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DomainSherpa Review – Oct 24: Inertia.com, YYZ.com, Piva.com, BZC.net…

DomainSherpa Review with Michael Cyger, Andrew Rosener, Sam Dennis and Shane CultraThis is the show where we get into the minds of successful domain name investors – people we call Sherpas – and talk about the value of specific domain names. By listening to the Sherpas, we expand our thought process so we can become more successful investors ourselves.

In this DomainSherpa Review:

  • We learn what the Sherpas bought or sold recently: Inertia.com, YYZ.com
  • An investor’s portfolio is appraised: [numerics].club, Puppies.club, BikeRental.la…
  • Get your bids in soon for these NO RESERVE NameJet auctions: Piva.com, Lobi.com, BZC.net…
  • Plus, much more!

We’re joined by three Domain Sherpas: Andrew Rosener, Sam Dennis and Shane Cultra.

Review (51:41): Watch | Listen/Download Audio | Domain Lists | Transcript

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Investor Submitted Domain Names

1000.tokyo
1975.club
2012.club
2012.club
2023.club
445.club
507.club
949.club
99c.club
Abudhabi.club
Africans.club
Bikerental.la
Bluechips.vegas
Chips.cool
Dalailama.club
Exponeat.com
Igamble.vegas
Itrad.trade
iwing.club
Kendo.club
Kyudo.club
Llemonade.cool
Puppies.club
Sumo.club
Wikileaks.club

NameJet.com Pre-Auction Listings

blogsight.com
buildninja.com
bzc.net
evolutiontech.com
linensrental.com
lobi.com
njforclosures.com
onlinellearning.com
piva.com
propertyassesment.com
sparkled.me
trackmydiet.com
tracy.tv

This Show’s Sherpas

Andrew Rosener
Andrew Rosener
Andrew Rosener is the CEO of the industry-leading domain name broker Media Options.

Andrew is widely considered a thought leader and expert on domain name value & methodology as well as domain name sales & acquisitions. With 20 years experience with domain names, Andrew has leveraged his knowledge and expertise to make MediaOptions the go-to domain name firm for startup & company domain acquisitions as well as high value domain name sales.

More shows with Andrew Rosener »

Sam Dennis
Sam Dennis
Sam Dennis is the CEO of YTZ International, a monetization platform for advertising networks and publishers.

Dennis started in online marketing in 1999, founding Suite66 – one of the first banner networks. Since then, he has expanded his expertise into lead generation and performance-based marketing.

Dennis is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario.

More shows with Sam Dennis »

Shane Cultra
Shane Cultra
Shane Cultra is a domain name investor and owner of the popular domain name blog, DSAD.com.

Cultra is also a fifth generation owner of Country Arbors Nursery based in Urbana, Illinois, and has been a member of the PBS television show Mid American Gardener for more than 10 years, in addition to being a part of various gardening segments on CBS and ABC.

Shane also recently launched two new businesses, BeeHouse.com and Wormcastings.com, leveraging his online expertise with his love of nature and business acumen to create two exciting new ventures that are sure to be successful.

More shows with Shane Cultra »

DomainSherpa Advertisers

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Namejet.com

MediaOptions.com

Interview Raw (Non-Edited) Transcript

Download/Read the Domain Name Interview Transcript in PDF FormatInterview Transcript in PDF Format (Right-click to Save As…) [View in Google Docs]

Watch the full video at:
https://www.domainsherpa.com/review-20161024/

On today’s Review we have to give some tough love to an investor…and, things you should not do at NameJet, coming right up.

Michael Cyger: Hey Sherpa Network. I’m Michael Cyger, publisher of domainsherpa.com and this is the DomainSherpa Review. This is the show where we get into the minds of successful domain name investors using real examples so we can learn strategies and tactics to pick better domain names and determine their value. We have three segments to the review. We’ll start off learning what the Sherpas recently bought and sold, next we’ll discuss and value an investor-submitted domain name portfolio, and finally we’ll preview some domains going to auction soon at namejet.com. Joining us today on the DomainSherpa Review are three past Sherpas and industry thought leaders. In order from left to right we have Andrew Rosener, CEO of the domain name brokerage firm mediaoptions.com; Sam Dennis, CEO of YTZ International, a monetization platform for advertising networks and publishers; and Shane Cultra, publisher of the blog domainshane.com, and owner of the Country Arbors Nursery in Illinois. Sherpas, welcome to today’s show!

Sam Dennis: Good to see you.

Shane Cultra: Hey Mike.

Andrew Rosener: Good to be here.

Michael Cyger: Good to have you guys. You know, if…if I would have scheduled this a couple hours later my mom could have joined us and I know she would have loved to do that because she watches you guys every single week.

Sam Dennis: I actually think we should just do it with your mom next time.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, next time I’ll just have…if we can tape another one, I’ll just have her do the moderation. That would be totally cool. You’ll love my mom.

Sam Dennis: I probably will.

Shane Cultra: I brought my mom to…to two domain conferences so…

Sam Dennis: Really?

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: Are you going to bring her again to Namecon?

Shane Cultra: I don’t think so this year. It’s been a little rough. I think my mom would punch a couple people, so…

Michael Cyger: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shane Cultra: …Yeah, I think probably not best. I don’t need my mom defending me, so yeah…

Michael Cyger: Alright, fair enough. Alright, we’re going to jump into the first segment called What’s New Sherpas where the Sherpas tell us one purchase or sale that they’ve made in the past few weeks and we get to learn what they paid or received, why they thought it was a good deal, and how the negotiations progressed. I’m going to lead you through the questions but the other Sherpas will get to provide some input as well during the process. The segment we’ll go in order, Drew, then Sam, then Shane. Drew, what’s one domain name that you personally bought or sold in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price yet.

Andrew Rosener: Okay, inertia.com.

Michael Cyger: Inertia, I.N.E.R.T.I.A. .com?

Andrew Rosener: Correct.

Michael Cyger: Inertia.com. Did you buy it or sell it?

Andrew Rosener: Bought it.

Michael Cyger: You look so tame today, Drew.

Sam Dennis: Oh Jesus, have you been smoking?

Michael Cyger: I know, why is he so mellow?

Sam Dennis: It’s a little early.

Shane Cultra: We’re going to get a smile out of him sooner or later.

Andrew Rosener: I know…what am I…what am I supposed to do?

Michael Cyger: Alright. Alright, you bought it. You bought it.

Sam Dennis: We’ll play the game.

Michael Cyger: Sam, what do you think…what do you think Drew paid for inertia.com?

Sam Dennis: I don’t know. He loves the one word, so he paid twenty five to…

Michael Cyger: Twenty five.

Sam Dennis: …I don’t know. Yeah, I’ll say twenty five.

Michael Cyger: Right around twenty five. Yeah. Shane, what do you think that Drew paid for inertia.com?

Shane Cultra: I’m going to say…one word .com’s are getting really expensive and he knows it so, Sam’s probably right but I’m going to make him a good buyer and I’ll say seventeen, five.

Michael Cyger: 17.5k. You know, we do this segment over and over again, and Drew always throws out a single word, and I think for the most part it’s always around, like, 30k isn’t it? Somewhere…

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: Twenty, 30k, like, he seems to find…

Sam Dennis: We’re not even guessing anymore. We’re just…

Michael Cyger: …These single word, dictionary word, you know, for…for right around that same amount. Do you guys feel the same way?

Shane Cultra: Oh, yeah.

