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DomainSherpa Review – Nov 28: Brut.com, Naranja.com, XUSK.com…

DomainSherpa Review with Michael Cyger, Andrew Rosener, Frank Schilling 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:

  • One Sherpa snags a domain for $5k that Frank Schilling thinks could be worth as much as $500k; Selling Spanish .com domains; The Soft .net market.
  • We learn what the Sherpas bought or sold recently: Brut.com, Naranja.com, XUSK.com
  • An investor’s portfolio is appraised: Buffalo.net, Vacation.properties, KillerPotential.com…
  • Get your bids in soon for these NameJet auctions: SmartChef.com, GifFizz.com, FortLauderdale.net…
  • Plus, much more!

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

Review (89:15): Watch | Listen/Download Audio | Domain Lists | Transcript

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Investor Submitted Domain Names

Babe.net
Benefits.net
BioCapitol.com
BioLabb.com
Buffalo.net
Capitol.media
Chapter420.com
ChemLabb.com
ClassicRarities.com
CryogenicsLab.com
Cyber.properties
DefyingGravity.com
dna.properties
EnhancedSecurities.com
ExtractionOil.com
GlobalMinting.com
KillerPotential.com
md.services
MetroAle.com
SenecaBrewing.com
TicketGenre.com
US.media
UsBorderwall.com
Vacation.properties
WorldCurrencyTraders.com

NameJet.com Pre-Auction Listings

20461.com
bargainimports.com
continentalairlines.com
dimensionally.com
electorals.com
fortlauderdale.net
ginfizz.com
internetrevenue.com
riskfreeinvestments.com
smartchef.com
the4dprinter.com
usaguides.com
vvva.com

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 »

Frank Schilling
Frank Schilling
Frank Schilling is an Internet investor, entrepreneur, and founder of the DomainNameSales.com platform and the registry and registrar Uniregistry.com.

More shows with Frank Schilling »

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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MediaOptions.com

Interview Raw (Non-Edited) Transcript

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Watch the full video at:
https://www.domainsherpa.com/review-20161128/

On today’s Review, Andrew Rosener picks up another gem for an unbelievable amount, and wait until you hear what Frank Schilling thinks it’s worth! Frank sells a Spanish domain, and Shane sells a domain to someone we all know but he didn’t know it until today! Stay tuned!

Michael Cyger: Hey, Sherpa Network. Thanks so much for joining today. 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 become better domain name investors. We have three segments to the review. We’ll start off learning what the Sherpas think are good investment opportunities. 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; Frank Schilling, CEO of the registry and registrar — Uniregistry.com; and Shane Cultra, publisher of the blog, dsad.com, and owner of the Country Arbors Nursery in Illinois. Sherpas, welcome to today’s show.

All: Thanks.

Michael: It’s great to have all three of you on the panel today. This is the dream team. This is the panel that will be with you live at NamesCon on Tuesday…stop looking around, Frank. There’s nobody else behind you. On Tuesday, January 24, from 11:00 to 11:45 a.m.. If you’re attending NamesCon you want these three Sherpas to review your domain name. Offer their insights on wholesale/retail pricing. Maybe even make you a cash offer on the spot. Go to domainsherpa.com/namescon and tell us the domain name that you’d like us to review. Of course, it requires you going to NamesCon. It requires that you’ve bought a ticket already. But if you’re going, this is the team. Did you guys have a good time at NamesCon, last year?

Andrew Rosener: Oh, yeah.

Shane Cultra: It was fantastic.

Frank Schilling: Absolutely. Always.

Michael: Yeah, it’s a great conference. I’m interested to see what’s going to happen, now that Richard Lau and his team have sold the company to WorldHostingDays. If things are going to change or it’s going to be better than ever. There’s definitely going to be more people this year than last year.

Frank: Definitely. That’s where I was going. It’s going to be a bigger show.

Michael: Yeah. And your…

Shane: It was pretty big last year.

Michael: Say it again?

Shane: It was pretty big last year.

Michael: It was pretty big.

Shane: To a year ago, so even bigger? It’s going to be real big.

Michael: Yeah. I…go ahead, Drew.

Andrew: It’s a double-edged sword for me. Like, I love the idea of the industry getting bigger, right? Like, to make this good thing sustainable. To give value. To increase across the board, you need new blood, you need new money. So fresh blood is a great thing. Love to see the industry expanding. But there’s that sentimental thing of like this small little group of people that have been coming together. And, this element of…

Shane: Nostalgia?

Andrew: Nostalgia. Right? That what we lost with a much bigger conference, a much more commercial industry that we’re already seeing, right?

Michael: Yeah.

Andrew: Particularly for a cowboy like me, it’s…

Shane: It’s kind of like the third generation, is how I look at it. I consider us the second generation. Not at the beginning. You’ve got the Adam Strong’s, and the Frank’s the Gary’s and all those — they were the first generation. And, then Drew and I came around and now we’re seven/eight years into it. Now, you’ve got this next one that’s coming in. And they got the smiles and the happiness and the giddiness that you need in an industry. Although, Frank has it the whole time.

Frank: I’m still happy. I don’t know I can’t lose it.

Shane: But it is nice to see.

Michael: Yeah, I’m that third generation. I’m the millennials for the new investors, here.

Shane: Yeah, that’s exactly…

Michael: Yeah, the naivety. Everything’s hunky-dory. So, yeah, I agree. It’s great to see the new wave’s coming in. Although, I do miss…like, if I show up at the conference and I’m looking for you guys and there’s 1500 people, I might not ever find you guys in the show. So that’s the only downside to having so many people. But I love to meet new people in the industry. New people starting out/coming in from different industries. Maybe they were in web hosting or affiliates or whatever. It’s exciting.

Frank: It’s going to be a great show. It really is.

Michael: Yeah. All right, today’s show, this show is sponsored by six awesome domain name industry providers that I’m going to tell you about later, during the show. They include estibot.com, escrow.com, David E. Weslow Legal Services, Domain IQ, Efty, and DN Academy.

But before I tell you about them we’re going to start off with a segment called, “What’s New Sherpas?” Where the Sherpas share one purchase or sell that they’ve made over the past few weeks. And we get to learn what they paid or received for the domain? Why they thought it was a good deal? How the negotiation progressed? I’m going to lead you through the questions but the other Sherpas will get to comment during the process as well. This segment, we’re going to go: Drew, then Frank, then Shane — in order.

Drew, what’s one domain name you’ve personally bought or sold or negotiated on behalf of a client or your company in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain name, first, and not the price.

Andrew: Okay — brut.com — BRUT. Like, as in the sparkling wine — B-R-U-T.

Michael: Yeah. B-R-U-T-E.com. And, was that a buy or a sell for you?

Frank: No, E.

Andrew: B-R-U-T — four letters. B-R-U-T.

Michael: Gotcha. Four letters.

Frank: BRUT.

Michael: And was that a buy or a sell for you?

Andrew: That was a buy.

Michael: All right. Drew bought brut.com — B-R-U-T.com. Frank, what do you think Drew paid for brut.com?

Frank: I’ve got to think it’s below $22,000 grand — $17,000 to $22,000 — somewhere in there.

Michael: $17,000 to $22,000.

Frank: If I had to pick a number I’m going to say $17,000. I’ll stay on the low side.

Michael: Okay. All right. Shane, what do you think Drew paid for brut.com?

Shane: Well, I used to have a good pattern going but he’s been throwing me off the last couple of weeks.

Michael: Well, you can’t really look at that one domain where he got it for $5,000, and we’re all still like…

Shane: Yeah. But then last week he paid a little more, although, he always has good reasoning.

Michael: He did pay a lot more but he wanted that one.

Shane: There’s always a story.

Michael: The ones that Drew wants, he pays for. It’s like you often say, if you want a domain, you’re going to have to overpay for it.

Shane: Yeah, someone’s got to be top guy.

Michael: Yeah.

Frank: Well, I put my money where my mouth is. This is what I tell the people that want to buy my domains, “You want the domain? You’ve got to pay.”

Shane: When I say that, people say, “You must have put a lot of money because you’ve got a big mouth.” That’s what they tell me. Well, I like the aftershave so that gives it more value…

Michael: Yeah.

Shane: You smell like a man when you put that on. I will say…I think Frank’s in. I’m going to say $25K. I don’t know a lot about the word but I’m about to find out, I have a feeling. So I’m going to say $25,000.

Michael: All right. So Frank and Shane are saying $17K, $25K. That’s, basically, the investor…we’re going to assume since we don’t know that Drew invested in this.

So he wants to try and buy it towards the wholesale value. So we’re saying wholesale is probably around $17K to $25K. And then, we’re going to find out what we think the retail is, once we find out…

Andrew: I think $17K…that isn’t like a naked wholesale. I think wholesale on a rainy day, needing to liquidate on a name like that, might be $5K, $6K, $7K.

Michael: You think so?

Andrew: In NameJet, the great sponsor behind you on the board, I think…I think, on a rainy day/bad day in the economy, a bad day in the stock market…

Michael: But this isn’t like a made-up acronym. Like, TRYP. We talked about TRYP on the last show. And I think it’s ending in auction today. And it’s already up to $9K — TRYP. This is an actual word — BRUT.

Frank: Market’s $19,000. Let’s all call it what it is. I mean the market’s really…everybody’s upbeat with the election over. Good times ahead. That’s not always how it’s going to be. There’s going to be bad days given on the markets. Three down days on the Dow, 500 point losses. People staring at their shoes, talk about banks going broke. It could happen. I mean and all of a sudden some…

Michael: Are you trying to drive the market down, Frank, so you can buy more?

Frank: No. No. But some guy says, “I need money today,” bad name at NameJet. I could see it happen.

Michael: Totally.

Frank: I’ve seen it.

Shane: Drew tells that guy to —- off.

Michael: Now, I’m going to have to bleep that.

Shane: I’m sorry.

Michael: All right. So Drew, what did you pay for the B-R-U-T.com?

Andrew: I paid $5,000 grand.

Michael: Oh, geez.

Shane: Wow.

Frank: Did you? There you go.

Shane: There’s that rainy day.

Frank: It’s a rainy day right there.

Michael: It feels like a small little dagger in my heart, whenever I hear about these deals that you get.

Andrew: I found this nice young woman on a rainy day and…

Michael: So what happened?

Andrew: She sold it to me for $5,000 grand.

Michael: Tell us about how you bought this?

Andrew: She actually approached another customer of mine, which I actually don’t even know why. But she approached him and was like, “Are you interested in buying this domain? I’m going to sell it.” And he was like, “No, but I know somebody that would.” And he referred her to me and I accommodated.

Michael: What was the opening offer?

Andrew: I didn’t even have to make an offer. She had literally told him that she would sell it for $5,000 dollars. And I just chose not to even negotiate. I actually probably could’ve gotten it cheaper but I just decided, it’s a fair price. I don’t know if she has emailed anybody else, already.

Michael: Yeah, you don’t want to take the chance of delaying the conversation if she has emailed somebody else, then you might lose the deal.

