying this for years, that the rate at which people (domainers) register or have been registering domain names, premium or nonsense domains, is way too high comparing to the rate business ideas being launched online. In others words there way too many domains and domainers comparing to people who can make business happen on internet. In fact the majority of people in the world of any race are not intelligent. They can not make anything positive happen. They can only be used by the few intelligent people we have in the world to make thinks happen, that is, they are living thanks to the few people who can make things happen, like scientists, explorers, great engineers and business visionaires. It is not for no reason why the majority of the world population have to work everyday to live just a normal live, if you don’t work for 2 months you are in trouble.
    Even the people who have ultra premium domain names are risking one day to be left holding bags of useless/unwanted merchandise. This world needs serious competition of business ideas to make life far cheaper and easier than it is for the majority of population today, just like there is serious competition in production of bananas, potatoes, peanuts or bread. They are very cheap. You have high quality domain names, that describes a very good business idea, why can’t you develop it? Remember, many intelligent people, the ones who can make things happen, even if they have the money to pay for the premium domains, they are not willing to give you that money because they think you don’t deserve it, hence they look for other alternatives: Godaddy, Amazon, Google, Myspace, Napster, Alexa, Linkedin, Pinterest, Namesilo Namecheap, Yahoo, Bing, Apple, Whatsapp, Youtube and others that does not suggest the products they are selling DEVELOP DEVELOP DEVELOP DEVELOP.

    Reply
    1. Johan

      Hey Emma!

      The domain name industr is about trading “office supply” between parties.(yes, that makes no sense and that’s my point, because domains as web properties they are made for being developed into a WEBSITE.. not sit empty parked!). The domain name industry should start to look past just to peddle web addresses.

      Domain investors could start to add some benefits to why a certain domain name is a good investment. If you can’t come up with any benefits for a domain name… then the domain name probably is a pigeon s**t one.. Just saying.

      Reply
  4. Patricia Kaehler

    There definitely is alot of changeover happening and about to happen…
    My heart actually aches sometimes when I see the things folks are posting everywhere and trying to sell… Things that I wouldn’t want even if they gave them to me… I have to just look away… I can’t feel sorry for everyone…
    Doesn’t help to try to tell them their crap is crap… they don’t / won’t believe it… and it just hurts their feelings… so, I have to just look away…

    I miss you…

    Reply
    1. John

      LOL. Have you ever noticed me doing that in the blogs? I’m usually the only one trying to help them. You certainly make a good point, but I also think it’s not good to be totally apathetic and always say nothing. I guess it’s easy to say when you’re essentially anonymous like me, as I pointed out in another blog recently how there is certainly some risk of no deed going unpunished when you try to help people that way. They often do just turn on you.

      Reply
    2. John

      Here’s an example. Check out my bleeding heart trying to help this guy here in August:

      https:// www . thedomains . com/2018/08/30/what-changes-would-you-make-to-improve-auction-houses/#comment-228053

      Reply
  5. Domain

    Nice work Rick, looks like Shane Cultra wanted to take you to task in his post today. He seems to take shots at you off and on or use your posts for fodder in his auction post.

    Reply
  6. Shane Cultra

    Mr anonymous Domain,

    I’m a big boy and can take care of myself as can Rick. We don’t need little boys tattling on the kids in class. We use our blogs to say what we think and what we think of others opinions. I respect the shit out of Rick’s accomplishments and he is the epitome of grit and hard work as well as patience. I just don’t agree with every thing he says so I say it. The difference between you and me and many others is I put my whole damn name right next to what I say and I will stand with Rick in person, on stage, or in a coffee shop and have some fun arguing and talking it out.

    So domain, quit being a lackey. Gain some confidence. Put your name on your thoughts and start taking the pats on the back or the beatings that it comes with. Personal growth is just as good as financial growth

    Reply
  7. Rob

    “They chased shiny objects and swallowed bags of shit presented to them by “Expert Speakers” all with an agenda for 5 YEARS!! That bag of shit is about to explode and when it does, it will be messy and costly.”

    “Shows are presented for the benefit of those trying to sell you something and that is fine! Just don’t be fooled or misled.”

    … Well Said and Spot On! …

    People need to make a living and businesses need to turn a profit but, at the same time, Individuals need to make informed decisions that best benefit themselves and their loved ones.