Sam Dennis: He’s…he’s making money on the buy.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: Always, so…

Michael Cyger: Alright. Drew, what did you pay for inertia.com?

Andrew Rosener: Five thousand dollars.

Sam Dennis: [inaudible]

Michael Cyger: Shut the front door. You did not.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, five thousand dollars.

Sam Dennis: God.

Michael Cyger: That’s a great deal.

Shane Cultra: Yeah. [inaudible]

Andrew Rosener: Damn right. You’ve got…you’ve got to hustle. You’ve got to hustle. If you’re hustling, you’re out there, you’re on the street…you’ve just got to keep hustling. You’ve got to keep knocking on doors and then, you know, these deals pop off.

Shane Cultra: You do know it’s spelled T.I.A., right?

Andrew Rosener: What?

Shane Cultra: I said you know is inertia is spelled T.I.A., right? Not S.H.I.A. for five grand.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, man. No, I’ve got the right spelling and everything.

Michael Cyger: Dude!

Sam Dennis: [inaudible] You had to Google it.

Michael Cyger: So this is the thing that, like, I find difficult personally in evaluating domain names. Like, you guys just rattle the price off the name…the…the price off the cuff. I like to go look up data. I want to see how many companies there are using inertia because I think, “Well, it could be difficult to say,” like Shane just said, maybe people are going to spell it wrong. There’s a ton of companies with a trademark on inertia, like, all different classes, all different industries, which means that there’s even more companies that are using inertia, so how the heck did you get inertia for five thousand dollars, Drew, besides hustle?

Andrew Rosener: Persistence.

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: And this one actually was…this was…was kind of odd. It was…it was very strange. The only owner told us that he has turned down multiple offers in the past of fifty thousand dollars, he turned down a hundred thousand dollars back in the early 2000s, but he was using the domain and he literally was, like, “You have perfect timing. We have just migrated off the domain this week. The domain is yours, five thousand bucks.” He…he didn’t even negotiate, he just…he accepted the first offer, said, “Fine, we’re migrating.” He’s…he’s one of these…you know, there’s a segment people, really, really old school, purist, early internet adopters who really believe in this sort of democratization of the internet and domain names and they…they feel like, you know, if they aren’t using a domain then it should be put back out into the wild and so…

Sam Dennis: You’re like the worst person, Drew, to go to.

Andrew Rosener: [inaudible] You know…

Sam Dennis: It’s turned into a cage now.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, that’s…that’s exactly…

Sam Dennis: That’s a great, big cage…

Andrew Rosener: Those people…

Sam Dennis: …With lots of dollar symbols around it.

Andrew Rosener: Those are people that I’m hunting, and, you know, he wanted to…he wanted to get it back out into the wild and…and…and, you know…

Sam Dennis: Awesome.

Andrew Rosener: It was just…but honestly it was just perfect timing. It’s really, it’s just…it’s dumb luck, but…

Michael Cyger: So…so you’re saying, like, it’s hustle…

Andrew Rosener: You make your own luck if you just keep hammering. If you’re…if you’re knocking on fifty doors a day, you know, somebody’s going to open the door at some point.

Michael Cyger: So the creation date according to DomainTools is October 23rd, 1994.

Sam Dennis: It’s old.

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: So, you told us persistence and hustle which means, to me…tell me if I’m wrong, that you’re tracking down all these old domain names…the ones that are ’95 and older, maybe ’96, ‘7, ‘8 and older, and you’re emailing them and then you’re following up with them asking…you know, you’re emailing them probably an offer to start with…five thousand dollars I would…I would assume, and then you’re just following up with them every six months and asking them if they’re still interested in…or if they might be…might have changed their mind and might be interested in selling it. Is that what the hustle and persistence are?

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, I mean, it’s actually not that…it’s not that organized. It should be, but it’s not. Well, I…I just have a hit list.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: I mean, I’ve said it before. I’ve just…I’ve got a hit list of all of the domain names that I would like to own. I rarely add anything to that hit list, once in a while I do, but I’ve got a hit list and…and I just keep working it, you know? And, you know, it’s amazing, you know? If you’re…if you’re persistent, things just…you just keep shaking the tree and…and, you know, things keep falling, you know? It’s…it’s, like, it’s amazing. Domains that I’ve been told no over and over and over again, and then, you know, whatever, things happen, man. Life happens.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Divorce, bankruptcy, just change of plans, loss of interest, you know, partnership fallout…whatever, there’s a million reasons. People fall on hard times, people change direction, people retire, people die, and you just keep shaking the tree and…and…and, you know…

Michael Cyger: So, how…you know, you said you’re not doing it as…as methodically as I mentioned. How often, roughly, do you contact them? Once a year, once every half year, whenever you think about it?

Andrew Rosener: I…I honestly just…there’s really no…

Michael Cyger: No.

Andrew Rosener: …Rhyme or reason. I mean…

Michael Cyger: How often is too often?

Andrew Rosener: You know, more than once or twice a year is probably…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: …Too often.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, okay.

Andrew Rosener: But at the same time, you know, it’s…it’s…it’s, like an 80/20 thing. Eighty percent of the time, that’s going to be too often, but the twenty percent of the time you’re going to be the guy that just happened to get that perfect timing because you were there, you know, every two months.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: You know, so…you know. It’s…I…it’s a case by case. It’s case by case.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Which is kind of how I treat it. We put it in the calendar…we say, okay, you know…I’ll…I’ll say, “Okay, it sounds like I should follow up with this guy,” you know, “a year from now.” Some of these guys, it’s like, you know, “I’ll follow up with you in three years.”

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: You know?

Michael Cyger: Wow.

Andrew Rosener: And some people it’s, like, “I’ll follow up next month,” and so, you know, you just never know. It’s case by case.

Michael Cyger: Well done, Drew.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: That should be motivation for, like…

Andrew Rosener: You know, make five grand but that’s…that’s…

Michael Cyger: …Everybody else to go out and, like, find the domain you want and hustle. In that initial email that you send out you make an offer, right? You put down…you put down five thousand dollars I take it?

Andrew Rosener: Actually it depends. It depends on the situation. It depends on, you know, if it was an individual or an owner, you know, business. It all depends.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: It all depends. In this particular case we did offer five thousand and he accepted that which is very rare.

Michael Cyger: Very rare.

Andrew Rosener: I mean, that never happens.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: Alright, there’s motivation for you guys. Thanks, Drew. Sam, let’s go to you. What’s one domain that you bought or sold in the past couple of weeks…few weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price.

Sam Dennis: Okay, I’ll do a buy as well. I’ll do a three letter because it’s one of my favorites and one of Drew’s favorities. It’s Y.Y.Z.

Michael Cyger: yyz.com. Alright, Shane, let’s go over to you. What do you think Sam paid for yyz.com, which reminds me of the zipper company?

Sam Dennis: [inaudible]

Shane Cultra: Yeah, I think that’s…that’s a…a Chinese love…they love that. That would be fantastic.

Michael Cyger: Y.Y.Z.?

Shane Cultra: Maybe…

Sam Dennis: Connect more dots about Y.Y.Z. means.

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: Drew will maybe figure it out.

Shane Cultra: No, probably not, so I’m…but I can still guess even though I don’t know.

Michael Cyger: Sure.

Shane Cultra: I’m going…I’m going to say…I’m going to say forty grand. I think that…I think he has some competition in that market.

