Summer Doldrums & Winter Blues (4.Viewing)

A big domain investor said on Twitter that September 15 to December 15 are his favorite times of the year.

I hope he's right this year.

It's finally September and I really hope my luck turns around soon, as the summer was getting me down.

Lots of offers in June-July, but from domain hobos looking to scam, and as mid-August rolled around that started to change and I actually thought I closed some sales at Dan, GoDaddy and Afternic. Alas, none of them paid, including one from a relatively well-known broker.

Six "sales" in August and so far all deadbeats and a few that definitely fooled me with their negotiation tactics and comments - the broker one is a real head-scratcher as he keeps saying he's gonna pay - yeah sure, keep looking in the couch for change... Dan is Deadbeat Central, but it's very rare I get bums on GD, and amazingly I got two this month.

Thank God money's not a problem or I'd be ready to pop dealing with these time-thieving bozos.

I feel like going on strike in September, not answering any bid that isn't mid 5-figures and spending my time on more important and lucrative aspects my life.

Two more (cough) "sales" this morning, one $3K and the other $4.6K, and I am more doing this for my own amusement to see how deep this rabbit hole goes, as I don't expect to see a penny from either one.

I think I'll go shopping for an office chair and get away from the madness for a bit.

I "sold" a domain this week for 10K, which was my minimum offer, and then someone from Dan tells me the guy wanted to submit a lower offer but didnt know how... And that now he's offering 5K.

I feel like he was actually ready to pay the 10K but is questioning whether he could have gotten it for cheaper now that I accepted his offer. I'm kinda pissed and feeling like calling it all off and raising my minimum to 20K.

Esdiel said:

I'm kinda pissed and feeling like calling it all off and raising my minimum to 20K.

Click to expand...

I know the feeling, believe me.

I'm ticked and I'm just saying NO to everything on Dan or leaving offers sit on GD, and the only reason I agreed to the prices today was that the bidders (can't call them 'buyers') came up to that level on their own and the domains in question were nothing to write home about.

Of course, none will actually pay, as usual.

Esdiel said:

I "sold" a domain this week for 10K, which was my minimum offer, and then someone from Dan tells me the guy wanted to submit a lower offer but didnt know how... And that now he's offering 5K.

I feel like he was actually ready to pay the 10K but is questioning whether he could have gotten it for cheaper now that I accepted his offer. I'm kinda pissed and feeling like calling it all off and raising my minimum to 20K.

Click to expand...

Or you can do what I did in a very similar situation assuming you want to make the sale but $5K is way too low:

Tell him that $8500 is the absolute lowest you'll take.

No morning can ever be complete without a few "We have just sent 'Deadbeat Buyer' a payment reminder" emails from Dan.

I just got a few more offers on GD and Dan , and after "Declining these Offers" I think this response clearly illustrates the kind of mental midgets we have running around Dan:



What did I do to attract these bozos?

I figured out a great way for dealing with these deadbeats, malcontents and sketchy bidders - send them all to Dan Brokerage and let their brokers weed them out. Anything that gets my Spidey sense going and it's "straight to Dan Brokers" for them!

It's really working too as I had a couple of 4-figure offers straight from sketch city, so I sent them all off to brokerage, and according to Dan, none have replied to any broker inquiries. So it's either frontrunners, identity thieves, jerks, pinheads, trolls, dorks, or just your regular drooling idiots, but at least I didn't have to deal with them and then accept some fraudulent offer that took forever for Dan to cancel.

Any low 3-figure offer I just automatically decline and if they move up to $1K or higher and I have even slight reservations, I enable Dan Brokers and let them "qualify" the buyer ("Hello I'd like to speak to Anita Bath! Oh, she's out, then how about Mike Rotch?")... those guys must just love me for sending them all my trash.

But man, it is Deadbeat Central out there for domaining - I have (cough) "closed" 10 deals in August and have been paid for exactly 1 so far. The second-lowest priced one of course.

DAN Brokers come through again by weeding out the jokers. Here's the "buyer's" excuse this time, and it's quite weirdly inventive:

"She was looking to rent an apartment, not buy a domain."

Two weeks into September and still crickets. only messages I get on my domain landers are from confused visitors. and hearing more and more signs that the economy might be softening (layoffs, bankruptcies, bad real estate loans all worsening). the Fed has spent over $100 billion propping up US banks in trouble since March and still going. High interest rates continue to do damage and people running out of their pandemic savings. October has historically been a tough month for stock markets and only a couple weeks away now.

despite the above you still see nice domain sales reported almost daily so some industries must still be forging ahead!

After a LOT of activity in the last two weeks of August and the first week+ of September, it was absolutely dead this week. Dead as in zero inquiries, which is pretty rare, due to the deadbeats and hobos.

I have a bad feeling about this as all I hear in Canada is negativity: more carbon taxes, more 'green' taxes, higher rents and mortgages, higher interest rates, economy's tanking, housing shortages, FT unemployment is dying, the government is cutting $15 billion, foreign student rates are soaring, etc.

The cherry on top are those constant "We've welcomed 500,000 new people to Ontario.. now we need to BUILD MORE HOUSES!!" commercials that are pure dark parody - I realize why they're on (to try and shield Ford from his illicit Greenbelt dealings - cue Ford's Dennis the Menace pout with a "I was just trying to build houses") but it's truly bizarre to constantly to hear these blaring out on the car radio.

Canada can be/could be/is controlled by 10-15 organizations/billionaires, which makes us very susceptible to political payola and graft, far more than the US where 10-15 companies could never manipulate US public policy, and we're starting to see the dark side of Canada's oligopoly-based economy where our economic power is consolidated in a very few hands.

If "Canadian stakeholders" (as Trudeau calls them) like Galen, Bell/Rogers, the Big Banks, Land Developers, and the Brazilian investors who own Tim's, want to add as many warm bodies as possible to the grocery store/bank/fast food lineups and carve up the Greenbelt for profit, then that is exactly what is going to happen.

And there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.

but fear not, Trudeau is calling in the grocery chains to stabilize food prices, “or else”.

someone should tell him government taxes are the biggest bite out of everyone’s paycheque / household budget.

and the government cutting $15 billion was just moving the spending from one department to another in the end!

Look at the genius hobo I get today on Dan:

I saw that 400 is the minimum I could input on the form, but I am only opening negotiations. My first offer is in fact 150CAD.

BAM!

I’ve seen a huge increase in inquiries in the past 30 days….not sure if others have experienced this also. YOY it is about 25% higher than normal.

Yeah, I think I set a record for Offers this September. Kids are back to school I guess and people are thinking business, at least for one month.

We'll see if it continues through 2023.

crickets

Everything in Domaining is really slow right now

• Very little news
• Very few sales
• Low Board Participation

Seems like the wars, food pricing, and politics are primary concerns.

Seems like every week there is at least one six figure .com sale, usually a one word.