Andrew: I mean I’d rather get the deal then try and negotiate another thousand dollars off the price and risk losing the name. So I just…$5,000 grand…

Michael: You thought it was a good deal. And, clearly, Frank and Shane thought it was a good deal as well.

Shane: Well, I thought it meant father in Dubai or something. He was going to tell me some story about it, like…

Michael: So let’s talk about retail value. What you think the…if the right buyer, highest and best use case, comes to you for this domain name at some period in the future, Drew, what are you going to ask for it?

Andrew: Yeah. I mean you never really know what would it be worth to the highest…if Freixenet comes along and says, “We want brut.com.” Who knows what it’s worth to them. I would probably put a $50,000 to $75,000 dollar price tag on this.

Frank: That’d be a good wholesale…I think that’d be a good wholesale retail or low-end retail. And I think you could ask half a million bucks for a name like that.

Michael: Really?

Andrew: I think it’s possible. I mean it certainly is possible. It certainly is.

Frank: And that’s the domain business right there, right?

Shane: So yeah, I understand the domain business is like you buy something for $5,000. Maybe you get $25,000 for it, which is a phenomenal flip. And, maybe it goes all the way up to like $75,000. But you’re talking about $50,000 retail up to $500,000 retail. That’s like mind blowing.

Frank: If you find a name, meaningful to champagne industry, four-letter word, really resonant. It describes what it is, which is a more dry champagne. I don’t drink champagne. My wife does but…and it’s more of a dry grape or dry preparation, I guess.

Anyway. I could see it happen. I could see it happen. Hold on to that one. That’s a good name. Definitely, ask six-figures. I wouldn’t ask under six-figures unless you need the money.

Michael: So because it’s in the alcohol industry because champagne’s such a big area of alcohol. And I often tell people, one of the most expensive domains — sex, drugs, and gambling, right? And so this is in drugs. Alcohol is a type of drug. So that’s why you’re saying it could go as high as half a million. Because it’s so short. Because it is in the alcohol industry.

Frank: Easy to spell. Champagne is sort of a forbidden word. It’s geographically sensitive. It’s restricted to growers in the champagne region. Brut is a way to describe a dry sparkling wine or champagne. So it’s universal and it works everywhere and it’s a great brand. You can call your product Brut or, something-Brut. It has a nice ring to it. It’s a way of saying champagne without saying champagne.

Andrew: And if you go into the liquor store and you’re in the champagne section or the sparkling wine section, I mean the wines which are labeled brut, it’s like bigger than the logo. It’s bigger than the brand. It’s Brut. Brut. I mean that is the linguistics, I suppose.

Michael: Yeah. Awesome. Well, phenomenal deal, Drew. Phenomenal deal, man. You never cease to amaze me. Money is made on the buy.

Andrew: Well, listen. This is why I have…we were discussing heartbeats and blood pressure earlier. And this is why I have high blood pressure and a high heartbeat. Because I’m just running fast all day long to get these deals.

Michael: Yeah. We were chatting about resting heart rates before we hit the record button, for those of you watching who are like, “I missed that part of the conversation.” All right. Thanks, Drew.

Andrew: Shane, you might have 60 miles a week on me but I’ve got…

Michael: If Shane wasn’t spending so much time running…

Andrew: …domain lookups a week.

Michael: Yeah.

Shane: Just make sure you leave all that money to me.

Michael: Yeah.

Shane: I’ll still be here.

Michael: Well done, Drew. Frank, let’s go to you. What’s one domain name that you bought, sold, brokered? Or, maybe, your organization sold in the past few weeks. Tell us the domain name and not the price yet.

Frank: All right. NARANJA, which means orange, I believe, in Spanish, isn’t it, Drew?

Michael: I’m going to need a spelling on that one.

Andrew: NARANJA.

Frank: NARANJA. N-A-R-A-N-J-A.

Shane: Yeah.

Michael: N-A-R-A-N-J-A. and it means orange. The color or the fruit or both?

Andrew: Yeah, it’s both.

Frank: Yeah, it is actually. It’s pretty good.

Michael: Wow, okay.

Andrew: Was that a name admin domain?

Frank: Yeah. It was one of ours, yeah.

Michael: And you sold it?

Frank: We were sellers on that one.

Michael: Okay. All right. Hey, Shane, let’s go over to you, first — naranja.com.

Andrew: NARANJA.

Michael: NARANJA.

Shane: You’ve got to make the H sound.

Michael: NARANJA. NARANJA.

Andrew: And you’ve got to roll the R.

Michael: NARANJA.

Frank: NARANJA.

Michael: NARANJA.

Frank: I think Drew’s wrong. It actually makes the cha-ching sound. NARANJA. NARANJA.

Michael: I’ll insert that every time NARANJA, a sound, cha-ching. Shane, what do you think?

Shane: [inaudible 00:14:19]

Michael: What do you think Frank’s organization sold NARANJA for?

Shane: Well, they always sell…they always do pretty well with it. There’s only half the world that says the word, NARANJA. So I will say, $14,000. I’m going to go on the low-end if they’re looking move it, so $14,000.

Michael: Let me ask you before I move onto Drew and ask him. If it was orange.com, what would the value of that domain be?

Shane: I think that’s a million dollar name.

Michael: Okay, so it’s a seven-figures name.

Shane: Yeah.

Michael: So you’re saying $14K is the retail price that Frank’s organization sold naranja.com for?

Shane: I don’t think that that’s necessarily the retail price. I think it could go for more but there’s…as we say, there’s times to move names. There’s times you can get more. And there’s times you take it and keep moving.

Michael: What did you say, $14,000?

Shane: Yeah. I just said $14K.

Michael: Do. you want to change it, now?

Shane: No. No. I just…

Michael: Well, but Frank doesn’t sell on NameJet. He buys on NameJet.

Frank: I sell cheap, too.

Michael: Do you?

Frank: I do.

Shane: There’s times that, especially on foreign words, where people…I mean they’re going to look it up and, obviously, you’re going to figure out very quickly that means orange by the Google results. But I love to be proven wrong. I hope he makes a lot more money. I’m sticking with it.

Michael: All right. Drew, let’s go over to you. What do you think Frank’s organization sold NARANJA for?

Andrew: Yeah, a different order of magnitude. I’m going with $150,000. And I actually…we own a lot of really good Spanish domains and I can’t say that we’ve done really well with them because it’s a very difficult market. But the ones that do pop, they pop well. I mean of one of our biggest…

Shane: But aren’t they ones that the U.S….that English users use all the time?

Andrew: I mean like our biggest Spanish domain sell ever would be like, vida.com — V-I-D-A.

Shane: But everybody knows that, “Livin’ la vida loca,” and those kinds…

Andrew: Yeah, but I mean that’s not like a commonly used word, necessarily.

Frank: That one works well in other languages, too. It ends in an A.

Andrew: It does. I mean it’s easy to spell. Well, NARANJA ends in A, too.

Frank: Yeah, but names that end with an A…that’s a good little inside tip. That names that end in A do well because they’re more universal across other languages. So that’s a good inside little vignette. A nice thing to know.

Michael: That is.

Andrew: So I’m going to say $150,000. I think the full value of that name is actually far greater. I mean I think that that name is worth, probably, a half a million dollars.

Michael: Half a million? And, what do you think orange.com is worth?

Andrew: orange.com is one of those priceless names. And it literally is…I think it’s one of those names that, literally, the enterprise value of that name is so great that…

Shane: It’s really an eight-figure name.

Andrew: Yeah, it is.

Michael: It’s seven/eight, somewhere in there.

Frank: Wow.

Andrew: Yeah.

Michael: Okay. So I was trying to gauge to see if you guys would put a fraction of it on there but they’re just completely different animals?

Andrew: We had a client that wanted to buy black.com — a very, very serious client. And he went up to $10 million dollars on black.com and rejected. We flat out rejected and was told it wasn’t even worth a counter offer. And so I don’t think that that’s unreasonable to say. I mean I think that orange.com is possibly even better than black.com. Although, BLACK, it does have a certain luxury quality to it, of course.

Michael: Right.

Frank: Well, orange is the new black.

Andrew: Orange is the new black.

Shane: Well, played.

Michael: All right. Frank, let’s go to you.

Andrew: Exactly, well played.

Michael: What did you sell naranja.com for?

Frank: So we sold it for $220,000.

Michael: Nice.

Frank: But, actually, funny enough, we paid a 20% commission on it, though…I think we had a double commission situation so we only wound up with about $175,000. So it’s just unbelievable. So it shows you…and we paid the commission. But a lot of brokers were very happy that day because everybody got paid.

Michael: Everybody won on that one. Yeah. And so that was an inbound inquiry or a couple of different brokers both saw that you owned it and negotiated it for a buyer?

Frank: No, it came through a Uniregistry market, through network solutions, and SATA [SP] were involved and everybody got paid. I’m telling you. And that is also the business, folks. You’ve got to pay your brokers.

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That is true.

Frank: And I probably wouldn’t have…absent all those brokers working on it, seeing the commission out there. Probably wouldn’t have gotten that fast. And it sold on a buy-it-now.

Michael: Wow. Okay, so I was going to ask you, what was the asking price if it sold at $220,000? So the asking price was $220,000?

Frank: Yeah. Whatever it backs out to with double commissions is what it was — $175,000, in that.

Michael: Wow. Nice.

Frank: There you have it.

Michael: So I think some people are going to be a bit surprised…watching the show, individual investors are going to be surprised that a priced a premium domain name, albeit in Spanish, with a buy-it-now price. Is that typical that you do buy-it-now prices at the six-figure range?

Frank: Yeah. Many of our stuff, as we go through the process and we establish values, we’re pricing…out of all the inquiries we get on any given day here, even in my own inventory. A full, probably, 40% have never been priced. So every day we get, “How much is this one?” “How much is that one?” It had never been looked at, right? Which is actually another amazing statistic, like, think about that? And it probably rhymes with your own portfolio. Probably, 100% of the stuff you get inquiries on, nobody’s ever inquired on it before. It’s just the way it is. This is your buyer and this is your buyer today. And it’d be another year before you get another inquiry. So you’ve got to temper that person’s need of the name. Your desire to keep it for another year. All those things go into the equation, when you decide on price and your go/no-go height.

But as you turn these deals down. “No, black.com — $10 million? Never.” The truth is that could be the best offer that guy ever got and will ever get. You could have just…and, probably, in the case of black.com, I think that might be so. I don’t think it’s likely…I think that might be a 20-year high-water mark. Cash today is better than cash later — that’s Harvard Business School…

Andrew: It depends on how much cash it is.

Frank: Well, cash today is better than cash later is a Harvard Business 101. The first day of school, the first lesson.

Michael: Yeah.

Frank: Always leave some room for the next guy.

Michael: All right. Thanks, Frank. Shane, let’s go to you. What’s one domain name that you bought or sold in the past couple of weeks? Tell us the domain names and not the price, yet.

Shane: Let’s step it way, way down here. And let’s…so yeah, I’ve got a four-letter — X-U-S-K — XUSK.