Michael Cyger: Yeah. Alright, Drew, let’s go over to you. What do you think Sam paid for yyz.com?

Andrew Rosener: I…I think Shane’s probably pretty close. I’m…I’m going to go a little lower. I’m…I’m going to say thirty five grand. You know, it really would be probably in that thirty two to forty five thousand range. It’s definitely where that name would fall. Sam bought it because this is the Toronto airport code, Y.Y.Z.

Michael Cyger: You want all that airplane traffic?

Andrew Rosener: That’s the same reason, you know, same reason I bought pty.com…it’s Panama…Panama airport code.

Michael Cyger: That’s what I was remembering. I’m like who…

Sam Dennis: There you go.

Andrew Rosener: Sam…Sam is…

Michael Cyger: Did we talk about this in the past?

Andrew Rosener: Sam…Sam, man, it’s…Sam’s been putting P.T.Y. …Y. …Y.Z.Z. to… Y.Y.Z. to P.T.Y. … he’s been plugging that in for a long time. He’s been…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: So, yeah. I’m going…I’m going…I’m going to say thirty five. I’m going to say thirty five.

Michael Cyger: Alright, you’re going with thirty five. Sam, what did you pay…

Andrew Rosener: [inaudible] domain though.

Sam Dennis: It’s definitely more than that. It was forty six, five.

Michael Cyger: Forty six, five.

Sam Dennis: But that…

Michael Cyger: So you paid a little more than what Shane and Drew thought you’d pay but you’ve got a connection to it clearly.

Sam Dennis: No, I mean, that was actually, like, I don’t know if they…maybe they forgot, that’s an A.A.B. name.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: That’s a repeating Chinese one, so I was competing with all of China, and really those will sell from fifty five to sixty five still right now in China…it’s…it’s…because those are all incredible Chinese letters.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, it’s really good.

Sam Dennis: But, so, this was a weird process to buy it where I had…same thing with Drew…like, I…there’s a certain amount of names that I have a connection to that I…I keep going back and emailing and calling or, “Hey, just checking in.”

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And yeah, this is the time. He actually reached out to me saying, “Hey, you know, you’re one of the guys who, you know, keeps showing interest in this name, and I’m going to sell it, but I’m going to let everyone just make their highest offer…one-time offer,” which is…it’s hard because you’re betting against yourself.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And I was a little skeptical in making a bid so I waited a little bit and I emailed him, and I said, you know, “How am I going to know you’re not just going to take my offer and just up it”?

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: He goes, “Well, I won’t. I’m just going to do one-time offer, highest offer,” and he sent me a list of the top ten offers already.

Michael Cyger: Wow.

Sam Dennis: And he sent it to me with part of their email address, but I recognized every single guy on the list, so I knew it was real. I knew he wasn’t bluffing me. I was like, “I know him, I know him, I know him.” And even I knew the top offer who was a Chinese bidder who I’ve sold names to, so I just went higher than he was. I think he was at forty two, five, and I just made it…I made it high enough that I didn’t think anyone else was going to do it, mostly, like, brokers. So, like, a, you know, a Rosener, or, one of the…you had…you had James on before…I’ll give a little shout-out to James.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: You know, the brokers have to make cash. So if I’m paying the top dollar…

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: …But not crazy top, there’s no margin in it for them to do it. They don’t…they don’t want to spend forty five thousand to make two grand or make three grand. That’s way too much cash to be throwing out there to make so little.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: So I just…I knew kind of the price point of where the market was at and I was a little scared. I was still going to go higher because I really wanted the name.

Michael Cyger: It’s an old one. It’s a ’93.

Sam Dennis: Oh, it’s super old.

Michael Cyger: Wow.

Sam Dennis: And it…I mean, you know, my current company is Y.T.Z. ….

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …Which is the…the city airport. So now I’ve got them both. Toronto’s mine.

Michael Cyger: So what are you going to do with it? Why…why did you want it so bad?

Sam Dennis: I’ll…I’ll do it on the next Sherpa. I’ve got to wait a little bit. I’ve got some more things that I’m buying to…to secure it.

Michael Cyger: Alright.

Sam Dennis: But I’ll tell you what I’m actually doing with it because I’m actually going to do something with this one. I’m pretty excited.

Michael Cyger: You’re actually going to develop it and…and offer something?

Sam Dennis: Yeah. Yeah, I’ve already…

Michael Cyger: Nice.

Sam Dennis: I’m throwing a pile of money at it so it’s great.

Michael Cyger: Awesome. Alright, well congrats on that purchase then.

Sam Dennis. Thank you.

Michael Cyger: Alright, Shane, let’s go over to you. What’s one domain name that you’ve bought or sold in the past few weeks? Tell us the domain and not the price.

Shane Cultra: You…you know, believe it or not I have absolutely nothing of…I mean, I’ve…the names I’ve bought are of…are really a goose egg and I’ll explain it because I think it’s…I think it’s a good point in domaining so I’m kind of…I’ve moved to that middle ground so I’m…I’ve been saving quite a bit to get up to these one word .com’s so I’ve been saving for the last couple months trying to get thirty to fifty thousand to move and…and pick up another word, one word .com, or at least a word that I like, so I do this a couple times a year where I kind of don’t…you know, we’re…we’re all a little addicted to buying names and…and, you know, you could buy every day. You could just sit there and buy, buy, buy, buy, and so I’m trying not to do that unless it’s something I really like just to save a little money and it’s…it’s kind of like taking a little Nicorette for about three weeks to try and build up a little capital and that’s…and that’s what I’ve been doing, and I’ve been doing it this summer. I’ve still been buying what I think are value…I’ve still been buying the four letter .com’s with C if I think that the value is there. A couple two words having avoided all the…you know, I…maybe I have a little hangover from the Chinese purchasing from the spring where I…I got a little crazy and…and lost a little money, so put that all together and, you know, I’ve got some things in the work. And like Drew said, there’s some one words I’ve been working on for two years. I’ve been getting really, really close. I think I’m the final guy because you get to that, “Let me talk to my partners” thing where you don’t get very often…you don’t get to that level. So, there’s a couple good one words or two words that I’m…I’m right at. The ones I’ve bought are, you know, and sold, are three or four of five hundred dollars. Something I paid sixty nine, I’m just taking the cash.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: But the other ones I’m waiting. You know, I don’t have a need to sell. I’m waiting for good numbers and I’m trying to find a one word but the problem is, every single one of us are looking for that same…I guarantee Drew just talked to the same guy that I just talked to and Sam probably was there too probably. I can smell them all, right, because I come behind them. So, it’s tough being that middle guy.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: You know, when you’re smaller you don’t have enough cash to play, and when you’re a middle guy sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t, and that’s kind of where I’m at right now.

Michael Cyger: Yeah. Well you’ve just got to out-hustle Drew.

Shane Cultra: Yeah, well that’s my old saying [inaudible].

Michael Cyger: I know you’ve got five thousand bucks in your pocket. You could have had inertia.com.

Shane Cultra: And that’s exactly…I mean, that’s everybody’s dream. Five thousand, almost…almost [inaudible]…five thousand is still a lot of money.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, totally.

Shane Cultra: I don’t ever want to sell anybody five thousand that’s not.

Michael Cyger: But what do you think Inertia is worth today?

Shane Cultra: God. Yeah. Yeah. I would…I would spend…

Michael Cyger: It was worth, like, thirty thousand dollars to you, twenty five thousand dollars to you, and seventeen thousand to…to Sam. Yeah…

Shane Cultra: He could…

Michael Cyger: …I would probably pay, like, twenty five thousand for it.

