Am I "one of those people who bought it and wants hundreds of dollars for it"?

[grcorp]

I was doing some casual labour just to help out a guy I used to work with the other day, and he got a few other people he knew to come along.

During some downtime we were chatting a bit and exchanging cards. I saw that one particular person, who ran her own small business, was using a .biz URL (on a keyword combination I would consider to be B+ in quality). I asked her in jest, "couldn't get the .com, eh?"

Her response was the .com was in use, and as for the .ca, "one of those people who bought it and wants hundreds of dollars for it has it".

Her tone being very condescending towards whoever that person was was, to say the least, offending. As though she viewed the practice to be unethical.

Has anyone else encountered a situation like this in real life?

 

[ianccc]

hookers and speculators have one thing in common - they will both #$%$$% you for money

 

[Gerry]

Has anyone else encountered a situation like this in real life?

Numerous, numerous times over the years.

Thus, the moniker of "brandsquatters" and "cybersquatters" - sitting on virtual real estate.

I have worked with a few companies over the years that encountered this. Granted, they were late to the game of web sites and successful in their region or state or even country...which is precisely why someone else had regged their name. One in particular, that used the letters TNT in their title, was mad at the world for regging all the extensions with TNT. I tried explaining that they were not the only ones who went by TNT and others had the legitimate and legal right to those letters.

Some business people and businesses in general just don't want to hear they are on the losing end of things. If you started a business and your website in 2004, well...good chance someone might have beaten you to that name.

 

[south]

Everyone on this board has (or should have) heard this, and taken the time to explain it to them. Or propose a comparison, such as real estate, and let them consider it. The woman runs a business? Is she running a business to make a profit, or is it a hobby?

 

[Ridge]

i dont think real estate is a good comparison. this i believe however is...

if you have a problem with ticket brokers buying up all the tickets to concerts and sports games for resale, then you have a problem with what we do.

 

[Mark Talbot]

Face it, you, I, and everyone else in this forum has a clue about domains. Thats why we are here.

But I have been frustrated to no end how little the realm is understood by the common public, particularly business.
I dunno, maybe this is a sign of how little importance one day domains will hold as an asset. Regardless.

A short story.

A friend of mine owns his own company. He has been around awhile, and his customers happily spend large sums with his company.

But he is not tech savvy, and after he secured his dot com some years back, and had a cool website. Sales increased. It is a real good name by domain standards.

But sometime over the years the domain expired as he didnt know he had to renew it. He spoke to me about it one day and I said I will see about getting it back for him.
I did a whois and contacted the regged owner. This person isnt an active domainer and probably just picked it up after looking for something, or maybe a drop list. I dunno. He contacted me back and said he would let it go for $500. (yes this name would have been snapped up here for that price)

I called my buddy back and it went like this...

- Hey, I can get this back for you and the guy wants $500
- - Why would I pay that much?! He should give it to me, thats my company name. He is just squatting.
- Yes that is the name of your company, but the name phrase isnt trademarked, and its a generic phrase. It is worth it to you at this price.
- - Why cant I sue for it's return?
- Yes you could sue, yes you might not win, and yes that would cost more than $500 either way.
- - This isnt right, I should not have to pay extortion money to get it back.
- You let it expire. Someone was bound to buy it up. I mean it, $500 bucks is cheap for this.
- - Well I am not going to buy it back. We already have a replacement domain now anyway. (a long dot biz)
- Do you mind if I buy it then? I mean, its a good name and I might could make a buck on it.
- - (This drew strong negetive reaction from him and he looked at me like I was taking it from him)

This was a friend, and I tried to be as clear as possible to him, but after this there was no talking about it. (I did buy the name for $500 after all in the end)

But this just makes clear how misunderstood domains are to common business, and how the business persons that can make decisions view persons in the domain reseller trade.

 

[hugegrowth]

from time to time it happens, but I think the world is waking up to the fact that good domains have value. There is lots of sales data to go by, and every high profile domain sale that gets reported helps. But yes, there are still many people that don't have a clue.

 

[katherine]

Even domainers have no clue

Most of them :yes:

 

[Spex]

There is lots of sales data to go by, and every high profile domain sale that gets reported helps. But yes, there are still many people that don't have a clue.

I just wish those sales was more widely reported.

Seems the only sales we read about in mainstream publications are the outliers (the really big sales, controversial sales, etc...)

Would be nice if respected tech publications, or tech reporters reported sales on a regular basis. Or maybe sedo could run a regular ad (monthly or twice a year or something) in business magazines like The Economist with reported sales and why companies should look to the aftermarket to secure quality names

As much as I respect what Ron is doing with DNJournal, I don't think non-domainers visit the site very often

 

[grcorp]

Face it, you, I, and everyone else in this forum has a clue about domains. Thats why we are here.

But I have been frustrated to no end how little the realm is understood by the common public, particularly business.
I dunno, maybe this is a sign of how little importance one day domains will hold as an asset. Regardless.

A short story.

A friend of mine owns his own company. He has been around awhile, and his customers happily spend large sums with his company.

But he is not tech savvy, and after he secured his dot com some years back, and had a cool website. Sales increased. It is a real good name by domain standards.

But sometime over the years the domain expired as he didnt know he had to renew it. He spoke to me about it one day and I said I will see about getting it back for him.
I did a whois and contacted the regged owner. This person isnt an active domainer and probably just picked it up after looking for something, or maybe a drop list. I dunno. He contacted me back and said he would let it go for $500. (yes this name would have been snapped up here for that price)

I called my buddy back and it went like this...

- Hey, I can get this back for you and the guy wants $500
- - Why would I pay that much?! He should give it to me, thats my company name. He is just squatting.
- Yes that is the name of your company, but the name phrase isnt trademarked, and its a generic phrase. It is worth it to you at this price.
- - Why cant I sue for it's return?
- Yes you could sue, yes you might not win, and yes that would cost more than $500 either way.
- - This isnt right, I should not have to pay extortion money to get it back.
- You let it expire. Someone was bound to buy it up. I mean it, $500 bucks is cheap for this.
- - Well I am not going to buy it back. We already have a replacement domain now anyway. (a long dot biz)
- Do you mind if I buy it then? I mean, its a good name and I might could make a buck on it.
- - (This drew strong negetive reaction from him and he looked at me like I was taking it from him)

This was a friend, and I tried to be as clear as possible to him, but after this there was no talking about it. (I did buy the name for $500 after all in the end)

But this just makes clear how misunderstood domains are to common business, and how the business persons that can make decisions view persons in the domain reseller trade.

If a domainer would have paid $500 for it, then you know it has to be a good name.

This whole principle thing has cost me several deals. To include a generic dental domain name that once belonged to a dental practice right here in Toronto (which I had no knowledge of), that expired. The guy emailed me talking about how he is "only willing to pay the registration fee" for it, and claims that he's has his sign changed to his new URL to "eliminate possible confusion".

The domain still gets traffic. Not much, a dozen or so visitors a month. And I made an offer to settle for low $xxx. But he refused to do it on principle, and probably spent more on the sign change than he would have on the domain. Oh well.