Edwin wrote:
The other point being forgotten is that newbies (generally - there are always exceptional folks who become oldbies faster than average) can't tell the difference between good domains and junk domains, not without having made a few (or many) mistakes up front. The limits aren't only financial, but expertise as well!
If their mistake is to take $10,000 and buy a couple of worthless .com domains (and don't tell me you've never seen somebody asking $x,xxx for worthless domains) then they just lost a whole heap of money and will probably quit the market/industry in disgust and spread the word to their friends that "those domain things are just a scam".
But at $7-ish a pop, there's massively more margin for error in the new extensions or in cTLDs. Either that or they have to be VERY VERY smart to beat all the rest of us by predicting a new trend/spotting a new niche and securing the .com. To give an example, I registered TerabitEthernet.com for regfee in June last year. Now it may cost me $70 or so in renewal fees, but trends in the networking market suggest that within a decade that will be THE standard and hence I'll be able to flip the domain for a hefty profit. This kind of approach requires time, patience and a good grasp of market trends.
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Nice points especially about margins of error.
There are still nice domains to be regged in the .COM space at the cost of a registration fee. The quantity is declining, but I find them every day.
I would assume a newbie will get a little bit of advice before plunking down $10,000 for a top .COM --perhaps even start with a $500 name or a $1,000 name.
Regarding [terabitethernet.com], even if terabit ethernet does become the standard, there is no guarantee of selling such a domain.