Shane Cultra: Yeah, I was going to say, he could quadruple his money in eighteen seconds…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: …If he wanted.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shane Cultra: That’s…yeah, that’s how you make money right there…there’s undoubtedly. And those are…that’s like golf, that’s the shot that keeps you coming back. You hit enough bad ones…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: …It makes you want to keep practicing…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: …And enough good ones to keep coming back and Drew just hit that good one.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, you know, and…and when you were talking about that, Drew, and the owner of inertia.com, the prior owner was saying, “Oh, I got offered over a hundred thousand back in 2000.” I usually think, like, “Yeah, you probably did, but it’s not 2000 right now.” But you also said he was offered recently fifty thousand and I wouldn’t dispute that. Somebody could probably…

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: …Somebody would probably offer fifty thousand today for it.

Andrew Rosener: I mean, you know, the guy didn’t negotiate so it wasn’t like a sales tactic so I actually do tend to believe him.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: I mean, people tell me that kind of shit all the time.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, and you…

Andrew Rosener: Like, “Oh, I turned down a million dollars.”

Michael Cyger: Right.

Andrew Rosener: And it’s, like, “Yeah, buddy, you know, either you’re an idiot or you’re just making up stories,” right? But, you know, in this is case it was…there was no sales involved.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: It was, yeah, sure, okay, you know, [inaudible] getting a good deal. “I…I turned down a hundred grand, you know…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: …Back in the day. I turned down fifty grand, you know, last year.” So…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Timing, man.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, timing.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, it’s all timing. Hey Shane, let me ask you…I know on prior shows you talked about doing your auction on NameJet, the DomainShane DSAD auction on NameJet…is that coming up soon?

Shane Cultra: Yeah, actually, this will be a week ago by the time they watch this. All the new…we picked all the names, we’re sending out the emails I think today, as a matter of fact. Again, it’s so nice to have somebody who can write code that organizes it all so, you know…it was just a little list where you put “accept, reject” and it will send auto…automatic emails out there. I couldn’t do any of that myself without Travis but…

Michael Cyger: Yeah, Travis.

Shane Cultra: And I don’t know, it’s…I…Monty…I…I feel for him. Every time I see him I’m going to hug him because it is a tough, tough job of going through all the names and every…you get a little…you…you get some idea of what people…how they value their names…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: …And man, I’d say eighty percent of the people have no clue what their name is worth at auction, you know? It may be worth [inaudible].

Andrew Rosener: Eighty…eighty percent?

Shane Cultra: The value that they put on them is just brutal and…

Michael Cyger: Yeah, you know, if we have time I want to come back and ask you about that. I…I know you guys do a lot of selling on NameJet. I’ve recently rationalized my portfolio and gotten rid of, sort of, my tier two stuff much like Sam had talked about on a prior DomainSherpa Show, so scroll down under Sam’s bio, click “view more shows with Sam,” and watch how he describes how he rationalizes portfolio. I…I recently did that and sold most of the domains that I wanted to sell on NameJet, but I want to talk about that later. Alright, we’re done with this segment. I want to tell you about three of our sponsors for today’s show.

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Michael Cyger: In the Domain Portfolio Review we take a user-submitted domain name portfolio and provide honest and constructive feedback to the owner so they can either cut their losses, continue to hold, or figure out a sales strategy going forward. Today’s portfolio was submitted by Farshid Emami. As part of Farshid’s submission he made a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help us all find a cure for cancer. Farshid’s list of twenty five domain names starts with 1000, the numeric, 1000.tokyo, and it ends with Wikileaks, a topic that’s been in the news recently, wikileaks.club. Let’s see, this segment we’re going to go Sam, then Shane, then Drew. Sam, let’s start with you. When you look at Farshid’s list of domains, you know, he…he probably has more than twenty four, twenty five domains, he pulled this list as a representative sample of what he’s buying. What’s…what’s your initial feedback when you look at the list?

Sam Dennis: So, yeah, this was a little tough. I think the other guys are going agree. So, we know, we want to make this as constructive as possible but there’s…there’s not a lot to work with here and I think, you know, he might know that. That it seems like he was trying some ideas out but he was mixing two concepts together that don’t mix well.

Michael Cyger: Like what?

Sam Dennis: So, you know, he was mixing numbers, but with .club. That…that just isn’t going to happen. So, you know, he understood the…

Michael Cyger: Why do you say…why do you say that’s not going to happen? Why…what makes you say that?

Sam Dennis: I mean, number one, the Chinese market is softer and they’re really only interested in a couple g… or, sorry, a couple extensions and .club is just not…nowhere there. It’s, you know, not even…maybe it’s in the top hundred but that means, pretty much, it’s maybe less than registration cost. There’s really only a couple, you know, .com…if you’re going…if you’re going to, you know, play this game, at least buy .com’s. And I think that when you’re playing in the other dot extensions, unless you really know what you’re doing, there’s only a couple that ever kind of make sense, and I truthfully…I own a lot of names…I have not had one success with any of the other extensions, like, the real extensions.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: I’ve had success…success with some .net, .org, .com, but everything else? Not really. There, you know, some people have successes and those are the stories you hear, but once again, it’s probably the ninety nine percent you don’t hear.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And…and I just can’t stress enough…if you’re just starting, .com I would still play with a lot more, and if you’re going to do com, .com, you know, short domains are, you know, a…a nicer way to go. The four letter are a great way to start a little bit at least because there’s some value in there. I mean, that’s…when I look at this list…the downside is a hundred percent on this list.

Michael Cyger: So let me…let me back up for a second. We talked about…you talked about mixing, you know, things that work. Like, some .club’s really work and numerics clearly are high value, but you’re saying when you’re buying four number, three number …

Sam Dennis: He mixed two concepts together that don’t work.

Michael Cyger: …Or alphanumerics, mixing 99c.club, or, you know, which could be ninety nine cents, you’re saying that that doesn’t work and he could actually…

Sam Dennis: Yeah, because, I mean, I think it was one of those things, like, he saw that they were available…

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: …And thought that he was the first…like, he had just hit a gold mine. He’s like, “I…I’ve heard all these, you know, these numbers are so valuable and look at, I can get these .club’s for registration cost.”

Michael Cyger: And if he goes into NameBio and types in the pattern number, number, number, number and selects .club he can see that there are zero sales for those, but…

Sam Dennis: I…I…I haven’t looked but I’m sure there’s not.

Michael Cyger: I just did, and so…but he could say, like many other people did, that numerics might take off in .club. Like, .club is a popular extension, it’s growing, or investing in it…

Sam Dennis: Yeah, I mean, there’s…there’s always a possibility. I would just like to then see… because I have the full list, and you know, I don’t know if users get to see the full list but I can tell that, no, he…he bet on .club here. This isn’t…he didn’t, like, on his list I think ninety percent of them are .club.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: Maybe ninety five, and there’s a few .vegas. But once again…there’s, like, one .la I guess in here but…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: It wasn’t just that, you know, I would assume if he’s looking for feedback he would give us a range of names so I think he did, but this is what he invested in.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And I would say that, you know, learn from this list, but I think he needs to go back and look at some of the other shows and actually listen to them a little bit…a little bit more carefully on what we think is valuable.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And everyone has their own, you know, areas that they focus on and they, you know…but we all, like, you know, the three of us up here, we’re looking for things that are liquid in some shape or form…

Michael Cyger: But newer investors…
Sam Dennis: …But we might take a few flyers…

Michael Cyger: …You know…newer investors don’t have…

Sam Dennis: …But we say that.

