Some speculation is destructive; they're not all equal. I can see that point of view, but in my experience buying up domain names in bulk ahead of legitimate people and businesses, pricing them out of their reach is a systemic problem, not harmless speculation. Not only do they not add any value in their intermediary role, but domain names are a vital part of how the Internet functions as a means of communication. Domains aren't collectible goods or even comparable to land in that respect, because two plots of land can be functionally equivalent, whereas each domain name is unique: if my last name's taken, it's taken. It's a bit more like if some people decided to (and had access to) reserve and park most phone numbers in a given area code (or a whole country) and resell the rights for $10K each. It's parasitic and interferes with the proper operation of the phone system without added value. The phone is an essential service and these days, I'd say the Internet's close to that. In the phone analogy, I guess regular people would end up getting double-long phone numbers through re-dialing switchboards of some sort, and the few with enough money to throw away would get direct numbers from the scalpers. Oh wow, that reminds me of my childhood nemesis in the 1980s: rotary dialing! Still not a perfect analogy because phone numbers are all functionally equivalent, being 10 digits long, so as long as squatters didn't buy them all, the cheap ones would remain as good as the scalped ones. (Sure there are vanity numbers, but those are gimmicks not affecting length and thus barely improving user friendliness.) Back on my argument that cybersquatting is a systemic issue, let's not forget the impact on ergonomics for the entire Internet: domain names are probably on average at least 20% longer because of the sheer volume of names parked as "investments" out of reach of companies and content producers. From a macro perspective, every single user loses. (I'm surprised ICANN never cared about that.) Think of all the typo versions you'd need to reserve if you had to settle for "go2e-mailapp.com" vs "mail.com". (I have a 5-letter domain and already see people typo many variations... Got a cheque for "e-marce" once, I kid you not. How the client got there from "iMars" written everywhere including on the invoice is a hell of a stretch. Surprised the bank didn't mind.) So anyway, hoard gold or art as much as you want, but don't clog up an essential service...
"Worth" is an interesting word, in this context (as in some others!). The reality is that any domain-name is "worth" what you can sell it for, and the reality is also that that varies hugely, primarily according to the skills and domaining-industry knowledge of the person selling it, and how proactively they try to do it. Professional domainers generally have a very good feel for the market and a pretty accurate idea of potential interest before they buy the domains in the first place. When I was "domaining" I used to register fairly large numbers of domains for around $4/$5 each and sell as many of them as I could (and that was by no means "all"!) for prices around $30/$40/$50, occasionally getting lucky and hitting high-three-figures or even occasionally four-figures for one. The main skills, of course, are (i) knowing what you can sell, and (ii) negotiation skills (including being willing, when you've identified a potentially interested party, to ask for ridiculous amounts of money knowing that once in a blue moon you'll hit a jackpot which will pay for hundreds of mistakes). The widely held/imagined picture of buying domain-names entirely speculatively and simply listing them for sale at sites like Sedo has almost nothing to do with the realities of the business at all: you have to approach people directly - if the parties who might pay the most for it don't even know that it's for sale, then it doesn't make any difference where you actually sell it. The "cybersquatting" and even "typosquatting" regulations are, very gradually, being enforced more and more, but it's certainly a slow and expensive business to protect your rights, and there are still many obstacles to be negotiated.
Domaining is a hard business to break in to, or to do. -- it was way more popular and hot back in the early/mid 2000's. -- I haven't really been following that market since around 2007 or so. You're right...to sell a domain name to a business or to someone for big bucks...you have to be an excellent, convincing persuasive salesman. Domaining is not even a real business...it's just about people who bought domains in the 90's who brag about their current (big) value now. Domains, or so-called Hot domains, are kind of irrelevant now...everyone only follows or uses a very small few select websites and their app buttons. ...hardly no one ever types in jeans.com or shirts.com or homes.com or even uses search engines that much anymore for generic terms. In my simple, humble opinion...it's way more easier to be profitable in trading...then it is in domaining or website/business development
I think this is increasingly so (I haven't actually done any for about 3 years, now). I got lucky and was well taught, when I started, by one of the most experienced and successful people. There are some specialist "internet marketers" whose sole business is buying and selling domain-names, who turn over 100+ domain-names per month and make a good full-time living from it. I strongly suspect that (as is true with many online and many self-employed businesses) there are far more trying to do it, never succeeding, and dropping out of it.) I hear you, but ... having done both, and having in fact made a living from both (not at the same time), I'm not quite so confident of that - I think which will suit someone best depends very much on the personality, approach (and perhaps even education) of the individual.
Too fast. Scaphism for these people: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism Here in this forum, I'd settle for the Brazen Bull.
Wow, take it easy good people, I’ve got feelings too, you know. Sure, if you don’t see the potential, then clearly it’s not for you - why would you invest in something you don’t want and don’t value?! That’s fine. There are many things I don’t value, but others might. We can’t all be George Soros, but we’d all like to be No 1. Look where you are right now: on a platform called EliteTrader.com! But it’s not about vanity. It’s more aspirational than that. It’s about money. It usually is – why trade in the first place? I see the domain serving as the No 1 Trader tips/training website, or the No 1 Trader news blog, or the No 1 Trader platform for online trading. It’s a project with huge monetization potential from advertising and affiliations, or even fees. Don’t blame me for asking a price for identifying a profitable project for the right person/team who is passionate about trading, who wants to take it to the next level, who is prepared to build on the investment and who is ready to enjoy the returns. It's not just a domain; it’s what you can do with it that counts. Respect to you, and long live capitalism.
In deference to your comments, and for the entrepreneur who sees the bigger picture, No1Trader.com is now at $5k on sedo.com, and will remain at that price for 24 hours from the time of this post. Love.
So if it doesn't sell in 24Hrs, you think raising the price will help? Forgive me for asking... I'm just trying to see the "big entrepreneurial " picture here.
And another successful trading site was at bigmiketrading.com for quite some time (site sucks but not because of the domain name), so that kind of shows you how much domain names matter. If you think EliteTrader is where it is because of their domain name you've got a lot to learn about the world in general and business in particular. There is absolutely zero monetization potential from any domain let alone that one, have you ever actually monetized anything? If you truly care about what people think than you're definitely in the wrong business, at best you're simply a dead weight loss on business and I can only hope you move on to something that is at least neutral in its impact on the rest of your fellow humans. With your "strategy" so far you won't be long for this anyway.