Happy 4th of July.
Three letter .com domains, long considered the de facto coinage among domain investors, have dropped below the psychological limit of $20,000 dollars.
Recent sales confirm a trend we already observed, as domain investors switch to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to re-invest their gains.
Auctions of such domains as YIL.com ($18,000 dollars) or YOT.com ($18,100 dollars) are being eclipsed by the recent sale of YIG.com for $16,000 dollars.
A year ago, these domains would sell in the $30,000+ range, making their registrants some healthy cash.
Chinese domain investors have maxed out their domain flipping potential, selling at marginal profit; eventually, there will be a series of domain bag-holders that will sell at a loss.
There have also been a series of instances of stolen three letter .com domains, plaguing the domain industry; even venues such as NameJet got fooled, and these domains become “laundered” and get resold. We will report on these issues separately.
Enjoy Independence Day!
Once again, data like this is precisely why investors – especially newbies – fear taking advice from the old guard,…who, for years now have propounded the (false) notion that “buying super premium dot-coms is the shortest road to becoming a millionaire.”
So instead of buying Ethereum, or top gTLDs, they get smoked believing that these NNN.coms are a ‘no risk investment.’ And it wouldn’t be such a sad story except for the fact that these names are incredibly expensive (in some countries representing many years of a person’s earnings), and the transfer of wealth is simply going to those same domainers who gave this ‘timeless’ advice.
Can bitcoins be developed?
This is a reality check to all those pushing .com as the only viable option and knocking new gTLDs. There is an obvious shift coming and I don’t think it’s isolated to crypto currencies as the source. 😉
VJL.com just sold for 14k at namejet.
Next stop, under 10….
Don W. – Looks like a former domain of Mike Berkens, part of his portfolio sale to GoDaddy/NameFind.