Michael Cyger: …Twenty thousand to put into a three letter, or forty thousand dollars to put into a four number…

Same Dennis: No, but they could still…

Michael Cyger: …Or whatever, like…

Sam Dennis: The…you know, Shane was mentioning, you know, he’s still buying on NameJet the four letter, and you can tell if…

Michael Cyger: Ending in C.

Sam Dennis: … You know, just make an account there…there’s sixteen other guys to seventy other guys bidding on them as well.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: That’s a good indication that some other people are interested in it.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: So, you know, because he still bought twenty five names and I don’t even know how much .club’s are but let’s say that they’re…I think they’re, like, ten to fifteen bucks at least, you know…

Michael Cyger: Yeah, unless they’re on sale. They’ve had some sales.

Sam Dennis: But he…he spent…he did spend some money here.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And he, you know, he…he put a donation in so I know he has some cash.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: So he’s, you know, he’s got a thousand to five thousand bucks and I would have rather have seen him show three names, four letter…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …You know, even a five letter or an interesting word, something like for BrandBucket I would have rather seen.

Michael Cyger: Right, so let me ask you this…how does a newer investor know whether they’re in it for the long term? If they’re going to bet on these numbers, the three numbers .club, how do they that, yeah, they don’t have any value right now, they’re not selling, I can’t find any sales for those, but how do I know that they’re not going to take off, like, two years from now and I will have bought them…

Same Dennis: Well, I mean, then…

Michael Cyger: … And they will have value then?

Sam Dennis: …I mean, you can look at the numbers that he chose. He didn’t even really research the Chinese market that well, that he didn’t realize that fours are terrible, the zeros that he has are in the wrong spot, like, he really didn’t understand even the Chinese market that well, what numbers to buy. So, out of all these ones I think his best one is 1975. I think that is his best number for the Chinese market.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: I might be wrong but I’m pretty sure I’m actually correct.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, great point. These do seem like numbers that are more American related or…

Sam Dennis: Well no, they just…

Michael Cyger: …Or just years…

Sam Dennis: …They don’t like…they don’t like fours…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …And they don’t like the zero if it’s in the middle…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …Or in the beginning. I mean, there’s some rare instances…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …But you have to be an expert in these things to really understand, but I can tell he’s just not an expert in the Chinese market as well.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: That, for the numbers that he chose that were available…

Michael Cyger: Yup.

Sam Dennis: …They’re probably available because…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …They weren’t in demand even from a hand registration point of view.

Michael Cyger: Right. Fair enough. Give me one domain name on the list that you actually like, that you’re, like, you know, “I would…I would go for that one.”

Sam Dennis: You’re…you’re…you’re stretching me here.

Michael Cyger: Come on! There’s…dude, who doesn’t like puppies?

Sam Dennis: I know, but puppies.club? It doesn’t work. Puppies Club, it’s, like, I don’t…I don’t know. Like, none of these…

Michael Cyger: Nothing, huh?

Sam Dennis: I don’t know, bike? I’m having real trouble…

Michael Cyger: Okay.

Sam Dennis: …Finding something…

Michael Cyger: Fair enough.

Sam Dennis: …That I would keep. I mean…

Michael Cyger: I know Shane’s going to like one of them.

Sam Dennis: I hope so. I…I can’t.

Michael Cyger: Alright, thanks Sam. I appreciate that information on the…on the numerics and the .club and why they don’t match up and why those aren’t a good investment going forward from your perspective. Shane, let me come over to you because I know that you’ve done a lot of investment in domain names that didn’t have any value when you were…didn’t have a lot of value when you were doing the investment, and you’ve held them for years, right? Like a lot of your four letters…

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: You were buying them before they were popular.

Shane Cultra: No, it…it…it…so when I…when I first did things I thought that the short ones would be the best, so, you know, I…I thought short…no matter…at the time everybody was doing keywords and I thought, “When I’m a company, I don’t want to name my…my company a keyword” unless it’s the biggest keyword, like, if I have mattresses…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: …Yeah, I want mattress, but in general, I’m going to form a company name that’s cool, memorable, short, so that’s kind of where I went and the cheapest ones were five letters, like, I’ve said it over and over, like, Weeba, W.E.E.B.A. was twelve dollars.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Shane Cultra: You know, they were cheap, and I thought, “I’d rather name it Weeba than Johnny’s Mattress Shop,” or, you know…or, you know, or an app, something along those lines. This is, you know, .club…the one…I’ll say a couple things about the .club. The marketing has really brought in a lot of people so they do an amazing job of telling everybody how good .club is and all its sales, but when you look at NameBio it’s their auctions that are sold, it’s things they’ve sold, things they’ve sold to other people. The resale is just not there. Will it be in the future? I personally don’t think so, but that’s just my personal opinion. There could be, but right now this needs to be maybe part of your portfolio. It absolutely can’t be your portfolio. There’s no liquid…there’s no liquidity at all. There’s no ability to flip those names, and of the .club, I mean, I…I bought two .club’s…I bought N.Y.N., I least thought that was… New York…I at least thought there was some value to a three letter .club. Dalailama, you know, I just went through that…those are just not the .club’s you’re going to buy. Have a couple in there, sure, that’s what we all do.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: We all invest a little bit but we went all-in, and…and as Sam said, he went all-in in the wrong way. The…the numbers are wrong. Heck, I…that’s why I’m wearing my glasses. I…I thought it was lemonade.cool. I didn’t even realize it’s a two L so I put my glasses on, I said, “Shit, I better keep my glasses on because I can’t even read the sheet.”

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: I didn’t even know that.

Shane Cultra: But I didn’t even know. I’ll be honest, I didn’t even know there was a .cool. I do this all day, every day.

Michael Cyger: I didn’t know there was a .cool either.

Shane Cultra: I had no idea that…so…

Sam Dennis: Well, there’s two L’s in the beginning too.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: I thought it was…

Shane Cultra: I know, I thought maybe it was a Spanish ll, “llemonade,” or something like that.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, I don’t think…I don’t think I capitalized his portfolio so that’s the way it came in.

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: What about…

Shane Cultra: So…

Michael Cyger: Abudhabi.club, right? Major city.

Shane Cultra: Yeah. Yeah, the…the only one that I even looked at twice and thought…bikerentals.la, maybe…

Sam Dennis: Well, that was the one I was thinking, I was like…

Shane Cultra: You know, that one, maybe…

Sam Dennis: But that’s not…normally the la are, like, the funny words, not, like…

Shane Cultra: Exactly.

Sam Dennis: …An actual word, they’re, like, they’re more…

Shane Cultra: Yeah, I mean…

Sam Dennis: La, or whatever.

Shane Cultra: I know [inaudible] is cheering that one on.

Michael Cyger: I know. [inaudible] is loving that…

Shane Cultra: [inaudible] that thing’s amazing.

Michael Cyger: …Bikerental, right? Like, you can…that is a good domain to have in L.A., and it’s…it’s brandable. There…you know, you’ve got a set of bikes…

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: …For rent on the beaches of L.A.

