TBR Drop - Mar 12, 2025 (5.Viewing)

DomainRecap said:

Smart man, as you make money on the buy, and just "outbidding everyone else" is a losing strategy over the long-term.

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Actually, I think he might have wanted it for a personal project, not for resale.

I was going after DailyPost.ca but connectivity from Cancun sucked.

Just looking at today's results and see that I only got one domain that didn't go to auction, nor did I win anything that was in final auction from last week. So kind of a sucky week from that perspective.

rlm said:

Actually, I think he might have wanted it for a personal project, not for resale.

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Ah, a serious beer drinker I guess.

rlm said:

Just looking at today's results and see that I only got one domain that didn't go to auction, nor did I win anything that was in final auction from last week.

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This week was a tough one, as once you got past that nice layer of cream on the top, there wasn't a lot of mid-range ones, so you needed to be extremely lucky.

I initially thought that set of second-rate French surnames might sneak by, as they are notoriously difficult to sell (French companies usually feature the full name, a la Construction Jacques Turgeon Inc.) - it's just the style over there and I have some notable French surnames that never get a sniff - even so, cheap is okay for a French lottery ticket, but I'm not prepared to pile a lot of money into more.

But you guys can have fun convincing Rejean Godette, Dollar Boivin and Gaston Daoust (who are literally still living the 80's) to pay top dollar for their surname. Mon Dieu! Sacrament! Tete Carree!!

DomainRecap said:

This week was a tough one, as once you got past that nice layer of cream on the top, there wasn't a lot of mid-range ones, so you needed to be extremely lucky.

I initially thought that set of second-rate French surnames might sneak by, as they are notoriously difficult to sell (French companies usually feature the full name, a la Construction Jacques Turgeon Inc.) - it's just the style over there and I have some notable French surnames that never get a sniff - even so, cheap is okay for a French lottery ticket, but I'm not prepared to pile a lot of money into more.

But you guys can have fun convincing Rejean Godette, Dollar Boivin and Gaston Daoust (who are literally still living the 80's) to pay top dollar for their surname. Mon Dieu! Sacrament! Tete Carree!!

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Well we all have our opinions and personal experiences, but I'm not going to slag the French Canadians because in all honesty, I've had plenty of notable sales to them, as well as plenty of cheapskates, no different than any one else. I think as with all categories, you have to have a critical mass portfolio size in that given category to have statistically significant rather than just anecdotal data in order to make those kind of statements.

From my anecdotal data on very foreign looking names (such as asian and south asian names), then I would suggest those categories certainly do under perform. It kinda makes sense from a marketing perspective, you want something that the majority of people will recognize, remember and be able to spell. So it seems that Canadian entreprenuers of those diaspora tend to avoid their name domains moreso than the Canadians with english or french based names would. The only exception might be if they had an extremely popular, short and easy to spell surname, such as Singh or Wang or what have you. But again, I don't have tons of those names for the intuitive reason I specified. Our domainer extroardinaire friend @Eby is a great example of that. I've known the guy for decades and I'm embarrassed to say that I still couldn't spell or properly pronounce his last name if my life depended on it. Thank god he has a first name I can handle!

I actually had one french gentleman purchase his very french surname for his business, then years later as this business grew, he merged with another company and then chose a dictionary word to rebrand both companies under. I just so happened to own that one too, and he paid my $60K + tax asking price without even negotiating. Your mileage may vary.

I will say one thing, I do get form submissions from French Canadians who obviously don't read English. But those are pretty obvious with offers that are just a bunch of numbers or clearly confused messages. I don't refer to them as dead beats or bad offers or whatever because I know that they're really not offers. But that's 100% my fault, I'm the dumbass for not having landers with a french language option. It is actually something I've wanted to do for a long time but have somehow neglected to do so, and I pay the price for that neglect by continuously getting confused form submissions and probably at least some sales lost over the last 20 years.

rlm said:

Well we all have our opinions and personal experiences, but I'm not going to slag the French Canadians because in all honesty, I've had plenty of notable sales to them, as well as plenty of cheapskates, no different than any one else.

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My experience has been totally different and I've had several English surname sales, but on the French side, absolutely zero and the inquiries are always lowballs sent via CIRA email for $25-$100. And I own quite a few French surnames, as these tended to be ignored on the TBRs of the past, so I scooped them up for nothing. But as more and more time passed, I started to realize why they were so available.