Frank: I like that.

Michael: X-U-S-K.com, okay.

Frank: You bought that at NameJet.

Michael: Bought it or sold it?

Shane: I sold it. You sold it.

Michael: You sold it? All right.

Frank: You sold it?

Michael: So now, Frank’s trying to rack his brain. He may know where it was sold or he may not. We’re going to find out.

Frank: I don’t troll NameJet but I’ve got the corporate reports…

Michael: Drew, let’s go over to you. Do not look it up, Drew. X-U-S-K, what do you think Shane sold it for?

Andrew: I’m going to say $1800.

Michael: All right. And so is that…are you assuming that he sold it on NameJet? Or, do you think that he sold it, retail to an end user?

Andrew: We don’t get that information, right?

Michael: We don’t get that information so you’re just making up…at $1800, I’m asking you, do you think he sold it at the current value of wholesale or do you think he sold it retail? The $1800 price, where is that?

Andrew: I mean I guess that’s more the wholesale price, for sure. I guess I don’t even take into account that he might’ve sold that to an end-user.

Michael: Yeah.

Andrew: So yeah, I don’t know. So I guess I’m going to say $1800, assuming it’s wholesale. And, $6500 if it’s an end-user.

Michael: Okay, retail.

Andrew: If I’m allowed to do that?

Michael: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. All right, $1800 wholesale/$6500 retail. Frank, let’s go to you. X-U-S-K.com, what do you think he sold it for?

Frank: I’ll pick one number. I’m going to say $3600 bucks. I remember seeing the name so I remember thinking that…as I say, I see the aftermath of NameJet but I can’t remember…but I remember thinking…because it looks like Musk, like Elon Musk, I thought. Like, he’s doing that space stuff with X and so I thought that’d be a kind of a cool brand for Elon Musk.

Michael: Oh yeah, SpaceX, Elon Musk…

Frank: Yeah. XUSK is kind of a play on it. Anyway. And then I didn’t play it any further mind. But that’s how come I remember it. So $3600 bucks, or $2800, maybe.

Michael: You’re actually on NameJet, Frank? I thought I was just your robot that went onto NameJet that acts on your behalf, that bids.

Frank: While you were talking there, what I was trying to get at is I actually don’t really troll NameJet but I get a report of what went. Like the…whatever. And I scan it over, just to make sure that we’re not getting home run-ed by somebody or to make sure that…and, actually, we’re testing the market, right? The reason I’m in there these days is, I want to try to get some fuel for my test account, my Frank Schilling outlook test accounts [SP] so I can play with the market. Play with the app. See if it works and see what’s broken. And…anyway. So I saw the name go by in the list and I thought, that’s not a bad one.

Michael: Yeah. All right. Let’s go over to you, Shane. What did you sell it for?

Shane: Don’t talk, Mike, because you’re breaking up. But it’s my worst sell of the year. I sold it to Frank.

Frank: Did I buy it? Oh my God. Crazy.

Shane: And you only paid $800 for it.

Frank: I did?

Shane: Yeah. That’s awesome. I forgot that’s what I did.

Michael: How much, Shane?

Shane: $800. I put the reserve too low at NameJet and I saw Frank on it. And I know Frank’s got other guys but I knew that it was the kind of name that he’s looking for because they’re looking to fill a portfolio of [inaudible 00:24:42]. And then, as soon as it hit, nobody else came aboard and took it higher. And I went, “Dang it.” I think I’d never sell it again at $800. I wouldn’t sell it again at $1500. But I put it as part of our auction and just threw a number out there. And that was my profit. I mean I bought it for $600, two months ago. So I made $20, Frank — $20.

Frank: I will sell it back to you, right now, for $820, as a benevolent gesture. No. Honestly, that’s a real surprise. I had no idea. Wow.

Shane: I thought it would be fun to bring it on the show, though, just to see…

Frank: That’s so classic. I actually didn’t know. But I do remember the name. I remember seeing the name in the sold report. It was at the bottom of the report.

Shane: It’s a great name for $800, dude. That will sell…

Michael: Shane, I had the same thing happen to me. I’m liquidating some of my SEO/SEM domains and I put them in. Well, I put some in through you and then I put some in through NameJet. And I’m watching them sell. And I’m like, “Oh, I really love that one.” And I took a loss on it because you win on some, you lose on some. Hopefully, you end up ahead. And I looked up who the owner was? None other than Michael Burkins [SP]. So texted him. I’m like, “Nice get, Mike.”

Shane: I know that makes you feel good. I mean at least I know Frank’s…what he’s doing. You’re trying to fill the portfolio. I get it. It’s when Burkins buys it and you’re thinking, he has no need to fill a portfolio.

Michael: I know. What’s he doing? Go relax on the beach, Mike. Gosh.

Frank: Nobody ever leaves this business.

Shane: No.

Andrew: No.

Michael: Or, they don’t leave for long.

Frank: No.

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All right, we’re going to the next segment of the show. In the Domain Portfolio Review, we take user-submitted portfolios and provide honest and constructive feedback to the owner so they can either, cut their losses, continue to hold, or figure out sell strategy going forward. Today’s portfolio was submitted John McGavern [SP]. As part of John’s submission, he made a generous donation to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center to help us all find a cure for cancer. John’s list of 25 domain names starts with babe.net and ends with worldcurrencytraders.com. He has a mix of .net’s, .com’s, and some new GTO’s. Like, these .media and .property. So it’ll be interesting to see what you guys think of the whole portfolio.

Frank, let’s start with you. When you look at John’s list, what’s your general impression? Is he heading in the right direction or does he need to change directions? Let’s start at a high-level, first.

Frank: At a high-level, I give this a five out of 10. A good solid try. And a lot of these names are good. I mean the ones that…I think it’s weighted. Like, the ones at the top of the list are better…

Michael: Actually, it’s alphabetical, I think.

Frank: Oh, is it alphabetical? A couple of those two-letters, I like two-letter new GE’s. I mean not as, obviously…they’re still coming off-market. It’s not like a mature market. But I do like them. I think it’s a good showing. I mean it’s not a terrible showing. But some of the bottom, not so hot.

Michael: Okay. Let’s talk about ones you like, first. If you had to pick two or three off the top, what are your favorites on the list? What are the ones that, if you were looking at the NameJet list and these were for sale, you’d definitely snap up?

Frank: Right. So I really like DEFYING GRAVITY. I mean that’s something that’s really solid. Let’s go with the obvious ones, here. babe.net….net’s mature [inaudible 00:28:05] been around since the beginning of the web. babe.net, I like that. I like BUFFALO and benefits.net. Those are solid names, right? And money in the bank, in my opinion. I also like that defying gravity, looking down the list and…what was the other one? Killer potential, it just has a nice, easy to say, good radio presence. “It’s Frank, from Killer Potential.” You know exactly who I called from. You know how to spell my email address. That’s a big thing, right? A lot of names look really good but they don’t have that radio-friendly vibe. And we just sold a three-word like world currency traders, for $30,000 grand.

Michael: Wow.

Frank: Yeah, long distance movers I think it was. So if I look at world currency traders…I mean I think there’s a segment of buyers that really likes those long, searchy, trendy type names that’s still out there. world currency traders, is not as strong a keyword as long distance movers. But, still, for what it’s worth I do like that one. I think it’s definitely worth renewing.

Michael: So let me ask you for some retail pricing, Frank. The three .net’s that you said — babe.net, buffalo.net, and benefit.net?

Frank: So babe.net, I would try in the high $30,000s, $39,000, as a list price. Benefits, I’d probably go $32,000. I think, buffalo, it’s a city and it’s also a great mammal — $35,000. In the $30,000s, for those three .net’s.

Michael: And you’d keep those long-term? You wouldn’t…

Frank: Definitely. I mean they’re just lock-and-leave. Just lock them down and renew them. Put them on auto-renew and forget about them. Make sure there’s money in your account and a valid credit card.

Michael: And then, you’ve got a couple of brandables. Clearly, defying gravity. People talk about that. But Killer Potential and defying gravity, those are sort of brand that people would potentially want.

Frank: Yeah. I really like Vacation Properties in this list. I think that has legs in the long run. I mean you don’t want to ever let that get away unless it’s on a crazy variable price renewal where they’re charging you a thousand a year to keep. But if it’s a moderate renewal, that’s when you want to look down for 10 years and just look away. Because the truth is, names like that…I got laughed at, the names that we’ve been talking about — NARANJA, earlier. And the name I did, the LONG DISTANCE MOVERS. If I said those separately in this forum, people would have laughed me out of the room 10 years ago. And, now, collectively that’s worth $250,000, right? No laughter there. So names like these, like vacation.properties and md.services, I like that. I think that has potential in the long run. Now, the two-letter, I do think it’s going to have a variable price renewal so I don’t like it as much.

us.media, again, fabulous name. I sure hope it isn’t locked on a heavy/expensive renewal. But even there, a few hundred bucks. [inaudible 00:30:53] has shown me, you pay $300 bucks, Frank, for these and you renew them forever, and you’re okay. You’re going to make money. And I’m like, “Wow, Mike. I never even thought about it that way.” You’re teaching me… I’m on the registry side so I’m not necessarily looking as granularly as an investor. But he’s opened my eyes because Mike’s a big buyer in there and he’s buying because he…with conviction. He believes in it, right? And that’s the last I’ll say about new Gs, though.

Looking at the rest of the list, here, the cryogenics lab isn’t terrible. Bio capital, I mean it works. But those are not strong.

Michael: So what would you price defying gravity and killer potential at, if you owned them?

Frank: killer potential is better. I just think it has a nice roll off the tongue and it gets your attention. I’d ask $15 grand and settle for $10,000, maybe $8,000, if I needed the cash. But there, again, it just shows you, those are $5,000 and $10,000 markets. You don’t let them get away.

Michael: And then, vacation.properties — retail value today? And retail value in 10 years if they do take off, what do you think?

Frank: Okay. Okay. Yeah. So today, vacation.properties…and you’ve got to remember that these did not exist here. So out of nothing, out of complete nothing it becomes a worth, call it, a couple or $3,000, $5,000 grand a day. But I think vacation.properties, bury that in the sand for 10 years and I think you could be looking at a few hundred grand — high five-figures, for sure. Now, again what’s it cost to carry it from here to there? If it’s thousands of dollars a year, yeah, maybe you don’t want to be carrying that burden and apply the cash somewhere else and cut your losses. Or try like hell to sell it now.

There’s a school of domainers who are doing that. They’re playing that side of the game. Which is, what I often talk about, old domainers and new domainers. And I’ve heard other people say, “There’s only one kind of domainer, the kind that wants to make money.” And, yes, that’s true. But, and this is a big but. I mean There are people who play the game differently. I’m a buy/lock down/hold forever guy, right? That’s my game. I want to hold it forever. And there are other people who are like, “I want to get in this name. I want to turn a few thousand dollars. I’m back out, right away.” And they sell the hell out of it and they try to get their money back with a small build time.