Shane Cultra: So, if I had to have one that would be the one I’d have. You told me which ones to click off and I just said no. And the other thing you…you said…and I did it just a little bit…I said, “Okay, what could you do with that money. What is on a drop”? And I just looked up, and this is going to be past since it’s going to air later, but you’ve got trailbuddy.com, it’s at thirty dollars. You have Gigmatic for twenty eight. You have engineguru.com. I’d rather…that’s only twelve dollars right now on the drop.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: I’d rather…engine.guru’s going to be a lot more money and EngineGuru’s at twelve bucks, next bid’s seventeen…I’d much rather be on that side, the .com on the right, and the guru on the left in my opinion.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: Especially for twelve dollars.

Michael Cyger: So you just mentioned three brandable domain names. So you’re suggesting for a…for a newer investor that maybe if they bought these for, I don’t know how much were these? Let’s say they’re ten bucks a piece, so two hundred and fifty bucks in…

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: …You’d rather take that two hundred and fifty bucks and buy some brandables, hold them…hold those for a few years and try and sell them for a thousand, two thousand bucks?

Shane Cultra: Well, if I asked…I asked all three of you, and I said, “Would you rather have TrailBuddy at forty dollars or any of these .club’s,” I know what you’re answer would be. I mean, I know what your answer would be. You have a much better chance of selling TrailBuddy. I’m not going to say you’re going to make a million dollars but that…that doesn’t take me long to look at those names and…and pick those out and know that that’s a better buy if I want to make money at this point in time, so [inaudible].

Michael Cyger: What if there are some Sumo clubs out there?

Shane Cultra: Pardon me?

Michael Cyger: What if there are some Sumo clubs out there? He’s got sumo.club. I can’t find them.

Shane Cultra: But what…again, I think if I, you know, and not everybody…there are people, there are legitimate businesses using .club.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: But I want…I still want sumoclub.com if I’m a business at this point in time. That’s where I want to be, you know, for brand advisory.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And I just don’t think it’s a big enough market to…I mean, you’d have to research it, but…

Michael Cyger: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Alright, thanks Shane. Drew…

Sam Dennis: All you, buddy.

Michael Cyger: …You get the last word, bud.

Shane Cultra: You left him for last on purpose.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, I mean, honestly, there’s just not a lot…there’s not a lot here. I don’t…I really don’t have much positive to say here, you know?

Sam Dennis: But we bought some .club’s together.

Andrew Rosener: No, no. So…so…so, and here’s the deal. So, you know, look, I…I…I think that, you know…

Sam Dennis: Ours are a little better though.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah. There’s, you know, .club has a future, .club has a place.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: You know, but like anything else, you know, what comes to the left of that dot makes a big difference. I just don’t see anything here that has any value to anybody. I mean, I…I would say the best advice I can give you is just let every single one of these domain names expire. Literally, do not renew any of them. You are better off buying an ice cream.

Sam Dennis: But it’s a good thing. Like, it…making a mistake is not a terrible thing.

Andrew Rosener: No, not, absolutely not.

Sam Dennis: Like, all three of us have made terrible mistakes.

Shane Cultra: [inaudible] on our mistakes.

Andrew Rosener: No…no doubt about it. I mean, you know, look, you…you…if you don’t…if you don’t jump in to put…if you don’t jump into the pool you’re never going to learn to swim, right?

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: So, you’re in, you’ve clearly made some bad mistakes and…and, you know, these are not the type of domains that you want to register.

Michael Cyger: So some people like to the see the contrast.

Andrew Rosener: Let them expire.

Michael Cyger: Are…are you and Sam…you just mentioned you and Sam bought some .club’s together. Can you throw out a…a few examples and then let’s contrast why those have more commercial value than…than Farshid’s list here?

Andrew Rosener: It’s pretty straightforward. I mean, so we own…what do you we own? We have weed.club and we have…

Sam Dennis: The other one.

Andrew Rosener: What’s the other one?

Sam Dennis: Grass or something, I don’t know. We have another…another weed one.

Shane Cultra: [inaudible].

Michael Cyger: So marijuana related domains?

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: Yeah, both…we…we have the two top ones. I forget what the other one is.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, I think we have…we have weed.club for sure and then, like…

Sam Dennis: It was grass or something, wasn’t it?

Andrew Rosener: Pot. [inaudible]

Sam Dennis: Pot, maybe it was pot. I don’t know.

Andrew Rosener: Pot. [inaudible]

Sam Dennis: We should find that out.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, you should…you should probably figure that out. So you bought into an industry that’s burgeoning in the United States, you know, tens of millions if not hundreds of millions of dollars are going in, in the different states.

Andrew Rosener: Billions.

Michael Cyger: Billions are going in.

Sam Dennis: Yeah, but it makes sense too. The word, like, it worked with it where…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: …You own WineClub. I think, like, the top sales was, like, WineClub, CoffeeClub…

Andrew Rosener: Yup.

Sam Dennis: They’re all things that already are clubs…

Andrew Rosener: Yup.

Sam Dennis: That kind of, like…

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: …You can connect the two dots together. There is no Sumo…there might be a Sumo club but they probably don’t have, you know, four billion dollars behind them.

Michael Cyger: Right. So look for…

Sam Dennis: The coffee, wine, all those are multi-billion…

Shane Cultra: [inaudible]

Sam Dennis: …Dollar industries. You’re betting on billions.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: You’re not really risking a lot.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, I mean, wine, like…wine of the month club is a massive thing, you know? Beer of the month club.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: Everything you can think of there’s a…there’s a, you know, subscription monthly club service. It’s…it’s…it’s…

Sam Dennis: Yeah, it’s better to go for the best. I mean, obviously you have to pay more for it but if you can’t go for the best, don’t go for the worst.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, but I mean, like, look, man, these…these…these…these…these things are not cheap, these…these renewals, and even if they’ve got a promotion…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: …You know, you’re…you’re talking hundreds of dollars here that could have been spent on…on a…on a better domain.

Michael Cyger: Yeah. So…so, there’s the difference between the commercial…commercial aspect of it…look for industries and businesses that are making lots of money that might want to buy this domain, or other competitors may want to come in and compete with that domain. That’s what you’re doing. These domains don’t necessarily do that. You’re saying, “Take that money, maybe go in with another investor and buy a better domain name.” We just talked about that on last week’s show with…with Richard Lau, how he goes in with other investors to buy great domain names…

Shane Cultra: Sure.

Michael Cyger: …Like ocean.com that he just talked about, or hockey.com.

Shane Cultra: Yeah, and we’re not saying spend more. We’re just saying spend more wisely.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: That’s the difference. We…we’re not…people look at…

Sam Dennis: Yeah, make sure you look at some of those…sorry.

Shane Cultra: Oh, I’m just saying, people look at Drew and say, “Well, it’s easy to spend five, ten, fifteen, twenty.” That’s not what we’re talking about. That has nothing to do with the price that they’re paying. It’s what they’re doing, what…how many…you know, what names they’re buying for that price.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Shane Cultra: And it’s not…this isn’t the way to spend your money.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: And the one last one I just wanted to say…

Michael Cyger: Please.

Sam Dennis: …Because I know, Shane, we’ve all mentioned this. I…I noticed on the list…I was looking at it a little more carefully…he has a lot of S’s on the end of these names where he shouldn’t.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: And that’s a big no no. Next time for a…a real name, don’t just throw and S on there because it’s available.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah, plural…plural and singular are apples and oranges.

Sam Dennis: And, like, there’s so many in this example that makes no sense.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: Like, I think the worst has to be Africans.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: But, like, I don’t know what type of club that is.

