Flowers.mobi sold for 200k

[DryHeat]

don't get me wrong, mobi like any other extension has right to exist. I am not denying mobi as an extension. I just don't understand how new extension can go for xxx xxx. Please don't try to convince me that Flowers.mobi is an extra quality domain name that worth 200k.

....Many had similar thoughts when Business.com was sold for the first time to Mark Ostrofsky for $150K in 1997 .....In recent years, .mobi is not the first one:

Hotels.eu sold for $330,000, according to Sedo, and Shopping.eu fetched $200,000.
http://www.domainstate.com/showthread.php3?threadid=67437

These kind of things do happen and people who can afford do make such investments, whether they all turn out to be like Business.com is another matter.........for .mobi/.eu, its yet to be seen.

 

[carlton]

... I don't see that many opportunities that cross my path that fit into the "Life changing" category and I don't gamble much and don't buy lottery tickets. I am willing to take the risk and give it the time needed. Also take in to account that 4 people in the room bid over 6 figures for this domain ...

This is the point-of-view that is shared by many here and which fueled the domain industry. Very well said. And congratulations Rick.

 

[Leading Names]

a question for all you doubting thomases....

if flowers.mobi sold to the operators of flowers.com for $190,000 (which was probably their last bid as they were the ones in the bidding war) would you still be so skeptical?

it was also said that anything.com bought fun.mobi for $100,000- are they behind the hype machine as well?

I would still be very sceptical, but less so, there's a fool around every corner when it comes to end-users.

The fact that Rick, a seasoned domainer who previously hasn't invested in new extensions and who's buying strategy is (or was) based on .COM and TRAFFIC makes me very suspicious. Why the hell would someone like that put up 200k for a mediocre keyword in a new ext? Flowers is a strong keyword but mediocre in comparison to some of the other names on the .Mobi premium list.

This supposed sale just stinks to high heaven and nothing that anyone else says would make me think otherwise.

- Rob

 

[Leading Names]

Edit. Double post.

 

[ExpireGuy]

....Many had similar thoughts when Business.com was sold for the first time to Mark Ostrofsky for $150K in 1997 .....In recent years, .mobi is not the first one:
These kind of things do happen and people who can afford do make such investments, whether they all turn out to be like Business.com is another matter.........for .mobi/.eu, its yet to be seen.

Actually a perfect example of how the hype hoopla repeats itself for the uneducated.....

In referance to Business.com ...

ECompanies made history by paying $7.5 million for the Business.com domain name -- although Winebaum said it was an all-stock, funny-money deal.

source: InternetNews.com

.mobi = hype
And that's putting it nicely.

Regards
Steve

 

[DomainEngineer]

I would still be very sceptical, but less so, there’s a fool around every corner when it comes to end-users.

The fact that Rick, a seasoned domainer who previously hasn’t invested in new extensions and who’s buying strategy is (or was) based on .COM and TRAFFIC makes me very suspicious. Why the hell would someone like that put up 200k for a mediocre keyword in a new ext? Flowers is a strong keyword but mediocre in comparison to some of the other names on the .Mobi premium list.

This supposed sale just stinks to high heaven and nothing that anyone else says would make me think otherwise.

- Rob

So many new extensions came but I never participated in landrush for any. Mostly I stuck with the King 9 years i.e. Dot-com

I was also on the sidelines for .mobi and didn't want to participate in it.

But there was something unique about DotMobi that made me change my mind 1 day before the landrush started and I said to me: What risk do I take if I spend 5 to 6 thousand on 80 some .mobi dictionary words VERSUS if I go out and buy one leftover dot-com from the secondary market using that money? I did the calculations and it was clear spending few grand on many great keywords in dot-mobi was not such a gamble after all.....it will always recover the cost even if it does not take of.

Consider this:

1 .mobi is global and so is its reach just like .com

2. There are 4 times more wireless/mobile devices worldwide as compared to PCs.

3. Full PC sites can never be viewed 100% correctly on the mobile devices.

4. Viewing PC sites on mobiles not only drain your battery fast but also will cost you lot in connection fees.

5. Doesn't matter what .mobi still better than most CC TLDs due to its potential user base.

6. .mobi is backed by mega companies, sale of whose products and services is also dependent on mobi success.