Loni was like that — Loni Bork [SP]. We were talking about him. He was like that. He’d get in, even at a higher-value but he tried to turn out right away and get that alpha and keep the cash moving and it works. It works. You can build a great business doing that, right?

Michael: All right, thanks, Frank. We’re g to come back and ask you later what domain to drop but I want to go to…what did I say was the order? Shane.

Shane: Oh, it’s my turn?

Michael: Yeah, Shane, let’s go to you. What do you like on John’s list and why?

Shane: Well, I agree with Frank on the .net’s. I looked up babe.net, he paid $8,000. In today’s market, that’s a good name but $8,000 is probably fair. I thought he might’ve gotten it a little cheaper than that but…because the market’s soft. But it’s one of the better short…the adult industry or the visuals on that one can go a long way so that’s a definite build out name. So those are the first ones, and Buffalo, I think those are good. Even though the .net’s a soft retail end-user sales market, it’s a fantastic build out. I mean you can get an amazing .net for build out for a good price. If I’m an end-user and I’m building something out, that’s where I go because you can really get a strong name that people are still understanding. With all the new GEs, .net, people remember. We used to say we’re losing traffic. Nobody remembers .net. They remember .net. Everybody knows .net. If sbcglobal.net email is used by millions of people, then it’s working. Because I get that email constantly.

I did. I looked up vacation.properties because I really did like that name but I thought for sure it’d be a heavier annual at $30 bucks a year.

Frank: Wow.

Shane: So at $30 bucks a year, that’s a fantastic name. It’s probably one of the best properties name. I didn’t know properties or property existed or didn’t exist, to be honest. But…

Frank: Both of them. We run .property.

Shane: Yeah. See, you know. So I wasn’t sure but of properties, I think, of the words that could go to the left of it, vacation’s pretty darn strong if you start picking it out…other than real estate. I know Drew’s…

Michael: And what do you think the retail value of vacation.properties is?

Shane: I agree with Frank. I think it only gets more valuable with time. And I know cash…you’re speaking two words. You’re saying, cash now is better than cash later. But I don’t think the truth value is coming on that one for a couple years so I wouldn’t take the cash now, unless it’s a great number. So they’re kind of conflicting on both sides but, yeah. I mean to me that’s a $25,000 name down the road. Real estate, as Drew said in 20 past shows, that’s where the money’s at. That’s where you make your money, so fantastic name.

us.media, we see it every day in the auctions. You could put banana in front of it. You could put anything in front of media.com and it’s going to sell. It will get a bid. It’s amazing how…I don’t know who all the media companies buying these are but there’s a huge .media…I don’t know about .media, but media.com markets. So I think that’s a strong name. Again, $5,000-$10,000.

The one thing that I have trouble with is, names that only one person’s going to buy. So SENECA BREWING, there’s only a couple buyers. So you want to not limit yourself to the number of buyers. A name like that, to me, are really limited so I try and stay away from those. And I saw…I thought I saw one more. But in general, those kinds of names to me, I just leave alone. I’m sure somebody might sell it to the guy that wants to open Seneca Brewery but I’m not going to be that guy waiting around for him because he might go by Seneca Brewery, instead of brewing.

Frank: Or he might UDRP it down the road. It just looks bad.

Shane: It’s just not worth it. But I really liked…I thought cryogenics lab was great. I thought, for sure, my eyes…I can barely read the small print you put on the little sheets so I had to make sure that it was spelled right. It is spelled right. And most people use cryo lab or cryonics, instead of trying to spell the whole thing out. Which, again, I don’t know much about that. I get into a chamber every once in a while, after I run to get real cold and not get swollen. But I don’t know anything about freezing the body. But it’s a name that people definitely use. There’s lots of labs set up with the exact name. So, again, that’s actually a strong name.

Michael: Retail value on that one, what do you think? What would you price it at if you owned it?

Shane: I’d put it at $20,000 grand. I think the person who owns it…so I think you’re going to pay that to freeze your body in the afterlife so, what the hell? You might as well sell them the name for the same price or trade them.

Frank: It’s $40,000 grand.

Andrew: It’s $40,000 grand.

Shane: Okay, I’d price it at $40 grand. I don’t ever price less than the value of one service.

Michael: Yeah.

Frank: That’d be a hell of a bartering thing. Freeze me for…

Michael: The domain, yeah.

Shane: I’d give you the domain if you freeze my ass.

Michael: Thanks, Shane. Drew, let’s go over to you. What do you like on John’s list? And, why?

Andrew: So I pretty much agree with Frank and Shane. I don’t really love any name on here. I think there are a few names, probably, have a good probability of selling to an end-user at some point.

Michael: Like, which?

Andrew: Well, like, cryogenics lab, I think is a pretty good candidate. That’s an up-and-coming industry. I like industries where there’s new players entering because new players need a new domain. Growth and expansion is good for domain sales.

buffalo.net…I think the .net’s are really the winner here, for me. I’m still, as I’ve said before, I still like .net. If we’re going to say that the new GEs have any chance. Then, I think it’s very fair to say the alternative TLDs that have been in existence already for some time and have matured, certainly are worth looking at as a stronger alternative any time somebody was looking at a GTLD versus a .com. And so I think BENEFITS, big business. buffalo.net, good business.

Michael: Yeah, and BABE. So he’s picking the right words, right? We all agree that he’s…

Andrew: I actually don’t like BABE. I don’t like BABE. I mean I like it for small money, I like it. But to get into that for $8,000 grand is a lot of money. I mean, as an example, I just sold nug.com for a lot of money — mid six-figures. And, I just bought nug.net for $5,000 grand this morning. And babe.net, I just don’t know. I don’t know. Like, I’ll take nug.net for $5,000 over babe.net grand for $5,000 grand any day. He’s got $8,000 into. I think you’re going to have a hard time to get your money out of that name. I don’t…

Frank: There’s more buyers for BABE than NUG, potentially. It’s more of a permanent word but I get it. I get your point of either, totally.

Michael: So we’ve often said on this show that the .net market is soft, right? You’re not getting as many inquiries on the .net’s. You’re not selling.

Shane: No doubt. No doubt. Very soft…I mean incredibly soft. At the moment, I think the .net market is all but dead.

Michael: But do we think that it’s going to change over time? What do you guys think?

Shane: I, personally, do. And I’m still…I like that. Really good strong .net’s, I like them. I think that they do have a future. I think that, right now, there’s a lot of noise in the market for…from many different things — a lot of distractions. There’s a lot of excitement around. Again, for anybody to consider a .net, they’ve already ruled out the .com, right? The .com isn’t available so you’re now evaluating their second options. And so there’s a lot of excitement around new GTLDs. And that’s probably at the forefront of that decision process for most of these people before they’re maybe even considering that old .net. But I think when it all flushes itself out, three years from now, I think that .net becomes a really good second alternative in my opinion.

If you’re looking at generic new GTLDs like a .xyz or a .site or .web then I think .net is a better alternative to those. Just because it’s so widely recognized. The maturity is there. It’s proven, right? It’s a proven model. It’s a proven…

Frank: .net’s always had this stigma. There was a time, early 2000s, where you couldn’t get a .net unless you were a networking company. That was actually ’90s. It wasn’t early…

Shane: ’90s, yeah.

Frank: Yeah, ’90s. I misspoke. So early mid ’90s, people wanted .net. It’s better. It means internet. And people were told no, can’t go. Only networking companies. And then, I remember being online selling from a .com name in the late ’90s and getting emails from randoms on the web, shaming me for trying to sell a product on the internet. I mean if you can freaking believe it, okay? But like ’96, right around that time. And this is not the beginning, not the middle. Like, getting on in the decade people were still shaming each other for trying to use this wonderful tool for anything. Where, virtually now, it’s the global commerce platform.

So that echo, that hangover about .net-is-for-networking, .net-is-for-networking. I mean hosting companies told their clients, drilled it in. It cast a real appall over the GTLD. And it’s a lesson to every GTLD out there not to screw up their space.

Michael: Will that fade over time, Frank? As these people come online and they’re looking at different options and they see more .net’s in use, than maybe other TLDs?

Frank: Yes. But you look at what’s happening, right? Is that you’ve got that legacy stigma that’s long gone, now. Because like you said, people die out and old…but these dogmas, somehow hand on, I think. I really believe that because it hasn’t taken off in the internet. And yet, you’ve got lots of people registering .link, .store, .job — all this new stuff that’s coming. And there’s elasticity there. [inaudible 00:43:57] I have it. I’ve seen some promotion but we haven’t seen those .25¢ discounts that get them in the hands of people. It’s not in their mantra to do that, right? But that would help for the view that great but that would help get a lot of uptake. And if you did that for a longer period and low price renewals and all of a sudden you create a juggernaut. And I think there’s only room for one juggernaut standout string, and that’s going to be .com. I always said, .web, in the hands of Google, with the right marketing method, could’ve gotten there too. But now, it looks like .web will in there, .net. I think .net has value because it’s a legacy string.

Michael: So let me ask you, Frank. One of John’s questions was, he’s heard that the market is soft for .net’s. His exact question, is how long do you feel it will be until .net’s are the new .com’s, given that all the good .com’s are taken?

Frank: I don’t think they’ll ever be.

Andrew: Yeah, never.

Michael: Right.

Frank: But it doesn’t have to be for you have a good outcome with those, is the answer. On those, you might take want to take the profit. It’s a mature name space. If you can get $30,000-$35,000 grand for it, or in the $20,000s, take the money and turn it and put it into something else and move on and don’t look back.

Michael: Okay. Drew, let me ask you. John’s second question is, after purchasing a domain, what’s the best platform to get them in front of end users? Not auctions, which target investors, but actual end-users? What’s your advice?

Andrew: Yeah, there is no platform. It’s an interesting concept but there is no platform. There is no way. There’s no effective way to say, I’ve got a domain. I’m going to plug it into some platform and it’s going to be put in front of the eyes of decision-makers of relevant companies. Unfortunately, that doesn’t exist. The best platform to do is hire a broker, I guess. I don’t know that any of these names will qualify for most brokers to do outbound end-user type sales for. So I think the best thing to do is hope that that buyer’s going to come knocking and have your domain set up in the right place with a price on it. So that when that guy comes along, he’s got a seamless path to ownership. So he can say, “Okay, this is the domain that I want,” even for a fleeting second. And in that fleeting second, he says, “Oh, well, $499,000? Perfect. That’s within my budget.” Click. Here’s my credit card. Done. And he doesn’t think about it. That’s your best way. Is, creating a seamless path to ownership for the guy who in a small flashing moment decides that he wants to own the domain.

Frank: Or the best platform is the name, itself.

Michael: Yeah.

Frank: You put the [inaudible 00:46:43] for sale.

Michael: Yeah, people need to think of the name. It needs to be good enough that other people are going to want to own that domain names and reach out to you to buy it. So whether you host it at uniregistry.com. Put the for-sale landing page up. Put a buy-it-now price. Make it easy to transact.

