OnlineDomain.com Domain Name News & Opinions
I have noticed a small trend in 2016 where people are trying to auction off and practically unload New gTLD domains with expensive renewals. It was easier to notice in short domains namely 1-letter domains.
Typically a seller would auction these domains before their 1st anniversary. 5 of the domains below were sold a few months before they were up for renewal or even a couple of weeks before.
Most of the domains were sold at auctions at Flippa or Sedo. Here is a sample:
| Domain | Price | Currency | Date | Venue |
| x.recipes | 600 | USD | 30/9/2016 | Flippa |
| e.toys | 1608 | USD | 30/9/2016 | Flippa |
| d.gold | 1100 | USD | 30/7/2016 | Sedo |
| g.company | 1353 | EUR | 30/7/2016 | Sedo |
| e.guide | 1334 | USD | 28/7/2016 | Flippa |
| i.team | 510 | USD | 14/7/2016 | Sedo |
| e.watch | 309 | USD | 13/7/2016 | Sedo |
| e.financial | 530 | USD | 30/4/2016 | Flippa |
| i.company | 2150 | USD | 19/2/2016 | Sedo |
(All sales information provided by Sold.Domains)
Only the seller of the domain name e.guide stated the renewal price of the domain name in the auction description: $440. (not sure about e.financial and x.recipes)
This is what the Flippa description wrote: “Only $440 premium renewal each year”.
I don’t really agree with the “only” part but anyway at least he disclosed the renewal fee.
The seller of e.toys replied to a comment at Flippa stating the renewal price: “The renewal is 472 USD at the current registrar, but I know NameSilo and others offer a cheaper renewal.”
Sedo conveniently does not have an option to display a domain name renewal price in auctions.
These domains above are all from Donuts extensions. Donuts has some modest renewal prices compared with the crazy pricing of other new extensions like .blog. Many other registries have prices that start from what Donuts’s most expensive domains cost per year. I guess domainers will not even touch those…
But still, renewals of e.g. $460 per year are not sustainable by any domain name investor. So this is probably the reason they are trying to unload the domains. But the problem it is usually other domainers that are buying these domains at auctions because they seem like a good deal. And some are really a good deal until you see the renewals:
| Domain Name | Renewal |
| e.toys | $460 |
| e.watch | $460 |
| e.guide | $460 |
| e.financial | $460 |
| i.company | $460 |
| g.company | $460 |
| i.team | $230 |
| d.gold | $86 |
| x.recipes | $76 |
So you can see from the cheap auction prices and the high renewal fees that the sellers are probably only looking to break even. Personally anything above $100 is a deal breaker and even domains that have $60+ renewals are really scrutinized.
BTW g.company sold to an end user gcompany.nl. Not sure what the company thinks of the $460 renewal price.
On the other hand i.vip just resold for 6 figures by a domain investor and the domain 1.store was sold for $30,000 by the registry. But these domains actually have low renewal prices!
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This is an issue for sure, looking at the prices they sold for, these people did not make any sort of major return if they paid those kind of renewals.
Same newbie mistake thinking end users will pay anything, and everything for a domain 99.9% of the time that is not correct, and they cut their losses, and beat it.
Majority of GTLD deals with an end user would be DOA at the transfer stage when they need to authorize another $500 for transfer, the light starts going off.
I blame the greedy gtld operators, especially .car .cars .auto which charge like $2K per year for reg fee alone.
I think for g.company its good buy, and 460 a year is not big deal as long as they sell it. But as investors, its super high. I have only one domain with high renewal in .london and only because it ads value to the gifts business. But if it wasnt for the some potential end user value overlap, i would have dropped it long ago.
Everyone likes to conveniently forget that even if the renewal price is $20 they can change the renewal price to $50,000 and take the domain back from you. Yeah, steal it back!
There are NO price controls on any of these new TLDs like there is on .com domains.
Laugh now, but be humble later when you end up reading about it on DNJournal or even here on this blog. Greed is good, remember?
Not everyone forgets.
I wonder why the registry set renewal fee is so high.
Most of the domains will go back to the registry. Most will be stuck in the closert collecting dust.
If the name makes money more than $41 bucks each month; then $500 renewal fee is chicken fee! All names listed above looks like brandable, therefore is profitable. ?
How are these names making money sitting in the hands of domainers? You jumped fast to some strange conclusions.
Some people can afford to hold names for years; and some people can afford to burn cash without hurting their stacks…?
Buying and selling = investing= in hope for big returned=Regardless of how fast you sell your tangible or none tangible; goods and service = zero guarantee for big returned ?
I have no respect for domainers who do not disclose the premium renewal fees, that is just plain shifty in my view. Do not bid on names that do not have full disclosure!
Premium renewals are not suitable for anyone.
Face it, the new G’s are duds. GTLD = Good To Lose Dollars
Enough said.