A NamePros user shared his story about how a .Loan domain he registered six MONTHS (not minutes, hours or even days but M-O-N-T-H-S) ago was clawed back by the registry. I’m sorry but this is yet another reason why the entire new gTLD “phenomenon” is starting to look more and more like amateur hour.
I’m sorry but when something like this happens, action needs to be taken quickly.
Let me ask you, what would have happened if the current registrant had sold the domain to someone else for $10,000 (random number) three months ago?
The new owner would have found out today that he lost his entire $10k investment… who would have compensated him? Nobody.
Or what if the owner would have created a forum and invested $50,000 in promoting it? Good luck with that.
Again, this is “amateur hour” behavior which makes it clear for the gazillionth time that investing in new gTLDs just doesn’t make sense.
And come on, it’s not like this is the only example of a domain being clawed back.
Theo gave the Credit.Club situation as an example of how something like this should be handled. Someone registered Credit.Club despite the fact that the domain should have theoretically not been available. What ultimately happened? The registry admitted its mistake and allowed the registrant to keep the domain.
Now perhaps in this case, something like this wouldn’t be possible for whatever legal mumbo jumbo-related reason.
Fine, you’re forced to take the domain back.
But for the love of God, you as the registry (Famous Four Media, in our case) should reach out to the registrant, apologize and COMPENSATE the person in question.
Again, business 101.
One of the many problems with new gTLDs is that for every well-run string (.Club is a good example of a decently-run business, I don’t own any domains in the extension for what it’s worth), there are lots of poorly managed ones.
As such, people decide (rightfully so when it comes to domainers IMO!) to just stay away.
I mean come on, it’s not much of a value proposition.
“Hey guys, do you want to invest in over-priced domains for which there’s zero reseller market interest and low end user demand? Oh and we might take ’em back in a couple of months or jack up the price 3,000%…”
But whatever, if you *still* think there’s no better use for your money and insist on investing in new gTLDs… good luck.
April 7th, 2017 at 9:46 am
The natural law of economy will lead most of the new Gs out of existence. That’s only a matter of time.
April 7th, 2017 at 11:17 am
These people still have their heads up their asses, M&M Vancouver, and Kruger are gone, they were kicked to the curb by the company they helped found, Uniregistry raised prices 3000%, got blacklisted by the registers, and came back down to earth somewhat.
THE GTLD’s represent a welcome smile, take your money, and on your way out the door spit in your face service package.
These clowns keep buying more, and more, they need to stop, and think I can’t sell the ones I have, why would I keep buying more.
April 7th, 2017 at 1:15 pm
Nobody’s going to stop buying as long as there’s money to be made. It’s a new time and stuff like this is going to happen. As a domainer you have to roll with stuff like this or just don’t buy and try to pay auction prices for good .com’s. If you know what you’re doing you can make make better money on the new GTLD names than .com, which is why people keep buying’em. The market doesn’t lie and reflects what’s happening. I’m making more flipping new extensions at low $ than I am on my new .com’s . It’s easier selling short punchy names on a phone call to a company.
April 7th, 2017 at 3:08 pm
@David
That is because you don’t pay yourself, opportunity cost, I know guys who spend 10 hour spending emails, answering emails, making calls to sell a domain for $200. Over the course of winners, and loser, and there are many losers you can’t sell, you don’t make money at the end of the day, or less than minimum wage.
All the category defining domains sit unsold, and with thousands in premium renewals, nobody is going to support this market. The contract for GTLD’s which many were yelling for a long time like GEORGE K, is a tainted contract, as we saw what uniregistry was able to do, anyone can do that, .makeup is $5,000 per year.
April 7th, 2017 at 5:12 pm
David, I’ve never heard of anyone who has ever made a living in new tlds. No .mobi millionaires, or .tv, .biz, .club, not even people paying the rent. People keep doing it becuase they are very stupid and it can take years of losses to learn. It is a similar phenomenon to people who keep gamble on horses, they all think they are going to make money.
April 8th, 2017 at 10:22 am
Even the guy who sold work.place to FB said he is still in the red. He sold that for high five or low six figures. When do you just call it quits?
April 8th, 2017 at 5:13 pm
You call it quits when the wife cuts up your credit card.