Shane: I think it was Frank, actually, that years ago said something that resonated with me. And I continue keeping that in my head. Is that, I think you had said something like, you’d tested the traffic over time. And that something like 20% of the traffic coming to your domains were somebody that, whether they were qualified or not, were interested to know if this domain was available to buy. And so like you said, the domain is the best platform, in and of itself.

Andrew: Yeah. Because even all of us still type in a name to see what’s being done with it. I mean when we’re thinking about, that’s a good name. I don’t go to Google to see if it’s…or, I don’t go to GoDaddy or a registry to see if it’s taken. I type it in. And even if it’s taken, there may be an opportunity to buy. So that’s where you’ve got to go. You’ve got to let them…whoever types that in and comes to you, let them know, “Hey, for sale.”

Frank: Don’t have who’s private. Have the who’s record exposed even with the company…something. So that somebody can go, this is owned by this person. Not some faceless who has privacy. So, “There’s an actual human here, who I can contact.” Or, something administrator, somebody I can call to say…boom.

Michael: So I’m going to ask each of you a question. I want you to give me a percentage based on this question that John has. What percentage of your portfolio do you sell with outbound marketing, compared to inbound? So what percentage of your investment portfolio do you market outbound? Shane, what percentage of your portfolio?

Shane: This year? Zero percent.

Michael: Okay. Frank, what percentage of your portfolio do you outbound market? Zero percent. Drew, what percentage of your portfolio do you outbound…not counting brokerage, which are hired to do outbound. Your portfolio?

Andrew: Yeah, zero. We don’t do any outbound marketing on any of our own names. We only do outbound marketing on client names, on people that approach us…

Michael: And so why don’t you do outbound marketing, anybody?

Andrew: Well, because I’m on the same mindset. I fall in love with my names. I buy names and then I tuck them away. And wait until somebody wants it more than I do.

Michael: …business man, and business men do deals, right?

Frank: I think the true answer is, probably, none of the three here need to because we have good enough names that get enough inquiries in their own right that keep us busy that you don’t need to fuss with outreach.

When you’re starting out and you have a small clutch of names, you put them all for sale with sales pages. You make the who’s record exposed so you could see who owns it. And then, that’s all you’ve got and the sound of crickets because you’re not going to get an offer every day or a deal to work every day. So you want to stay busy, so here is where outreach comes in. You start knocking on doors and you think, where does this fit? If you’re a good enough salesperson, I started out doing that. And that gave me my first grub stake [SP] to…I sold 10 names and I thought I was selling them $1,000 a name. And, it turns out he thought it was…for $10,000 grand total for 10 names. It turns out he thought he was paying $10,000 grand a name. So I got a check for $100,000 grand. That takes you a long way, right? But I would’ve never gotten that deal had I not stirred the pot and tried to do some outreach to somebody I thought was a natural buyer, right?

But when you get bigger, you’re so overwhelmed. It’s the classic conundrum. All day long, we’ve got thousands of leads coming on, you can barely keep up to those, let alone the follow-ups from the old deals where people inquired and then went away.

Michael: So, Frank, when you first started out in the industry, and you bought some domain names and you ran out of money so you needed to do some outbound sales, how good does a domain name have to be to do outbound sales? Can you outbound sell any domain names? You just need to find a buyer that might be interested in that?

Frank: Yeah. I mean I never ran out of money. I mean I literally never…I managed to get enough good names or do enough deals where there was always a deal in the fire. And so it just never ran out. So I’m not sure I answered your question.

Michael: No. No. That’s good to know. So you just kept going. And, Drew, questions to you. If somebody comes to you with a domain name that they want your team to do outbound brokerage on, how good does that domain name need to be? What is the general retail price that it would need to have in order to make it financially make sense to do outbound sales on it?

Andrew: Yeah. So as a rule of thumb, I say, $75,000 to $100,000 is the minimum for us to do outbound sales on because it takes the same amount of effort to sell a $100,000 name or a million dollar domain as it does to sell a $5,000 domain. But the reward is very different. Particularly, if you’re a broker, right? So you’re only getting a percentage of the proceeds.

But that being said, if somebody comes to us and is like, “Look…” It might be worth more but they’re just looking for quick sale. They say, “Look, I’ve got a 30-timeline/60-timeline. I can’t wait six months for you to get the highest and best price.” And it’s a slam dunk, then we might accept a smaller name if it’s really priced aggressively. So it’s always a balance of risk and reward. How much time is this going to take versus the reward we’re going to get for selling it? If it’s priced aggressively and I think, okay, if I hit five people in this industry, one of them is going to say yes.

Frank: Yeah.

Andrew: Then, sure, I’ll take a $25,000 name, a $50,000 name. Make five phone calls.

Michael: It depends on your need. I think I understand your question now. It depends on your need at the time. I mean I was trying for 10 names for $10,000 grand at that time in my career, for $1,000 a name, each. And I just thought it was a quick turn and this would be a no-brainer if I were them. And, luckily, for me, it was a no-brainer. But their optic was much higher and I didn’t dissuade of that idea. So…

Andrew: And the problem for me is, reaching out and trying…the kind of names, they’re brands. A lot of my are brands. So how am I going to tell somebody that they should change their brand, through an email? Other people, should they upgrade to a .com? Sometimes you’re facing a UDRP. They go, “Hold on, you’ve got the .com to sell me and I’ve got the .net. Maybe I should just try and take that from you.” There’s just a lot of obstacles. And then you have [inaudible 00:53:07]. You don’t want to be on the sell side saying, I’d like to sell this. You want to be on the, I hold the name. You want to buy this, side.

So we combine all those things and you lose a little leverage when you’re going out with anything smaller. Bigger names, of course, you go to blast it. That’s totally different. When keyword names were bigger, it was a little easier because you say, this keyword is perfect for your industry and you want to own the keyword. Now, people are like, “No. I’m doing pretty well with what I have.” So it’s a lot more, in some senses, from the keyword standpoint.

And the other ones, it’s a lot of emails and a lot of time. And the old, fake, “I’ve got three people interested. I thought I’d run it by you before I sell it. Would you be interested in buying it?” I’ve never been good on that fake email kind of thing, so…

Michael: All right. Thanks, guys.

Andrew: I will say, though. Similar to what Frank said. When I started out…it’s easy for me to say, no, zero percent is outbound sells. That’s right. When I started out, let’s say the first three years, it was outbound sells. Most of the profit, what kept this business running was spending my time doing outbound sells to get those $2,000, $5,000, $10,000 sells because that is what kept the boat moving. And as long as you take that and you reinvest it, buy better names, you’re always improving your portfolio quality, not just quantity. Eventually, you should be able to achieve a place where the inbound will outweigh the outbound.

Frank: We have brokers, here, who now get half of their sales from repeat customers. So people who bought before, we say, “Hey, are you interested in this?”

Shane: If I get another email about honeysuckle. “Hey, I saw you click the button. Maybe you should come back.” “Hey, I saw you did…” God dang, I mean…

Frank: We’re getting a little bit better at all this name stuff.

Michael: Yeah, I always look at Uniregistry landing pages on incognito so they can’t track it back to my open account that I have with him.

Shane: Well, go ahead and click on one and don’t buy it and see how many times Frank does a great job of reminding you that it’s still for sale.

Michael: They follow-up. Exactly.

Frank: I think that’s a really good name for you.

Michael: Let’s do a deal right now.

Shane: Hey, if you give me a good deal for honeysuckle. Yeah, no, that’s a name that I really like.

Michael: What was the asking price on that one, Shane?

Shane: I can’t remember it’s been so long. It’s been 42 emails since we talked, so.

Frank: We just closed a deal at 2,000 days.

Michael: Wow.

Frank: How many years is that?

Shane: No. I hear from Frank a lot. It makes me feel closer to him every week, so…I just wait for the emails.

Michael: All right. Thanks, guys. John, thank you for submitting your portfolio and making a donation to cancer research. We hope this review has been helpful to you and your domain investing activities going forward. Before we jump to the domains going to auction soon, I want to tell you about three of our other sponsors.

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All right, we’re going to move on to the marketplace list. This segment is sponsored by NameJet. We’ll be reviewing 13 mostly no-reserve or reserve-met domains heading to auction soon. If you like one of the domains below, click through soon because once they go to auction you lose your chance to put in a minimum bid and be part of the auction, or even just watch the results. The links below go directly to NameJet. They’re not commissionable links. They’re just trackable so NameJet can see what kind of traffic we’re sending. The list starts with a numeric 20461.com, and it ends with a repeating acronym — vvva.com.

Drew, I went back through my emails. Didn’t you sell or buy vvvv.com, in the past?

Andrew: Yes. Both. V-V-V — three Vs.

Michael: That’s what it was it looked like a W. That’s why I couldn’t find it.

Andrew: It was V-V-V — triple Vs.

Michael: All right, for transparency…

Andrew: I kind of regretted selling that just because it is so unique. There’s only 26 of them.

Shane: But I was a good…

Andrew: No, I got a really good price. I think it was on NameJet. It’s the kind of name that there probably is no end-user for that domain, right?

Michael: Yeah.

Andrew: But it’s just one of these. It’s like a rare coin that collectors…

Michael: You always talk about collecting domains, Drew. I always think it’s funny. You’re like those that have so many domains that they can actually collect some and not worry about ever selling them.

Andrew: I’m going to be the grumpy old man with my little antique shop of domain names. People come and going to do, “You don’t know anything about this domain, sonny. You don’t know why this domain is so valuable.” I had one yesterday. Somebody contacted me to buy cli.com. And they made a fair offer. They offered $50,000. I was like, no, I’m sorry. It would be much, much more than that. They go, “Look, I saw this domain and this domain sell for $50,000 grand. I think I’m making you a good offer for it.” And I said, “Honestly, it is a fair offer. It really is. And I truly appreciate that because most people don’t make me a fair. However, this domain was registered in 1989, before anybody even knew that the internet existed.” And he goes, “I don’t give a shit about any of that.” And I said, “Yeah, I’m probably the only one that does but it does mean something to me and so good luck.”

Michael: Yeah. I know. Yeah.

Andrew: But, yeah. I am the only one. Nobody else gives a shit.

Michael: Except for C-L-I. I will buy that one off of you. All right. So I always ask if you guys have any of the names on the list. I don’t believe any of these are yours. I just want to be fully transparent with the audience. No, I don’t believe so.

Frank: No.

Andrew: No.

Shane: No.

Michael: All right. So this segment, we’ll go Shane, then Drew, then Frank. I want to find out what you guys like, from an investor perspective? So if you were looking at it from a newer investor. Maybe an investor that can spend a few thousand bucks who wants to make sure they’re getting a good deal. Let’s talk about what domains you like and what value you think investors should go up to, to make sure there’s enough room for retail. So Shane, what do you like on the NameJet list, and why?

Shane: Okay. I don’t like this list as much as some of the other names in the past. I don’t…I’ll say why. So smart chef was my favorite of the list. I thought it was short, two words that everybody can spell. And food and recipes are always big money/big gain on the internet. So smart chef.

