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Realizing domains still sell for 800k+ has changed my domain squatting tactics

9 points by _i5ek ↗ HN
I recently saw the thread about a company using part (or maybe all) of their series a funding to purchase the domain name covers.com for $825,000 dollars. (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18534468)

Neat! And excellent news for me as a domain collector. I also use the term collector because while I average holding ~150 domains at any given time (including my prized possession, e.ht), I rarely set them up to be exposed on a potential market. Anyone who has shown interest in a domain did the dirty work of figuring out how to reach out to me. This has worked out and I've actually sold quite a few to some noteworthy groups.

Fast forward to today. I have a domain that is currently being chased by a Godaddy broker representing a client. It's a good domain, consisting of two words and a .com. My intentions before I read about the covers.com sale were to accept the second offer (I typically ignore the first fishing offers), but woke up this morning and changed my email draft. If a single word .com is worth sub one million dollars, with every other TLD option out there right now, two word .coms are definitely worth at very least more than four digit offers. Change my mind.

30 comments

[ 0.24 ms ] story [ 87.4 ms ] thread
mtmail
> I also use the term collector

And in the title you use "domain squatting tactics". It sounds like you buy/register domains purely for profit, so squatting seems a good term.

mcv
Squatting sounds like he's using it without having paid for it. This is the opposite. This is domain name speculation.
ASalazarMX
A collector that hoards and sells when enough money is offered is just a speculator.
1337biz
This reads like a diary entry. What do you want to ask / tell / share with us, except that domains are bought and sold?
mcv
Maybe he's fishing for an offer on e.ht?
JustSomeNobody
I don't understand why this domain is "prized". Is it because it is a single letter?
_i5ek
It's personally prized because I've been a domain geek since I knew what domains were. No inferred value to anyone else.
bsvalley
People like you make our lives really painful... I wish there was a rule saying that if a domain name has been purchased and hasn't been used after X months, then it should be automatically cancelled and available for other people to use.

Just to avoid domain squatting.

mcv
Sounds reasonable. In Amsterdam, if a house has been empty for over a year, it's legal to squat it.

(Note that in that case the squatter is the one making actual use of it, whereas a "domain name squatter" is more like a real estate speculator who buys a house and keeps it empty hoping to sell it at a profit.)

_i5ek
What am I actually doing to make your life painful? Let's say I collect beanie babies because I really just like them. I'm not in control of the market supply or demand, so when someone wants to approach me with a $10k offer for my Princess Dianna 1st edition, sudden;y I'm the bad guy for displaying it on my shelf?
pritambaral
Does the fact that you have a Princess Diana Beanie Baby, 1st Edition mean that no one else has one, or can have one without buying it from you?
_i5ek
I don't quite understand your question, but I'll take a stab at it. When art prints are limited to 1 of 10, does it mean the 11th person is SOL? I'd say yes, unless one of the 10 relinquishes ownership in one way or another.
pritambaral
You're only stretching already over-stretched analogies. Art prints are not, by their nature, limited resources, nor do they hold important inherent value. Housing, public transportation, land etc. are better analogies to specific domain names. The ethical ramifications of a person hoarding a specific piece of art and a person reserving and not using seats on public transportation are quite different.
_i5ek
You’re really going to compare domains with their near infinite options in both Tld and address characters to a seat on public transportation and affordable housing? I’m just embarrassed for the argument at this point.
pritambaral
1. I'm not comparing domain name availability to anything. Rather, I'm pointing out flaws in your analogy, comparing your analogy to other things, and trying to show you a wide spectrum of resource availability. 2. Domain names are not random addresses, they're identity, and thus severely constrained. Yes, if one wanted a random domain name, they have near-infinite options; but not every domain use-case is such. Not even the dominant use-case is such. Squatting on a domain name is an effective way of squatting on the online version of a real-life identity. Compared to trademark squatting, domain name squatting is trivial. Needless to say, both practices are extortionary.
_i5ek
I want to continue this conversation because it is actually of interest to me, and you seem equally as passionate.

Let's find some common ground first. I get really annoyed when I am domain hunting for a service/app idea and the domain is not in use, has never been (from what I can tell) and has a huge 'BUY THIS DOMAIN' banner waving about. So then it's up to me to determine how badly I want it, and if I want to participate in the ecosystem that is domain name resale. I think we can agree on that.

I don't, however feel like I'm entitled to it just because I may have a better use case for the domain. At risk of being too analogous, I'll take the example x.com. I would love to own x.com and I believe my business 'X Industries' would greatly benefit from having it, and a room full of people could probably agree that my use case would be better than what the domain has served for most of it's life (a 200HTTP status and an 'x'). What is the solution?

Is stricter domain regulation the key? And if so, how do we backstep that to the creation of DNS and domain registration? On top of that, who enforces it? The US, or some other neutral entity? I think you know where I'm going here. I guess rather than saying collecting/squatting/holding is bad, and people are entitled to domains they can put to use, what do you imagine in the perfect domain market?

You also mention 'online version of a real-life identity'. Do you imagine this extends to account handles on Twitter, Instagram, et al? If I own username.com, and someone else owns @username, is that similarly an issue?

shakestheclown
Outside of registered trademarks, no one really has a "right" to a domain name. If the Mormon church couldn't buy LDSMatch they'd use something else. Now it's obviously financially or otherwise beneficial to them so they are willing to pay for it, but that's not really a need.

If there was a rule, squatters would just put up a WordPress blog with two posts.

angersock
Domain squatters are scum. You're scum. Congrats.
Veen
This attitude puzzles me a little, especially on Hacker News where there is a good-sized contingent of libertarian free-market types. Domains are an asset with value. What's wrong with buying them and then selling them for as much as you can. How does it differ from the sale of any other item or piece of information with value?
true_religion
Domain names are an artificial monopoly that does not work, unless we all agree to play fair.

Otherwise, Oracle could have bought every common word domain at the birth of the internet.

ASalazarMX
The problem is that speculators are not adding value to the market, they're subtracting from it. They've become parasitic actors.
_i5ek
Honest question, why should I worry about adding value to a market which I'm not actively pursuing?

I'm a developer and buy domains on whims of various service/fun ideas. I've been interested in domains since early highschool and collecting them is a hobby of mine which has happened to earn me some money from people reaching out to me.

ASalazarMX
You shouldn't worry about it, the market should be regulated towards efficiency, then speculation wouldn't be a problem.
_i5ek
Between the HN attitude shift and this article being flagged (maybe if I linked to a medium article it would be fine. /s) maybe this community isn’t for me anymore.
angersock
What did you expect?

You didn't post about the cool sites you built. You didn't show off your code. You didn't add value.

You posted bragging about "Hey, what if I 'collect' more domains? How much money would that be worth?"

You're not displaying something that most would consider "hacking".

_i5ek
I mean, I suppose you're not wrong.
[dead] jhwang5
Depends - if it's a non sensical, hard to pronounce 2 word domain, then it might be worth only a few hundred bucks.