Shane Cultra: No. Yeah, and…

Sam Dennis: But it doesn’t even make sense with the S, …without the S. That just, I don’t even know…

Michael Cyger: Yeah, so, great feedback, guys. Like, the numerics not pairing, the words being plural, the looking for commercial aspects and, like, you know, at the end of the day, look back at what Drew did at the top of this show. He hustled and he got a great deal on a domain name because he just…he just didn’t take what was available, he went after it. So, think of a great name that somebody else owns. Maybe in .club if you believe in that extension and then go after it and get it for a great deal. That’s what we need to do. Farshid, thank you for submitting your portfolio and making a donation to cancer research. We hope that this review has been helpful to you in your domain investing activities going forward. Before we jump into the domains going to auction soon I want to tell you about three of our other sponsors.

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Michael Cyger: We’re going to move on to the Marketplace list. This segment is sponsored by NameJet and we’ll be reviewing twelve…I think it’s twelve domains heading to auction soon, No Reserve or Reserve Met, and if you like one of them get a bid in soon because once it goes to auction, NameJet locks it down. They become private auctions for the most part. The links below are just click through. They click through directly to NameJet. They’re not commissionable links, but they do like to see what kind of traffic we’re sending them. The list starts with blogsight.com, sort of like insight, but blogsight.com, and it ends with tracy.tv which is a fall on to the last review that we did where…what did we have, brenda.tv that you put up on NameJet there, Drew?

Andrew Rosener: I’d have to know if we ever established that that was mine or not.

Michael Cyger: Oh, yeah, I don’t even know. I’ll look it up. This segment we’re going to go Shane…

Sam Dennis: I love it.

Michael Cyger: …Then Drew, then Sam. Shane, let’s start with you this round. From an investment perspective, you know, just like we were talking about with the investor’s portfolio last segment, are there some domains on the NameJet list that you think would be better investments for newer investors?

Shane Cultra: Well I do, but I don’t think they’re very…going to go actually very cheap. I think that the CVCV, the Piva and the “Lobby” or Lobi, however you want to pronounce it, you…you really can’t go wrong. The…the liquid value’s been there for fifteen years on consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel. Regardless of really what the letters are there’s always some value in the thousands. That’s…I’ll tell you, I’m always surprised by what they do and don’t go for when it comes to consonant, vowel. People see it…a lot of people see if different than I do…ones that I think go for a lot, but they always go for three thousand dollars to six to seven thousand depending on what they are so, you know, that’s…to me, that’s not a new…

Michael Cyger: No.

Shane Cultra: …Domain investment. That’s…that’s a lot of money for somebody coming right in. The other thing that I found is, I used to own quite a few of them, I don’t get a lot of end user interest. I’ve never had great luck selling them other than to other investors. So the liquid value is amazing. You could…you can move them in twenty seconds and almost get your money back if you paid right on any of those, but end users, to me, and maybe that’s just me…I had about ten of them that I thought were pretty good, I hardly ever got any inquiries at all.

Michael Cyger: Interesting.

Shane Cultra: I ended up selling them on NameJet.

Michael Cyger: Ones similar to Lobi or Piva?

Shane Cultra: Pardon me?

Michael Cyger: Domains that were similar to these, like Lobi or Piva?

Shane Cultra: Yeah, exactly…

Michael Cyger: Yeah. Huh.

Shane Cultra: …The same, you know, the consonant, vowel, consonant, vowel. The V, you know, it…it…when it comes to…to China the V’s not as good but it works in that name. Piva’s a nice, clean, smooth name.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: So I…I think it works as far as that goes. The one that I loved, and…and I had to put my glasses on, was again for the double learning. I thought it…if that’s truly a double L…OnlineLlearning would have been a good name because there’s a big market, good CPC, but somehow another L switched… got in there, so, again, that’s…

Michael Cyger: Yeah, and, you know, that goes to show. I selected that name and I think I screwed it up and I…I know a lot of other bloggers have written about this, like, double check that domain name…

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: …And I didn’t plug it into Estibot. It’s just like a…because Estibot will tell you it’s zero value.

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: I didn’t plug it in before I chose it, and I didn’t see those two L’s right next to each other and how many times have we, you know, done that in the past…

Shane Cultra: Yeah. Well every business class will tell you…

Michael Cyger: …Where we select a domain name that had no value?

Shane Cultra: Yeah, every business class will tell you a part of making money is not blowing money and you would blow money…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: …If you bought the double L, so…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: I’d stay away from that but the three letter .net…that’s a really good Chinese .net. I think that has good value too. You know, of all those names…I know there’s nothing sexy about any of those names, but those are the names that will probably hold best in your portfolio without taking any money out of it leaking too bad. When I say leak, I mean renewing year after year, you’re just leaking money out of your portfolio.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: And, so [inaudible].

Michael Cyger: So, if a…if a newer investor was looking a bzc.net, what’s the best way to determine what the market will bear on that? Do you just go to NameBio and put in, you know…

Shane Cultra: Yeah.

Michael Cyger: Letter, letter, letter…

Shane Cultra: Yeah, there’s…there’s no better way.

Michael Cyger: …And select .net and look what they’re selling for?

Shane Cultra: Yeah, and don’t even…any…

Sam Dennis: Just be careful of the letters.

Shane Cultra: Pardon me?

Sam Dennis: Just be careful of the letters, right? Because…

Shane Cultra: Yeah. Yeah.

Sam Dennis: You’ve got to make sure those are all consonants.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: You’ve got to make sure…there’s also certain consonants that are slightly less value so just be…

Michael Cyger: Yeah, great point. You can actually go to NameBio and put in CCC for consonant so you don’t even get all the letters because some of the vowels might improve the…the…the value of it, but this one actually ends in C which I know Sherpas have said that they like in the past because it could stand for company, corporation, you know, things like that. Is that something that might increase the value as well if you’re looking through the list of sales? Shane?

Shane Cultra: Yeah, I…I think it helps.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: I think it definitely helps. The Z is not going to be an American used quite as often.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Shane Cultra: So, and the C in China won’t be for corporation so you kind of have those two mixed together, but…

Michael Cyger: Right. Good point.

Shane Cultra: But the…but the three letter .net’s have their value and will always have some value and they’ve come down quite a bit but they haven’t come down to where, you know…they’re still up there and…and that’s a good alternative. We could have a whole show on .net and whether we think it’s better than some of the other g’s but I think there’s still money there. They can have the rest of them.

Michael Cyger: Alright.

Shane Cultra: I didn’t see…

Michael Cyger: Alright.

Shane Cultra: Yeah, I didn’t see anything. I’m sure Tracy would love it if she has her own TV show but I’ll let them talk.

Michael Cyger: Thanks, Shane. Drew, let’s go over to you. What…what do you see of value on the list besides Lobi, Piva, and B.Z.C.?

Andrew Rosener: Those are the only two…those are the only names I like.

Michael Cyger: That’s it?

Andrew Rosener: That’s it. That’s it. I like…

Michael Cyger: NJForclosures…

Andrew Rosener: I like a Piva at lot.

Michael Cyger: What about…?

Andrew Rosener: I would say Piva, and I actually had a guy I went to school with that was…his name was…last name was Piva. I…I think that’s a great name. That’s a great brand. I’m sure you could pick that up for a price…it’ll be under value.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: You got that under ten grand you’re…you’re doing…you’re doing great. That’s it. I don’t see anything else here that I would even bid on.