I think on NameJet, it doesn’t go as much as I think. I think it probably does go into four-figures. It’s probably a $1200-$1500 name. And I think that’s a $15,000-$20,000 name. Kitchen, food, all that, those names do very well. And I think that’s probably the best, easily, for me, on this list. I do like…there was one more. I like the name GIN FIZZ and bargain imports. I wouldn’t mind having it in my portfolio. I just don’t want to pay…I don’t know how anybody’s going to brand their company or GIN FIZZ. I know it’s a drink. I know some people that are 90 still drink it. But I don’t…when I look at…I always say this on every show. But when I look names, I’m a company man. I own businesses. I know branding fairly well. And I’m not going to name most of my company’s any of these things. And GIN FIZZ, it’s memorable but not for anybody under 40. That’s not a thing that they’re going to remember.

Michael: Ouch.

Shane: Well, it’s true. Things are changing and we’re going towards the people with the money and the people that are spending more and that’s who you’re going to go after. fortlauderdale.net, obviously, the city. It’s fine. You can build some kind of geo thing, it’s a good build out. There’s plenty of good build out names out there. That’s not a problem either. V-V-A is going to sell. It’s just a collectible. Chinese hate it. Until Drew proved otherwise. Drew proved, one V, they hate. Three, they love. So I don’t know anything about those as well.

The 4D printer? I never got the 3D printer craze. It was, remember a year ago or two years ago, anything 3D printer just went haywire. And Drew and I have said it again for 20 straight shows. The product’s not what they’re buying. They’re buying the brands that go for the product. So the products, themselves, like virtual reality and 3D printing — those aren’t the names the companies are buying unless it’s the name. So skip over that and save your money. I’ll keep it short so the guys have something else to say.

Michael: All right. Thanks, Shane. Drew, let’s go over to you. What do you like on the NameJet list? And, why?

Andrew: I don’t like much of this list. I think the only name that I really like on the list is smart chef. I think that smart chef is a great brand. Really, really, really like it a lot. I don’t really like any other name on this list. I mean BARGAIN IMPORTS, I could see that. That could work.

Michael: You don’t like GIN FIZZ?

Andrew: No, don’t like GIN FIZZ. I’m that under 40 group that Shane was talking about.

Michael: Way under 40.

Shane: He did prove that. So he can say that and we know that that’s true.

Frank: Have you guys ever had a GIN FIZZ?

Andrew: No. But I like gin.

Shane: I would imagine it probably is really good. It sounds very refreshing.

Michael: It does.

Frank: It tastes like hell. If you put enough lemon in it, I guess…geez. Gin will make you mean.

Andrew: No. Gin and tonics are the drink of wise men. That’s a good drink.

Michael: I like my gin.

Frank: I guess, Bombay Sapphire. But if you drink too much gin — no, no.

Shane: That’s true.

Andrew: Is that why I’m such a mean bastard.

Frank: Could well be.

Andrew: Have I been drinking too much gin unknowingly? I mean I didn’t realize that’s what makes me so angry and aggressive.

Frank: Vodka’s the most popular white alcohol for a reason, followed by rum.

Michael: Hey, Drew. Last week, we talked about marijuana domain and the investor submitted a portfolio. Side note — did you and Matt buy the budtender.TV?

Andrew: No. We couldn’t come to terms with the owner. He wanted substantially more than we were willing to pay.

Michael: All right. Good luck to you.

Andrew: Unfortunately, because I think he would’ve been better off taking the cash and letting us take the ride. But…

Shane: I agree.

Michael: All right. So that was a brandable…but people that worked behind the counter at marijuana shops are typically called budtenders. But, generally, would you agree that…with what Shane said, that the VR domains, that the 3D domains, that that keyword-specific domain names for growing niches aren’t the ones that sell for the most? Do you agree with that?

Andrew: I mean I think all but the best one are probably a waste of money. I think the category killer is generally scale of a valuable asset. If the value might be less today than…just as a general broad statement. Like, the value of the bang on product category killer, whether that’s 4G, or whether that’s 3D printing, or whether that’s virtual reality/artificial intelligence. Other than the bang on a single word or whatever…

Michael: So would be the bang on. That would have value if you could buy it that would be…

Andrew: Well, no, that’s not the bang on. the3dprinter.com — is not the bang on.

Michael: No, I said, “3Dprinter.” So in this case, if we actually get to 4D…but maybe they are. You’re saying the 4D printer is not the bang on so you should probably…

Andrew: What’s up? the4Dprinter.com — literally, T-H-E-4-D-printer.com — that is a worthless domain. the3dprinter.com — worthless domain.

Frank: Less than the 4D?

Michael: Yeah.

Andrew: Yeah, less worthless than 4D but still probably worthless, right? If you take into account that…let’s just backup because we’ve established the4Dprinter.com, worthless — absolutely. the3dprinter.com because I think it’s just a better example to emphasize the point. the3dprinter.com goes on GoDaddy auction. It expired or whatever. NameJet…it doesn’t matter. There’s a bidding for it. It probably goes for a couple hundred bucks just because…maybe it goes for a couple thousand dollars because there’s the next greater idiot.

Okay. So then, that domain is never going to sell. Even if you get it for $100 bucks and you renew it for three years, for $10 a year. Even if you sold that domain for $1500. The opportunity cost of that cash makes it worthless. It really does. It makes it worthless. You didn’t make any money on that sell. Even if you, on the off-chance, you did sell it for $1,000 of $1500. If you’ve got $200-$300 into it, you made no money because you would’ve made a lot more money investing that $500 somewhere else.

Michael: Okay. Fair enough. GIN FIZZ, you don’t like?

Andrew: No. I mean it’s not worthless.

Michael: It’s a drink that people know, two million search results, it’s spelled the right way. I’ve never had one. I don’t even know if I like it. But, as a brand, is that one to put into the vault and just wait on it?

Shane: Is it supposed to have Sloe in front of it? Isn’t it Sloe Gin Fizz?

Andrew: To be clear, you don’t let that domain expire. But you don’t bet the farm on it either.

Frank: Or go out of your way to get it.

Michael: All right.

Andrew: Yeah.

Michael: And so one more, Drew. fortlauderdale.net…we talked about buffalo.net, it’s one that you hold on to. Maybe a $35K price tag. fortlauderdale.net. same sort of thing? And, what’s the acquisition time that makes that holding time worthwhile? We bought lauderdale.com from [inaudible 01:07:08] maybe six months ago or so. He was raising some cash and we bought it for…I don’t even remember. It’s $6,000 grand, $7,000 grand — something like that. And I thought, okay, lauderdale.com, $6,000-$7,000 grand, that’s an okay buy. I bought it also, to kind of just help him out a little bit.

But I put that up on NameJet just this past week. The auction actually went by and it passed…I think the high bid was $3,000 grand or something. I think we put the reserve in like at cost just because it was a name that I wanted to cycle out. And it didn’t even hit the reserve. I think it went up to like $3,000 grand and that’s fine. And I’ll hang onto it. And that doesn’t give me a lot of confidence in fortlauderdale.net, right? And so I don’t know.

Michael: Okay.

Frank: I see Lauderdale as brandable. And Lauder would be even shorter. Whereas, Fort Lauderdale is the way people say it so I wouldn’t short it is much. And you got a good deal on Lauderdale. I would’ve probably paid that too and I’m a bottom feeder in that sense. You go a little deeper than I would.

Michael: All right. Thanks. Drew. Frank, let me ask you. dimension.com is a great domain name. dimensionally.com, is that worth picking up and holding onto — dimensionally?

Frank: No. No, I agree. I think a sad state of affairs when we’re looking at this kind of list is lesson number one to everybody watching…

Michael: Continental Airlines, I know you’re old enough to remember Continental Airlines being in existence.

Frank: I am. I can’t believe somebody…but somebody is probably…some venture fund has probably bought the intellectual property rights so you’d still be cybersquatting even though the airline’s gone.

Michael: All right. Good to keep in mind. So that would be one that you would stay away from?

Frank: I would, just because Braniff was an airline. I know the company that owns the rights to Braniff and a bunch of other brands that they try to sell from time to time. Just in case somebody wants to bring the brand back, they sell it to you. Much like we trade domain names they trade old brands just because there’s value in those.

Shane: It’s actually a really cool market.

Frank: Yeah.

Shane: It’s something that’s always intrigued me, buying those antiquated brands that don’t exist anymore. I think that’s a really cool…

Frank: I think that is a cool business. I agree with that. So a sad state of affairs. A lesson or two for everybody watching is the fact that we’re still talking about gin fizz means it’s actually not a bad name. We’re all laughing about it.

Andrew: I looked it up. It’s not even gin fizz. It’s Sloe Gin Fizz and it’s spelled, S-L-O-E.

Michael: No, it’s gin fizz. Type in gin fizz and it corrects it to G-I-N F-I-Z-Z. And it’s got gin fizz recipe.

Shane: No Sloe in front of it?

Frank: I think the gin…

Shane: I’m going to call my grandfather.

Frank: It’s a little less popular than the Rob Roy and the Sidecar.

Michael: Sidecar’s a great brand, right? If you could buy sidecar.com. I know Drew would throw $5K down on that.

Andrew: Sidecar?

Michael: Yeah, that’s a great domain

Andrew: Who’s got side car?

Michael: I’d buy it.

[inaudible 01:10:18]

Frank: I’ve got Rumble Seat. I think that’s the next [inaudible 01:10:23]. Okay so, anyway. Looking at this, I like those old names for that reason. I think, the hang on, just like old brands that we were talking about a second ago. So I think that’s definitely one to keep. But the obvious ones in this list are SMART CHEF. Because, a, everybody loves a chef. And all the better if they’re smart. Preferably, a little bit fat because you don’t want to trust a skinny chef. And so…and the other one is FORT LAUDERDALE. So I like it because you’re not going to get around. That’s what people call it. I understand it’s the .net but I can see it being a city brand.

And, actually, I learned today, that those magazines, those glossy magazines when you go to a city and they have one for every town. Like ever fashionable town. Like, Ocean Drive Magazine in South Florida. It’s like an advertisers magazine that tells you a little bit about what’s happening in town but features a lot of local advertising — jewelry shops, car dealers, Lambo dealers — stuff like that. And glossy photographs and pictorials. Those are the most profitable magazines left on the shelf. They make lots of money for the publisher. So I like those city brands, especially in desirable towns like Lauderdale.

Shane: Ask Cyger about that. He’s got the…he was shaking his head pretty good there. He’s like, “Yeah…” [inaudible 01:11:42] Especially if you’re an island.

Michael: Well, we run a 50/50 ad-to-editorial ratio. And in magazines like those, where you go and stay at the high-end four/five-star hotels. Yeah, they’re like 70%-80% advertising. And then, they’re just using canned, pretty much, editorial. But, yeah, they’re high in profit because they knock them out. And then, they get the distribution built-in. Every single room in a hotel gets it. Yeah.