7. its easy for public to remember that .mobi site will open correctly on a mobile.


So I went ahead and bought the dot-mobies during 1st 2 days of landrush and stopped.

And so did many many more backers of dot-com

I am feeling great now and I still don't care if I lose that 5/6k that I spent on mobies.

It was a good decision imo.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks.

 

[Leading Names]

What risk do I take if I spend 5 to 6 thousand on 80 some .mobi dictionary words VERSUS if I go out and buy one leftover dot-com from the secondary market using that money?

That I can believe, if I were a believer in .mobi I would have done the same (and have done with other new extensions in the past).

With that said, there's a big difference between 5-6k on 80 or so names and 200k for 1 name.

- Rob

 

[Rick Schwartz]

I would still be very sceptical, but less so, there's a fool around every corner when it comes to end-users.

The fact that Rick, a seasoned domainer who previously hasn't invested in new extensions and who's buying strategy is (or was) based on .COM and TRAFFIC makes me very suspicious. Why the hell would someone like that put up 200k for a mediocre keyword in a new ext? Flowers is a strong keyword but mediocre in comparison to some of the other names on the .Mobi premium list.

This supposed sale just stinks to high heaven and nothing that anyone else says would make me think otherwise.

- Rob

Rob,

Don't take this the wrong way or personally....but that is foolish thinking and here is why. Please read it all and THINK about it before you give a knee jerk reaction.

You asked the right question. Why would someone like ME who ONLY buys .com decide to invest in .mobi? The problem is you came to a silly and unfounded conclusion based on some nonsense you made up in your mind. You should have conclued that I saw something in .mobi that I have NEVER seen in any other extension? That would be the correct answer. There is a SINGLE difference that makes it different. If you don't understand that, it is not my job to clue you in. So you asked the right question..........just came to the wrong conclusion.

 

[9888]

Rob,

Don't take this the wrong way or personally....but that is foolish thinking and here is why. Please read it all and THINK about it before you give a knee jerk reaction.

You asked the right question. Why would someone like ME who ONLY buys .com decide to invest in .mobi? The problem is you came to a silly and unfounded conclusion based on some nonsense you made up in your mind. You should have conclued that I saw something in .mobi that I have NEVER seen in any other extension? That would be the correct answer. There is a SINGLE difference that makes it different. If you don't understand that, it is not my job to clue you in. So you asked the right question..........just came to the wrong conclusion.

Thanks Rick, it is great that you too have seen what I and many others here saw in the .mobi extention.

It amazes me though that the naysayers are still persisting with their negative views against what is becoming very convincing evidence on the bright future .mobi will have.

Anyway, I am off to register a few more, and I wish you very good luck with your Flowers.mobi purchase...it will be interesting to see how quickly you can double your 200k! (if a quick turn around is your intention)

I am now extremely excited about the prospects for my gem, 888.mobi

Cheers.

Graham.

:bandit:

 

[GT Web]

Thanks to Rick for posting in this thread, I was a long time hater of .mobi as many of you know (and as my sig still shows) but went out and regged a couple yesterday after the auction.

The reasons I am skeptical are:

1) I sure as heck don't use the internet on my cell phone, I use my computer 100% of the time. This may change and I'm sure its different for other people, but for me internet means computer.

2) Developing a large, e-commerce site for use on a cellular device has got to be expensive, time consuming and incredibly difficult.

3) If I had to order flowers on my phone I would probably call 1800-FLOWERS before I tried to use the internet to find a flower vendor.

As I said, I am still unsure about .mobi's future prospects, but I'm certainly more confident in it now than I was at this point yesterday. Thanks again to Rick for coming here and sharing his opinions about the matter.

 

[Leading Names]

Rob,

Don't take this the wrong way or personally....but that is foolish thinking and here is why. Please read it all and THINK about it before you give a knee jerk reaction.

You asked the right question. Why would someone like ME who ONLY buys .com decide to invest in .mobi? The problem is you came to a silly and unfounded conclusion based on some nonsense you made up in your mind. You should have conclued that I saw something in .mobi that I have NEVER seen in any other extension? That would be the correct answer. There is a SINGLE difference that makes it different. If you don't understand that, it is not my job to clue you in. So you asked the right question..........just came to the wrong conclusion.

