… the short answer is that yes, it matters. I see this a lot in other areas as well, for example gold lately. A lot of people constantly advise others to buy because they’re bullish on gold long-term but that’s not an optimal strategy in my opinion.

At least not for people without an unlimited budget.

Most investors, as I’ve mentioned on DomainingTips on more than one occasion, have a limited budget that they have to make the most of.

Therefore, yes, it matters quite a bit when you buy because the cheaper the price is when you’re buying, the more bang for your buck you get.

Let me refer to gold again and assume that you’re convinced gold will eventually end up at $5,000+.

Great but it still matters *when* you buy.

If you have $x at your disposal, you could have spent it on a quantity of let’s say y oz at $1,900 in 2011.

But if you wait until $800 (not saying it will end up that low, just a figure I’m using for the sake of this example), you can buy 2y for the same amount of money, in other words 2 times more.

The person who bought y oz of gold at the $1900 level will make money if gold hits $5,000+, sure, but the person who bought 2y oz of gold at $800 will make two times more.

Both were right.

Both made money.

But timing is extremely important, getting it right is not enough.

Therefore, even if you’re bullish, that doesn’t mean you should always blindly buy.

Wait for good opportunities (market slowdowns, firesales and so on) to get the most bang for your buck.

This principle is valid when it comes to domains, stocks, commodities and pretty much anything else you can invest in.

In almost any market, a lot of the people who lost money actually got it right when it comes to the big picture but they ended up losing money because their timing was off. If you want to be a good domainer, being right when it comes to the big picture is not enough in and of itself. You have to be on top of your game when it comes to timing as well.