Frank: Exactly spot on right. And every tourist reads them. It’s not like they throw them out like the paper. They actually go, “What’s happening around here? I there any real estate for sell around here?” Everybody does it. It’s human nature. So I like those. And Fort Lauderdale’s a variable [SP] part of South Florida. I think it kind of stands alone as a town. I think Lauderdale is different. I really do. But I think because it’s .com, it’s better. As a name, it’s one word and all that. But I think you can’t…the only thing, knock on Fort Lauderdale is that, is it F-T Lauderdale? Or is F-O-R-T?

Andrew: Exactly.

Frank: Right. So there’s that. But those are three in there. The rest, you just throw them away and never look. Make something else up…

Michael: Which is the case with most of the domains that you evaluate on a daily basis, right?

Frank: Yeah.

Michael: I don’t want people to think the ground is paved with golden domains, right? You’ve got to work for it. You’ve got to hunt through it. You’ve got to think about the domains on the list and see what’s worthwhile and what’s not worthwhile, so…

Frank: And the successful people watching…we all kind of voted the same way. None of us are biased by the others. The successful that watch this that will be successful domainers, or that are, will make the same decisions at home. They’ll look at this and go, “You’re right. That makes sense. I would’ve said the same thing.” Those are the people you…young man or woman of the next generation that’ll take over. The chocolate factory belongs to you.

Andrew: Exactly.

Michael: All right. We’re at the end of today’s show. I want to give the Sherpas an opportunity to share what they have going on. Maybe it’s something they’re brokering or selling, deals they have brewing, maybe new offerings that they have. Anything that they want to mention or give a shoutout to. Let’s start with you Drew.

Andrew: We have a getting auction going at NameJet. Some phenomenal domain names going up — author.com, parent.com, valentinesday.com, aprilfools.com — just phenomenal, phenomenal domains from a client of ours, end-user acquired these domain names through our business acquisitions over many years and investing in the portfolio. And these names are going to be sold, single, one-time-only on NameJet. Get on there and bid away. Back order them now so that you can participate. I think the first auction I think will start December 1. And I believe you can go to mediaoptionsauctions.com, or just go to NameJet and click on our banner and you’ll see them.

Michael: Sounds good. Those are great names. Just like last time, when you said you were auctioning off heart.com.

Andrew: Well, heart.com is now sold. hear.com has been removed from auction.

Michael: I know. I went to go put a backorder and it wasn’t even there.

Andrew: Yeah, we just sold heart.com for a good price. A lot of money.

Michael: Can you say how much?

Andrew: Can’t. Unfortunately, I can’t.

Shane: Good job, Mike. It was worth a try.

Michael: I thought I’d ask.

Shane: In editing, we can just put a number in it. Just, I’ll fake his voice.

Michael: All right. Well, congrats on selling heart.com. Get over to NameJet and check out those auctions. Frank, let’s come over to you. Anything you want to mention/give a shoutout to?

Frank: We’re building infrastructure here, at Uni. We’ve got a really cool app. I can’t show you all of it but it’s market-related. So you can field injuries, offers at buyers, counteroffers. So as your out and about, you get inquiries on your names that are for sell on buy-it-now or on make-offer pages. And you can negotiate, settle, clear transactions. Do everything you can. It’s a full app. So everything you can do in the market you’ll be able to do in the app. We’re combining that by reworking, completely reworking [inaudible 01:15:45] on the buyer side, which we did a poor job using Silver Soft Assessment. We’re sellers, so we spend a disproportionate amount of our energy developing the sales side. But the buyer’s path wasn’t as clear or refined as we’d like. And, I think, most people buy using the website. That’s the first encounter with your name. Most sophisticated end of the sellers, sell using an app because they’re out and about when the offer comes in. So we think the combination of the reworked buyer-purchase path and buyer checkout…some pretty hefty changes. You’ll read about it, without question because it’s pretty significant. And then, coupled with the app for sales, this is going to be a bit of a game changer next year. I’m already using it and I can feel it’s going to be a game changer.

Michael: You going to be live at NameCon? Or, are we going to get a preview of it there?

Frank: The reason I can play with is now and it’s not even December yet is because it will be live. It’ll be released. We’re trying to get ready for Android as well. So that it, for once, it will have a version to coincide. Because the Android app is out. Although, most users are still using it in iOS. But, pretty significant stuff coming. This will be the first introduction a lot of people have with our market. And they’ll immediately understand what it can do for them. It makes it much easier to use the markets. It’s a real generational leap and I’m very proud of the team for what they did.

Michael: That’s awesome. Well, and that’s the dream, right? Whether you’re investing full-time or part-time or maybe it’s sort of your 401K. You want to just be able, out and about with the family. Maybe you’re on the beach, you’re retired, and the leads come in. And you can manage it from your iPhone or your Android and take care of business. Yeah, that’s what I want to do.

Frank: Yeah. We had the DNS app — domain name sales app for real sophisticated professionals. But there was never clearing mechanism in it or settling mechanism to settle sells. With the Registrar, we’re a frontline clearing mechanism. And it’s, really, this is a pretty revolutionary thing. It’s taken an enormous amount of work. Like, 18 developers, a year and a half, a lot of trial and error. We think we got a god piece of secret sauce here. And, yeah, love it.

Michael: Can’t wait to see it.

Frank: Yeah, I can’t wait to show it.

Michael: All right. Shane, anything you want to mention, give a shoutout to?

Shane: Well, I was going to say just real quick on that. You always want to make it easy for the buyer. You should always start with the buyer because the buyer…the easier it is for him to spend money, I’ll figure out my end. Don’t worry about it. Once you make it easier for them, I can figure out how to sell it to them and how to take their money. It’s making…

Frank: Let me explain where that goes wrong. Where that goes wrong, I mean when you really want to make it easy for sellers, it’s counterintuitive, I know. It’s wrong, mind you, but it what it is. But at the same time, we had descent names, so we got this flood of buyers who had to have the name, no matter what, right? And what I wanted to solve for and what we realized where we went wrong was, what about when the names are average but they still get inquiries? Shouldn’t we make it easy for those that aren’t just like, “I’ll camp out of your doorstep just to get this name because I need to have it so bad and I’ll pay whatever you say.”

But we had so many names. I mean it’s perverse to admit this but we had so many names in the repertoire that were so good that it skewed our thinking and, how do we sell to the people that have average to [inaudible 01:19:01].

Andrew: You want to make it super simple for a guy or a girl to spend $2,000 to $5,000.

Frank: Exactly. Or, settle even on a $50 transaction in volume. It was the whole XYZ language that opened our eyes to that because there were people who would chip away at the gate and say, “I want to get one of those one-penny names for $20 bucks.” So how do we settle that? How do we do that? And do it, it doesn’t work on our broker model? But, now, we think it works so…I mean it’s pretty revolutionary stuff. This is…nobody has it.

Andrew: Is that market? Is there people buying those domains that were bought for a penny, like flipping them for $20 bucks? Is there a market?

Frank: It is but there’s not a good settlement mechanism. So there’s this preparatory [SP] floor price of $100 bucks. It depends on how low you’re willing to stoop, Drew. You would do it but there is a generational…there are people…

Andrew: But it’s intriguing. Even if it’s in the market that would interest me, it’s intriguing to see that a market would develop.

Shane: Any kind of market’s intriguing.

Frank: Exactly. We were talking about going to a no-commission model on an under $100 name. We need this infrastructure to even test it. This is like the Hubble Telescope for us. We know there’s other galaxies. We can see them. We think they look pretty interesting but we’re not going to see those amazing looking crazy spacey galaxies that you saw through the Hubble and the next generation telescopes until we get a telescope in space.

So this is our space telescope. We’re very, very impressed with what they built but it’s been painful. I’ve been trying to hold back. Because, for once, we want to actually deliver it.

Shane: It’s only six-weeks away. You can hold on.

Frank: Take it. There it is. So we like it.

Michael: All right. Thanks, Frank. Shane, let’s go over to you.

Shane: All right. Well, same thing — dsad.com. Our team of four gentlemen, we’re going at it. Everybody is doing their thing. Our auction went really well. We still have a couple of more weeks. We kind of front ended and we copied Drew on ever stage so it’s going real well. So we already had somebody that laid our groundwork, but…

No, it went really well. Our sell-through rate…now we’ve got some names that were kind of left over from our portfolio that weren’t as strong but the rest of them, I think we had a 90% sell-through rate. We didn’t do tons of money but we sold the names we thought we would sell. We got the reserves to where we thought and they all moved. So that says, that’s where you want to be. You want to sell names, no matter what the cost so it went really well.

Michael: …going to be on NameJet, a wholesale market. I know I could’ve sold them directly through NameJet or through you guys and I know for sure that you’ve got four, or five, six times as many bidders on them. So whether it sells some more still remains to be seen. But you got more bidders — that’s where it starts.

Michael: Yeah, undoubtedly. You have to test things and you have to see how they go, and you have to learn how to do. Managing all those names, third-party, is difficult. And you have to make sure that people really own the names that they submitted to you. And you have to make sure they get paid and the names get…there’s a lot of legwork. But, fortunately, we had a team like Frank does. It’s not about me. It’s about a team putting together a system that makes it easy to manage that. And once that’s done, now the future looks brighter. We’re able to do a couple more of these and actively manage it well. And I think NameJet was happy with the way we did it. And, we’re learning. And we also, of course, put some of our names like everybody does. And it went well. It went for the prices we hoped they were. And as a domainer, you’re not really truly proven that you’re right or wrong until it goes up to auction and somebody else verifies that. And in NameJet, it got verified. So, except for XUSK, it was completely successful.

Michael: Well, Frank would say that that one was successful too.

Frank: That was a fine purchase. I really liked that.

Shane: I can’t wait for them to be all saying it sells for $400,000 or something. But it went well. And I will say, the year usually ends pretty strong. And this year, it seems to be moving quickly and not going quite as strong as I remember in the past. But…

Frank: Last year, we had China at this time of year and we were getting big, big deals. So that skewed the market. We had a good October. I don’t like the way the numbers look like right now but I just asked the team in the pipeline what’s going to finish November, it’ll be another strong month. And December should be a barn burner [SP]. It should be a good one. We’ve got a lot of deals that will go down before year end. You’re right, it’s going to be softer than last year, for sure. That’s because China.

Andrew: Even removing last year, though. November/early December has always, always, always, been the strongest six/eight weeks of the entire year for us. And this year feels softer. It does.

Frank: Really?

Andrew: It feels…

Frank: I don’t remember that far back.

Andrew: We have…

Michael: You’re a lot older, too.

Frank: As I get old, I can’t remember a thing. Who are you guys?

Andrew: We have a few really great sales. So it’s going to end up…the numbers are going to be skewed because it’s going to look like a really good month. The volume of the business is not what remember previous Novembers being.

Frank: I agree with that. I agree with that. We had a lot of lower numbers. I think there’s definitely something. I wondered how the GTLD thing would manifest itself. That was a big fear of mine early on — what’s going to happen to the legacy business? Because we still need that cash flow before the new stuff comes in. I think there’s definitely something there. But how much is unknown.

