Besides the new gTLD domain names and the Chinese domain name market, a major topic of discussion at NamesCon was domain portfolio sales. I have heard about large domain name portfolio acquisitions recently, and I think some people who manage large domain portfolios see the value in making a portfolio deal.
While chatting with Karen Dixon about the great targeted advertising campaign being run by BuyDomains, I asked her if her company is actively looking to acquire domain name portfolios. Buy Domains targets what I would consider end user domain buyers, and making large portfolio acquisitions at the right price can be mutually beneficial for the company and domain sellers.
In terms of domain name acquisitions, Karen let me know the company has focused primarily on buying domain names on the drop and via auction. This strategy may change a bit this year, as the company intends to acquire portfolios of domain names that the company could resell to its clients. “We will continue with these efforts in 2016 but want to add the highest quality names possible to our 1MM+ portfolio,” Karen told me. “We are currently entertaining acquiring high quality portfolios,” she added.
When selling a large domain portfolio with thousands of domain names, domain owners need to understand the buyer is not going to pay close to end user pricing. In fact, on an individual domain name basis, the sale price may seem extremely low. In fact, when Endurance acquired BuyDomains, Andrew Allemann estimated the price per domain name was very low. That said, some domain names in a portfolio are likely unsaleable or will take many years to sell, and getting a lump sum could be advantageous to some domain sellers.
My company maintains a small portfolio, so I would not be a candidate for a portfolio sale. I am sure there are some domain owners out there who own larger portfolios with quality domain names, and selling to BuyDomains might be appealing.
Karen let me know that those who wish to discuss a portfolio sale should reach out to Jason Miner (Jason “at symbol” endurance.com) to discuss.
Thing about buydomains, they own a lot of really good compelling terms, and two keywords but in .NET & .ORG, the better ended .com’s are usually owned by others. They do have their odd gem, but they are into turning inventory quickly.
Obviously their portfolio has been depleted over the years, as better inventory sells thru.
The real issue is, it is getting expensive to rebuy inventory in the drops, and in auctions. I saw two chinese bidders recently take a domain from $400 to the $2,xxx range, it was DNFINANCE.com
The Marchex portfolio for the 200k names for $24M was an absolute steal, but it is a set for life sum also.
Some days auctions go higher than most end users would pay, newbies, and bidding warms so bring on such instances. I have gone up against buydomains many times at snap, and nj in the past years, and they are losing alot more than they are winning. They have no choice, when carrying inventory you have to be strict, that is why they are still in business.
Send me those .com portfolios too
adam “at-symbol” strong.net 🙂
Are the Chinese investors getting into English words now too? Recently I have been getting those email offers not only for my Numerics, but for Domains like MisterChinese.com and MrChineseFood.com!
The chinese are bidding on the drops for english keywords now also… saw first bidding on regionalnews.com today
Andrew Reberry and his brother Jeff Reberry (TurnCommerce.com) are the new BuyDomains. They are taking over the Domain Name Industry.
Their DropCatch.com domain name dropping service catches the majority of domain name drops now and the domains then get registered with their NameBright.com company.
HugeDomains.com is owned by them as well and they have a big domain portfolio with over 2 million domain names.
HugeDomains.com is also bidding on domain names at GoDaddy auctions.
The brothers also own Expired.com, NameBee.com and PremiumDomains.com.
Mark
NameSelling.com
@Ron, let us acknowledge, Chinese do have cash to splash around. Let it last.
BuyDomains offered this program in the past and just for curiosity I submitted my domain portfolio, they came back with a figure for each domain and the offers were downright insulting.
Most of us have followed Buydomains long enough to know their bidding range for a particular domain at auction, they would pay for example $5000 for blahblah.com, but if a reseller offered this same domain to them, the offer would be less than $250, NO exaggeration.
From my experience, if you have a portfolio of high quality domain names, BuyDomains is NOT the place to submit them.
There’s something psychological, but it seems people are more willing to pay a higher price for an expiring domain vs a seller auction.
Wouldn’t every domain marketplace want to buy high quality portfolios for super cheap prices? I’d like to buy some high quality portfolios too.