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Ask HN: Do you have dead domains for sale?

9 points by HiroProtaganist ↗ HN
I am curious if there is a need for this; I personally have 20 or so domains I have purchased for random things over the years, but I probably will never use them. Selling them is a pain generally, and I know none of them are worth too much. Would there be demand for a site:

1. setup a landing page listing your domains 2. verify all the domains with a text record 3. point all your domains to the landing page 4. someone can purchase the domain

Would you pay 7.99/mo for this service? Would you pay nothing, and allow adwords?

8 comments

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jmorton
I would be unlikely to pay $8 per month, but I would pay commission for selling it or sharing advertising revenue. Using a TXT record to indicate a domain is for sale seems interesting too.

(edit: yes, I do have a handful of "unused" side-project domains)

Jeremy1026
$7.99/mo + cost to purchase a domain with minimum (if any) value? Why not just take X% off of each domain sale?
HiroProtaganist
You already own the domain (ie it was for an old side project you never proceeded with), the 7.99 would be to host the landing page, facilitate the payment, and help getting eyeballs on your list of domains.
Jeremy1026
Ok, I misunderstood the fee. I assumed that it was to have the ability to purchase domains. That makes more sense, and that model I like a lot more. I don't think I'd pay $7.99/mo for it though. At that rate I'd have to be kicking off a handful of dead domains a month to not lose money (time spent plus the fee), and therefore would rather just leave them be.
HiroProtaganist
It wouldn't be per site fwiw, you could list an unlimited amount of domains for 7.99$/mo; consensus seems to be that a percentage is the better way to go though.
johnmurch
Someone else had a similar idea - http://www.nametagup.com/ - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5238130

I like the concept but it has to be easy for the user and rather than a monthly fee - focus on a 1 or 5% commission on sales. This way you capture people uploading 100+ domains and trying to get a sale.

Another concept in this space that I like is http://stylate.com/ who finds domains -creates logos and then offers them up for $250 flat. So rather than waste time with name generate - u can do that for $250 and always find something better later.

johnmurch
Thinking more about this - why not create just that.

Add Domains - Signup (email/pass) Create landing page with simple text Use gumroad or stripe to setup initial payment.

Or better yet - create a few example pages (with your current domains) and see if anyone clicks, then just say - sorry it's manual now and ask for email.

Look how buffer did it - http://blog.bufferapp.com/idea-to-paying-customers-in-7-week...

web007
Not at all for a monthly fee.

Sedo has the equivalent service, point your DNS at them and they serve a "This domain is for sale" landing page with ads, and they get a commission on the sale if it happens.