Shane: The election cycle probably plays a role, too. Businesses were probably holding off on investment to some degree. The good news is that I do think that the Trump presidency will be good for domains. I think you tweeted out the same. And, I agree with that 100%. I think that this is going to encourage business investment. Maybe, companies are going to start bringing profits back home. That money will gradually make its way into the market and domain will be a part of that, so.

Andrew: In my business, it’s always been indicative of how the economy is. Because you don’t have to buy a tree or shrub. You don’t have to do those things for your home. It’s a luxury item. And when the economy doesn’t have money or businesses don’t have money, they don’t spend. And I will say that it’s going strong. Businesses are being…and not just because it’s a college town — just in general. They’re investing in themselves where they didn’t three and four years ago. And they’re spending money. And our business has been spot on for 150 years, exactly where the economy is. And I can tell you that it’s good. The best year ever. So I think it bodes well for people spending money.

Frank: Good. Yeah, I’ll take it.

Michael: All right. Gentleman, I’ve got to wrap it up. We’re like at an hour and a half. I’d love to spend all day with you guys. If you received benefit from today’s show, please post a comment to thank today’s Sherpas. Thanks to John McGavern 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 DomainSherpa Review. And thanks, again, to our domain Sherpas — Andrew Rosener, Frank Schilling, and Shane Cultra for sharing their experience and insights. Come see us at NamesCon. We’ll see you all next time.

Watch the full video at:
https://www.domainsherpa.com/review-20161128/

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34 Responses to “DomainSherpa Review – Nov 28: Brut.com, Naranja.com, XUSK.com…”

  1. Zac Zarev says:

    Great show Michael and Sherpas!

  2. Lucas says:

    great show! Fun, entertaining, didactic, inspiring,… great sherpas and great interview!

  3. Ategy says:

    Thanks again for the show guys … I enjoyed the side discussion on .net. I personally think .net is forever dead as a “2nd choice because .com isn’t available or too expensive”. .Net is likely the biggest victim of the new gTLD’s. However where I do see value increasing for .net is in anything “tech” related as while .net might effectively die-out as a gTLD, it still makes for an amazing “niche” TLD .. with “anything tech related” still being a colossal “niche” .. lol. So tech left-of-dot.net’s I see as remaining solid .. same for the very broad field of possible generic “brandable” .net names (like blueberry.net for example) … but on the opposite end of the spectrum I think names like “VacuumCleaner.net” and “SendFlowers.net” soften significantly over time as what were traditionally users of those .net domains eventually turn .shop or whatever relevant n/gTLD .. or even go for a cheaper alternative from domainers/boutiques/brokers in cheaper (resell/aftermarket) options like .co or the upcoming .web etc

    That is .. maybe until .net eventually becomes the cheaper aftermarket alternative and things reverse back in 20 years .. lol

  4. Eric Jenkins says:

    Great show…..Thanks Guys!!!!

  5. Pete Savage says:

    Every Sherpa Show is inspiring and motivating!

    Thanks guys, brilliant

  6. Carl says:

    Great show guys! I enjoyed hearing Frank’s tips, and advice from all the Sherpas! Cheers!

  7. Carl says:

    Great show guys! I enjoyed hearing Frank’s tips, and have put them to good use! Cheers!

  8. zack says:

    At 36:40 you said the renewal price for (vacation.properties) is $30 a year and everybody is like WOW. hey guys, it does not even make sense. where did you look it up anyway?

    The renewal price is $1,000 a year !!!!!! wake up.

    1. ShaneCultra says:

      I am the one who looked it up. I looked it up at http://dnpric.es/compare-registrars/? but realize there are premium prices for those types. You on the other hand come here to criticize and don’t even link so that everyone can have a tool to look up renewal prices.

      And I never went to sleep. I don’t partake in GTLDs right now because of this exact reason. Nobody knows what things cost to renew. Why don’t you take that negative energy and put it towards a website that I can take any name and get the renewal cost.

      1. Zack says:

        You were comparing the standard prices of Gs, not the specif premium domain renewal price. I can not even believe that an expert like yourself does not know how to find the renewal price of any given domain !

        Ok i show you an example: let us say the domain is registered at GD, then you simply go to dynadot.com or namesilo.com and put the domain in the transfer cart, see what comes out.

        1. Ategy says:

          The Sherpas are humans you know .. They were in the middle of a conversation sharing their opinions (for free I might add) .. obviously he just did a quick check on the fly without really paying too much attention. It’s not the end of the world. You simply could have pointed it out without being so rude about it. At the end of the day we are all responsible for verifying the information that we use to grow .. you did that and shared with the rest of us .. great .. and thanks .. but remember that no one is perfect .. and that while these are not live reviews, for the Sherpas it’s all being recorded in one go .. and for the most part I think they do a great job and deserve a little more respect and gratitude. Most importantly remember that the things the Sherpas say are not facts .. but are opinions based on their human (not always perfect) observations!

          1. Good point Ategy,

            I’m glad you posted this response to Zack’s comments. I couldn’t agree with you more. These guys are giving up their valuable time to help educate both new and seasoned domain investors. We all make mistakes. Even experts in our fields. I’m a long time professional numismatist, but on occasion I make a mistake. Everyday I try to learn something I didn’t know the day before.

            So going forward Zack… I would suggest you try to look at the glass as half full and learn to appreciate others and treat them as you would like to be treated.

            Thanks again to Shane, Andrew, Frank and Mike for the excellent job they do.

            1. Shane Cultra says:

              Thanks to both of you. We are talking live as we do this. I do a little research ahead of time but most of this is off the cuff. Do you really think I had time during the show to put the domain in a cart? I tried to quickly look up something and got it wrong. That’s it. I get things wrong all the time. And compared to the average person I am an expert. Do I know everything? Absolutely not. I learn a tremendous amount just sitting on this panel and the hour or two of chit chat before and after the show. In short, Zack, this show is supposed to be positive, entertaining, and informative. We may miss on some of those each week but all in all I think we do a pretty good job. At least the other three do :)

    2. ikehook says:

      lol. WTF Shane!

      That’s interesting Zack, because at 19:49 today I determined that you were a douche, and everybody is like WOW he is.

      Your spending too much time looking up NGTLD’s… Wake Up!!!!!

  9. Lite says:

    True opinions from sherpas. Thank you for this show.

  10. This video to me gets a rating of triple G for Great Group of Gentlemen.

    I learned something new while laughing at the same time.

    Thank you for the post.

  11. albert says:

    Never mind.

    I’m listening on Itunes.

    Better then nothing.

    Thanks again.

  12. albert says:

    Hi Mike:

    It seems like an exciting show.

    Only problem is that the video keeps freezing at 39 seconds.

    Can you please put it up on youtube?

    Thanks

  13. Mike,

    I really wanted to thank you for getting my review on so quickly. The added bonus was having my favorite three Sherpas doing the review. They all bring a slightly different perspective to the table, and I highly respect their years of knowledge in the domain industry. Needless to say this review went much better than my last one almost exactly a year ago. I wasn’t sure if you would mention it being my second attempt or not. They seemed to like vacation.properties, I also own residential.properties, office.properties, ocean.properties and a few other good ones. I have dumped many duds over the last year and tried hard to get more desirable names. I have many in the up and coming marijuana industry that I feel are equally as strong as the .properties I’ve listed, but all dot coms. Like skunkbud.com (a recent buy), hydrobud.com, miraclebud.com, aquabud.com just to name a few.

    A special thanks to Frank, Andrew, Shane and you of course for sharing your time. It is much appreciated… You are an invaluable asset to all domain investors especially newbies

    John Magavern

    Mike,

    I just wanted to let you know I was having a lot of trouble with the video streaming. It would freeze frequently. I notice some others mentioning this in recent weeks. Any suggestions?
    Again thanks for all your efforts.

    1. Hello John,

      Nice names.

      I was having problems with the video also. It was streaming really slow I thought it was my wireless connection here at my house since I am at the back of the house with the wireless router being at the middle of the house.

    2. Nice buy on SkunkBud.com…that one was mine! Best of luck with it.

      1. Thanks Vincent,

        I would like to have hand registered it but it seems like down the road it should be a desired name. As more states legalize recreational marijuana use all these industry domains should take off.

        1. I tried to email you, but the contact form on your coin dealership page does not work.

          1. Thanks for the heads up on that. I recently changed my hosting company and SEO. I will contact them first thing in the morning to get this resolved. Feel free to call me between 9am-9pm EST.

  14. Eric freedman says:

    I’m they guy that brokered brut.com to Andrew. I find a lot of deals for people.I set people up to buy undervalued names. And I make my money off the set up. It didnt completely go down as said.

    1. Much appreciated Eric as always! Can’t give away all my secrets!

    2. Eric,

      I would love to hear of any other short one word domain deals you come across. Nice find with brut.com. Andrew seems to have great contacts within the domain industry he has established over the years.

      Would enjoy talking with you in the near future,

      John Magavern

  15. nick says:

    Great show, always love to hear their pricing thoughts

  16. FYI, the buyer of Naranja.com is a big credit card company in Argentina, Tarjeta Naranja (tarjetanaranja.com)

  17. ishan says:

    Hello michael,
    I want to ask you that which type of domain name should i buy i’m little bit confuse should i 2 words domain name or i go for brandable domain name as i don’t have very big budget for investment.
    thanks

    1. Shane Cultra says:

      Ishan,

      I don’t think we can or should tell you exactly what to buy. Brandable names are difficult to sell in that anything can be branded. I think the best answer would be a good two word dot com that can also be a brand is something we all have had success selling

      1. ikehook says:

        I agree with Shane and would add that the only name that all the Sherpa’s liked on the NameJet list “SmartChef” is a two word brandable. It’s a keyword brand as opposed to a key word domain like RestaurantChef or something like that. So if you think along those lines you can find “keyword brandables” that a company somewhere might buy and use.

        One other point to make: We often talk about buzz words in new industries and the amount of speculative registration people make, in the hopes that the industry takes off. Some recent and current examples, are drone, VR, vape, 3dPrinting, and so on. I agree that most of these domains will never be bought and are worthless unless they’re the specific category domain.

        However it depends on the industry. For example VR and drone are corporate concepts without a real local presence, but Vape and 3d-Printing can have a local business application. I’ve sold several vape names to end users that are setting up websites for their shops and there are shops in every town. I assume the same could work for 3d printing. It’s a service that could be sold instead of someone buying their own setup. Say I need one concept or part made I know nothing about machining or 3d printing so I might go to the 3d printer in my town and pay them to do it. That’s why I think the domain The3dPrinter.com might have value. Remember I’m talking about names potentially for a local business so your looking at a lower sales price maybe $500 to $2000.

  18. Jeroen Persyn says:

    One of the best shows of the year! Very practical and instructive edition!

    Thanks guys

    Jeroen

  19. What a great way to start a Monday morning than with the dream team of Sherpas. I like this line up a lot, it seems like a nicely balanced panel all bringing interesting insights. Thanks again! Looking forward to when Frank comes back on and has sold Xusk.com….

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