Just this week I got a CIRA email for a French surname that proudly stated their maximum offer of $25 CAD. I have a collection of those that range up to $100, and they always include a "this domain is only useful in Quebec" or "this is a name found only in Quebec" kind of rant to justify their lowball. The interest is there, but the wallet is unwilling (or they have absolutely no clue on current valuation), and I have not received a valid offer on any of them.

I have also NEVER received even a single CIRA lowball email like this regarding an English surname. Ever. And anecdotal or not, that's the kind of pattern I take to the bank.

I'll still buy the odd French name if they're cheap, since just as you said, I'm trying to reach that 'critical mass' to finally get a nice sale, but no way I'm bidding like a drunken sailor on 'potential'.

DomainRecap said:

French companies usually feature the full name, a la Construction Jacques Turgeon Inc.

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Never thought of this, but you're so right.

rlm said:

Our domainer extroardinaire friend @Eby is a great example of that. I've known the guy for decades and I'm embarrassed to say that I still couldn't spell or properly pronounce his last name if my life depended on it. Thank god he has a first name I can handle!

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Thanks for that very kind comment @rlm and you are forgiven. Peter will not stop you at the pearly gates, en route to your mansion in heaven and force you to spell it correctly to validate your entry.

But I fully agree with you with what you were trying to explain. Unfortunately, those names have not been recognized in this part of the world, unlike in those regions and people like to go with an "easy to remember" name. I saw a domain drop recently, which had no takers.. but I know at least 200 families with that name. No takers in this part of the world. But a name like Ravi, Kumar, Rani or Raja do have potential because of the 1000s who carry that name.

mcm said:

Never thought of this, but you're so right.

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I can throw a softball and literally hit someone in Gatineau.

But this also represents an opportunity for LLL .CAs, as many Quebec businesses use them to shorten their overly-long business names.

And just to be clear, my comments have nothing to do with selling "domains" to French Canadians, as I have sold several in the past to Quebeckers (mostly to businesses in Montreal), and it relates specifically to "selling a second-tier (or lower) French surname to a person or business residing in Quebec".

Eby said:

But a name like Ravi, Kumar, Rani or Raja do have potential because of the 1000s who carry that name.

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Great point, and it's the same with French surnames - the top tier of Quebec surnames, like Tremblay, Savard, Gagnon, Bouchard, Cote, Levesque, Belanger, Simard, Fortin, Bergeron, Caron, etc. are well-known outside the province and many people in English provinces (and the US) have these surnames.

DomainRecap said:

But this also represents an opportunity for LLL .CAs, as many Quebec businesses use them to shorten their overly-long business names.

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I have had several inquiries for my collection of LLLs with Q in them. Managed to sell only 1 for the price I was asking.

DomainRecap said:

Great point, and it's the same with French surnames - the upper crust of Quebec surnames, like .... Bouchard...., are well-known outside the province and many people in English provinces (and the US) have these surnames.

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Thank you for the shout out!

Eby said:

I have had several inquiries for my collection of LLLs with Q in them. Managed to sell only 1 for the price I was asking.

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But Q is only part of it, and a business like Construction Jacques Turgeon might use CJT as a brand, and want to buy CJT.ca to shorten their online name.

Here's a good example using Transport Jocelyn Bourdeau: Accueil - Transport Jocelyn Bourdeau inc.

DomainRecap said:

I have also NEVER received even a single CIRA lowball email like this regarding an English surname. Ever. And anecdotal or not, that's the kind of pattern I take to the bank.

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Oh I've definitely had that happen plenty of times on english surnames too, as well as any random domain, not just names. So I don't see much rhyme or reason there, it can happen anytime anywhere anydomain.

Well as mentioned, I've just had a different experience, not sure why.

rlm said:

Well as mentioned, I've just had a different experience, not sure why.

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Probably because you own Tier 1 French surnames and I own a pile of Tier 2 French surnames, like the ones that dropped this week. Other than maybe ouellet.ca, which is firmly Tier 1.

The ones I've sold aren't super popular actually, nowhere near ouellet. But its like any other domain, the better it is, the less likely you're going to sell it because you're simply going to want more. That's where the best ROI is often on those mediocre domains where you're happy for a $5K-$10K sale on something you picked up relatively cheap and don't really care about. If I owned Smith.ca I'd probably never sell it because I'd stubbornly want a truly massive sale for it.