    The best way for individuals to accomplish this is with basic Common Sense plus a basic understanding of the Principles of “Marketing” (for Consumers) and “Propaganda” (for Voters) as these are Prerequisites for helping uncover the “Underlying Motives” of what one Sees, Hears and Reads from others throughout their lives.

    Thanks for your continued posts!

    Reply
  8. steve

    Any predictions on when the GTLDS will be as dead as .mobi?
    I realize .mobi is still kicking, but for all practical purposes…
    I don’t even think .web is needed, and Verisign might just keep it in the vault.
    I agree, the domain industry is on a respirator. That’s what happens when many so-called pioneers and “Hall of Famers” decided to play “Music Man” and sell lots of discordant and noisy .trombones.
    Great domains will continue to rise in value, but not sure if the domain industry will ever recover.

    Reply
  9. Mark Thorpe

    Do you hear that? Listen closely.
    The nTLD pumpers are laughing all the way to their bank.
    They are spending your hard earned nTLD investment money on crypto, cars, real estate, jewelry, travel etc.
    Sad!

    Reply
  10. any who

    As in all industries there eventually is a “cleansing” real estate stocks and eventually the entire economy. When there is an abundance of junk on the market it eventually falls. A rising tide raises all boats.
    However this is an excellent opportunity. Wheat gets separated from chafe. And quality rises to the forefront. Its called bifurcation a separation of markets.
    Quality domains is apprx. 10% of the entire world wide market.
    If you review dnjournal domain sales leader board this week. There is something interesting there. A small snapshot into the domain market. There is 2 not one, two .co sales.
    And they sold for 30K each. Now I remember rick stating he purchased lots of numeric .co domains about 3 yrs ago. His business acumen was if a .com could sell for 6 figures. A .co would be worth at least 5 figures. Ricks has his numeric .com domains on dn journals board and stated publically this fact. I kinda thought he was right. Then rick stated his “holding” period was 10 yrs not 1-5 yrs. Out of over 30 comments not one domanier agreed with him. They all stated get rid of these .co’s
    These sales vindicate ricks; public statements.
    PS. Shane can say what ever he wants to. A verified legitimate web address is not required. However if Shane wants to be respected, a domain leader, publish his thoughts, He better display a consistent public track record documenting his financial gain.
    There should be no emotion on this board only factual knowledge insight comments. Rick is the only real domainer left. Franks gone, bergens is gone, There is no corp blog for domain insight.

    Also rick publically states. he is a .com guy only. However reviewing business through a strategic rear view mirror “unseen history” Rick invests in short descriptive one word commercial domains in carefully selected suffixes. .co and .app…diversification is the key to any industry. The only person I can compare rick to is red summer stone hes now dead….
    There should be more specific domain insight on this blog…with real life examples.Any emotional junk bullshit comments should tape their mouth shut sit on the sidelines and just read and learn….

    Reply
  11. Lee

    Rick,

    Do you believe the vacation.rentals and home.loans sales prices listed on dnjournal.com? Do you think some of these might be domainer to domainer sales in order to set an artificial comparible in order to later sell it to an end user? I hope that’s not the case, but it’s just crazy to me that some domains that appear to be worth a lot more sell for so much less. Perhaps they just chose to sell low for the sale now. Thanks yours or anyone else’s insights.

    Reply
  12. Jose

    More than a year ago when I announced to you my domain registrations (.com) crypto, Ethereum, encrypto, Ico and Bitcoin and I received a response within a few years to have a lot of value, I pay attention to you.

    The Cryptocurrency market had become a phantom for non-existent investors that only interested in making a hidden bubble, to evade billions of USD in cash, the reports that came to me via Wall Street and Nasdaq emails confirmed what I had thought. What would happen, (There are third party services that sell these reports for a few dollars, like selling a lot, getting a good price).

    Everything is a speculative system like the Subprime market, and the domain market, buy cheap and sell higher, when I write to you that only having a 2% domainer live on the other 98%, I am partly with this highest percentage.

    Learn that buying massive domains leave cheaper prices and expired domains well operate for 7 years lose three years, until I find a Domainer UK to comment how to make money every year and I start quietly without making noise and at the end of every year after taxes and expenses, live very well.

    If I register new domain names it is for another business web projects with a new Startup you have better presence with clients etc.

    If I have a broker with several premium domains that in total be valued at more than 10 Million USD.

    Happy Day.
    Jose.

    Reply

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