Quick update: VPS.Cheap has been sold.
At this point, I can say that two new gTLDs have been profitable for me: Dot XYZ and Dot Directory.
As far as Dot XYZ is concerned, I sold 9 domains for a grand total of $595. As mentioned here, I listed 9 Dot XYZ domains over at CAX and one of them was sold for 95 bucks. Later on, another domainer offered me 500 bucks for the remaining 8 domains and I accepted the offer.
As far as the amounts I spent are concerned, 8 of them were registered over at NameCheap at $11.06 a pop and one of them at GoDaddy, $15.17 for that one.
All in all: I spent $103.65 and made $595.
I own one more Dot XYZ domain, Stocks.XYZ but I don’t consider that one a domain investment. I want to turn it into a megasite like the ones I’m building through my development service (MegaSites.com) and will be documenting my development experiment, as mentioned here.
And as far as Dot Directory is concerned: the same domainer who bought the 8 Dot XYZ domains ended up buying Domaining.Directory for 95 bucks. It’s the only Dot Directory domain I own.
Paid $17.17 for it over at GoDaddy (I used one of the 30% off coupons if I’m not mistaken) and made $95.
All in all, that’s how things stand as far as my first profitable new gTLDs are concerned:
1) Spent $103.65 on 9 dot XYZ domains and made $595
2) Spent $17.17 on a Dot Directory domain and made $95
Not exactly amounts that can fund your retirement but still, this does prove that there’s reseller market demand for new gTLDs if they’re priced aggressively.
All of them have been sold to domainers.
The following questions arises: is this approach scalable?
In my opinion, it’s not.
As those of you who are following my case study know, I’ve been a very picky buyer. After lots and lots of launches, I ended up with only 34 domains (ok, I also have 100 Dot Berlin domains but those were free). Stocks.XYZ is my only landrush domain but again, that’s a development project rather than a domain investment.
All of the other domains have been bought at the very beginning of the General Availability phase. None of them carry premium renewals, as I tend to avoid such domains.
Why is this approach not scalable?
Because to sell new gTLDs to another domainer, the domains have to be very good *and* the prices have to be low. Despite the fact that there are already lots of new gTLDs, there aren’t that many domains which genuinely have reseller market sales potential.
Why?
Well, mainly because:
1) A lot of good domains are reserved
2) A lot of good domains carry premium renewals
3) Some of the new gTLDs have high regular registration/renewal fees
4) The “word + extension” combination has to make sense
These are just 4 reasons but I’m sure you understand why building a solid new gTLD portfolio isn’t all that easy.
Sure, you could “relax” your domain acquisition strategy and buy more domains by also settling for “this one will do, I guess”-ish acquisitions but if you do that, I honestly doubt there will be much (if any) reseller market demand for your domains.
And even if your domains are very good, the prices have to be very low to attract domainers.
So if you think that you can sell new gTLDs for 4/5 figures to another domainer, think again. If your domains aren’t great *and* priced aggressively, selling to other domainers is pretty much out of the question.
Alright, that’s pretty much it for now.
Here are the other new gTLDs I own along with prices.
If you see something you like, shoot me an email at admin@domainingtips.com and let me know which domain(s) you want to buy.
Loans.Social + Lending.Social + Borrowing.Social – $495 for all 3 (social lending is one of the next big things in the financial world for sure, these are my favorite new gTLD domains and I’m selling them as a package for $495 because they belong together in my opinion)
Bookmarks.Social + Bookmarking.Social – $245
Next, here are my 5 other dot social domains at $95 each if you buy individually or $85 each if you buy all of them:
Feedback.Social
Contests.Social
Offers.Social
Reputation.Social
Answers.Social
Here are 9 dot cool domains at $85 each if you buy individually, $80 each if you buy at least 5 or $75 each if you buy all of them:
Gary.Cool
Jerry.Cool
Kyle.Cool
Larry.Cool
Mary.Cool
Roy.Cool
Scott.Cool
Sean.Cool
Troy.Cool
And last but not least, here are my 3 other new gTLD domains:
Safest.Email + SafestEmail.com – $125
VPS.Cheap – $95
Chair.Expert – $95
As mentioned previously, shoot me an email at admin@domainingtips.com to let me know which domain(s) you want to buy.
This is the first time I’ve made my reseller market prices public.
First come, first served.
July 6th, 2014 at 9:34 am
A profit is a profit so congrats. Yes, many sales in all extensions are to other domainers. The question is if a large percentage of your sales are to the same buyer, how many more domains are they willing to buy? Are they developing them or attempting to resell them? Are they only willing to pay $100 each and how many more desirable domains can you find for reg fee that you can sell to this individual? Do they want more XYZ or do they now want to diversify into other TLDs? If they are attempting to resell them, how much success have they had? If they are unable to sell them, are they going to keep buying more?
Before assuming XYZ is a great extension to invest in, you need to understand how much end user demand there is because end users will ultimately determine the final sales price for a particular type of domain. Without end users, any reseller demand will die.
My view is these early new TLD sales are similar to the early .MOBI days. Some early .MOBI registrants did well by selling into the hype but just like buying tech stocks in 1997-1998, eventually the music stopped playing and someone got stuck with no one else willing to buy. Look for a wiki on the “greater fool theory” to see what I mean. Again no one knows with certainty what the internet landscape will be like ten years from now. Perhaps even .COM domains will no longer be necessary. I pick up an occasional .COM but have not yet ventured into new TLDs.
July 6th, 2014 at 9:53 am
@Leonard Britt: in my opinion, it will all be a matter of analyzing data and drawing the appropriate conclusions. There is limited data at this point (I’m referring to reseller market data as well as end user data) and that’s actually why I decided to start this case study in the first place.
I hope that as time passes, more and more domainers will share some information about their new gTLD experience, my door is always open. Whenever someone wants to share some new gTLD data with DomainingTips readers, I can be reached at admin@domainingtips.com and will gladly blog about whatever you guys you want to share. Or even if you want to take things one step further by starting your very own case study, I’d gladly have you on board as a regular guest blogger.
July 6th, 2014 at 10:07 am
Congrats on the quick sales of the .XYZ domains. Really good to see that there are so many new TLDs being sold over at SEDO and through CAX.com as well. Thanks for the update.
July 6th, 2014 at 11:00 am
Quick update: VPS.Cheap has been sold.
July 6th, 2014 at 11:49 am
FYI the reverse auction marketplace DNX.com has been accepting new TLD domains into their marketplace. Note that the idea of the marketplace is to offer quality domains at reasonable prices. Of course there will always be those who say why didn’t they accept my domain ___ when they accepted that other one. I have already had that reaction on some of my rejects 🙂 They seem to be overloaded with submissions so it can take weeks before an accept/reject decision is made. Regardless, it appears a Spanish domain of ours in their platform will sell today $XXXX.
July 6th, 2014 at 4:46 pm
Hi
i would like to know, which selling place has the good audience for new gtlds
cheers
July 7th, 2014 at 7:25 am
@Leonard Britt: thanks for sharing, don’t have any personal experience with DNX, always good to know that there’s activity on a new platform
@gobinath: the only marketplace I’ve used for new gTLDs thus far is CAX