the only way to survive will be to get a *lot* of WLS entries, since you know you won't be able to sell them all
I'm not trying to make a living reselling domain names. It's nice get an occasional profit from one yeah. But I mainly buy them so I can use them for business as an end user (which i find more rewarding). So as an end user (in most respects) I know which names are valuable to me and I could pre-order them easier with a WLS system. The investment would be great for me since I would have a personal stake in the name other than reselling it. As a speculator you buy just any old name you see on the pending delete lists that you think might fetch a quick handsome profit. With WLS you can't do this necessarily.
And what next? WLS for WLS subscriptions? Where does it end?
Very good point but doesn't make sense at all in reality. No one is going to buy a WLS subscription on a name right after it's redeemed on a name that drops. The new owner surely wouldn't drop it again after trying so hard to get it in the first place (well guess that hard since it only requires a WLS so maybe i should say patient).
I think all it will do is push the smaller players completely out of the market.
Since this is a game of speculation.....I think it will boost domain sales and/or values within the first few months to half a year after introduction. If the media catches on to it (which to my knowledge it hasn't yet) then people will be less likely to drop domain names that they might have otherwise forgotten about or though were invaluable. The veil of secrecy will be coming off this game and we will be able to tell stories around the campfire of the days before the WLS.
Values of domains will also be increased by people trying to contact previous owners of websites to try and purchase them directly. Domains that have received no buy offers could possibly be inundated by both lowball offers and high stakes as well. It can happen now but people have no motivation to do so now if they can just simply pick it up during the drop for probably a lot cheap in some cases. I've lost plenty of names to people by tipping them off that the domain was on-hold and by offering to buy it from them at whatever price.
I think it will actualy help smaller players....by smaller players I mean non-speculators. Small speculators are gonna loose out anyways cause most are clueless about what they are doing or what's of value. People simply want to do business on the internet and find a website that isn't taken already. They might even buy other TLDs without bias (i have seen a lot of this lately). While some will make uninformed WLS purchases, others will choose wisely and win big in the long run.
If buydomains et all can afford many thousand dollar bids at drop clubs, and can afford their own RRP connections
Well from what I know none of this is published information about who bids what. If you have any insider information about their bidding habits please let me know. I guess you might have been the lower bidder to know this?
If so why would you want to stay in a system where they will beat you not only with high bids but with their own private connections!
As far as I know some names I go after most times they (buydomains and others) don't even take out the snap on it because they are confident enough to get it with their own connections and beat snaps and NW. Buydomains can afford to make an investment on a domain name that will pay off big b/c they have the capital to invest upfront. And it's a winning situation for them. They cannot however cost justify it on smaller "less valued" domains on a larger scale IMHO. Depending on how many sales they have made in the past year I would say they are pretty highly leveraged but I don't know their financial situation.
why wouldn't they be able to buy a ton of WLS entries
Well snapnames will try and grandfather at least most snaps into the system. There will be a landrush for a few hundred if not thousand hand picked domains and then a ton of bad purchases that never even expire. It's a loosing game because you buy a WLS and get in the hole year after year hoping the name drops. If you don't renew someone else will and play the same game. Just the type of thing to topple a house of cards that is stacked too high. BD could raise revenue if necessary by selling off some of it's current names at "bargain" (reasonable) prices. So they do seem to be pretty flexible.
I would love to hear other people's ideas whether they agree with me or not on some of these points. I am open to changing my mind at any time. These are just a few of my thoughts at the moment.