I won't take it the wrong way, or personally.

I still don't believe you paid (or plan to pay) $200k for it, as I said in my last post, nothing or know one will make me change my mind on that.

One thing is for sure – The .mobi guys will be pleased, now that you've set a such high price precedent. Members – draw your own conclusions

As for me being a fool, well, if you really did pay 200k for it, you're the fool IMO. Keep in mind that you have (to the best of my knowledge) zero experience outside .COM, whereas I've been successfully investing and reselling new extensions for the past 3/4 years so I'd like to think I have a good grasp on new extensions, their values and future potential.

- Rob

 

[Creature]

Rick, I seem to remember that you appreciate the fact that you are in a position to take opportunities in life (having read another one of your posts). Therefore, is this 'buy' partly due to some kind of more general positive, speculative approach to life OR did you target this name from the start and make calculations? Either way I admire your guts. Creature

 

[Rick Schwartz]

I won't take it the wrong way, or personally.

I still don't believe you paid (or plan to pay) $200k for it, as I said in my last post, nothing or know one will make me change my mind on that.

One thing is for sure – The .mobi guys will be pleased, now that you've set a such high price precedent. Members – draw your own conclusions

As for me being a fool, well, if you really did pay 200k for it, you're the fool IMO. Keep in mind that you have (to the best of my knowledge) zero experience outside .COM, whereas I've been successfully investing and reselling new extensions for the past 3/4 years so I'd like to think I have a good grasp on new extensions, their values and future potential.

- Rob

Well, now you are calling me a liar. Always a pleasure to disassociate myself with professional fools. That makes you an undesirable in my book.

Have a nice life!

 

[Creature]

I am now extremely excited about the prospects for my gem, 888.mobi

You should be sipping tequila on some exotic beach surrounded buy beautiful woman. I really hate jealousy but I seem to suffer from it in a big way when I see your '888'.

 

[Rick Schwartz]

Rick, I seem to remember that you appreciate the fact that you are in a position to take opportunities in life (having read another one of your posts). Therefore, is this 'buy' partly due to some kind of more general positive, speculative approach to life OR did you target this name from the start and make calculations? Either way I admire your guts. Creature

I have been waiting for the premium .mobi domains to come up for auction. flowers.mobi is on my short list of .mobi that I believe have a very good chance of success. For me the question is where do I put $200k for the next 5 years? If I put it in the bank it will grow to $265,000 maybe. If I put it in stocks....I have lost $200,000 in minutes in the stock market. I like to invest and speculate with what I know best and that is domain names. That is just the passive side of the equation. The more aggressive side is a domain that could easily be developed or licensed or other ways to make it a huge success.

That said most of the .mobi's I have seen registered are not good at all as so many still don't quite get what makes a domain have value. Here with the landrush they still register crappy stuff. Blows me away!

 

[Leading Names]

Well, now you are calling me a liar. Always a pleasure to disassociate myself with professional fools. That makes you an undesirable in my book. Have a nice life!

Thanks, I will.

Don't take this the wrong way or personally

Shame you can't do the same. Especially after I took being called a fool so nicely

- Rob

 

[Creature]

Rick, did you run any small group workshops at the Traffic event or were they larger conference lectures? I would prefer a workshop situation where I can ask loads of questions to you and JBerryhill. Creature

 

[Rick Schwartz]

Rick, did you run any small group workshops at the Traffic event or were they larger conference lectures? I would prefer a workshop situation where I can ask loads of questions to you and JBerryhill. Creature

They were large sessions however there was plenty of time for questions and answers.

 

[Sinfully Wicked]

Rick,

Congrats on winning Flowers.mobi - i wish you all the best with it

Thank you

Sin

 

[MejCdj]

a question for all you doubting thomases....

if flowers.mobi sold to the operators of flowers.com for $190,000 (which was probably their last bid as they were the ones in the bidding war) would you still be so skeptical?

it was also said that anything.com bought fun.mobi for $100,000- are they behind the hype machine as well?

Amen!

Mejcdj