Michael Cyger: You know, I…

Andrew Rosener: I…I don’t even like L.O.B.I. other than for just, like, the liquidity factor.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Andrew Rosener: But, it…it…it’s too not pronounceable. I mean, lobby, you know, it…it doesn’t pass the radio test. But I like…I like…I like P.I.V.I., P.I.V.A.

Michael Cyger: You know, on the last show, I said that keyword domain names were sort of falling out of favor and I should…I clarified that in the comments that long-term keyword domains are falling out of favor. You know, you’re buying inertia, that’s not falling out of favor, that’s continuing to grow in favor. But domains like…

Sam Dennis: That’s a one word though.

Michael Cyger: Like, in…what I was referring to was, like, propertyassesment.com, or njforclosures.com, N.J. standing for New Jersey. Are those types of domain names good investments going forward in your opinion, Drew?

Andrew Rosener: So, you’re…you’re talking about a couple of different things here but, you know, the N.J., anything that’s going to be, like, geo specific followed by a service, generally not a good investment. Those domains still sell, businesses still use them, but it’s small, medium-size businesses that are not going to be paying much. You know, they’ll hand register it, they may pay a couple hundred dollars, but if you’ve got five hundred of those and you only sell, you know, two percent for a couple hundred dollars, you know, you’re not paying your renewal fee…

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Andrew Rosener: …Renewal bill. So, I…

Shane Cultra: And that’s not how you spell foreclosure.

Andrew Rosener: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, I…I would avoid…avoid those in general. PropertyAssesment, you know, just doesn’t look like there’s a lot of search volume on that keyword but I…

Michael Cyger: Right.

Andrew Rosener: You know, it’s probably not terrible if you got that for, like, a hundred bucks. You know, you’ll find somebody out there that’s in the property assessment business that will pay you, you know, maybe twenty five hundred bucks for that domain but, you know, in general, yeah, the…the longer tail it is the less favorable it’s going to be. I mean…and again, we’re not talking about necessarily adoption and usage but as an investment.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Andrew Rosener: Like, [inaudible] a name you want to buy as an investment.

Michael Cyger: Right. Alright, thanks Drew. Sam, let’s go over to you. Any other thoughts that you have…

Sam Dennis: No, I mean…

Michael Cyger: …That differ from the other two Sherpas?

Sam Dennis: I think they covered it. That this…this isn’t…I don’t think we had the strongest list here but the…I think, you know, the biggest advice I would say is, you know, I think Shane was mentioning at the beginning, sometimes it’s not a bad thing not to buy. You know, take a little…wait for better names, or to, you know, own less. You know, one of the things you were talking about, cleaning your portfolio out. Even if a name is a good buy at a hundred dollars the math might not work there because, you know, you might have to own it for four years, you know, you’ve got…you’ve got so much math behind all these things where, you know, you’ve got to own a hundred of them…just your renewal costs will eat into your profit over time and you won’t really pay attention to it just because you’re carrying so much. It’s like, “Yeah, I sold something for two grand,” but it’s like, well, you know, you’ve been leaking money on everything else for a while so, it’s better to own less and better names.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: It really is.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: It’s so much easier to manage, number one, and you have something you can always have liquid just like Shane was saying. These CVCV’s are amazing investments for…not for new investors unfortunately now, that’s the problem, is that, you know, in NameJet these are going for top dollar, and I say top dollar, top resale dollar, and that’s what NameJet’s for. It’s not for getting an end user. It’s getting the liquid price of a name.

Michael Cyger: Right.

Sam Dennis: And these will go for the five to ten mark most likely.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: So, now with that said, you know, where do new investors look for value? The four letter…there’s still a lot of value in it. Just, it won’t be that format. It might be a CVV, sorry, CVVC, so I like the two vowels in the middle. I also like different formats so just, you…you can export a huge list of names on NameJet and just spend the time. You’ve got time on your hands, go through all the four letters, look at the patterns, see if it makes sense, and it could make sense just as a brandable name.

Michael Cyger: Yeah.

Sam Dennis: As long as you can pronounce it, that’s really helpful.

Michael Cyger: Yeah, great advice. We’re at the end of today’s show. I do apologize to these Sherpas that I don’t have time to give you guys the opportunity to talk about what’s new, but I’m going to ask you and then I’m going to post it on my Twitter and Facebook the day that this show comes out. Thank you guys. If you received benefit from today’s show, please post a comment below and thank today’s Sherpas. They love to the see the comments. I want to know what you liked, what you didn’t like, so that we can focus on that in an upcoming show. Thanks to Farshid Emami for submitting his portfolio and making a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. Thanks to NameJet for submitting their portfolio and sponsoring that segment of the review, and thanks again to our DomainSherpas, Andrew Rosener, Sam Dennis, and Shane Cultra, for sharing their experience and insights. We’ll see you all next time.

Sam Dennis: See you, buddy.

Shane Cultra: Thanks everyone.

Sam Dennis: Say hello to your mom.

Watch the full video at:
https://www.domainsherpa.com/review-20161024/

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10 Responses to “DomainSherpa Review – Oct 24: Inertia.com, YYZ.com, Piva.com, BZC.net…”

  1. Tom says:

    Sam’s laugh has me cracking up every time.

    I know it wasn’t the review the guy wanted to hear, but it was what he needed to hear.

  2. Johnny says:

    Thanks Sherpas!

  3. Jeff Smith says:

    Great show Michael
    Thank you Sherpa’s for the valuable info.
    I picked up a lot about the .club space and the S on the end.
    Gold nuggets for sure.

  4. Saro says:

    Great Show :)

  5. albert says:

    Great show guys.

  6. nick says:

    Thank you sherpas!

  7. Adam says:

    The domains on the investor submitted list should all be dropped. ASAP! Some of the NJ domains are questionable submissions as well.

    The only good domain I could see keeping is Kendo.club, but unless the owner does Kendo… why would you keep it for resale? :)

    1. ikehook says:

      Lol, waiting for the actual expiration date seems like a better idea than ASAP.

      What I don’t understand is why a portfolio submitter would send a list with 40% of 1 type of domain (G numerics), not to mention 100% ngtld/cctld. One numeric G should be enough to understand how the sherpa’s feel about them.

      Review after review the sherpa’s give the same advice on alternative TLD’s, with good span the dot names “maybe” having some value in the future.

      Watch the last 50 reviews before you submit a list. The point of the review is to get constructive feed back on names you think have value. If your names are the same as other lists that were marked as crap, it seems pointless to submit them hoping for a different result.

      1. Adam says:

        Lol, I mean just turn off auto-renew or whatever.

        Even with new Gs that span the dot Josh, they are a hard sell. There is NO public recognition and acceptance. Those that do know about these just consider them spam domains.

        Having talked with a number of IT Managers and Systems Admins recently. They have blocked ALL new domain extensions from email servers. (Disclosure – this is my link.)

        http://adamyamada.com/it-manager-domain-spam-block-tlds-interview/

        How are you supposed to use a new domain if people can’t receive your emails?

  8. Great review and solid advice for Farshid that everyone can learn from. It might help Farshid to think more like a business owner when choosing domains. Its probably best to stick to .com names at first because they have proven value now and the new gtld part of your portfolio should be classed as wildly speculative. It’s a gamble to bet on the adoption of these names.

    I continue learning from every show so appreciate the time you guys put in.

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