.ca inquiries picking up? (1 Viewing)

After a few months of pretty much no inquiries, four inquiries for different .ca domains in the past week.

Offers ranging from $100 to $1000.

It's almost like domain buyers move in packs, I don't know.

I had 13 inquiries so far this month (via my contact form), all but one were under $1000

My contact form specifically says $1000 is the minimum offer, which means 12 out of 13 people don't know how to read.

It also means I ignored 12 out of 13 inquiries including the "why did you not answer my inquiry" emails.

PS. I had one additional offer for rams.com from the website rhams.co for a whopping $1000 which I also promptly ignored.


So if ignoring inquiries means business is picking up then I'm at the top of the pack

Sometimes they are a steady stream, sometimes they come in batches, sometimes there are a few days in a row with no inquiries at all, etc... Sometimes you see on a holiday weekend that its extra quiet and you think, yes, makes sense, everyone is busy. But then again, I also get inquiries on christmas morning of all days, so you think, ok, yeah, sometimes a holiday is the only time someone scrambling to run a business has any time to look think about a new project. If you zoom in too close, its just random.

If I look at my aggregate inquiry data, it seems January starts off strong, in fact pretty steady through the spring, then there's a summertime June/July/Aug slowdown ramping up again for Sept/Oct/Nov, then December slowdown.

Slowest months: August & December
Busiest months: January and May

December is 60% as busy as January.

As for sales (based on count, not price), similar trends, although May is weirdly low historically (although this year was great), but June is strong, probably as people want to wrap up purchases before summer hits. November has my highest # of sales, again, probably people wanting to wrap it up before the holiday slowdowns hit. May, July & December tie as my slowest months in terms of # of sales.

I did manage to make a sale this month, but offers are down from May and no one seems to have anything left in their wallet. The June pattern for me is " Min Offer then Ghost" and not even counter.

I can understand why as we recently got our house and car insurance bills... - this is serious gouging (apparently due to massive fraud + inflation + corporate greed) and I can't imagine how the low-income portion of Canada is handling these constant price increases.

May was very good for inquiries and sales, but June has been slow. But quality wise, I have a couple of optimistic leads that if come through would be huge.

But I know of one .ca domainer that has had a fantastic June, but not my place to reveal. The point is, there's still a lot of randomness to it, one person's slow month can be another's epic month.

And yeah, insurance has definitely gone up and for what? I'm certainly not getting anything out of it. For a person that has never filed a claim, it really grinds my gears when I hear of people who have totalled multiple cars, repeat offenders stealing vehicles, rampant fraud, etc, all of which results in what might be considered a slap on the wrist at best.

There should be some insurance company that says if you never file a claim in so many years then you start to get credit towards the next year's insurance, or a refund check. But we all know things aren't fair and the good people always pay the price for the bad people...

My June started slow, but I've managed to have 2 .COM sales in the past 7 days.

Still crickets on the .CA front though

rlm said:

But we all know things aren't fair and the good people always pay the price for the bad people...

Click to expand...

Canada's entire legal system is designed based on a society that has far, far, far, far more good people than bad, but that ratio has been changing quickly of late, and our country is totally unprepared for this type of drastic change.

The easy political answer is to administer "slaps on the wrist" to the perps and just pass the increasing cost over to the non-criminal population, while also taking a cut for themselves.

Look at the core of Toronto - they are effectively bankrupt (and are trying to rezone to steal urban tax dollars) because due to an almost non-existent police/security presence and a "catch and release" legal system, no one but criminals wants to live there anymore, and criminals usually don't pay taxes.

Something is going to pop, I can feel it.

Spex said:

Still crickets on the .CA front though

Click to expand...

Due to the forums here, I stuck to .CA for my "June Ratings" and yes, it's been very slow.

Exactly half the inquiries of May and only one sale. Not looking good for .CA this summer.

DomainRecap said:

Due to the forums here, I stuck to .CA for my "June Ratings" and yes, it's been very slow.

Exactly half the inquiries of May and only one sale. Not looking good for .CA this summer.

Click to expand...

On the good side.....

I tend to work behind the lines and I'm picking up premium and super premium at prices I paid years ago.

People need to pay their mortgages and the domainers with spare funds are benefiting.

Of course anyone looking to turn over their super premiums in the short term is probably in for a wait but in my case I'm building a portfolio for my kids so holding for the larger sales is not a concern.

PS. I don't buy any domains anymore unless they are one word premium. I may hand register some I think have potential but generally I am highly selective right now.

MapleDots said:

On the good side.....

I tend to work behind the lines and I'm picking up premium and super premium at prices I paid years ago.

People need to pay their mortgages and the domainers with spare funds are benefiting.

Click to expand...

I have lots of spare funds, but as I view the market over a shorter 5-year period, I am still not interested in pouring too much into .CA right now.

I still try to pick up the odd deal here and there, but Canada itself is looking like a risky bet right now. People are flooding into the country, but GDP is flat, the economy isn't really growing, FT jobs are way down, and the only real effects are higher interest rates, chronic inflation, a massive spike in the price of limited resources like housing and food, and a mushrooming Federal/Provincial/Municipal debt load.

Tim Hortons, home builders and Galen the Billionaire Prophet are doing great, but the average Canadian is screwed.

And to help put this into perspective, my last 3 domain sales were to foreign companies buying their TM/brand in Canada. Canadian buyers seem to be stuck 10 feet underwater, struggling to reach the surface.

Two separate .ca sales at Dan in the past week totalling $2550 US. hopefully just the start because it's otherwise been a quiet year.

For these size sales Dan is very convenient, the offer/counteroffer feature works well and getting the payment within a day is very nice.

Congrats!

As for the economy, I think the second half of 2023 will be rougher than the first half. Especially if central banks keep raising rates. Don't mind seeing the tech stocks and crypto have some strength because that can help with domain sales if you have domains in those sectors.

I hate it when the Trudeau Liberals keep telling us how they're making life more affordable for Canadians, yet keep raising taxes and doing nothing for home owners and renters. And giving away billions in subsidies to new auto battery plants...

domains said:

Two separate .ca sales at Dan in the past week totalling $2550 US. hopefully just the start because it's otherwise been a quiet year.

For these size sales Dan is very convenient, the offer/counteroffer feature works well and getting the payment within a day is very nice.

Click to expand...

I'd rather keep the commission... and I always like the option to offer payments. The payments at Dan have a huge payout flaw, so I won't offer payments there any more.

My view on the commission is I just have to agree to the price, submit the auth code, then Dan deals with everything else and sends the payment quick.

Most buyers I've had have never used escrow before, so have to be walked through it, need help with the transfer, etc. That kind of back and forth takes more time and has some value to me for them to handle it. For high priced sales that would generate a high commission I'd also rather do it myself. My job is also outdoors sometimes in the summer so that further drags out the correspondence.

As a sales platform I still think Dan is very slick and appealing to a buyer, especially with the Godaddy connection.

If Dan incorporated GD as a registrar (like Afternic does) and immediately transferred the domain upon receiving the transfer code, I would be in their corner a lot more.

Dan not having any registrar abilities is a huge negative.

domains said:

My view on the commission is I just have to agree to the price, submit the auth code, then Dan deals with everything else and sends the payment quick.

Most buyers I've had have never used escrow before, so have to be walked through it, need help with the transfer, etc. That kind of back and forth takes more time and has some value to me for them to handle it. For high priced sales that would generate a high commission I'd also rather do it myself. My job is also outdoors sometimes in the summer so that further drags out the correspondence.

As a sales platform I still think Dan is very slick and appealing to a buyer, especially with the Godaddy connection.

Click to expand...

While much of that is true, you do it once, then cut and paste the various responses as needed (for the most part). And rarely do I get someone insisting on using Escrow, for the most part, they trust me, I send them invoices with my full details on it, etc... I rarely find it an issue.

But I 100% understand that if you're busy and out of touch, and dealing with small sales, then using them makes a lot more sense.

I'm with @rlm

NoDaddy
NoDan
NoEscrow
NoFees

At this point I'm doing everything myself, I have all business contact, invoices etc in MapleDots name.
I use e-transfer, money transfer, wise, certified cheque

I don't even push to Dan at the 5% anymore

Dan had me almost lock stock and barrel at 9% and 5% to push but the 25% nameserver fee made me re-evaluate.

Being totally independent feels great, love the feeling of owning my sales.

domains said:

As a sales platform I still think Dan is very slick and appealing to a buyer, especially with the Godaddy connection.

Click to expand...

Now that Dan is owned by GD, do they allow transfers/pushes at different registrars? I've only had a few sales at Dan years ago (.com's) and for the ones that were within the 60-day lock, I was able to just push to the buyer's non-Godaddy registrar account